Bibliography. 203 



13. Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs and Condition of 

 the North American Indians, loritten during eight years'' travel among 

 the wildest tribes of Indians in North America in 1832, '33, '34, '35, 

 '36, '37, '38, '39 ; by George Catlin. In two volumes, pp. 534, with 

 four hundred illustrations carefully engraved from his original paintings. 



This is a very extraordinary work — one which no reader who has 

 once begun to peruse, will willingly lay down until it is finished. 



It presents a high example of a peculiar kind of enthusiasm, in a man 

 who possessed fine qualifications for his wild, romantic undertaking ; 

 which, however, appears chastened into right-minded sobriety, when we 

 duly estimate the benevolence which beams in every page. 



Mr. Catlin is now too well known on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean 

 to justify an introduction by us to the public. Thousands on thousands 

 saw his pictures of Indian features, persons and costume, W^th his liv- 

 ing delineations of the noble scenery of their wide-spreading country ; 

 which with their utensils, arms, clothing, lodges, and even preserved 

 scalps of those whom they slew as enemies, form a most unique and 

 interesting museum ; and thousands listened also in New York, to Mr. 

 Catlin's spirited and graphic conversation and lectures, before his em- 

 barkation for Europe. 



This museum, now removed to London, is probably lost forever to 

 this country, and with it the magnificent Chinese museum of Mr. Nathan 

 Dunn,— two collections so peculiar that they can never be replaced, and 

 of which the final departure for the world's great metropolis, redounds 

 little to the honor of our country. 



Mr. Catlin has raised a monument to the memory of the American 

 Indians, which will tell to posterity the incredible story that native na- 

 tions of noble character have been destroyed by the invasion of war, by 

 pestilence, fraud and alcohol, all proceeding from those who call them- 

 selves Christians, and a few among whom have vindicated their claim 

 to this character by acts of truly Christian benevolence. 



Our space will not allow us to enlarge upon this very interesting 

 work, and we are so much gratified as well as pained by its perusal, 

 that we feel no disposition to criticise little faults of style, or perhaps 

 even to v/ish for more condensation, where the free and flowing subjects 

 seem to justify, if not to require the same spirit in the author, traveller, 

 adventurer, artist, philanthropist — all combined, in a manner so attract- 

 ive, that we would not hazard any material alteration. 



In the wilds of nature, among snowy mountains and boundless prairies 

 and endless rivers, innumerable herds of wild horses, antelopes and bufl^a- 

 loes — and among tribes of Indians, as free and reckless as they, we catch 

 the spirit of the adventurer and hurry along with him with dizzy velocity. 

 These topics however, we must leave to the pen of literature, while we 

 have to regret that we have no room at present to extract and condense 



