THE GEORGE CATLTN INDIAN GALLERY. 471 



Fort Pierre. Here lie fouud a large camp of Sioux, and obtaiued mauy 

 portraits and paintings of Sioux life and customs. 



For a description of the fort and his life there, see No. 384 ; see also 

 " Sioux," in portrait section, Nos. 69 to 94. The descriptive text with 

 these portraits and following gives Mr. Catlin's notes on the " Sioux," 

 including those he saw at Fort Pierre. 



After leaving Fort Pierre Mr. Catlin drifted down by the Ponca and 

 Omaha villages, and thence to Fort Leavenworth. 



Mr. Catlin, in the fall of 1832, left old Port Pierre, where he saw the 

 Sioux, and, with his two men in the canoe, paddled to Saint Louis, more 

 than two thousand miles, stopping at Fort Leavenworth for several 

 weeks. In a letter from Fort Pierre (old Fort Pierre, now in Dakota), 

 he writes : 



Thus mucli I wrote [in volume one] and i)ainted at this place [old Fort Pierre] 

 whilst on my way up the river ; after which I embarked on the steamer for the Yel- 

 lowstone and the sources of the Missouri, through which interesting regions I have 

 made a successful tour, and have returned, as will have been seen by the foregoing 

 narrations, in my canoe to this place, from whence I am to descend the river still 

 farther in a few days. If I ever get time I may give farther notes on this place, and 

 of people, andtheir doings, which I met with here; but at jiresent I throw my note-book 

 and canvas and brushes into my canoe, which will be launched to-morrow morning 

 and on its way towards Saint Louis, with myself at the steering-oar, as usual, and 

 with Ba'tiste and Bogard to paddle, of whom I beg the reader's pardon for having 

 said nothing of late, though they have been my constant companions. Our way is 

 now over the foaming and muddy waters of the Missouri, and amid snags and drift 

 logs (for there is a sweeping freshet on her waters), and many a day will pass before 

 other letters will come from me, and iiossibly the reader may have to look to my biog- 

 rapher for the rest. Adieu. — Page 264, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years. 



AN INCIDENT IN CAMP. 



After passing the mouth of the Platte, going down the Missouri Eiver 

 in 1832, Mr. Catlin notes the following in journal as to the voyage: 



In this voyage, as in all others that I have performed, I kept my journal, but I have 

 not room, it will be seen, to insert more than an occasional extract from it for my 

 present purpose. In this voyage, Ba'tiste and Bogard were my constant companions, 

 and we all had our rifles, and used them often. Wo often went ashore amongst the 

 herds of buffaloes, and were obliged to do so for our daily food. We lived the whole 

 way on buffaloes' flesh and venison ; we had no bread, but laid in a good stock of 

 coffee and sugar. These, however, from an unforseen accident, availed us but little, 

 as on the second or third day of our voyage, after we had taken our coffee on the shore, 

 and Ba'tiste and Bogard had gone in iiursuit of a herd of buffaloes, I took it in my 

 head to have an extra very fine dish of cofiee to myself, as the firo was line. For this 

 purpose I added more coffee-grounds to the pot and placed it on the fire, which I sat 

 watching, when I saw a fine buffalo cow wending her way leisurely over the hills 

 but a little distance from me, for whom I started at once, with my rifle trailed in my 

 hand, and after creeping and running and heading, and all that, for half an hour, 

 without getting a shot at her, I came back to the encampment, Avhoro I found my two 

 men with meat enough, but in the most uncontrollable rage, for my coffee had all boiled 

 out and the coff"ee-pot was melted to pieces. 



This was truly a deplorable accident, and one that could in no efleotual way bo 

 remedied. We afterwards botched up a moss or two of it in our frying-pau, but to 



