Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian CollectionCatlin, George
History
Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection
Catlin, George
England -- Description and travel; France -- Description and travel; Indians of North America
A word or two more of them and the reader will have done with the
grizlies, who had been much obliged to me, no doubt, for four years'
maintenance, and for a sight of the beauties of the ocean, and as much
of the land of comforts and refinements as they were allowed to see
through the bars of their cage, while they were travelling from the
rude wilds of the Rocky Mountains to the great metropolis, the seat and
centre of civilization and refinement. As in their new abode they were
allowed more scope and better attendance, it was reasonable to suppose
that their lives would have been prolonged, and their comfort promoted;
but such did not prove to be the case. From the continual crowds about
them, to which they had the greatest repugnance, they seemed daily to
pine, until one of them died of exceeding disgust (unless a better
cause can be assigned), and the other with similar symptoms, added to
loneliness perhaps, and despair, in a few months afterwards.
Thus ended the career of the grizly bears, and I really believe there
were no tears shed for them, unless they were tears of joy, for they
seemed to extend their acquaintance only to add to the list of their
enemies, wherever they went.
CHAPTER IV.
Indian Collection arranged for exhibition--Description of
it--The Hon. Charles Augustus Murray--Collection opened to
private view--Kindness of the Hon. Mr. Murray--Distinguished
visitors--Mr. Murray's explanations--Kind reception by the Public
and the Press--Kind friends--Fatigue of explaining and answering
questions--Curious remedy proposed by a friend--Pleasures and
pains of a friendly and fashionable dinner.
My business now, and all my energies, were concentrated at the Egyptian
Hall, where my collection was arranged upon the walls. The main hall
was of immense length, and contained upon its walls 600 portraits and
other paintings which I had made during eight years' travels amongst
forty-eight of the remotest and wildest tribes of Indians in America,
and also many thousands of articles of their manufacture, consisting
of costumes, weapons, &c. &c., forming together a pictorial history
of those tribes, which I had been ambitious to preserve as a record
of them, to be perpetuated long after their extinction. In the middle
of the room I had erected also a wigwam (or lodge) brought from the
country of the Crows, at the base of the Rocky Mountains, made of
some twenty or more buffalo skins, beautifully dressed and curiously
ornamented and embroidered with porcupine quills.
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