THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIA'N GALLERY. 473 



aro thrown over the valleys — when all the breathings of day are hushed, and nought 

 but the soft notes of the retiring dove can be heard, or the still softer and more 

 plaintive notes of the wolf, who sneaks through these scenes of enchantment, and 

 mournfully h-o-w-l-s, as if lonesome, and lost in the too beautiful quiet and still- 

 ness about him — I mean this prairie, where heaven sheds its purest light and lends 

 its richest tints ; this round-topped bluff, where the foot treads soft and light, whose 

 steep sides and lofty head rear me to the skies overlooking yonder pictured vale of 

 beauty ; this solitary cedar-post, which tells a tale of grief— grief that was keenly 

 felt, and tenderly, but long since softened in the march of time and lost. Oh, sad 

 and tear-starting contemplation ! Sole tenant of this stately mound, how solitary thy 

 habitation ! Here Heaven wrested from thee thy ambition, and made thee sleeping 

 monarch of this land of silence. 



Stranger! oh, how the mystic web of sympathy links my soul to thee and thy af- 

 flictions ! I knew thee not, but it was enough ; thy tale was told, and I, a solitary 

 wanderer through thy land, have stopped to drop familiar tears upon thy grave. 

 Pardon this gush from a stranger's eyes, for they are all that thou canst have in this 

 strange land, where friends and dear relations are not allowed to pluck a flower and 

 drop a tear to freshen recollections of endearments past. 



Stranger, adieu ! With streaming eyes I leave thee again and thy fairy land to 

 peaceful solitude. My pencil has faithfully traced thy beautiful habitation ; and long 

 shall live in the world, and familiar, the name of Floyd' 's grave. — Pages 3, 4, vol. 2, 

 Catlin's Eight Years. 



Mr. Oatlin remained at Fort Leavenworth several weeks. He thus 

 describes the fort and its inhabitants : 



I mentioned in a former epistle that this is the extreme outpost on the Western 

 frontier, and built, like several others, in the heart of the Indian country. There is 

 no finer tract of lands in North America, or, perhaps, in the world, than that vast 

 space of prairie country which lies in the vicinity of this post, embracing it on all 

 sides. This garrison, like many others on the frontiers, is avowedly placed here for 

 the purpose of protecting our frontier inhabitants from the incursions of Indians; 

 and also for the purpose of preserving the peace amongst the different hostile tribes, 

 who seem continually to wage, and glory in, their deadly wars. How far these feeble 

 garrisons, which are generally but half manned, have been, or will be, able to in- 

 timidate and control the warlike ardour of these restless and revengeful spirits; or 

 how far they will be able in desperate necessity to protect the lives and property of 

 the honest pioneer, is yet to be tested. 



They have doubtless been designed, with the best views, to effect the most humane 

 objects, though I very much doubt the benefits that are anticipated to flow from 

 them, unless a more efficient number of men are stationed in them than I have gen- 

 erally found; enough to promise protection to the Indian, and then to insure it, in- 

 stead of promising, and leaving them to seek it in their own way at last, and when 

 they are least prepared to do it. 



When I speak of this post as being on the Lower Missouri, I do not wish to convey 

 the idea that I am down near the sea-coast, at the mouth of the river, or near it; I 

 only mean that I am on the lower part of the Missouri, yet 600 miles above its junc- 

 tion with the Mississippi, and near 2,000 from the Gulf of Mexico, into which' the 

 Mississippi discharges its waters. 



In this delightful cantonment there are generally stationed six or seven companies 

 of infantry and ten or fifteen officers, several of whom have their wives and daugh- 

 ters with them, forming a very pleasant little community, who are almost continu- 

 ally together in social enjoyment of the peculiar amusements and pleasures of this 

 wild country. Of these pastimes they have many, such as riding on horseback or in 

 carriages over the beautiful green fields of the prairies, picking strawberries and 

 wild plums, deer-chasing, grouse-shooting, horse-racing, and other amusements of 



