These died in greater proportion than the others and after the disease had disappeared the old chief found himself at the head of about 60 fighting men. The Gauche was a very old man and had had the smallpox in the north; he was also famed in their annals as a leader and divining man. He had been very successful in his expeditions against the Blackfeet, and by the use of poisons administered occasionally to his people, while predicting their death, he had inspired in all the fear of a sorcerer. His life contains a history which our limits do not admit of describing, although well known, singular, interesting, and authentic. On this occasion he understood that the Mandan were rendered totally helpless by the effects of the smallpox, and conceived the idea of taking their village and in a measure retrieving his losses by the horses and other property of these Indians. Gathering together the remnant of his band, about 50 men, he proceeded thither. The writer saw him pass with the pipe of peace to lull suspicion, in order to enter their village in a friendly way, and then at a given signal each one with knife in hand to rush upon and destroy the unsuspecting friends. The whole was well planned, managed, and kept secret, and it would have succeeded but for an occurrence of which the Assiniboin was not then aware. The Arikara, a tolerably numerous people, having left the Missouri, had been for years residing on the Platte River, and having previously had the smallpox did not contract the disease to any extent. About the same time The Gauche was on his way to the Mandan, they returned suddenly from the Platte and took possession of their village a short distance from the Mandan. Now the Arikara numbered about 500 men, all deadly enemies to the Assiniboin, so that when the latter presented their pipe of peace the ceremonies were interrupted by an attack of the Arikara. The Assiniboin were routed, and about 20 of them killed. The old chief, as usual, escaped, though his day of power was over. Shortly afterwards he predicted the day and hour of his own death at the fort—days beforehand, without any appearance of disease or approaching dissolution, and the writer with other gentlemen at the fort saw the same fulfilled to the letter. The conclusion was that he took poison, which he was long supposed to have received from the whites in the north and kept a dose for the fullness of time.