THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 109 



•wliicli the peculiar necessities of life often drive him to, as seen amongst the squatted, 

 paddling tribes of the Amazon, Vancouver, and the Columbia coast and river. 



It was a pleasure that I cannot describe to find myself again amongst mankind as 

 Nature made them, the Crows, whom I had long since thought I had seen for the last 

 time. 



The Crows (as they are called by their neighbors), Belantsea, of whom I gave some 

 account in the first volume of this work, are probably the most unbroken, unchanged 

 part of the original stock of North American Man, Their numbers, at the time when 

 I was amongst them, in 1832, were about 7,000, living on the headwaters of the Yel- 

 lowstone River and in the Rocky Mountains. 



From their traditions, which are very distinct, they formerly occupied the whole 

 range of the Rocky Mountains and the beautiful valleys on each side, from the sources 

 of the Saskatchewan iu the north, and as far south (their traditions say) as the moun- 

 tains continue : that would be to the straits of Panama. 



They say that their people were a great nation before the Flood, and that a few 

 who reached the summits of the mountains were saved when all the tribes of the 

 valleys were destroyed by the waters. 



That they were the most ancient American stock, and the unique, original American 

 type, I believe ; and that they were the original Toltecs and Aztecs, who, history and 

 traditions tell us, poured down from the mountains of the northwest, founding the 

 cities of Mexico, Palenque, and Uxmal. 



My portraits of Crows, made in my first series of voyages, in 1832 (Nos. 162 to 170), 

 and exhibited in London, from their striking resemblance to those on the sculptured 

 stones of Mexico and Yucatan, excited suggestions to that effect by many of my 

 friends; and the first of these, and the most enthusiastic, my untiring and faithful 

 friend, Captain Shippard, an indefatigable reader amongst the ancient archives of 

 the British Museum; and of my friend the Baron de Humboldt, who told me also that 

 the subject was one of profound interest to science, and well worthy of my further 

 study. 



These reiterated suggestions, added to my own intelligence, have kept alive, for 

 many years, my anxiety on that subject, and undoubtedly were the uncombatible 

 arguments which determined me, when hearing, at the Dalles, of a band of Crows 

 ■encamped in the Salmon River Valley, west of the Rocky Mountains, to "make shift" 

 {coute qui coute), and with Csesar, to throw myself amongst them. 



I have said that " we were there," and whatever I found amongst them in customs 

 and contour and traditions, as well as amongst other tribes that I visited in more 

 southern latitudes, between them and the Straits of Panama, tending to establish the 

 belief above advanced, that they were the Toltecs and Aztecs of Mexico and Yucatan, 

 will be noticed in a subsequent part of this work. 



The Crow village that we were in, consisting of some forty or fifty skin tents, had 

 ■crossed the mountains on to the headwaters of Salmon River, to take and dry salmon, 

 there being no salmon on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. 



The chief of the band, a sub chief, called the "Yelloiu Moeasin," was a very intel- 

 ligent man, and gave me a clear, and, no doubt, a true account of the recent history 

 of the tribe, as he had received it from his father and grandfather. According to 

 this, the Crows were originally confined to the mountains and their valleys, from 

 which their enemies of the jjlains could never dislodge them ; but that since horses 

 have made their appearance in the plains, a great portion of their people have de- 

 scended into the prairies, where they have been cut to pieces by the Sioux, the Black- 

 feet, and other tribes, and their former great streugtli destroyed. 



I was received with great kindness by these people, and told by the chief that I 

 should be welcome, and (hat his young men should watch and guard my horses. The 

 incidents here, epough in themselves for a small book, must be passed over, for there 

 are yet many adventures ahead of us. 



One thing, however, cannot be passed by. Whilst seated in the chief's lodge, 



