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