Article Title: A Journey Through The Nebraska Region In .

Diaries of Prince Maximilian329have lauded as a priceless and accurate rendition of the landscapes, costumes, and tribes of early 19th century Brazil. 5 Alltold, it was a fascinating and memorable journey, and withmixed feelings, no doubt, Maximilian finally returned toEurope in 1817.It was this expedition which largely shaped Prince Maximilian's subsequent career as explorer, naturalist, andethnographer. Clearly he nurtured the fondest memories ofthis land's verdant, luxuriant landscapes, teeming with someof the most diverse and exotic wildlife on the globe. For thePrince, even the sublime but barren majesty of the NorthAmerican prairie suffered by comparison. Moreover, his contacts with Brazilian tribes decisively influenced his viewsregarding American Indians as a whole. As the sections of hisdiary published here indicate (see for example the entry ofMay 5, 1833), Brazil provided a standard to contrast his laterobservations along the Missouri. Even more important, his experiences in South America confirmed the belief he undoubtedly acquired from his revered teacher Blumenbachregarding the fundamental unity and equality of the races ofhumanity. Though hardly oblivious to such unsavory practicesas cannibalism, Maximilian nonetheless ascribed much of theIndians' savagery and hostility to the cruelty and treacherysuffered at the hands of European interlopers. In the Indians,as well as in the downtrodden black slave population, heespied the same intellectual and spiritual potential found inthe dominating race. 6 For him this capacity was amplydemonstrated by the fact that the children of Indians, onceremoved from their rude environment, demonstrated an intelligence comparable to that of whites.7If anything, Maximilian's empathy toward nativeAmericans was enhanced even further by his contacts sixteenyears later with the more advanced plains tribesmen of NorthAmerica whose spiritual and cultural level he felt was notablyhigher-thanks in part to their closer contact with whitecivilization. 8 At the same time, this sympathy was temperedby detachment and objectivity. One of his major objections tothe work of his renowned, if quixotic contemporary, GeorgeCatlin, was the American artist's excessive partiality and"exaggerated and poetic descriptions" of his Indian subjects. 9As the diary sections published here also indicate, neither was

330Nebraska Historythe Prince blind to any conditions of degradation anddegeneration he might encounter.Nevertheless, even so keen and enlightened an observer asMaximilian could at times succumb to ethnocentricity or showglaring insensitivity to the cultures he encountered. Thisfallibility was most clearly demonstrated at the close of hisBrazilian journey when this explorer-who, ironically, oftencondemned slavery in both Brazil and later in the UnitedStates-purchased both a black and a young Botocudo,Qullck, and brought them back to Germany. The black diedsoon afterwards. Qu!:l.ck, however, lived on for over a decade,adapted partly to Germany, but also fell prey to periodic spellsof drunkenness, punctuated by romps in the snow and bouts ofpneumonia, and died in 1833 while the ·Prince was inAmerica.IO Despite such an apparently clearcut case ofuprooting and maladjustment to so alien and lonely an environment, the Prince, while in North America, seriouslypondered bringing back yet another Indian but hesitated,realizing the likelihood of the native's homesickness and theheavy expenses of a return journey which would ensue. 11After his return to Germany, Max immediately plunged intopublicizing the results of his expedition. First and most important was his two-volume narrative of the Brazilianjourney-based on his copious diaries-which was accompanied by a volume of engravings based on his sketches, inwhich the Indian subjects were significantly altered-at theexpense of accuracy-to make them appealing to contemporary European taste. In format this work served as a modelfor the later account of his North American journey. In rapidsuccession there followed a four-volume work on Braziliannatural history, a lavishly illustrated color platebook ofBrazilian fauna, as well as numerous articles. Even today,Brazilians gratefully acknowledge their debt to this intrepidnaturalist who did so much to familiarize the world with theunique flora and fauna of their homeland, and even more, appreciate his careful and dispassionate observations that areoften still the major source of information about now longvanished tribes.Even amidst these tireless scholarly labors, the Prince wasalready beginning to contemplate yet another journey beforeage should overtake him and the relentless advance of civiliza-

No. 2. Prince Maximilian and the Botocudo QuJ!ck. Photo from oilpainting, Schloss Neuwied, courtesy of His Highness PrinceFriedrich Wilhelm of Wied.

ll332Nebraska Historytion ravage the wilderness he longed to observe and record. Asearly as 1822, he was broaching to friends the idea of a journeyto Labrador and the American West: "From Labrador onecould then go south into the plains of the Missouri andMississippi where Lewis and Clarke [sic] made their dangerousbear hunts and this would surely be rewarding."l 2 On otheroccasions he wondered whether Mexico and Central Americamight instead offer the richest yield to an eager zoologist, orwhether Russia and the Caspian region might actually providethe most appropriate arena for his endeavors.l3 In the end,though, the United States held the most powerful attractionfor him, and beginning in the mid 1820s, he began to studyNorth American natural history. By 1830 the Prince was readyto depart, but the outbreak of revolution and nationalupheavals in Europe deferred his plans.On his next journey he was wisely determined to delegate toothers some of the myriad responsibilities that had overburdened him in Brazil. Above all, he needed a reliable artistto record American landscapes and tribesmen. In 1832 hediscovered a young Swiss painter, Karl Bodmer (1809-1893),who had gained some acclaim for his landscapes of the Rhineand Moselle region. Though hitherto Bodmer had virtually noexperience in portraiture, Maximilian had sufficient confidence in his skill and potential to engage him for the expedition. Thus, well before he ever embarked on American soil,the Prince had made perhaps the most significant decision ofthe entire journey. For, despite his inexperience, the artistreadily adapted to the demands of his assignment and createdin addition to his beautiful landscapes assuredly some of thefinest American Indian portraits ever painted.l4 In addition,Maximilian had hoped to hire a young military engineer toundertake geographical and mathematical observations inNorth America, but the refusal of his superiors to grant alengthy leave of absence precluded these plans. In April, 1832,Maximilian, accompanied once more by the trusty Dreidoppeland by Bodmer, set sail from Holland on his second and lastgreat voyage to the New World.After more than two years on the American frontier-thedetails of the journey are related below-Maximilian returnedto Germany, only to discover that assembling his collectionsand publicizing the results of his expedition would prove a no I

Diaries of Prince Maximilian333less complicated, frustrating, and in many respects even'lengthier process than the journey itself. Unlike his experiencesin Brazil, Maximilian had ambivalent feelings about his sojourn in North America. Not only had he found the westernprairies monotonous and depressing, he deplored the rudenessof the Americans and their disdain for natural history andother refinements of civilization. Then too, the harsh climateand primitive conditions of travel proved more arduous forthis fifty-year old voyager, who suffered severe gastrointestinal bouts reminiscent of cholera along the Ohio, as wellas a near-fatal brush with scurvy during a harsh winter on theUpper Missouri. Because the United States had been morethoroughly explored than Brazil, his own observations and collections in natural history, though by no means insignificant,proved less momentous than in the case of his earlier investigations in South America. His discouragement was compoundedin 1835 when he learned that the steamer Assiniboine, whiletransporting his massive natural history and ethnographic collections from the Upper Missouri and Rocky Mountain region,had exploded and sunk. Yet, in spite of these setbacks, thePrince also recognized that his observations of North AmericanIndian tribes were at least as thorough as those from Braziland that in the over four hundred watercolors and sketches ofBodmer-particularly of the Indians-he had assembled apriceless and unparalleled treasure.l5For these reasons the Prince decided to publish an accountof his North American journey, to be illustrated even morelavishly than his earlier Brazilian opus by an aquatint atlasbased on Bodmer's original watercolors. While Maximiliancomposed the text-relying again on copious manuscriptdiaries kept during the expedition-Bodmer left for Paris tosuperintend the lengthy and often frustrating process of engraving and hand coloring needed to produce the deluxe atlas.Eventually a tw:o-volume German edition appeared between1838 and 1841,16 followed by a three volume French translation in 1840-1843,17 and a significantly abridged one-volumeEnglish version in 1843,18Considering the time pressures, delays, and petty wranglingthat dogged the publication project from the outset, it was animpressive achievement notwithstanding. In large part,Bodmer's art-then as today-served as the expedition's major

334Nebraska Historybasis for renown. Eighty-one magnificent aquatints accompanied Maximilian's narrative. In some cases these differednoticeably from the original watercolors. Thus, many of theirserene subjects assumed more wild, frenzied countenances tofit the preconceptions of European viewers. Some landscapes,too, were altered tq imbue them with a more romantic allure(see the juxtaposed original and aquatint versidn of Blackbird'sGrave, plate Nos. 12 and 13). A few aquatints have no prototype at all, leading one to infer they were devised for purelyillustrative purposes. In many instances, however, these andthe original watercolors or sketches were virtually identical.Whatever the case, for over a century Bodmer's aquatints remained one of the mas valuable and definitive portrayals ofthe Plains Indian and American frontier.Unfortunately, all too often the Swiss artist's masterworkhas tended to overshadow the contribution of his princelypatron. The original German edition of Maximilian's travelnarrative was, in fact, a masterful distillation of his fielddiaries, demonstrating as well a thorough acquaintance withthe most recent European and American ethnographic andtravel literature.In their lifetime the achievement of the two men neverreceived the fullest recognition it deserved. Ironically, theaquatint atlas, the most spectacular facet of their publication,also made it too expensive for all except the wealthiestbibliophiles. Due to the prohibitive cost the work went virtually unreviewed on both the European continent and in theAnglo-Saxon world. Especially unfortunate, English-speaking readers, and particularly Americans, who were most likely to be interested inthe Prince's expedition, were also left with the least satisfactory of the three editions. In order to reduce the work to thedimensions of a single quarto volume, the translator, H. EvansLloyd, ruthlessly excised the original German text. Over sixtyyears later that prolific and tireless editor, Reuben GoldThwaites, decided to reissue Maximilian's Travels in the Interior of North America in his "Early Western Travels" series,thus at last making the Prince's work more accessible to awider, less affluent audience. Thwaites knew that appendicesfrom the original German edition, such as the vocabularies ofseveral Indian tribes, had been cut, and he restored them to

Diaries of Prince Maximilian335his reprint edition. Not being a German scholar, he could not,however, judge the deficiencies of the Lloyd translation and itsalteration of the main body of the original text. Aside fromoften loosely translating the original German, Lloyd excisednumerous passages. These cuts included Latin binomials forthe many species of flora and fauna observed by Maximilian,Indian names and subdivisions of the tribes recorded by thePrince, supposedly irrelevant footnotes indicating the sourcesof much of his information about the natural history andethnology of North America, and passages about "indelicate"matters likely to offend contemporary Victorian sensibilities.This edition with its woeful omissions has been the basis formost scholarly assessments of Maximilian's expedition.With the completion of the publication project which occupied them for nearly a decade, the two men pursueddivergent careers. Embittered by his enormous investment oftime and effort in which turned out to be a financial fiasco,Bodmer came to lament the supposed dissipation of the mostproductive years of his life. He retreated to the forests of Fontainebleau south of Paris, establishing peripheral contactswith the Bohemian artist colony which began to form thereafter 1849. Hardly ever did this artist-one of the greatest portraitists of the American Indian-depict a human figureagain! His output consisted almost exclusively of forest andanimal scenes, some skillfully executed, others unabashedlysentimental to appeal to the popular taste of his own day. Fora time Bodmer achieved a minor reputation among the Barbizon School, which included such celebrated rural and landscape artists as Jean-Franyois Millet and Th dore Rousseau.But evidently during the last decade of his life his fortunesdeclined, and he died in poverty and obscurity in Paris in1893.19Maximilian's twilight years, on the other hand, were ones ofquiet, productive contentment. During the 1840s he dreamedof yet another distant expedition-either to Baltic Russia orthe Caucasus region. But for various reasons-one of thembeing Bodmer's initial reluctance to accompany him-heeventually abandoned these plans. 20 Age, too, was becomingan impediment even for so vigorous an outdoorsman, andgradually he reconciled himself to less strenuous excursions inEurope:

'No. 3. Portrait of Karl Bodmer. Photo from pencil drawing by JeanFrancois Millet, Print Collection, The New York Public Library;Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.)

Diaries of Prince Maximilian337I am now 60 years old, and at that age one doesn't travel much any more.In 50 more years the world will have achieved an entirely different appearance! Railways, steamship travel will have made distances entirely insignificant, journeys to distant lands will become walking tours, and whatevergoes on in men's heads-this, too, can bring about big changes. For me thegreater part of my life is already past, and thus now I can still only be gladfor the past and those friends who have lived through these times with me. Inmy immediate surroundings a hobbling study of nature and hunting will provide me-as long as my health holds out-satisfactory, pleasant activity.21Despite this resigned prediction, a good quarter century ofstudy and labor remained. Even without distant journeys, thePrince continued his incessant collecting by mail, obtainingfauna from locales as diverse as Greenland, India, and theDutch East Indies. At one time his live collections at Neuwiedincluded specimens as diverse as North American grizzly bearsand eggs of a Java python, which he vainly sought to incubateand hatch. Despite the remoteness of the ancestral estate fromthe major centers of scientific inquiry, Maximilian made prodigious efforts to remain abreast of contemporary works onnatural history and exploration, often bartering exotic stuffedanimals for costly and precious volumes.Due, in part, to advancing age, it was not possible for PrinceMaximilian to publicize the results of his North American expedition with the rapidity and thoroughness that had beenpossible in the case of his works on Brazilian natural history.Then too, it took him years to reacquire, by purchase or exchange, some of the specimens lost with the sinking of theAssiniboine. Only in the 1850s did his scholarly output onNorth American natural history finally reach significant proportions. His principal publications included a series of articleson his observations of North American birds,22 a catalog ofNorth American mammals published both as serial articles andas a separate book, 23 and, just two years before his death, aninventory of North American reptiles illustrated with magnificent handcolored engravings by Bodmer. 24Maximilian himself would have been the first to admit thelimited import of his work in this field. His second journey tothe New World brought no discoveries. His most sustained andunhurried observations were carried out in a region-theEastern United States-already well-combed by Americannaturalists. And even had his collections from the remote, partially explored western regions survived, his investigations

338Nebraska Historyalong the Missouri were severely hampered by the pace ofsteamboat travel, the unruliness and uncooperativeness ofrude engages, and his understandable reluctance to collectspecimens and observe life in regions overrun by hostile Indians.Clearly it was as an ethnographer that Maximilian made hisgrandest contribution. His published narrative of the journeyto North America contained the same detailed and dispassionate observations that distinguished his studies in Brazil. Ifanything, his American account was even more thorough.Regrettably, apart from this work, Maximilian wrote little elseabout North American Indians. In 1842, to be sure, hepublished a review of Catlin's Letters and Notes, often severely criticizing the American's observations and thus in theprocess providing sometimes valuable additions to his ownearlier work.25 Unfortunately, because this piece appeared ina relatively inaccessible German scientific journal, it has remained unknown to American historians and ethnologists.Many years later, in 1863, Maximilian delivered a lecture toRhenish naturalists, in which once more he upheld the thesispropounded by Blumenbach regarding the common origin ofIndian races in both North and South America. 26 On thewhole, however, in anthropology as in natural history, Maximilian shunned theorizing and was reluctant to engage inwide-ranging synthesis, comparing his observations with thoseof other world explorers. He was largely content to reportwhat he observed as accurately, conscientiously, and objectively as possible. And if at times this modesty lends a certaindryness to his work, still one can only regret that this acutelyobservant explorer did not again visit and observe still othervanishing races.Tirelessly productive until well into his eighties, PrinceMaximilian finally died on February 3, 1867. Within a fewyears of his death his voluminous collections, pricelessmanuscripts, and incomparable paintings began to be dispersed throughout the world or else remained long forgotten.First to be sold was his natural history collection containingover 4,000 stuffed birds, 600 mammals, and 2,000 fishes andreptiles, which the Museum of Natural History in New Yorkacquired in 1870.27 As early as the 1840s, the Prince haddonated a few Indian artifacts which eventually became a

Diaries of Prince Maximilian339part of the Museum

tainer, a' skillful huntsman and expert taxidermist, David Dreidoppel, whose deftness in stalking and luring game and whose deadly aim would soon gain this odd-soundi11g foreigner the respect of the most seasoned fur-trappers and hardened warriors.