568 . THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



good; their tastes are as good as ours are." After he had finished his pipe, and we 

 were moving towards the front door, the moment before taking leave of me, as I have 

 mentioned above, he asked me if I ever knew John Hunter, who wrote a work on 

 the Indians of America ; to which I replied in the affirmative. He seemed much 

 pleased in learning this fact, and said to me, " You see what a feeble wreck I am at 

 present ; my strength is gone, and I must leave you ; but you will take your break- 

 fast with me at Kensington Palace to-morrow morning ; I am all alone. I am too ill 

 to see the world ; they cannot find the way to me ; but I will see you, and take great 

 pleasure in your society. Your name will be made known to the servants at the 

 entrance to the palace." 



VISIT TO THE DUKE OF SUSSEX. REFERENCE TO JOHN HUNTER. 



The next morning, at the hour named, found me at the door of the palace, where 

 my name was recognized, and I at once was ushered into the apartment of the duke, 

 where I found him in his arm-chair, wrapped in his morning gown of white flaunel, 

 and his head covered with a cap of black velvet richly embroidered with gold. He 

 rose and took m,e by the hand in the most cordial manner, and instantly led me to 

 another part of the room, in front of a portrait hanging on the wall. " There," said 

 he, " do you know that face ?" "Very well," said I ; " that is the portrait of John 

 Hunter ; it is an admirable likeness, and looks to me like a picture by one of our 

 American artists. If I had met it anywhere else but in this country I should have 

 said it was by Harding, one of our most valued portrait painters." "■ Well," said he, 

 "you know that portrait, too, do you?" "Very well; that is his royal highness, 

 the Duke of Sussex." " Well," said the duke, " now I will tell you, they were both 

 painted by Mr. Harding. Harding is a great favorite of mine, and a very clever 

 artist." 



I at this moment presented to the duke the Indian pipe, through which he had 

 smoked the day before, and also an Indian tobacco-pouch, filled with the /c'wicfe-fc'wecfc 

 (or Indian tobacco) with which he had been so much pleased. 



He thanked me for the present, which he assured me delighted him very much; 

 and, after showing me a great variety of curious and most ingenious pipes from 

 various countries, we took our seats alone at the breakfast-table. In the course of 

 our conversation, which ran upon pipes, upon Indians, and Indian countries, his 

 royal highness said he had reasons for asking me if I had known Hunter, and should 

 feel most happy if he found in me a person who had been acquainted with his his- 

 tory. He said he had known Hunter familiarly while ho was in London, and had 

 entertained him in his palace, and thought a great deal of him. He had thought 

 his life a most extraordinary one, well entitling him to the attentions that were paid 

 to him here; that he had been entertained and amused by his narrations of Indian 

 life, and that he had made him several presents, amongst which was a very valuable 

 watch, and had had his portrait painted, which he highly valued. He said he had 

 learned, with deep regret, since Hunter had left here, that a learned French gentle- 

 man in Philadelphia, M. Duponceau, and some others, had held him up to the public, 

 through the journals, as an impostor, and his narrations as fabulous. " This to me," 

 said the duke, "you can easily see, has been a subject of much pain (as I took more 

 pains to introduce him and his works in this country than any one else), and it ex- 

 plains to you the cause of my anxiety to learn something more of his true history." 



I replied to his royal highness that I had been equally pained by hearing such 

 reports in circulation in my own country, and that my acquaintance with Hunter 

 had not been familiar enough to enable me wholly to refute them. I stated that I 

 had been introduced to Mr. Hunter in New Orleans, where he was well known to 

 many, and that I had met him in two or three other parts of the United States, and 

 since reading his work I had visited many of the Indian villages in which he lived, 

 and had conversed with chiefs and others named in his work, who spoke familiarly 

 of him. I felt assured, therefore, that he had spent the Indian life that he describes 



