Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/310

 although his force was weak in number, he was strong in medicine; and that in consequence of the treacherous cruelty of the Northern Indians, he would open the bottle and send the small-pox among them. The chiefs strongly remonstrated against his doing so. They told him that they and their relations were always friendly to the white people; that they would remain so; that if the small-pox was once let out, it would run like fire among the good people as well as among the bad; and that it was inconsistent with justice to punish friends for the crimes committed by enemies. Mr. M'Dougall appeared to be convinced by these reasons, and promised, that if the white people were not attacked or robbed for the future, the fatal bottle should not be uncorked. He was greatly dreaded by the Indians, who were fully impressed with the idea that he held their fate in his hands, and they called him by way of pre-eminence, "the great small-pox chief."

An Indian belonging to a small tribe on the coast, to the southward of the Clatsops, occasionally visited the fort. He was a perfect ''lusus naturæ'', and his history was rather curious. His skin was fair, his face partially freckled, and his hair quite red. He was about five feet ten inches