I close here my book (and probably for some time, my remarks), on the friendly and hospitable Mandans. +Note+—Several years having elapsed since the above account of the Mandans was written, I open the book to convey to the reader the melancholy intelligence of the _destruction_ of this interesting tribe, which happened a short time after I left their country; and the manner and causes of their misfortune I have explained in the Appendix to the Second Volume of this Work; as well as some further considerations of the subject just above-named, relative to their early history, and the probable fate of the followers of _Madoc_, to which I respectfully refer the reader before he goes further in the body of the Work. See Appendix A. LETTER—No. 26. MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_. Since writing the above Letter I have descended the Missouri, a distance of six or seven hundred miles, in my little bark, with Ba’tiste and Bogard, my old “_compagnons du voyage_,” and have much to say of what we three did and what we saw on our way, which will be given anon. I am now in the heart of the country belonging to the numerous tribe of Sioux or Dohcotas, and have Indian faces and Indian customs in abundance around me. This tribe is one of the most numerous in North America, and also one of the most vigorous and warlike tribes to be found, numbering some forty or fifty thousand, and able undoubtedly to muster, if the tribe could be moved simultaneously, at least eight or ten thousand warriors, well mounted and well armed. This tribe take vast numbers of the wild horses on the plains towards the Rocky Mountains, and many of them have been supplied with guns; but the greater part of them hunt with their bows and arrows and long lances, killing their game from their horses’ backs while at full speed. The name Sioux (pronounced _see-oo_) by which they are familiarly called, is one that has been given to them by the French traders, the meaning of which I never have learned; their own name being, in their language, Dah-co-ta. The personal appearance of these people is very fine and prepossessing, their persons tall and straight, and their movements elastic and graceful. Their stature is considerably above that of the Mandans and Riccarees, or Blackfeet; but about equal to that of the Crows, Assinneboins and Minatarees, furnishing at least one half of their warriors of six feet or more in height. I am here living with, and enjoying the hospitality of a gentleman by the name of _Laidlaw_, a Scotchman, who is attached to the American Fur Company, and who, in company with Mr. M‘Kenzie (of whom I have before spoken) and Lamont, has the whole agency of the Fur Company’s transactions in the regions of the Upper Missouri and the Rocky Mountains.