Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 2): With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existingCatlin, George
History
Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 2): With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing
Catlin, George
Indians of North America
In other parts, and farther West, between the Camanchee village and the
Canadian, we passed over a similar surface for many miles denuded, with
the exception of here and there little bunches of grass and wild sage,
a level and exposed surface of solid gypsum, of a dark grey colour: and
through it, occasionally, as far as the eye could discover, to the East
and the West streaks of three and five inches wide of snowy gypsum,
which was literally as white as the drifted snow.
Of saltpetre and salt, there are also endless supplies; so it will
be seen that the mineral resources of this wilderness country are
inexhaustible and rich, and that the idle savage who never converts
them to his use, must soon yield them to the occupation of enlightened
and cultivating man.
In the vicinity of this post there are an immense number of Indians,
most of whom have been removed to their present locations by the
Government, from their Eastern original positions, within a few
years past; and previous to my starting with the dragoons, I had two
months at my leisure in this section of the country, which I used
in travelling about with my canvass and note-book, and visiting all
of them in their villages. I have made many paintings amongst them,
and have a curious note-book to open at a future day, for which the
reader may be prepared. The tribes whom I thus visited, and of whom my
note-book will yet speak, are the _Cherokees_, _Choctaws_, _Creeks_,
_Seminoles_, _Chickasaws_, _Quapaws_, _Senecas_, _Delawares_, and
several others, whose customs are interesting, and whose history, from
their proximity to, and dealings with the civilized community, is one
of great interest, and some importance, to the enlightened world.
Adieu.
LETTER—No. 46.
ALTON, _ILLINOIS_.
A few days after the date of the above Letter, I took leave of Fort
Gibson, and made a transit across the prairies to this place, a
distance of 550 miles, which I have performed entirely alone, and had
the satisfaction of joining my wife, whom I have found in good health,
in a family of my esteemed friends, with whom she has been residing
during my last year of absence.
While at Fort Gibson, on my return from the Camanchees, I was quartered
for a month or two in a room with my fellow-companion in misery,
Captain Wharton, of the dragoons, who had come in from the prairies in
a condition very similar to mine, and laid in a bed in the opposite
corner of the room; where we laid for several weeks, like two grim
ghosts, rolling our glaring and staring eye-balls upon each other, when
we were totally unable to hold converse, other than that which was
exchanged through the expressive language of our hollow, and bilious,
sunken eyes.
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