THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 297 



of civilized origin ; and latitude is admirably given in them in proportion to tlie in- 

 crease of civilized wants, which often require a judge to overrule the laws of nature- 

 I say we can prove such things, but an Indian cannot. It is a mode of reasoning un. 

 known to him in his nature's simplicity, but admirably adapted to subserve the in- 

 terests of the enlightened world, who are always their own judges when dealing with 

 the savage; aud who, in the present refined age, have many appetites that can only 

 be lawfully indulged by proving God's laws defective. 



It is not enough in this polished and extravagant a.ge that we get from the Indian 

 his lands and the very clothes from his back, but the food from their mouths must, be 

 stopped to add a new and useless articlo to the fashionable world's luxuries. Tho 

 ranks must be thinned, and the race exterminated of this noble animal, and the In- 

 dians of tho great plains left without the means of supporting life, that white men 

 may figure a few years longer enveloped in buffalo robes ; that they may spread them 

 for their pleasure and elegance, over the backs of their sleighs, and trail them osten- 

 tatiously amidst the busy throng as things of beauty and elegance that had been 

 made for them. 



Reader, listen to the following calculations, and forgot them not: The buffaloes 

 (the quadrupeds from whose backs your beautiful robes were taken, and whose myri- 

 ads were once spread over the whole country, from the Rocky Mountains to the At- 

 lantic Ocean) have recently fled before the appalling appearance of civilized man, 

 and taken up their abode and pasturage amid the almost boundless prairies of the 

 West. An instinctive dread of their deadly foes, who made an easy prey of them 

 whilst grazing in the forest, has led them to seek the midst of the vast and treeless 

 plains of grass, as the spot where they would be least exposed to the assaults of their 

 enemies; and it is exclusively in those desolate fields of silence (yet of beauty) that 

 they are to be found, and over these vast steppes, or prairies, have they fled, like the 

 Indian, towards the setting sun, until their bands have been crowded together and 

 their limits confined to a narrow strip of country on this side of the Rocky Mountains. 



This strip of country, which extends from the province of Mexico to Lake Winnepeg 

 on the north, is almost one entire plain of grass, which is, and ever must be, useless to 

 cultivating man. It is here, and here chiefly, that the buffaloes dwell ; and with and 

 hovering about them, live aud flourish the tribes of Indians whom God made for the 

 enjoyment of that fair land and its luxuries. 



It is a melancholy contemplation for one who has traveled, as I have, through these 

 realms, and seen this noble animal in all its pride and glory, to contemplate it so rap- 

 idly wasting from the world, drawing the irresistible conclusion, too, which one must 

 do, that its species is soon to be extinguished, and with it the peace and happiness (if 

 not the actual existence) of the tribes of Indians who are joint tenants with them in 

 the occupancy of these vast and idle plains. 



And what a splendid contemplation too, when one (who has traveled these realms, 

 and can duly appreciate them) imagines them as they might in future be seen (by some 

 great protecting policy of Government) preserved in their pristine beauty and wild- 

 ness, in a magnificent park, where the world could see for ages to come the native 

 Indian in his classic attire, galloping his wild horse, with sinewy bow and shield and 

 lance, amid the fleeting herds of elks and buffaloes. What a beautiful and thrilling 

 specimen for America to preserve and hold up to the view of her refined citizens and 

 the world, in future ages, a nation's park, containing man and beast in all the wilduess 

 and freshness of their nature's beauty! 



I would ask no other monument to my memory, nor any other enrollment of my name 

 amongst the famous dead, than the reputation of having been the founder of such an 

 institution. 



Such scenes might easily have been preserved, and still could be cherished on the 

 great plains of the West, without detriment to the country or its borders ; for the tracts 

 of country on which the buffaloes have assembled are uniformly sterile, and of no 

 available use to cultivating man. 



