THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 559 



petuated long after their extinction. In the middle of the room I had erected also a 

 wigwam (or lodge) brought from the country of the Crows, at the base of the Rocky 

 Mountains, made of some twenty or more buffalo skins, beautifully dressed and curi- 

 ously ornamented and embroidered witli porcupine quills. 



My friend the honorable C. A. Murray, with several others, had now announced 

 my collection open to their numerous friends and snek others as tliey chose to invite 

 during the three first days when it was submitted to their private view, and by whom 

 it was most of the time filled; and being kindly presented to most of them, my un- 

 sentimental and unintellectual life in the atmosphere of railroads and grizzly bears 

 was suddenly changed to a cheering flood of soul and intellect which greeted me in 

 every part of my room, and soon showed me the way to the recessed world of luxury, 

 refinements, and comforts of -London, which not even the imagination of those who 

 merely stroll through the streets can by any possibility reach. * * * 



My friend Mr. Murray was constantly present, and introduced me to very many of 

 them, who had the kindness to leave their addresses and invite me to their noble man- 

 sions, where I soon appreciated the elegance, the true hospitality and refinement of 

 English life. Amongst the most conspicuous of those who visited my rooms on this 

 occasion were II. R. H. the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, 

 the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, Duke of Devonshire, Duke of Wellington, the 

 Bishop of London, the Bishop of Norwich, Sir Robert and Lady Peel, Lord Grosvenor, 

 Lord Lennox, Duke of Richmond, Duke of Rutland, Duke of Buckingham, Countess- 

 Dowager of Dunmore, Countess-Dowager of Ashburnham, Earl of Falmouth, Earl of 

 Dunmore, Lord Monteagle, Lord Ashley, Earl of Burlington, Sir James and Lady 

 Clark, Sir Augustus d'Este, Sir Francis Head, and many others of the nobility, with 

 most of the editors of the press, and many private literary and scientific gentlemen, 

 of whose kindness to me while in London I shall have occasion to speak in other 

 parts of this work. 



The editors of the leading literary and scientific journals of London, and the daily 

 newspapers, were chiefly there, and with their very friendly and complimentary 

 notices of my collection, with the usual announcements by advertisements, I opened 

 it for the inspection of the public on the first day of February, 1840. 



I was pleased also with the freedom which is granted to exhibitions in London, leav- 

 ing them entirely independent of tithing or taxation, as well as of licenses to be 

 obtained from the police, as is the case in France and some other countries. 



I had entered upon this, at first, not as a task, but an amusement, from which I 

 drew great pleasure whilst I was entertaining my visitors and cultivating theirpleas- 

 ing acquaintance. From an over desire and effort on my part to explain the peculiar 

 and curious modes of those wild people, and from a determination on the part of my 

 visitors to get these explanations from my own lips (although I had my man Daniel 

 and several others constantly in the rooms for the same purpose), I was held in my 

 exhibition rooms almost daily from morning until night. 



Like most adventurers in wilderness life, I was fond of describing what I had seen; 

 and, having the works of several years around me, in their crude and unfinished con- 

 dition, spread before tho criticising world, and difficult to be appreciated, I was 

 doubly stimulated to be in the collection, and, with all the breath I could spare, to 

 add to the information which the visitors to my rooms were seeking for. Under these 

 conflicting feelings I struggled to keep away from my rooms, and did so for a part of 

 the day, and that, as I soon found, only to meet a more numerous and impatient group 

 when I re-entered. 



LIVE INDIANS AT THE GALLERY. 



To give life to his entertainment Mr. Catlin employed a body of men 

 to represent Indians and to give representations of Indian dances, games, 

 and customs in the gallery. This continued for some three years, and 



