Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 2 (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. 2 (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
On our arrival in York one of the first and most often repeated
questions which they put was, whether there were any of the "good
people," as they now called them, the Friends, living there. I told
them it was a place where a great many of them lived, and no doubt
many would come to see them, which seemed to please and encourage them
very much. Mr. Melody having taken rooms for them near to the York
Minster, of which they had a partial view from their windows, their
impatience became so great that we sallied out the morning after our
arrival to pay the first visit to that grand and venerable pile. The
reader has doubtless seen or read of this sublime edifice, and I need
not attempt to describe it here. Were it in my power to portray the
feelings which agitated the breasts of these rude people when they
stood before this stupendous fabric of human hands, and as they passed
through its aisles, amid its huge columns, and under its grand arches,
I should be glad to do it; but those feelings which they enjoyed in the
awful silence, were for none but themselves to know. We all followed
the guide, who showed and explained to us all that was worth seeing
below, and then showed us the way by which we were to reach the summit
of the grand or middle tower, where the whole party arrived after a
laborious ascent of 273 steps. We had luckily selected a clear day;
and the giddy height from which we gazed upon the town under our feet,
and the lovely landscape in the distance all around us, afforded to
the Indians a view far more wonderful than their eyes had previously
beheld. Whilst we were all engaged in looking upon the various scenes
that lay like the lines upon a map beneath us, the old Doctor, with his
_propensity_ which has been spoken of before, had succeeded in getting
a little higher than any of the rest of the party, by climbing on to
the little house erected over the gangway through which we entered upon
the roof; and, upon the pinnacle of this, for a while stood smiling
down upon the thousands of people who were gathering in the streets. He
was at length, however, seen to assume a more conspicuous attitude by
raising his head and his eyes towards the sky, and for some moments he
devoutly addressed himself to the Great Spirit, whom the Indians always
contemplate as "in the heavens, above the clouds." When he had finished
this invocation, he slowly and carefully "descended on to the roof,
and as he joined his friends he observed that when he was up there
"he was nearer to the Great Spirit than he had ever been before." The
War-chief excited much merriment by his sarcastic reply, that "it was
a pity he did not stay there, for he would never be so near the Great
Spirit again." The Doctor had no way of answering this severe retort,
except by a silent smile, as, with his head turned away, he gazed on
the beautiful landscape beneath him. When we descended from the tower,
the Indians desired to advance again to the centre of this grand
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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