564 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



finish my studies and to return with my collection I should he ahle to show to the 

 world the plan upon which a museum could he formed to contain and perpetuate the 

 looks and manners and history of all the declining and vanishing races of man, and 

 that my collection would ultimately form the hasis of such an institution. 



I agreed with all the world as to the great interest and value of their nohle collec- 

 tions of heasts and hirds and reptiles, of fossils, of minerals, of fishes, of insects, 

 and of plants, all of which can he gathered hundreds of years hence as well as at tho 

 present time; and I believed that all of the reasoning world who would give tho 

 subject a moment's thought would agree with me that there was one museum yet 

 to be made far transcending in interest and value all others yet designed, and which 

 must needs be made soon or it will be forever lost — a museum containing the familiar 

 looks, the manufactures, history, and records of all the remnants of the declining 

 races of our fellow- men. 



It occurred to me, and I said it then, that Great Britain has more than thirty colo- 

 nies in different quarters of the globe, in which the numbers of civilized men are 

 increasing and the native tribes aro wasting away; that tho march of civilization is 

 everywhere, as it is in America, a war of extermination, and that of our own species. 

 For the occupation of a new country tho first enemy that must fall is man, and his 

 like cannot be transplanted from any other quarter of tho globe. Our war is not 

 with beasts or with birds ; the grizzly bear, the lion, and the tiger are allowed to 

 live. Our weapons are not employed against them ; we do not give them whisky, 

 and rum, and the small-pox, nor the bayonet; they are allowed to live and thrive 

 upon our soil, and yet their skins are of great value in our museums ; but to complete 

 a title, man, our fellow-man, the noblest work of God, with thoughts, with senti- 

 ments and sympathies like our own, must be extinguished ; and he dies on his own 

 soil, unchronicled and unknown (save to the ruthless hands that have slain him r and 

 would bury his history with his body in oblivion), when not even his skin has a place 

 assigned it amongst those of the beasts and birds of his country. 



From England, from France, and the United States Government vessels, in this 

 age of colonization, are floating to every part of the globe, and in them artists and 

 men of science could easily be conveyed to every race, and their collections returned 

 free of expense, were there an institution formed and ready to receive and perpetuate 

 the results of their labors. 



I believed that the time had arrived for the creation of such an institution, and 

 that well directed efforts to bring it into existence would have the admiration and 

 countenance of all the rmilanthropic world. 



There was but one expression of feeling from every part of the hall at the close of 

 these remarks, and every voice seemed to say, " Yes, the noble philanthropy of this 

 Christian and enlightened and'enlightening age calls for it, and it must'be done before 

 it is too late."* 



A few days after my lecture was delivered, I received with much satisfaction from 

 the secretary of the institution the following communication, which the reader will 

 allow me the vanity of inserting here : 



" Sir : I have the honor to return you the thanks of the members of the Royal In- 

 stitution of Great Britain for your interesting account of your residence and advent- 

 ures among the native tribes of North American Indiaus, with notices of their social 

 condition, customs, mysteries, and modes of warfare, communicated at the weekly 

 meeting of the members on Friday the 14th February. 

 "I am, sir, your very obedient servant, 



"EDWARD R. DANIELL, 



" Secretary. 

 "To George Catlin, Esq." 



* The noble and unaided efforts of my best of friends, Captain Sheppard, to bring into existence 

 such an institution, are, I believe, too well known and appreciated by tho English public to require 

 more of me here than barely to refer to his beautifully illustrated lectures on tho " Arabians" and 

 the "Ruined Cities of America ;" and whilst wishing all success to his noblo enterprise, I beg to refer 

 the reader to Appendix B for a synopsis of his design. 



