For the last time but one, during their holidays, Austin and his brothers set off, with a long afternoon before them, to listen to the hunter’s account of the proceedings of the missionaries among the Indians. On this occasion, they paid another visit to the Red Sand-stone Rock by the river, the place where they first met with their friend, the hunter. Here they recalled to mind all the circumstances which had taken place at that spot, and agreed that the hunter, in saving their lives by his timely warning, and afterwards adding so much as he had done to their information and pleasure, had been to them one of the best friends they had ever known. With very friendly and grateful feelings towards him, they hastened to the cottage, when the Indians, as usual, became the subject of their conversation. “And now,” said Austin, “we are quite ready to hear about the missionaries.”
Hunter. Let me speak a word or two about the Indians, before I begin my account. You remember that I told you of the Mandans.
Austin. Yes. Mah-to-toh-pa was a Mandan, with his fine robes and war-eagle head-dress. The rain-makers were Mandans; also the young warriors, who went through so many tortures in the mystery lodge.
Hunter. Well, I must now tell you a sad truth. After I left the Mandans, great changes came upon them; and, at the present time, hardly a single Mandan is alive.
Austin. Dreadful! But how was it? What brought it all about?
Brian. You should have told us this before.
Hunter. No. I preferred to tell you first of the people as they were when I was with them. You may remember my observation, in one of your early visits, that great changes had taken place among them; that the tomahawks of the stronger tribes had thinned the others; that many had sold their lands to the whites, and retired to the west of the Mississippi; and that thousands had fallen a prey to the small-pox. It was in the year 1838 that this dreadful disease was introduced among the Mandans, and other tribes of the fur-traders. Of the Blackfeet, Crows and two or three other tribes, twenty-five thousand perished; but of the poor Mandans, the whole tribe was destroyed.
Brian. Why did they not get a doctor; or go out of their village to the wide prairie, that one might not catch the disease from another?
Hunter. Doctors were too far off; and the ravages of the disease were so swift that it swept them all away in a few months. Their mystery men could not help them; and their enemies, the Sioux, had war-parties round their village, so that they could not go out to the wide prairie. There they were, dying fast in their village; and little else was heard, during day or night, but wailing, howling and crying to the Great Spirit to relieve them.
Austin. And did Mah-to-toh-pa, “the four bears,” die too?