360 LIFE OF AUIjUBON, 



on his first trip here in a steamer, the Indians called her a 

 great medicine, supposed that he fed her with whisky, and 

 asked how much he gave her at a time. To which he replied, 

 • A whole barrel.' " 



It appears that the Omega did not, as originally intended, 

 return from St. Pierre, but kept on to the Yellow-stone Eiver. 

 There Audubon bade the captain adieu with much regret, and 

 wrote him a complimentary letter, which all the passengers 

 signed. 



" June 14. To-day, Mr. Chantean, and Mr. Murray, a Scotch- 

 man, arrived from the Crow Indian nation. They told me the 

 snow was yet three feet deep, and quite abundant near the 

 mountains. I learned to-day that the Prince of Canino, with 

 his secretary and bird-stuffer, occupied the rooms I now have 

 for two months." 



The interval between this and the 20th of June was employed 

 in various excursions and exciting hunts after the buffalo. 



June 20. A stormy day prevents out-door excursions, and 

 Audubon employs it in recording in his Journal an account of 

 the ravages of the small-pox among the Indians, which he 

 received from an eye-witness. The Mandans and Recarees 

 suffered most, though many Sioux and Blackfoot Indians 

 perished with them. 



" Early in the spring of 1837 the steamer Assibone arrived at 

 Fort Clark with several cases of small-pox on board. There an 

 Indian stole a blanket belonging to a watchman on the boat, 

 who was then at the point of death, and took it away to sow the 

 seeds of this disease among his tribe, which caused his 

 own death and the death of thousands of his nation. When 

 it was known that he had taken it, a benevolent person on the 

 boat went to one of the chiefs, told him the fatal consequences 

 which would follow, and offered to give a new blanket and a 

 reward besides if he would have it returned ; but suspicion, fear, 

 or shame prevented the man from giving it up, and the pestilence 

 broke out and began to spread among the Mandans at first, 

 to which nation the thief belonged. 



" Most of the Indians were distant eighty miles at that time, 

 killing buffaloes and preparing their winter food ; and the whites 

 sent an express begging them to return to their villages, and 



