500 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



her hospitable roof we spent a few weeks with great satisfaction, after which my 

 wife took steamer for Dubuque and I took to my little bark canoe alone (having taken 

 leave of the corporal), which I paddled to this place quite leisurely — cooking my own 

 meat and having my own fun aa I passed along. — G. C, Ibid. 



MR. CATLIN'S LABORS IN 1835. 



Mr. Catlin, after writing of his season's work, in 1835, amongst the 

 Sioux, Menomonees, Winnebagoes, and Chippewas, and prior to his 

 visit to the Sac and Fox, continues : 



It will be seen by the reader, from the above facts, that I have been laying up much 

 curious and valuable record of people and customs in these regions, and it will be 6een 

 at the same time from the brief manner in which I have treated of these semi-civil- 

 ized tribes, which everybody can see and thousands have seen, that my enthusiasm, 

 as I have before explained, has led me more into minuteness and detail amongst those 

 tribes which are living in their unchanged native modes, whose customs I have been 

 ambitious to preserve for ages to come, before the changes that civilized acquaint- 

 ance will soon work upon them. — Pages 147, 148, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years. 



THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



He makes reference to the "magnificent river," the Mississippi, and 

 his journeys upon it to Prairie du Chien, Dubuque, Galena, Rock Isl- 

 and, and to Camp Des Moines, and writes of the future of the Upper 

 Mississippi Valley : 



During such a tour between the endless banks carpeted with green, with one of 

 the richest countries in the world extending back in every direction, the mind of a 

 contemplative man is continually building for posterity splendid seats, cities, towers, 

 and villas, which a few years of rolling time will bring about, with new institutions, 

 new states, and almost empires ; for it would seem that this vast region of rich soil 

 and green fields was almost enough for a world itself." 



DUBUQUE LEAD MINES AND CAMP DES MOINES. 



Mr. Catlin met his wife at Dubuque, and visited the Lead Mines (see 

 Kos. 326-330 for description). From Dubuque, in the fall of 1835, he 

 went to Camp Des Moines, Iowa, and visited the Sacs. He thus writes 

 from Camp Des Moines, Iowa : 



THE SAC AND FOX INDIANS. 



From Dubuque I descended the river on a steamer with my bark canoe laid on its 

 deck, and my wife was my companion to Camp Des Moines, from whence I am now 

 writing. 



After arriving at this place, which is the wintering post of Colonel Kearny with 

 his three companies of dragoons, I seated my wife and two gentlemen of my intimate 

 acquaintance in my bark canoe, and paddled them through the Des Moines Rapids a 

 distance of fourteen miles, which we performed in a very short time ; and at the foot 

 of the rapids placed my wife on the steamer for Saint Louis in company with some 

 friends, when I had some weeks to return on my track and revest back again to the 

 wild and romantic life that I occasionally love to lead. I returned to Camp Des 

 Moines and in a few days joined General Street, the Indian agent, in a tour to Ke-o- 

 kuk's village of Sacs and Foxes. 



Colonel Kearny gave us a corporal's command of eight men, with horses, &c, for 

 the journey, and we reached the village in two days' travel, about 60 miles up the 



