Volume 1

Letters and notes on the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians. Written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, in 1832,33,34,35,36,37,38,and 39. With four hundred illustrations, carefully engraved from his original paintings / [George Catlin].

  • Catlin, George, 1796-1872.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters and notes on the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians. Written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, in 1832,33,34,35,36,37,38,and 39. With four hundred illustrations, carefully engraved from his original paintings / [George Catlin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/434 (page 14)
    LETTER—No. 2. MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, UPPER MISSOURI, 1832. I ARRIVED at this place yesterday in the steamer ‘‘ Yellow Stone,” after a voyage of nearly three months from St. Louis, a distance of two thousand miles, the greater part of which has never before been navigated by steam ; and the almost insurmountable difficulties which continually oppose the royageur on this turbid stream, have been by degrees overcome by the indefatigable zeal of Mr. Chouteau, a gentleman of great perseverance, and part proprietor of the boat. To the politeness of this gentleman I am indebted for my passage from St. Louis to this place, and I had also the pleasure of his company, with that of Major Sanford, the government agent for the Missouri Indians. The American Fur Company have erected here, for their protection against the savages, a very substantial Fort, 300 feet square, with bastions armed with ordnance (PLATE 3); and our approach to it under the continued roar of cannon for half an hour, and the shrill yells of the half-affrighted savages who lined the shores, presented a scene of the most thrilling and picturesque appearance. A voyage so full of incident, and furnishing so many novel scenes of the picturesque and romantic, as we have passed the numerous villages of the ‘astonished natives,” saluting them with the puffing of steam and the thunder of artillery, would afford subject for many epistles ; and I cannot deny myself the pleasure of occasionally giving you some little sketches of scenes that I have witnessed, and am witnessing ; and of the singular feelings that are excited in the breast of the stranger travellmg through this interesting country. Interesting (as 1 have said) and luxurious, for this is truly the land of Epicures; we are invited by the savages to feasts of dog’s meat, as the most honourable food that can be presented to a stranger, and glutted with the more delicious food of beavers’ tails, and buffaloes’ tongues. You will, no doubt, be somewhat surprised on the receipt of a Letter from me, so far strayed into the Western World; and still more startled, when I tell you that I am here in the full enthusiasm and practice of my art. That enthusiasm alone has brought me into this remote region, 3500 miles from my native soil; the last 2000 of which have furnished me with almost unlimited models, both in landscape and the human figure, exactly suited to my feelings. Iam now in the full possession and enjoyments of