THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 563 



[From the East India Chronicle.] 



North American Indians. — Of late years Cooper's American novels and various 

 works of travels, and, more recently, the Hon. Mr. Murray's and Captain Marryat's 

 attractive volumes, have deeply interested us respecting the red Indians of North 

 America, their derivation, manners, customs, &o. Mr. Catlin, however, who has de- 

 voted eight years of his life to these miscalled savage people, who are now rapidly 

 fading away from the face of the earth, sad victims of oppression, European vice and 

 European disease, is enlightening us still further upon the subject. He has opened 

 an exhibition at Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, in which are assembled (all of his own 

 painting) about five hundred portraits of Indian chiefs, warriors, squaws, &c, land- 

 scapes and other scenes, illustrating their warlike and religious ceremonies, their 

 customs, dances, buffalo hunts, &c. The portraits, many of them valuable even as 

 works of art, excite a strong and vivid interest from the almost exhaustless variety 

 and force of character which they display. Many of the heads are bold and highly in- 

 tellectual, and remarkable for their phrenological developments. Several of the young 

 squaws, too, have considerable pretentions to beauty, with abundance of archness, 

 vivacity, and good humor. Then, again, there is an immense collection of their 

 weapons, pipes, musical instruments, dresses, &c. ; amongst them a child's cradle, 

 or whatever it may be termed, in which the women carry their children at their backs. 

 It is impossible for persons of any age to find themselves otherwise than instructed 

 and gratified by this exhibition. Besides what we have mentioned, Mr. Catlin lec- 

 tures thrice a week in the evening, with the assistance of living figures for additional 

 illustrations. 



MR. CATLIN SOCIALLY IN LONDON. 



Mr. Catlin during this time became much sought after in London 

 society. He was entertained in private houses by the nobility and 

 other gentlemen, and received attention from scientists and investi- 

 gators. He was invited, July 14, 1842, and delivered a lecture before 

 the Royal Institution, Albemarle street. He thus refers to it: 



About this time I was highly complimented by an invitation to deliver a lecture 

 in the Royal Institution, Albemarle street. The venerable members of that institu- 

 tion were nearly all present, and every ^eat was filled. I had, on the occasion, sev- 

 eral living figures, dressed in Indian costumes, with weapons in hand, as well as 

 many of my paintings exhibited on my easel, as illustrations; and I was highly 

 gratified with the attention and repeated applause, convincing me that the subject 

 and myself were kindly received. 



I endeavored, in the compass of an evening's lecture, to give as comprehensive a 

 view as I could of the motives which had led me into the Indian countries; of the 

 time I had spent in them; of the extent and nature of the collection I had made; of 

 the condition and numbers of the various tribes, and of their personal appearance 

 and habits of life, which I illustrated by my numerous paintings, and by the curious 

 manufactures of their own hands. I endeavored also to delineate their true native 

 character, as I had found it in its most primitive condition, and to explain the prin- 

 cipal causes that have been, and still are, leading to their rapid declension. 



I took advantage of this occasion, likewise, to introduce a subject which had been 

 for many years my favorite theme, which had constantly stimulated me through my 

 toils in the Indian country, and which, as I was the first to propose in my own coun- 

 try, I believe I was the first to suggest on this side of the Atlantic — a "museum of 

 mankind." A shout of enthusiastic applause burst from every part of the hall when 

 the subject was named, and rounds of applause followed every sentence when I pro- 

 ceeded to say that in the toils and dangers of my remotest travels in the wilderness 

 I had been strengthened and nerved by the hope and the belief that if I lived to 



