THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 641 



Mr. Melody had rill thiugs prepared for our exhibition when I arrived, having taken 

 the large hall in the Shakspeare Buildings, and also procured rooms for the Indians to 

 Bleep in in the same establishment. 



The Indians and myself were kindly received in Birmingham, for which, no doubt, 

 they, like myself, will long feel grateful. The work which I had published h;id 

 been extensively read there, and was an introduction of the most pleasing kind to 

 me, and the novelty and wildness of the manners of the Indians enough to insure them 

 much attention. 



THE "feiends." 



In their exhibition room, which was nightly well attended, we observed many of the 

 Society of Friends, whom we could always easily distinguish by their dress, and also 

 more easily by the kind interest they expressed and exhibited, whenever opportunity 

 occurred, for the welfare of those poor people. The Indians, with their native shrewd- 

 ness and sagacity, at once discovered from their appearance and manner that they were a 

 different class of people from any they had seen, and were full of inquiries about them. 

 I told them that these were of the same society as their kind friend Dr. Hodgkin, whom 

 they so often saw in London, who is at the head of the Aborigines Protection Society, wlio 

 was the first person in England to invite them to his table, and whom the reader will recol- 

 lect they called Ichonna Wap-pa (the straight coat); that they were the followers of the 

 great William Penn, whom I believed they had heard something about. They instantly 

 pronounced the name of ' ' Penn, Penn, ' ' around the room, convincing me, as nearly every 

 tribe I ever visited in the remotest wilderness in America had done, that they had heard 

 and attached the greatest reverence to the name of Penn. 



These inquiries commenced in their private room one evening after the exhibition had 

 closed, and they had had an interview in the exhibition room with several ladies and 

 gentleman of that society, and had received from them some very valuable presents. 

 They all agreed that there was something in their manners and in their mode of shaking 

 hands with them that was more kind and friendly than anything they had met amongst 

 other people; and this I could see had made a sensible impression upon them. 



I took this occasion to give them, in a brief way, an account of the life of the immor- 

 tal "Wniiam Penn; of his good faith and kindness in all his transactions with the In- 

 dians, and the brotherly love he had for them until his death. I also gave them some 

 general ideasof the Society of Friends in this country', from whom the great William Penn 

 came; that they were the friends of all the human race; that they never went to war 

 with any people; that they therefore had no enemies; they drink no spirituous liquors; 

 that in America and in this country they were unanimously the friends of the Indians; 

 and I was glad to find that in Birmingham we were in the midst of a great many of 

 them, with whom they would no doubt become acquainted. There were here some inqui- 

 ries about the religion of the Friends, which I told them was the Christian religion, 

 which had been explained to them; that they were all religious and charitable, and, 

 whatever religion the Indians might prefer to follow, these good people would be equally 

 sure to be their friends. They seemed, after this, to feel an evident pleasure whenever 

 they saw parties of Friends entering the room; they at once recognized them whenever 

 they came in, and on retiring to their own room counted up the numbers that had ap- 

 peared and made their remarks upon them. 



BREAKFAST WITH JOSEPH STUKGE. 



In one of these conversations I pleased them very much by reading to them a note 

 which I had just received from Mr. Joseph Sturge, with whom I had been acquainted 

 in London, and who was now residing in Birmingham, inviting me to bring the whole 

 party of Indians to his house to breakfast the next morning. I told them that JMr. 

 Sturge was a very distinguished man, and one of the leading men of the Society of 

 Friends. This pleased them all exceedingly, and at the hour appointed this kind gen- 

 6744 41 



