The small-pox, unknown till their intercourse with white men, broke out among them; only thirty-five escaped its ravages, and these were forthwith butchered by a hostile tribe!

6

Mr. Catlin is, it appears, a native of Wyoming — « fair Wyoming, his parents entered the valley as settlers soon after the Indian Massacre. » The influences of the poet were not unfelt by the boy-artist; the picture which the one had drawn of the Oneida chief first awakened in the other a desire to visit the red men : — « The sad tale of my native valley,' (says Mr. Catlin) has been beautifully sung; and from the flight of 'Gertrude's' soul, my young imagination closely traced the savage to his deep retreats, and gazed upon him in dreadful horror, until pity pleaded, and admiration worked a charm. While Mr. Catlin was studying his art at Philadelphia, a delegation of Indians arrived there, arrayed and equipped, as he says, in all their classic beauty-with shield and helmet -with tunic and manteau-tinted and tasselled off exactly for the painter's palette. The early passion was thus again revived, and he resolved to be off to the Far West » — vague idea these words convey, even to the Americans! Perhaps the reader will permit us to clear at a bound some fifteen hundred miles, and embark at once on the Missouritwo thousand miles are yet before us:

- what a

The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance and character from all other rivers in the world; there is a terror in its manner which is sensibly felt, the moment we enter its muddy waters from the Mississippi; for a distance of 2,000 miles, the Missouri, with its boiling, turbid waters, sweeps off, în one unceasing current; and the whole distance there is scarcely an eddy or resting-place for a canoe. Owing to the continual falling in of its rich alluvial banks, its water is always turbid and opaque, having at all seasons of the year the colour of a cup of chocolate or coffee, with sugar and cream stirred into it. To give a better definition of its density and opacity, I have tried a number of simple experiments with it at this place, and at other points below, at the results of which I was exceedingly surprised. By placing a piece of silver (and afterwards a piece of shwhell, ich is a much whiter

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substance) in a tumbler of this water, and looking through the side of the glass, I ascertained that those substances could not be seen through the eighth part of an inch; this, however, is in the spring of the year, when the freshet is upon the river, rendering the water, undoubtedly, much more turbid than it would be at other seasons; though it is always muddy and yellow, and from its boiling and wild character, and uncommon colour, a stranger would think, even in its lowest state, that there was a freshet upon it. For the distance of 1,000 miles above St. Louis, the shores of this river (and, in many places, the whole bed of the stream) are filled with snags and raft, formed of trees of the largest size, which have been undermined by the falling banks and cast into the stream; their roots becoming fastened in the bottom of the river, with their tops floating on the surface of the water, and pointing down the stream, forming the most frightful and discouraging prospect for the adventurous voyager. Almost every island and sand-bar is covered with huge piles of these floating trees, and when the river is flooded, its surface is almost literally covered with floating raft and drift-wood; which bids positive defiance to keel-boats and steamers, on their way up the river. The scene is not, however, all so dreary; there is a redeeming beauty in the green and carpeted shores, which hem in this huge and terrible deformity of waters. There is much of the way through, where the mighty forests of stately cottonwood stand, and frown in horrid dark and coolness over the filthy abyss below; into which they are ready to plunge headlong, when the mud and soil in which they were germed and reared has been washed out from underneath them, and is mixed with the rolling current, and on its way to the ocean. The greater part of the shores of this river, however, is without timber, where the eye is delightfully relieved by wandering over the beautiful prairies; most of the way gracefully sloping down to the water's edge, carpeted with the deepest green, and in the distance, softening into velvet of the richest hues, entirely beyond the reach of the artist's pencil. Such is the character of the upper part of the river especially; and as one advances towards its source, and through its upper

half, it becomes more pleasing to the eye, for snags and raft are no longer to be seen; yet the current holds its stiff and onward turbid character. It has been, heretofore, very erroneously represented to the world, that the scenery on this river was monotonous, and wanting in picturesque beauty. This intelligence is surely incorrect; and that because it has been brought, perhaps, by men who are not the best judges in the world of Nature's beautiful works; and if they were, they always pass them by, in pain or desperate distress, in toil, and trembling fear for the safety of their furs and peltries, or for their lives, which are at the mercy of the yelling savages who inhabit this delightful country. One thousand miles or more, of the upper part of the river, was, to my eye, like fairy-land; and during our transit through that part of our voyage, I was most of the time rivetted to the deck of the boat, indulging my eyes in the boundless and tireless pleasure of roaming over the thousand hills, and bluffs, and dales, and ravines; where the astonished herds of buffaloes, of elks, and antelopes, and sneaking wolves, and mountain-goats, were to be seen bounding on; and each tribe, band, and gang, taking their own way, and using their own means to the greatest advantage possible, to leave the sight and sound of the puffing of our boat; which was, for the first time, saluting the green and wild shores of the Missouri with the din of mighty steam. From St. Louis to the falls of the Missouri, a distance of 2,600 miles, is one continued prairie; with the exception of a few of the bottoms formed along the bank of the river, and of the streams which are falling into it, which are often covered with the most luxuriant growth of forest timber. The summit level of the great prairies stretching off to the west and the east from the river, to an almost boundless extent, is from two to three hundred feet above the level of the river; which has formed a bed or valley for its course, varying in width from two to twenty miles. This channel or valley has been evidently produced by the force of the current, which has gradually excavated, in its floods and gorges, this immense space, and sent its débris into the ocean. By the continual overflowing of the river, its deposits have been lodged and left

ENGLISH REVIEW.

with a horizontal surface, spreading the deepest and richest alluvion over the surface of its meadows on either side; through which the river winds its serpentine course, alternately running from one bluff to the other; which present themselves to its shores in all the most picturesque and beautiful shapes and colours imaginable-some with their green sides gracefully sloped down in the most lovely groups to the water's edge, whilst others, divested of their verdure, present themselves in immense masses of clay of different colours, which arrest the eye of the traveller, with the most curious views in the world.

This is a picture in words, hardly less vivid than the artist's more legitimate sketches with his pencil. Even the steamboat was three months puffing and blowing and tugging and toiling up this river. If anything," says Mr. Catlin, «ever did astonish the Indians, it was the steamer :—

These poor and ignorant people, for the distance of 2,000 miles, had never before seen or heard of a steam-boat, and in some places they seemed at a loss to know what to do, or how to act; they had no name for it-so it was, like everything else (with them), which is mysterious and unaccountable, called medicine (mystery). We had on board one twelvepound cannon and three or four eight-pound swivels, which we were taking up to arm the Fur-Company's Fort at the mouth of the Yellow-Stone; and at the approach to every village they were all discharged several times in rapid succession, which threw the inhabitants into utter confusion and amazement-some of them threw their faces to the ground, and cried to the Great Spirit-some shot their horses and dogs, and sacrificed them to appease the Great Spirit, who they conceived was offended-some deserted their villages, and ran to the tops of the bluffs some miles distant; and others, in some places, as the boat landed in front of their villages, came with great caution, and peeped over the bank of the river to see the fate of their chiefs; whose duty it was (from the nature of their office) to approach us, whether friends or foes, and to go on board. Sometimes, in this plight, they were instantly thrown neck and heels over each other's heads and shoulders-men, women, and children, and dogs-sage, sachem.

old and young all in a mass, at the frightful discharge of the steam from the escape-pipe, which the captain of the boat let loose upon them for his own fun and amusement. There were many curious conjectures amongst their wise men, with regard to the nature and powers of the steam-boat. Amongst the Mandans, some called it the 'big thunder canoe;' for, when in the distance below the village, they saw the lightning flash from its sides, and heard the thunder come from it; others called it the 'big medicine canoe with eyes;' it was medicine (mystery) because they could not understand it; and it must have eyes, for, said they, it sees its own way, and takes the deep water in the middle of the channel.' They had no idea of the boat being steered by the man at the wheel, and well they might have been astonished at its taking the deepest

water. "

Mr. Catlin had now arrived at one of the trading forts of the American Fur-Company-some three thousand five hundred miles distant from his American home; and yet even here he met with an Englishman who had travelled thousands of miles further, and crossed the broad Atlantic, in search of adventure. Here he was welcomed, of course, and, as he says, to a hospitable table, groaning under the luxuries of the country -buffalo meat and tongues, beavers' tails, and marrow-fat, but sans coffee, sans even bread and butter.

Mr. Catlin now introduces the reader to the Indian tribes, who from time to time visit the Fort, for the purposes of trade. One of the Indian superstitions, of which the reader has most frequently heard, is the Medicine-Bag. "Medicine, says Mr. Catlin, in common parlance among the Indians, means mystery, and nothing more :

The 'medicine-bag' then, is a mystery-bag; and its meaning and importance are necessary to be understood, as it may be said to be the key of Indian life and Indian character. These bags are constructed of the skins of animals, of birds, or of reptiles, and ornamented and preserved in a thousand different ways, as suits the taste or freak of the person who constructs them. These skins are generally attached to some part of the clothing of the Indian, or carried in his hand. Every