THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 347 



GREAT CAMANCHEE (COMANCHE) VILLAGE. (SEE NO. 353.) 



No sooner were we encamped here (or, in other words, as soon as our things were 

 thrown upon the ground) Major Mason, Lieutenant Wheelock, Captain Brown, Cap- 

 tain Duncan, my friend Chadwick, and myself galloped off to the village and through 

 it in the greatest impatience to the prairies, where there were at least three thousand 

 horses and mules grazing, all of us eager aud impatient to see and to appropriate the 

 splendid Arabian horses which we had so often heard were owned by the Camanche 

 warriors. We galloped around busily, and glanced our eyes rapidly over them, and 

 all soon returned to the camp quite crestfallen, and satisfied that, although there*wero 

 some tolerable nags amongst this medley group of all colors and all shapes, the beau- 

 tiful Arabian we had so often heard of at the East as belonging to the Camanches, 

 must either be a great way farther south than this or else it must be a horse of the 

 imagination. 



The Camanche horses are generally small, all of them being of the wild breed, and 

 a very tough and serviceable animal ; and, from what I can learn here of the chiefs, 

 there are yet, farther south, aud nearer the Mexican borders, some of the noblest an- 

 imals in use of the chiefs, yet I do not know that we have any more reason to rely 

 upon this information than that which had made our horse-jockeys that we have with 

 us to run almost crazy for the possession of those we were to find at this place. 

 Amongst the immense herds we found grazing here, one-third, perhaps, are mules, 

 which are much more valuable than the horses. 



Of the horses the officers and men have purchased a number of the best by giving 

 a very inferior blanket and butcher's knife, costing in all about $4 ! These horses in 

 in our cities at the East, independent of the name, putting them upon their merits 

 alone, would be worth from $80 to $100 each, and not more. 



A vast many of such could be bought on such terms, and are hourly brought into 

 camp for sale. If we had goods to trade for tbem and means of getting them home, 

 a great profit could be made, which can easily be learned from the following trans- 

 action that took place yesterday: A fine-looking Indian was hanging about my tent 

 very closely for several days, and continually scanning an old and half-worn cotton 

 umbrella, which I carried over me to keep off the sun, as I was suffering with fever 

 and ague, and at last proposed to purchase it of me with a very neat-limbed and 

 pretty-pied horse which he was riding. He proposed at first that I should give him a 

 knife and the umbrella, but as I was not disposed for the trade (the umbrella being 

 so useful an article to me that I did not know how to part with it, not knowing 

 whether there was another iu the regiment), he came a second time, and offered mo 

 the horse for the umbrella alone, which offer I still rejected, and he went back to the 

 village and soon returned with another horse of a much better quality, supposing 

 that I had not valued the former one equal to the umbrella. 



With this he endeavored to push the trade, and after I had with great difficulty 

 made him understand that I was sick, and could not part with itj he turned and rode 

 back towards the village, and in a short time returned again with one of the largest 

 and finest mules I ever saw, proposing that, which I also rejected, when he disap- 

 peared again. 



In a few moments my friend Captain Duncan, in whose hospitable tent I was quar- 

 tered, came in, and the circumstance being related to him, started up some warm 

 jockey feelings, which he was thoroughly possessed of, when he instantly sprang upon 

 his feet, and exclaimed, "D — n the fellow! where is he gone? Here, Gosset! get my 

 old umbrella out of the pack ; I rolled it up with my wiper and the frying pan ; get 

 it as quicK as lightning !" With it in his hand, the worthy captain soon overtook the 

 young man, and escorted him into the village, and returned in a short time — not with 

 the mule, but with the second horse that had been offered to me. — G. C. 



