IqS The Home of the \Volvc7-cnc and Beaver, 



the punishment of which he had determined on a 

 terrible revenge. " The white men among you," he 

 added with solemnity, " are but as the mountains, 

 while you are like the sands of the sea in number ; 

 nevertheless the white men are strong to punish, for 

 they possess a mighty medicine. Look at this 

 bottle," and he produced a small phial tightly 

 stoppered ; " it is small and insignificant to the 

 eye, but )'ou would hardly sit so quietly, perhaps 

 meditating treason in your hearts, were you aware 

 of its contents. In this little v^essel," raising both 

 his voice and the bottle, " I hold safely corked up 

 the scourge of your nation — the dreaded small-pox; 

 if I dash it to the ground, the pestilence will fly 

 forth north, south, east and west, and the red man, 

 his squaws, his children, and his kindred will 

 perish miserably from off the face of the earth ! " 



The awe-stricken listeners sat mute with terror 

 and dismay, and when they found their voices, it 

 was to implore the mercy and forbearance of the 

 great medicine-man, urging that the disease, if once 

 let out, would punish both the guilty and the 

 guiltless alike, and appealing to his justice not to 

 submit both to so terrible a doom. Of course, 

 after much persuasion, Mr. McDougall was induced 

 to put the fatal bottle safely away, but he gave 

 them plainly to understand that at the first act of 



