252 DECREASE OF THE INDIAN. 
and mixed- bloods of the border nations, and 
are generally taken from their missionaries or 
some favorite friends; except they inherit sur- 
names from parents of white extraction. 
That the Indians of America are decreas- 
ing in numbers is very well known, but many 
are dwindling away, perhaps, at a more rapid 
pace than is generally suspected. The num- 
ber of the Osages, it is confidently believed, 
has diminished fifty per cent. within the last 
ten years: the once powerful tribe of Missou- 
ries is now reduced to a mere remnant; while 
. the Mandans, as a nation, have become en- 
tirely extinct: and others have shared or bid 
fair soon to share the same fate. This has re- 
sulted partially from the ravages of the small- 
pox and other diseases, yet as much no doubt 
from the baneful effects of intoxicating liquors. 
On this account, their diminution has gene- 
rally been less in proportion as they are more 
remote from the whites. But the ‘red man’ 
has suffered from his intercourse with the 
whites not in this respect alone. The incen- 
tives to luxury and avarice continually pre- 
sented by them, have had a very pernicious 
influence. Formerly the savages were. con- 
tented with the indispensables of life—gene- 
rally sober, just and charitable; but now they 
will sacrifice their comfort—risk their lives, 
and commit the most atrocious outrages, to 
gratify their vanity and lusts—to bedeck them- 
selves with gewgaws and finery. 
