THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLEEY. • 579 



They amused him -with the war-danco and the Wa-he-no dance, giving several songs 

 and the war-whoop. * # # 



The duke most kindly took leave of them, presenting to the old chief 10 sovereigns, 

 which he divided equally among the number, and sent them on the following day 10 

 pounds of the choicest smoking tobacco. 



WAITING AN AUDIENCE WITH THE QUEEN. 



The announcement of the arrival of the Ojibbeways, which had been made in the 

 public papers, and the notice also of their interview with the Duke of Cambridge, were 

 now gaining them a notoriety with the public, and, amongst my personal friends, was 

 announcing that I had returned to Loudon, which altogether brought me a flood of ap- 

 plicants for private interviews with them. We had resolved not to makeany exhibition 

 of their modes to the public until after they had seen the Queen, and the month that 

 we remained idle, and waiting for Her Majesty's command, was rendered tedious and 

 troublesome from the above causes. We were daily and hourly importuned for per- 

 missions to see them, which were in part granted, until it became quite necessary 

 that I should absent myself from them, leaving instructions at the door that no com- 

 munication could be had with them at present. Mr. Eankin during this time staid 

 constantly with thom, and I occasionally spent an evening of gossip and smoked a 

 pipe with them. We made use of most of the time in endeavoring to show them as 

 much of the great city as possible, driving them'out in a 'bus during the day, and sev- 

 eral times taking them into the country to sjiend a day running over the fields, for 

 the benclit of their health. 



THE INDIANS' IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON. 



After one of their first drives about the city, when they had been passed through 

 Regent street, the Strand, Cheapside, Oxford street, and Holborn, I spent the evening 

 in a talk with them in their rooms, and was exceedingly amused with the shrewd- 

 ness of their remarks upon what they had seen. They had considered the "prairies 

 still ou fire," from the quantity of smoke they met; one of the women had under- 

 taken to count the number of carriages they passed, but was obliged to give it up ; 

 "saw a great many fine houses, but nobody in the Avindows; saw many men with a 

 large board on tlie back, and another on the breast, walking iu the street — supposed 

 it was some kind of punishment; saw men carrying bags of coal, their hats on wrong 

 side before ; saw fine ladies and gentlemen riding in the middle of the streets in car- 

 riages, but a great many poor and raggerl people on the sides of the roads ; saw a 

 great many men and women drinking in shops where they saw great barrels and hogs- 

 heads ; saw several drunk in the streets. They had passed two Indians in the street 

 with brooms, sweeping away the nmd ; they saw them hold out their hands to people 

 going by, as if they were begging for money ; they saw many other people begging, 

 some with brooms in their hands and others with little babies in their arms, who 

 looked as if they were hungry for food to eat. They had much to sqiy about tlie two 

 Indians they had passed. " It could not be that white people would dress and paint 

 themselves like Indians in order to beg money, and they could not see liow Indians 

 would consent to stand in the streets and sweep the mud away in order to beg for 

 money." They appealed to me to know whether they were really Indians, and I 

 said, "Yes; they are natives from the East Indies, called Lascars. They are natu- 

 rally, most probably like yourselves, too proud to work or to beg ; but they have 

 been left by some cruel fate to earn their living iu the streets of London or to starve 

 to death, and, poor fellows, they have i)referred begging to starvation." The Indians 

 seemed much afi'ectcd by the degradation that these poor fellows were driven to, and 

 resolved that they would carry some money with them when they went out, to throw 

 to them. 



