782 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



manners and customs of an interesting people, whose fate is sealed, whose days are 

 numbered, whose extinction is certain. The Americans should make much of Mr. 

 Catlin for the sake of by-gone days, which his books, portraits, and collections will 

 present to their grandchildren. 



[Art-Union, London.] 



"We have rarely examined a work at once so interesting and so useful as this ; the 

 publication of which is, in truth, a benefit conferred upon the world ; for it is a record 

 of things rapidly passing away, and the accurate traces of which are likely to be lost 

 within a brief time after they have been discovered. As a contribution to the history 

 of mankind, these volumes will be of rare value long after the last of the persecuted 

 races are with 'the Great Spirit,' and they may even have some present effect; for 

 they cannot fail to enlist the best sympathies of humanity on the side of a most sin- 

 gular people. The book is exceedingly simple in its stylo ; it is the production of a 

 man of benevolent mind, kindly affections, and sensitive heart, as well as of keen 

 perceptions and sound judgment. If we attempted to do justice to its merits, we 

 should fill a number of our work instead of a column of it ; we must content ourselves 

 with recommending its perusal to all who covet knowledge or desire amusement ; no 

 library in the kingdom should be without a copy." 



[Times, London, one notice, three columns.] 



" The reflection is almost insupportable to a humane mind, that the indigenous 

 races of America, comprising numerous distinct nations, the original proprietors of 

 that vast continent, are probably doomed to entire extermination — a fate which has 

 already befallen a large portion of the red tribes. It is still more painful to think 

 that this should be the eifect of the spread of the civilized races, who thus become 

 the agents of a wholesale destruction of their fellow-men. If these melancholy truths 

 were capable of aggravation, it may be found in the dreadful fact that the process of 

 destruction is not left to the slow operation of invisible and insensible causes, but is 

 hastened by expedients devised for that express end by civilized men, the tribes being 

 stimulated or compelled to the destruction of each other, or provided with the means 

 of destroying themselves. 



"Mr. Catlin, the author of the work which has suggested these observations, has 

 had better opportunities for studying the character of the North American Indians 

 than most travelers since the early French writers. 



"Mr. Catlin is an American, and the publisher of his own work at the Egyptian 

 Hall." 



[Morning Chronicle, London.] 



"As a work intended merely for general amusement, and independently of the 

 higher object to which it is devoted, Mr. Catlin's book will be found exceedingly in- 

 teresting. The salient or rugged points of its style have not been smoothed down by 

 any literary journeyman. Mr. Catlin ventures alone and unaided before the public. 

 Wbat he has seen in the prairie, and noted down in its solicitude, he sends forth with 

 all the wildness and freshness of nature about it. This, together with his free and 

 easy conversational style, plentifully sprinkled with Americanisms, gives a peculiar 

 charm to his descriptions, which are not merely animated or life-like, but life itself. 

 The reader is made to believe himself in the desert, or lying among friendly Indians 

 in the wigwam, or hurried along in the excitement of the chase. He is constantly 

 surrounded by the figures of the red man, and hears the rustle of their feathers, or 

 the dash of their half-tamed steeds as they bound by him. 



The work is ornamented with hundreds of engravings, taken from original pictures 

 drawn by Mr. Catlin, of the persons, manners, customs, and scenes that he met with 

 in his wanderings. They give an additional value to those volumes which are pub- 

 lished, as the title-page informs us, by Mr. Catlin himself, at the Egyptian Hall. 



