00, were, by our last accounts, about one half dead, and the
disease still raging.

"The Arickarees, amounting to 3,000, who but lately abandoned a
wandering life, and joined the Mandans, were about half dead, and the
disease still among them. It is probable they have been reduced in
proportion to the Mandans.

"The Assinaboins, a powerful tribe, about 9,000 strong, living entirely
by the chase, and ranging north of the Missouri, in the plains below the
Rocky Mountains, down towards the Hudson's Bay Company, on the north Red
River, are _literally annihilated_. Their principal trade was at Fort
Union, mouth of the Yellow Stone.

"The Crees, living in the same region, numbering 3,000, are nearly all
destroyed. The great nation called Blackfeet, who wander and live by
the chase, ranging through all the region of the Rocky Mountains,
divided into bands--Piegans, Gros Ventres, Blood Indians, and Blackfeet,
amounting in all to 50,000 or 60,000, have deeply suffered. One
thousand lodges or families have been destroyed, and the disease was
rapidly spreading among the different bands."

The average number in a lodge is from six to eight persons.

"The boat that brought up the small-pox made her voyage last summer, and
the ravages of the distemper appear to have been greatest in October.
It broke out among the Mandans, July 15th. Many of the handsome
Arickarees who had recovered, seeing the disfiguration of their
features, committed suicide; some by throwing themselves from rocks,
others by stabbing, shooting, etcetera. The prairie has become a grave
yard; its wild flowers bloom over the sepulchres of Indians. The
atmosphere for miles is poisoned by the stench of hundreds of carcases
unburied. The women and children are wandering in groups without food,
or howling over the dead. The men are flying in every direction. The
proud, warlike, and noble looking Blackfeet are no more. The deserted
lodges are seen on the hills, but no smoke issues from them. No sound
but the raven's croak, and the wolf's long howl, breaks the awful
stillness. The wolves fatten on the dead carcases. The scene of
desolation is described as appalling beyond the powers of imagination to
conceive."

That they may give the Americans much trouble, however, previous to
their final extermination, is true, and that they are very anxious to
revenge themselves, is equally certain. The greatest misfortune which
could happen to the United States w