A few days after I received the above letter an order was issued from the department of war to all the surveyors of Atlantic ports, prohibiting Indians from being shipped to England, or other foreign countries, for the purposes of exhibitions, without the consent of the Government of the country.
[10] The numerous conversations held on the subjects of religion and education with the three different parties of Indians, in various parts of England, as well as on the continent, I consider form one of the most interesting features of this work; and as I have been present at them all, I have taken down all the Indians’ remarks on those occasions, and I have inserted them in all cases in this book as I wrote them from their lips, and not in any case from recollection.—Author.
[11] The minds of the Indians had been so much engrossed for several days with the subject of religion, that the inventive powers of the little Sah-mah (Tobacco) had been at work; and when I called on them the next morning one of them handed me his ideas, as he had put them on paper with a lead pencil, and I give them to the reader ([Plate No. 8]) as near as my own hand could copy them from his original sketch now in my portfolio. If the reader can understand the lines, he will learn from it something of the state of the arts in the Indian country, as well as their native propensity to burlesque.
[12] It was stated in some of the papers of the day that the Indian won the golden prize from the members of the club, which was not the case. It was put up, most liberally, by the young men of the society for the Indians to shoot for among themselves, and won in this way, not from the members of the club.
There are no Indians in North America who can equal the shooting of these young gentlemen, who practise much this beautiful and manly exercise. I have often, at their kind invitations, visited their grounds, and I have had the opportunity of seeing the shooting amongst most of the American tribes. The Indian tribes who use the bow and arrow at the present time are mostly the Prairie tribes, who are mounted, and, from their horses’ backs, at full speed, throw their arrows but a very few paces, and use a short bow of two feet or two feet and a half in length, and therefore never practise at the target at the distance of one or two hundred yards. Their skill and power, however, in that mode of using the bow is almost inconceivable, and might puzzle the best archers in England or in the world to equal.
Transcriber’s Note
Hyphenation of compound words follows the text. If a hyphenation occurred on a line or page break, the most common variant was followed. Suspect spellings are noted, but are retained. The modern word ‘grizzly’ is spelled as ‘grizly’ or ‘grisly’.
On p. 273, the numbered list of prints is missing #261.
On p. 291, the asterism (three asterisks forming a triangle) is represented simply three asterisks.
The following table describes how a variety of textual issues, and resolution. Where variants were most likely printer’s errors, they have been corrected, otherwise merely noted.