462 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



on meat, and that without the use of salt, its profj^ress was suddenly stopped. I men- 

 tion this as a subject which I looked upon as iinporfcaiit to science, and therefore one 

 on which I made many careful inquiries ; and so far as I have learned along that part 

 of the frontier over which I have since x>assed, I have to my satisfaction ascertained 

 that such became the utmost limits of this fatal diseasQ in its travel to the West, un- 

 less where it might have followed some of the routes of the fur-traders, who, of course, 

 have introduced the modes of civilized life. 



From the trader who was present at the destruction of the Mandans I had many 

 most wonderful incidents of this dreadful scene, but I dread to recite them. Amongst 

 them, however, there is one that I must briefly describe, relative to the death of that 

 noble gentleman of whom I have already said so much, and to whom I became so 

 much attached, Mah-to-toh-pa, or " The Four Bears." This fine fellow sat in his wig- 

 wam and watched every one of his family die about him, his wives and his little chil- 

 dren, after he had recovered from the disease himself ; when he walked out, around 

 the village, and wept over the final destruction of his tribe ; his braves and warriors, 

 whose sinewy arms alone he could depend on for a continuance of their existence, all 

 laid low ; when he came back to his lodge, where he covered his whole familj- in a 

 pile'with a number of robes, and wrapping another around himself, went out upon a 

 hill at a little distance, where he laid several days, despite all the solicitations of the 

 traders, resolved to starve himself to death. He remained there until the sixth day, 

 when he had just strength enough to creep back to the village, when he entered the 

 horrid gloom of his own wigwam, and laying his body alongside of the group of his 

 family, drew his robe over him, and died on the ninth day of his fatal abstinence. 



So have perished the friendly and hospitable Mandans, from the best accounts I 

 could get; and although it may be possible that some few individuals may yet be re- 

 maining, I think it is not probable ; and one thing is certain, even if such be the case, 

 that, as a nation, the Mandans are extinct, having no longer an existence. 



There is yet a melancholy part of the tale to be told, relating to the ravages of this 

 frightful disease in that country on the same occasion, as it spread to other contigu- 

 ous tribes, to the Minatarees, the Knisteneaux, the Blackfeet, the Cheyennes, and 

 Crows, amongst whom twenty-five thousand perished in the course of four or five 

 months, which most appalling facts I got from Major Pilcher, now superintendent of 

 Indian affairs at Saint Louis, from Mr. McKenzie, and others. 



It may be naturally asked here, by the reader, whether the Government of the 

 United States have taken any measures to pi-event the ravages of this fatal disease 

 amongst these exposed tribes ; to which I answer, that rexJeated efl'orfcs have been 

 made, and so far generally, as the tribes have ever had the disease (or, at all events, 

 within the recollections of those who are now living in the tribes), the Government 

 agents have succeeded in introducing vaccination as a protection ; but amongst those 

 tribes in their wild state, and where they have not suffered with the disease, very 

 little success has been met with in the a.ttempt to protect them, on account of their 

 superstitions, which have generally resisted all attem^jts to introduce vaccination. 

 Whilst I was on the Upper Missouri several surgeons were sent into the country 

 with the Indian agents, where I several times saw the attempts made without suc- 

 cess. They have perfect confidence in the skill of their j)hysiciaus until the disease 

 has made one slaughter in their tribe, and then, having seen white men amongst 

 them protected by it, they are disposed to receive it, before which they cannot be- 

 lieve that so minute a puncture in the arm is going to protect them from so fatal a 

 disease ; and as they see white men so earnestly urging it, they decide that it must 

 be some new mode or trick of pale faces, by which they are to gain some new advan- 

 tage over them, and they stubbornly and successfully resist it. — Vol. 2, Catlin's Eight 

 Years. 



