people anew, restore

Then, how easy for the mind to restore the scene so lately passed, though gone forever; and though dwelling upon the unhappy fate of the fallen race, to people it anew with those bold hunters of the plains. Amid the traces of reality—the bleached bones around me—my mind was filled with images of the Indian and his occupation: war and the chase. A short thirty years ago, and from this spot, thousands of buffalo might have been seen, and the wild red man rejoicing in the pursuit, the slaughter and the feast. The uncontrolled, the untrammelled, the Free—free and happy, as God created them ere they were robbed, enslaved, poisoned, withered by the pestilence. Alas! for the gift of civilization. The "long knife" came and brought with him the "fire water," and the small-pox, and completed his work with paper treaties—construed and explained under the gentle auspices of the sword.

Leaves from My Notebook, No. 2 by "Z," Army and Navy Chronicle (February 27, 1840); and Scenes and Adventures in the Army, Southern Literary Messenger (Sept 1842); and
Scenes and Adventures in the Army (1857)

Sunday March 1st 1857.  To Monte Cavallo — colossal equestrian group, found in Baths, basin also, obelisk—most imposing group of antiques in Rome.  People those Caracalla baths anew with these colossal figures— Gigantic Rome. 

 "Colisseum. great green hollow — restore it repeople it with all statues in Vatican.  Dying and Fighting Gladiators." (Melville's Journals)