NAMES AND EVENTS IN HISTORY.—There is no great event in the history of the Assiniboin that gives them cause to rejoice. True, they have occasionally gained a battle, but at other times have lost greatly by wars. Upon the whole they have had the worst of it; at least they, being a smaller nation than the Blackfeet and Sioux (their enemies) have felt the loss more severely. The principal calamity that first overtook them, and by which they suffered greatly, was the smallpox in 1780. (See Mackenzie’s travels and other authors.) On this occasion they lost about 300 lodges of their people, and it is to this day mentioned by them as their greatest first misfortune. In the spring of 1838 this disease was again communicated to them, being brought up the Missouri by a steamboat, and although every precaution had been used, the boat cleansed, and no appearance of disease for a long time aboard, yet it in some way broke out among the Indians, beginning with the Sioux tribes and ending with the Blackfeet. Being an eyewitness to this, we can with certainty give an account of its ravages. When the disease first appeared in Fort Union we did everything in our power to prevent the Indians from coming to it, trading with them a considerable distance out in the prairie and representing to them the danger of going near the infection. All efforts of the kind, however, proved unavailing, for they would not listen, and 250 lodges contracted the disease at one time, who in the course of the summer and fall were reduced to 65 men, young and old, or about 30 lodges in all. Other bands coming from time to time caught the infection and remained at the fort, where the dead were daily thrown into the river by cartloads. The disease was very virulent, most of the Indians dying through delirium and hemorrhage from the mouth and ears before any spots appeared. Some killed themselves.