This material appears in Andrew Sproul’s diary for March 1842 — return to Sproul diary here

Taken from Mr. Catlin’s adventures, 8 years among the North American Indians on the upper Missouri. In speaking of the various tribes the traveler says: They live in a country well stocked with buffalo & wild horses, which furnish them an excellent & easy living; their atmosphere is pure, which produces good health & long life; & they are the most independent & the happiest races of Indians I have met with. They are all entirely in a state of primitive wildness & consequently are picturesque & handsome almost beyond description. Nothing in the world of its kind can possibly surpass in beauty & grace some of their games & amusements, their gambols & parades. Every one of these red sons of the forest, or rather of the prairie, is a knight & lord, his squaws are his slaves, the only th9igns which he deems worthy of his exertions are to mount his snorting steed & with his bow & quiver flung, his arrows held upon his arm, & his long lance glistening in the war parade or divested of all his plumes & trappings, armed with a simple bow & quiver, to plunge his steed amongst the flying herds of buffaloes, & with his sinewy bow, which he seldom bends in vain to drive deep to life’s fountain the whizzing arrow. The present chief of the Crows tribe is called Long Hair, & has received his name from the circumstance of having the longest hair of any man in the nation. This extraordinary man is known to several gentlemen with whom I am acquainted, & particularly to Messrs Sublette & Campbell who told me they lived in his hospitable lodge for months together, & assured me that they had measured his hair by correct means & found it to be ten feet & seven inches in length, closely inspecting every part of it at the same time & satisfying themselves that it was the natural growth.

Mr. Shirreff’s account of the Ephraimites’ Prairie Lands from Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal. Illinois may justly be called the poor man’s country, if any part of the world deserves the title. The extraordinary reward which the labourer receives & the bountifulness of nature are favourable to the poor & no person who has health & strength, & leads an industrious & a virtuous life can continue without the means of subsistence in Illinois. The future prospects of Illinois appear to be highly favourable. It will be found that almost all the elements of prosperity exist in the country, the soil, grass-covered surface, climate, internal facilities of commerce, cheapness & extent of land, & the systems of governing & education the people are not surpassed by any other portion of America. And the inhabitants are alone wanting to complete its greatness.

Mr. Catlin’s voyage down the river: After being at the end of our first day’s journey, we found ourselves handily encamping with several thousand Assinneboins, who had pitched their tents upon the bank of the river & received us with every mark of esteem & friendship. Next of the village of Assinneboins we took leave on the following morning & rapidly made our way down the river. The rate of the current being four or five miles per hour through one continued series of picturesque grass-covered bluffs & knolls, which everywhere had the appearance of an old & highly cultivated country with houses & fences removed. Mr. Catlin describes this place & says we are on the banks of the Red River having Texas under our eye on the opposite bank. This picturesque country of 200 miles over which we have passed belongs to the Creeks & Choctaw, & affords one of the richest & most desirable countries in the world for agricultural pursuits. Scarcely a day passed I which we have not crossed oak ridges of several miles in breadth with a sandy soil & scattering timber where the ground was almost literally covered with vines, producing the greatest profusion of delicious grapes of five eights of an inch in diameter, & hanging in such endless clusters as justly to entitle this singular & solitary wilderness to the style of a vineyard (& ready for vintage), for many miles together.

Mr. Catlin in company with a party of dragoons along with the Comanches tribe going to their village describes the following scene: The tract of country over which we passed between the false Washita & this place is stocked not only with buffaloes but with numerous bands of wild horses, many of which we saw every day. There is no other animal on the prairies so wild & so sagacious as the horse & none other so difficult to come up with, so remarkably keen is their eye that they will generally run at the sight when they are a mile distant.

Mr. Stephens’ Tour through Central American – from Tates magazine: The description of ruins of Copan (E.D.) the city of Copan stood upon the bnak of a small river of the same name & appears to have been one of very considerable magnitude. The extent along the river, says Mr. Stephens, as ascertained by monuments still found is more than two miles – there is one monument on the opposite side of the river at the distance of a mile on the top of a mountain – two thousand feet high – whether the city ever crossed the river & extended to that mountain it is impossible to say, I believe not – at the rear is an unexplored forest in which there may be ruins, there are no remains of palaces or private buildings & the principal part is that which stands on the bank of the river, & may perhaps with propriety be called the temple. This temple is an oblong enclosure. The front or river wall extends on a right line north & south six hundred & twenty four feet & is from sixty to ninety feet in height, it is made of cut stones from three to six feet in length – & a foot & a half in breadth – in many places the stones have been thrown down by bushes growing out of the crevices, & in one place there is a small opening – from which the ruins are sometimes called by the Indians – Los ventanas, or the windows, the other three sides consist of ranges of steps & pyramidal structures, rising from thirty to one hundred & forty feet in height on the slope, the whole line of survey is two thousand eight hundred &* sixty feet – which though gigantic & extraordinary for a ruined structure of the aborigines, that the reader’s imagination may not mislead him I consider it necessary to say that it is not so large as the great pyramid of Giza.

The stone altars constitute a still more remarkable description of relics found at Copan. The altars like the idols are all of a single block of stone; in general they are not so richly ornamented, & are more faded & worn, or covered with moss; some are completely buried, & others it was difficult to make out more than the form; all differed in fashion, & doubtless had some distinct & peculiar reference to the idols before which they stood; these stands on four globes cut out of the same stone. The sculpture is bas relief & is the only specimen of that kind of sculpture found at copan; all the rest being in bold, alto, relief, it is six feet square & four feet high, &* the top is divided into thirty-six tablets of hieroglyphics; which beyond doubt record some event in the history of the mysterious people who once inhabited the city. The sculptures on each side of the altar represented four individuals. On the west side are the two principal personages; chiefs or warriors with their faces opposite each other, & apparently engaged in argument or negotiations, the other fourteen divided into two equal parts, & seem to be following their leaders, each of the two principle figures is seated cross legged, in the oriental fashion, one hieroglyphic which probably designates his name & office, or character & on three of which the serpent form a part, between the two principal personages is a remarkable cartouche, containing two hieroglyphics, well preserved, which remind us strongly of the Egyptian mode of giving the names of the Kings or heroes in whose honour monuments were erected, their head dresses are remarkable for their curious & complicated form, the figures have all breast plates & one of the two principal characters held in his hand an instrument which may, perhaps, be considered a scepter, each of the others holds an object which can be only subject for speculation & conjecture; it may be a weapon of war, & if so it is the only thing of the kind found represented at Copan,. In other countries, battle scenes, warriors, & weapons of war are among the most prominent objects of sculpture, & from the entire absence of them here there is reason to believe that the people were not warlike, but peaceable & easily subdued.

We shall conclude our notices with some account of the ruins of Palenque, which in our opinion, exceed those of Copan, in interest & importance, the palace of Palenque is situated not in the Republic of Central America, but in that of Mexico, the monuments, although possessing what may be called the general American character, differ greatly in detail from those of Copan, at the latter place, the numerous obelisks & sculptured stones were the chief objects of interest, while at Palenque the figures are usually in bas relief on a stucco. There is another circumstance still more remarkable, namely, the great superiority, as works of art, which the monuments of Palenque exhibit when compared with any of the other relics of American civilization. Humboldt, who never visited Palenque, has published an engraving of some of the obelisks seen there, the style of art they displayed was so superior to anything he had seen in America that the illustrious traveler suspected that the rude figures of Palenque had been improved by the artist who copied them, that such is not the case is apparent from an inspection of the drawings given in the work before us, & many of them are even superiour in character to that which excited the surprise of Humboldt. In these remarkable figures we cannot fail to observe a most decided improvement upon the taste displayed in other situations. The human figures have less of that sternness of feature, & still, disproportionate outlines, which we observe at Copan. Their attitudes are more varied, & the forms graceful & correct. This display of taste is the more curious as it admits of one exception, for the heads are in almost every case represented as flattened to a degree, amounting to deformity. The figures & relics of Palenque chiefly relate to religious ideas, & hieroglyphic figures are found in great numbers, & with remarkable distinctness of outline to give even an intelligible conjecture on the nature of these figures would be impossible without a constant reference to the engravings. There is one extraordinary fact, however, which we ascertain from these monuments, namely the adoration of the symbol of the Cross by a people of America, long before discovery of the New World by Columbus. this reverence admits of no doubt, & the engravings in the work before us represent the symbol with a distinctness which precludes mistake.

Movements of the American Indians in the year 1842: It appears by a letter from Mcdonald, the county seat of Barry, Missouri, that an intelligent Delaware Indian has just arrived from the Cherokee nation, & brings information that an intended council is proposed to be held at the Cherokee council grounds in two moons from the present time. (16 Febr) in which will be embodied all the principal chiefs & head men of the Indian tribes both settled & wandering, from the United States line to the vast prairies of the west under the superintendence of the Cherokees, the chiefs & head men of the Seminoles, Choctaws, Whickasaws, Creeks, Senacas, Quawpaws, Osages, Shawnees, Caws, Pawnees, Sioux, Sacs, Foxes, Peanekeshaws, Potawatomies, Wyandots, &C &C &C are to be present it is said – in order to form a grand confederacy, or to become united as one tribe – the ostensible object of which is said to be to oppose any further emigration of the whites west to prevent the erection of any more forts in their land, either by force or treaty – at the peril of their lives & the total extinction of their race – the Delaware informs our correspondent that by this confederacy the Indian tribes will be able to bring a force of 40,000 warriors into the field. Ross, the chief of the Cherokees,is said to be at the head of this affair, & to defray all necessary expenses of the council, he has recently returned form Washington City & most probably has had a private or secret interview with the British minister, our informant suggests the propriety of informing the government of the intended council, & that some efficient measures be taken to prepare the frontier settlements for any emergency that may arise. – York Herald.

Remarks concerning the North American Indians by benjamin Franklin: Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility: They think the same of theirs. The Indian men, when young, are hunters & warriors, when old counselors, for all their government is by the counsel or advice of the sages.

The Indian women till the ground, dress the food, nurse & bring up the children & preserve & hand down to posterity the memory of public transactions. Having few artificial wants, they have abundance of leisure for improvement by conversation. Our laborious manner of life compared with theirs they esteem slavish & base. An instance of this occurred at the Treaty of Lancaster I Pennsylvania anno 1744, between the government of Virginia & the Six Nations: after the principal business was settled the commissioners from Virginia a acquainted the Indians by a speech that there was at Williamsburg a college with a fund for educating Indian youth, & if the chiefs of the Six Nations would send down half a dozen of their sons to that college, the government would take care that they should be well provided for & instructed in all the learning of the white people. It is one of the Indian rules of politeness not to answer a public proposition the same day that it is made. They think it would be treating it as a light matter & that they show it respect by taking time to consider it as of a matter important. They therefore deferred their answer till the day following, when their speaker began by expressing their deep sense of the kindness of the Virginia government in making them that offer: for we know, say she, that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those colleges & that the maintenance of our young men while with you would be very expensive to you. We are convinced, therefore, that you mean to do us good by your proposal & we thank you heartily, but you who are wise must know that different nations have different conceptions of things & will therefore not take it amiss if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some experience of it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces, they were instructed in all your sciences, but when they came back to us they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer or kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, or counselors. They were totally good for nothing. We are however not the less obliged by your kind offer thought we decline accepting it & to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons we will take great care of their education, instruct them in all we know & make men of them.

Having frequent occasion to hold public councils, they have acquired great order & decency in conducting them. The old men sit in the foremost ranks, the warriors in the next, & the women & children in the hindmost. The business of the woman is to take exact notice of what passes, imprint it on their memories for they have no writing, & co0mmunicate it to their children. They are the records of the council & they preserve tradition of the stipulation in treaties a hundred years back, which when we compare with our writings we always find exact. he that would speak rises, the rest observe a profound silence. When he has finished he sits down, they leave him five or six minutes to recollect that if he has omitted anything he intended to say or has anything to add he may rise again & deliver it. To interrupt another even in common conversation is reckoned highly indecent. How different this is from the conduct of a polite British house of commons where scarce a day passes without some confusion that makes the speaker hoarse in calling to order & how different from the mode of conversation in many polite companies of Europe where if you do not deliver your sentence with great rapidity, you are cut off in the middle of it by the impatient loquacity of those you converse with & never suffered to finish it.

A Swedish minister, having assembled the chiefs of the Susquehanna Indians, made a sermon to them acquainting them with the principal historical facts on which our religion is founded, such as the fall of our first parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ to repay the mischief, his miracles & suffering & etc. When he had finished, an Indian orator stood up to thank him: What you have told us, says he, is all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is much better to make them into cider. We are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far to tell us those things which you have heard from your mothers. In return we will tell you some of those things we have heard from outs. In the beginning our fathers had only the flesh of animals to subsist on, & if their hunting was unsuccessful they were starving. Two of our young hunters having killed a deer made a fire in the woods to broil some parts of it. When they were about to satisfy their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman descend from the clouds & seat herself on that hill which you see yonder among the blue mountains. They said to each other, it is a spirit that perhaps has smelt our broiling venison & wished to eat of it. Let us offer some to her. They presented her with the tongue of it, & you said she was pleased with the taste of it & said your kindness shall be rewarded. Come to this place after thirteen moons & you shall find something that will be of great benefit in nourishing you & your children to the latest generation. They did so & to their surprise found plants they had never seen before but which from that ancient time have been constantly cultivated among us to our great advantage. where her right hand had touched the ground, they found maize, where her left hand touched it they found kidney beans & where her backside had sat on it they found tobacco.

The good missionary, disgusted with this idle tale, sale, What I delivered to you were sacred truths, but what you tell me is mere fable, fiction & falsehood. The Indian, offended, replied, My brother, it seems your friends have not done you justice in your education, they have not well instructed you in the rules of common civility. You saw that we who understand & practise those rules believed all your stories, why do you refuse to belief ours?

Again, says Franklin, when any of them come into our towns our people are apt to crowd round them, gaze upon them & incommode them where they desire to be private. This they esteem great rudeness & the effect of the want of instruction in the rules of civility & good manners. We have, says they, as much curiosity as you & when you come into our towns we wish for an opportunity of looking at you, but for this purpose we hide ourselves behind bushes where you are to pass & never intrude ourselves into your company.

Their manner of entering one another’s villages has likewise its rules. It is reckoned uncivil in traveling strangers to enter a village abruptly without giving notice of their approach, therefore as soon as they arrive within hearing they stop & halloo, remaining there till invited to enter town. Old men usually come out to them & lead them in. There is in every village a vacant dwelling called the stranger’s house. Here they are placed while the old men go round from hut to hut acquainting the inhabitants that strangers are arrived who are probably hungry & weary & every one sends them what he can spare of victuals & skins to repose on. when the strangers are refreshed, pipes & tobacco are brought & then & not before conversation begins wit inquiries who they are, wither bound, what news & etc. it usually ends with offers of service, if the strangers have occasion of guides or any necessaries for continuing their journey & nothing is exacted for the entertainment. The same hospitality esteemed among them as a principal virtue is practiced by private persons of which Conrad Weiser, our interpreter, gave me the following instance. He had been naturalized among the Six Nations & spoke well the Mohawk language. In going through the Indian country to carry a message from our governor to the council at Onondaga, he called at the habitation of Canassetego, an old acquaintance, who embraced him, spread furs for him to sit on, placed before him some boiled beans & venison & mixed some sum [sic] and water for his drink. When he was well refreshed & had lit his pipe, Canassetego began to converse with him, asked how he had fared the many hours since they had seen each other & etc. Conrad answered all his questions & when the discourse began to lag, the Indian to continue it said, Conrad you have lived long among the white people & know something of their customs. I have been at Albany & have observed that once ins even days they shut up their shops & assemble all in the great house. Tell what it is for, what do they do there. They meet there, says Conrad, to hear & learn good things. I do not doubt, says the Indian, that they tell you so. They have told me so too the same, but I doubt the truth of what they say & I will tell you my reasons. I went lately to Albany to sell skins & buy blankets, knives, powder, rum & etc. You know I used generally to deal with Hans Hanson; but I was a little inclined this time to try some other merchants. However, I called first upon Hans & asked him to what he would give for bear. He said he could not give more than four shillings a pound: but, says he, I cannot talk on business now; this is the day when we meet together to learn good things & I am going to meeting. So thought I to myself, since I cannot do any business today I may as well go to the meeting too, & I went with him. There stood up a man in black & began to talk to the people very angrily; I did not understand what he said, but perceiving that he looked much at me & at Hanson I imagined he was angry at seeing me there. So I went out, sat down near the house, struck fire & lighted my pipe waiting till the meeting should break up. I thought too that the man had mentioned something of beavers. I suspected it might be the subject of meeting, so when they came out I accosted my merchant. Well, Hans says I, I hope you have agreed to give more than four shillings a pound. No, says he, I cannot give too much. I cannot give more than three shillings sixpence per pound. I then spoke to several other dealers, but they all sung the same song, three & sixpence, three & sixpence. This made it clear tome that suspicion was right & that whatever they pretended of meeting ot learn good things, the real purpose was to consult how to cheat Indians in price of beaver. Consider, Conrad, & you must be of my opinion: If they met so often to learn good things they would certainly have learned some before this time, but they are still ignorant: you know our practice, if a white man is traveling through our country, enters one of our cabins, we treat him as I do you. We dry him if he is wet, we warm him if he is cold, & give him meat & drink that he allay his thirst & hunger. & we spread soft furs for him to res ton & sleep on. We demand nothing in return. But if I go into a white man’s house at Albany & ask him for victuals & drink, they say Where is your money, & if I have none they say, Get out, you Indian dog. You see they have not learned those little good things that we need no meetings to be instructed in: because our mothers taught them to us when we were children: & therefore it is impossible their meetings should be as they say for any such effect: they are only to contrive the cheating of Indians in the price of beaver. It is remarkable that in all ages & countries hospitality has been allowed as the virtue of those whom the civilized were pleased to call barbarians; the Greeks celebrated the Scythians for it, the Saracens possessed it eminently; & it is to this day the reigning virtue of the wild Arabs. St. Paul too in the relation of his voyage & shipwreck on the island of Melita says, The barbarous people showed us no little kindness for they kindled a fire & received us every one because of the present rain and because of the cold.

This note is taken from a small collection of Franklin’s papers printed for Dalley:

Epitaph upon the body of Dr. Ben Franklin written by himself some years before his death. The Body of Benjamin Franklin Printer like the cover of an old Book, its contents torn out, & stripped of its lettering & gilding lies here food for the worms, yet the work itself not be lost if it shall, as he believed, appear once more in a new & most beautiful edition corrected & revised by the Author.

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