362 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



It may be remarked incidentally, if Mr. Fulton has published all there is in the 

 journal (a copy of which is not at hand) on the subject, that there is not a word 

 as to the " manner of the chief's death or burial." 



Mr. Collet knew that Lewis and Clarke mentioned certain details relating to 

 Black-Bird, but rejected the chronological determination of a fact on Indian tes- 

 timony as by them reported, when there appeared to be other evidence strongly 

 contradicting the Maha date. Augustus Chouteau came to St. Louis with its 

 founder, Laclede, in 1764, and was personally cognizant of every fact relating to 

 the city he mentions in his depositions. His statements are the accepted data 

 of much of St. Louis' early history. He testifies (Hunt's Min., Vol. i, p. 107,) 

 that on May 15, 1801, the small-pox first made its appearance in St. Louis. 

 There are other depositions to the same effect. In St. Louis local annals the 

 year 1801 is universally known as annee de la picotte — smallpox year; and, as 

 succeeding anjiee du grand hiver — the year of the great winter (1799 — 1800), 

 when according to Chouteau, who also deposes to the same facts, the thermometer 

 marked a lower temperature than ever before known. Such concordant testi- 

 mony fixing the year of the small-pox cannot be set aside, and must over-ride 

 Indian chronology if antagonistic. It has always been an accepted fact that the 

 small-pox was brought to St. Louis by boats coming up the river, and thence 

 spread among the Indians. The month and date given by Chouteau was the 

 usual time of the arrival of the merchants' supplies. The traders left for the Mis- 

 souri in the fall of the year, the large boats on the opening of navigation, at the 

 beginning of March if possible. The first departure, after the appearance of the 

 disease in the village, would arrive at the Maha country in the last months of the 

 year 1801; the next, in May, 1802. If by those the small-pox was communi- 

 cated to the Indians of the Maha locality, it may have become epidemic during 

 the winter. of 1801-2, but if by these, not until the summer of 1802. As the 

 Omaha chief is believed to have died after the malady had become epidemic, 

 we can scarcely escape the probable conclusion that his death occurred in 1802, 

 but in no event earlier than the close of 1801. 



This presentation of facts and probable inferences is in direct conflict with 

 Indian chronology on the point in question. By all who know how little trust is 

 to be placed in the dates assigned to events by the Indians, it is believed that it 

 will be accepted without the least hesitation in preference to their statements. 



St. Louis, Mo., September, 1884. 



BLACK-BIRD. 



G. C. BROADHEAD. 



The articles in your Monthly, for August and September, are interesting as 

 they relate to a noted chief of the a once powerful but now extinct tribe of Indians. 

 Extinct as a known tribe but a few of their descendants have been incorporated 

 in other tribes. 



