tten them!!

But the fate of the red man appears to be nearly decided. What between
their wars with each other, the use of spirituous liquors, and the
diseases imported by the whites, they dwindle away every day. The most
fatal disease to them is the small-pox. The following account, which I
have extracted from one of the American papers, was confirmed to me by a
letter from Fort Snelling:--

_Appalling destruction of North-west Indians by Small-pox_.

"We gave yesterday an account of the origin of this epidemic by means of
a steam-boat trading on the Missouri. Today we subjoin, from the St
Louis bulletin slip of March 3rd, a detailed account of its ravages.
The disease had reached the remote band of the Blackfeet, and thousands
of them had fallen victims. They do not blame the traders.

"The Pipe Stem, a chief of great influence, when dying, called his
people around him, and his last request was, that they would love their
traders, and be always governed by their advice. `I may,' says one of
the traders, `be blamed for not using measures to arrest the progress of
the disease, but without resort to arms on the arrival of the boat with
supplies, the Indians could not have been driven from the fort.'

"An express went two days a-head of the boat, but it was of no use
preaching to the Indians to fly--they flocked down to the boat as usual
when she arrived. The peltry trade in that quarter is ruined for years.
The company agent at Fort Union, writes, Nov. 30, that all their
prospects on the Upper Missouri are totally prostrated. The epidemic
spread into the most distant part of the Assinaboin country, and this
tribe were dying by fifties and hundreds a day. The disease appeared to
be of a peculiarly malignant cast; some, a few moments after severe
attacks of pain in the head and loins, fell down dead, and the bodies
turned black immediately after, and swelled to three times their natural
size. The companies erected hospitals, but they were of no use. The
carts were constantly employed burying the dead in holes; afterwards,
when the earth was frozen, they were consigned to the water. Many of
the squaws are left in a miserable condition. The disease has not
reached the Sioux, many of whom have being vaccinated.

"The Mandans, numbering 1,600, living in permanent villages 1,600 miles
above St Louis, have all died but thirty-one.

"The Minatarees, or Gros Ventres, living near the Mandans, numbering
about 1,0