508 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



with feelings of regret, pronouncing it a '« world of itself, equal in luxuries and 

 amusements to any other." How weak is such an objection to him who has ascended 

 the Upper Mississippi to the Fall of Saint Anthony, traversed the States of Missouri, 

 Illinois, and Michigan, and Territory of Ouisconsin, over all of which nature has 

 spread her green fields, smiling and tempting man to ornament with painted house 

 and fence, with prancing steed and tasseled carriage, with countless villages, silvered 

 spires and domes, denoting march of intellect and wealth's refinement I The sun is 

 sure to look upon these scenes, and we perhaps "may hear the tinkling from our 

 graves." Adieu. 



ITINERARY FOR 1836. 



In 1836 I made a second visit to the Fall of Saint Anthony, steaming from Buffalo 

 to Green Bay, ascending the Fox and descending the Wisconsin rivers, six hundred 

 miles in a bark canoe to Prairie du Chien, and thence by canoe four hundred and 

 fifty miles to the Fall of Saint Anthony. From the Fall of Saint Anthony I ascended 

 the Saint Peter's to the ' 'Pipe-stone quarry," on the C6teaudes Prairies, and descended 

 the Saint Peter's in a canoe with my English companion, Mr. Wood, one hundred and 

 fifty miles to the Fall of Saint Anthony, and from that a second time to Saint Louis 

 in a bark canoe, nine hundred miles, steering with my own paddle. 



Mr. Catlin passed the winter of 1835-'36 in the East with friends, 

 and in the spring of 1836 started again for the Upper Mississippi Eiver. 

 Of this he writes : 



[Letter from Red Pipe-stone Quarry, Coteau Des Prairies, 1836.] 



The reader who would follow me from the place where my last epistle was writ- 

 ten [Saint Louis, 1835,] to where I now am, must needs start as I did, from Saint 

 Louis, and cross the Alleghany mountains to my own native State, where I left my 

 wife with my parents and wended my way to Buffalo on Lake Erie, where I deposited 

 my collection, and from thence trace, as I did, the zigzag course of the lakes from 

 Buffalo to Detroit, to the Sault de St. Marie, to Mackinaw, to Green Bay, and thence 

 the tortuous windings of the Fox and Ouisconsin rivers to Prairie du Chien, and 

 then the mighty Mississippi (for the second time) to the Fall of Saint Anthony, then 

 the sluggish, yet decorated and beautiful Saint Peter's towards its source ; and thence 

 again (on horseback) the gradually and gracefully rising terraces of the shorn yet 

 green and carpeted plains, deuominated the C6teau des Prairies (being the high and 

 dividing ridge between the Saint Peter's and the Missouri Rivers), where I am biv- 

 ouacked at the Red Pipe-stone quarry. The distance of such a tour would take the 

 reader four thousand miles; but I save him the trouble by bringing him in a mo- 

 ment on the spot. 



MACKINAW. 



This journey has afforded me the opportunity of seeing on my way, Mackinaw, the 

 Sault de St. Marie, and Green Bay, points which I had not before visited; and also 

 of seeing many distinguished Indians among the Chippeways, Menomonies, and Win- 

 nebagoes, whom I had not before painted or seen. [See Nos. 182-195, 199-217, 218-236. ] 



I can put the people of the East at rest, as to the hostile aspect of this part of the 

 country, as I have just passed through the midst of these tribes as well as of the 

 Sioux, in whose country I now am, and can without contradiction assert, that as far 

 as can be known they are generally well disposed and have been so toward the whites. 



There have been two companies of United States dragoons ordered and marched 

 to Green Bay, where I saw them, and three companies of infantry from Prairie du 

 Chien to Fort Winnebago, in antieipation of difficulties ; but in all probability without 

 any real cause or necessity, for the Winnebago chief answered the officer who asked 

 him if they wanted to fight, "that they could not, had they been so disposed, for," 

 said he, " we have no guns, no ammunition, nor anything to eat, and what is worst 



