736 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



for saving life." I then asked him if he had completed his patent by putting in his 

 specification, and he replied that he had, and that if I would ask for it in a registry 

 of patents in Chancery Lane I could see it. I then inquired if it had been published 

 in the manner that the law requires, and he assured me it had. He further stated 

 that he had been for several years, and still was, engaged with it for Captain Old- 

 mixon before the committee on shipwrecks, with a prospect of getting the admiralty 

 to take it up. With this information I returned immediately to my agent, and, hav- 

 ing explained it to him, he accompanied me to the registry in Chancery Lane, where, 

 on being asked if they had the specification of a patent in the name of Captain Old- 

 mixon, one of the clerks instantly replied, " Yes," and unrolled it upon the counter. 

 I read it over, and, finding it almost word for word like my own, and the invention 

 exactly the same, I said to my agent : " I have nothing more to say or to do but to 

 go home and attend to my business." Nor have I ever taken farther pains about it. 

 My agent, at a subsequent period, wrote mo a letter, expressing his regret that such 

 a thing should have happened, and inclosing a ten-pound note, the amount, he said, 

 of his fees, stating that the rest had all been paid into different offices, for which 

 there was no remedy. 



I have mentioned the above circumstance as forming one of the many instances of 

 ill luck that have been curiously mixed with the incidents of my life, and also to show 

 the world how much circumspection and caution are necessary in guarding one's in- 

 terest, even amidst the well-regulated rales and formalities of this great and glorious 

 country. 



Captain Oldmixon has my hearty wishes for the success of his invention, and I hope 

 that my allusion to it in the above manner will do him no injury, but may be the 

 cause of turning the attention of the world towards it as a means of benefiting the 

 human race. — Pages 199-202, vol. 1, Catlin's Notes in Europe. 



MR. CATLIN'S INDIAN CREED IN 1835, 1868, AND 1872, AND THE FACT 



IN 1886. 



N 



The Indian, of necessity, had to give way to the progress of the age. 

 His game preserves — the vast area of land over which the buffalo roamed 

 — began to feel the influence of a nation's growth. Game became scarce, 

 and then Indian food and clothing were more difficult to obtain. The 

 Indian, a wild man pure and simple, ingenious, it is true, and for 

 his surroundings and condition more so than most white men, could not 

 and does not realize the necessity for change. His methods of warfare 

 are brutal and ferocious; he knows no better. Force best subdued 

 him, because it was usually the first tender of advancing change and he 

 could feel it. He was a good man until something he did not like or 

 understand occurred, and then the wild man became a live child of the 

 plains. He roamed as free as air, and without restraint. The inclosures 

 of civilized life were the end of his old methods and customs, and the 

 smoke of the settler's cabin the doom of his freedom. He met what to 

 him was death, with bloody 'and fierce resistance. 



Mr. Catlin saw the Indian, and lived with him at a time when the 

 Indian had but a faint conception of the multitude of white people that 

 lay to the east of the Mississippi Eiver. He was cordially and kindly 

 received by them. Would his reception have been as cordial and genial 

 had the Indian have known that he was one of a legion of men who 



