482 THE GEOKGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



sou, a fine boy of nine years of age, has been taken home to their villages by them, 

 where they still retain him, and where it is our hope to recover him. [See No. 343 

 herein.] 



GENERAL LEAVENWORTH. 



Great praise is due to General Leavenworth for his early and unremitted efforts to 

 facilitate the movements of the regiment of dragoons by opening roads from Gibson and 

 Towson to this place. We found encamped two companies of infantry from Fort Tow- 

 son, who will follow in the rear of the dragoons, as far as necessary, transporting, with 

 wagons, stores and supplies, and ready at the same time to co-operate with the 

 dragoons in case of necessity. General Leavenworth will advance with us from this 

 post, but how far he may proceed is uncertain. We know not exactly the route 

 which we shall take, for circumstances alone must decide that point. We shall proba- 

 bly reach Cantonment Leavenworth in the fall ; and one thing is certain (in the 

 opinion of one who has already seen something of Indian life and country), we shall 

 meet with many severe privations and reach that place a jaded set of fellows, and as 

 ragged as Jack Falstaff's famous band. 



You are no doubt inquiring who are these Pawnees, Camanchees, and Arapahoes, 

 and why not tell us all about them ? Their history, numbers, and limits are still in 

 obscurity ; nothing definite is yet known of them ; but I hope I shall soon be able to 

 give the world a clue to them. 



If my life and health are preserved, I anticipate many a pleasing scene for my 

 pencil, as well as incidents worthy of reciting to the world, which I shall occasionally 

 do as opportunity may occur. 



ILLNESS OF MR. CATLIN AND THE TROOPS, FALSE WASHITA RIVER, JULY, 1834. 



Since I wrote my last letter from this place, I have been detained here with the rest 

 of the cavalcade from the extraordinary sickness which is afflicting the regiment, and 

 actually threatening to arrest its progress. 



It was, as I wrote the other day, the expectation of the commanding officer that we 

 should have been by this time recruited and recovered from sickness, and ready to 

 start again on our march; but since I wrote nearly one-half of the command, and in- 

 cluded amongst them several ofiUcers, with General Leavenworth, have been thrown 

 upon their backs with the prevailing epidemic, a slow and distressing bilious fever. 

 The horses of the regiment are also sick, about an equal proportion, and seemingly 

 suffering with the same disease. They are daily dying, and men are falling sick, and 

 General Leavenworth has ordered Colonel Dodge to select all the men and all the 

 horses that are able to proceed, and be off to-morrow at 9 o'clock upon the march to- 

 wards the Comanchees, in hopes thereby to preserve the health of the men, and make 

 the most rapid advance towards the extreme point of destination. 



General Leavenworth has reserved Colonel Kearny to take command of the remain- 

 ing troops and the little encampment ; and promises Colonel Dodge that he will him- 

 self be well enough in a few days to proceed with a party on his trail and overtake 

 him at the Cross Timbers. 



I should here remark, that when we started from Fort Gibson the regiment of 

 dragoons, instead of the eight hundred which it was supposed it would contain, had 

 only organized to the amount of four hundred men, which was the number that started 

 from that place ; and being at this time half disabled, furnishes but two hundred 

 effective men to penetrate the wild and untried regions of the hostile Comanchees. 

 All has been bustle and confusion this day, packing up and preparing for the start 

 to-morrow morning. My canvas and painting apparatus are prepared and ready for 

 the pack-horse, which carries the goods and chattels of my esteemed companion 

 Joseph Chad wick and myself, and we shall be the two only guests of the procession, 

 and consequently the only two who will be at liberty to gallop about where we please, 

 despite military rules and regulations, chasing the wild herds, or seeking our own 



