THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 531 



lot of the gentler sex, is quite equal, I have found from continued inquiry, to the 

 representations that have often been made to the world by other travelers who 

 have gone before me. Many people have thought this a wise provision of nature in 

 framing the constitutions of these "people to suit the exigencies of their exposed 

 lives, where they are beyond the pale of skillful surgeons and the nice little com- 

 forts that visit the sick-beds in the enlightened world ; but I never have been will- 

 ing to give to nature quite so much credit for stepping aside of her own rule, which 

 I believe to be about half way between, from which I am inclined to think that the 

 refinements of art, and its spices, have led the civilized world into the pains and 

 perils of one unnatural extreme, whilst the extraordinary fatigue and exposure and 

 habits of Indian life have greatly released them from natural pains, on the other. 

 With this view of the case, I fully believe that nature has dealt everywhere impar- 

 tially, and that if from their childhood our mothers had, like the Indian women, 

 carried loads like beasts of burden, and those over the longest journeys and high- 

 est mountains — had swam the broadest rivers, and galloped about for months and 

 even years of their lives astride of their horses* backs, we should have taxed them 

 as lightly in stepping into the world as an Indian pappoose does its mother, who ties 

 her horse under the shade of a tree for half an hour, andbefore night overtakes her 

 traveling companions with her infant in her arms, which has often been the case. 



PROBABLE ORIGIN OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



As to the probable origin of the North American Indians, which is one of the first 

 questions that suggests itself to the inquiring mind, and will be perhaps the last 

 to be settled, I shall have little to say in this place, for the reason that so abstruse 

 a subject, and one so barren of positive proof, would require in its discussion too 

 much circumstantial evidence for my allowed limits, which I am sure the world will 

 agree will be filled up much more consistently with the avowed spirit of this work 

 by treating of that which admits of an abundance of proof— their actual existence, 

 their customs and misfortunes, and the suggestions of modes for the amelioration of 

 their condition. 



For a professed philanthropist, I should deem it cruel and hypocritical to waste 

 time and space in the discussion of a subject ever so interesting (though unimpor- 

 tant), when the present condition and prospects of these people are calling so loudly 

 upon the world for justice and for mercy, and when their evanescent existence and 

 customs are turning, as it were, on a wheel before us, but soon to be lost, whilst 

 the mystery of their origin can as well be fathomed at a future day as now, and re- 

 corded with their exit. 



Very many people look upon the savages of this vast country, as an anomaly in 

 nature, and their existence and origin and locality things that needs must be at 

 once accounted for. 



Now, if the world will allow me (and perhaps they may think me singular for say- 

 ing it), I would say that these things are, in my opinion, natural and simple ; and, 

 like all other works of nature, destined to remain a mystery to mortal man ; and if 

 man be anywhere entitled to the name of an anomaly, it is he who has departed the 

 farthest from the simple walks and actions of his nature. 



It seems natural to inquire at once who these people are and from whence they 

 came ; but this question is natural only because we are out of nature. To an Indian, 

 such a question would seem absurd. He would stand aghast and astounded at the an- 

 omaly before him — himself upon his own ground, "where the Great Spirit made 

 him," hunting in his own forests — if an exotic, with a "pale face," and from across 

 the ocean, should stand before him, to ask him where he came from and how he 

 got there ! 



I would invite this querist, this votary of science, to sit upon a log with his red 

 acquaintance and answer the following questions : 



14 You white man, where you come from T " 



