CHAPTEE XXIII 



THE STORY OF HOW THE INDIANS ON THE MISSOURI 

 DISAPPEARED 



It was forced upon Mr. Audubon to see how the In- 

 dian tribes on the Missouri disappeared. We know of no 

 narrative that pictures this episode of the Indian history 

 of the West like his journals. It was not only the white 

 man's powder that destroyed the tribes, but the plague, as 

 in early Xew England, that went before the coining of the 

 pioneers. 



There are in America few tales more thrilling than 

 those of this terrible period. 



The plague, as we have described, spread from tribe to 

 tribe. " The Indians grew fewer day by day." " Within 

 a few hours after death the bodies were a mass of rotten- 

 ness." 



The Indians now began to kill themselves when smitten 

 with the plague. 



A young Mandan warrior felt the coming on of the 

 deadly fever. 



" My wife, the white man's fire is upon me. I am about 



to die; go dig my grave! " 

 180 



