THE GEORGE CATLIN .INDIAN GALLERY. 459 



evidences, of which there are many, and forcible ones, to be met with amongst these 



people, and many of which I have named in my former epistles, the most striking are 

 those which go, I think, decidedly to suggest the existence of books and of customs 

 amongst them, bearing incontestable proofs of an amalgam of civilized and savage; 

 and that in the absence of all proof of any recent proximity of a civilized stock that 

 could in any way have been engrafted npon them. 



These facts, then, with the host of their peculiarities which stare a traveler in 

 the face, lead the mind back in search of some more remote and rational cause for 

 such strik ; ng singularities; and in this dilemma I have been almost disposed (not to 

 advance it as a theory but) to inquire whether here may not be found, yet existing, the 

 remains of the Welsh colony, the followers of Madoc, who, history tells us, if I recol- 

 lect right, started with ten ships to colonize a country which he had discovered in 

 the Western Ocean, whose expedition I think has been pretty clearly traced to the 

 mouth of the Mississippi or the coast of Florida, and whose fate further than this 

 seems sealed in unsearchable mystery. 



I am traveling in this country, as I have before said, not to advance or to prove 

 theories, but to see all I am able to see and to tell it in the simplest and most intelli- 

 gible manner I can to the world, for their own conclusions, or for theories I may feel 

 disposed to advance and be better able to defend after I get out of this lingular coun- 

 try, where all the powers of one's faculties are required and much better employed, 

 I consider, in helping him along and in gathering materials than in stopping to draw 

 too nice and delicate conclusions by the way. 



If my indefinite recollections of the fate of that colony, however, as recorded in 

 history be correct, I see no harm in suggesting the inquiry whether they did not sail 

 up the Mississippi River in their ten ships, or such number of them as might have ar- 

 rived safe in its mouth, and having advanced up the Ohio from its junction (as they 

 naturally would, it being the widest and most gentle current) to a rich and fertile 

 country, planted themselves as agriculturists on its rich banks, where they lived and 

 flourished, and increased in numbers, until they were attacked, and at last besieged, 

 by the numerous hprdes of savages who were jealous of their growing condition ; 

 and as a protection against their assaults, built those numerous civilized fortifications, 

 the ruins of which are now to be seen on the Ohio and the Muskingum, in which they 

 were at last all destroyed, except some few families who had intermarried with the In- 

 dians, and whose offspring, being half-breeds, were in such a manner allied to them that 

 their lives were spared ; and forming themselves into a small and separate community, 

 took up their residence on the banks of the Missouri, on which, for the want of a per- 

 manent location, being on the lands of their more powerful enemies, were obliged re- 

 peatedly to remove ; and continuing their course up the river, have in time migrated 

 to the place whero they are now living, and consequently found with the numerous 

 and most unaccountable peculiarities of which I have before spoken, so inconsonant 

 with the general character of the North American Indians ; with complexions of every 

 shade, with hair of all the colors in civilized society, and many with hazel, with 

 grey, and with blue eyes. 



The above is a suggestion of a moment; and I wish the reader to bear it in mind, 

 that if I ever advance such as a theory, it will be after I have collected other proofs, 

 which I shall take great pains to do ; after I have taken a vocabulary of their lan- 

 guage, and also in my transit down the river in my canoe, I may be able from my own 

 examinations of the ground to ascertain whether the shores of the Missouri bear evi- 

 dences of their former locations; or whether amongst the tribes who inhabit the 

 country below there remain any satisfactory traditions of their residences in and 

 transit through their countries. 



I close here my book (and probably for some time my remarks) on the friendly and 

 hospitable Mandans. — Pages 20G, 207, vol. 1, Catliu's Eight Years. 



Note.— Several years having elapsed since the above account of the Mandans was written, T open 

 the book to convey to the reader the melancholy intelligence of the destruction of this interesting 



