his great medicine (his drum) carried him away in spite of himself. It was most prudent to credit his word, for should any one be so rash as to doubt, he would be scarcely sure of escaping the sudden and mysterious death which seemed promptly to attack all his enemies in his own camp.
In I83o, after having predicted success, he experienced his first great defeat, on the part of the Blackfeet, leaving on the plain beyond sixty warriors slain and nearly an equal number wounded. From this moment dates the commencement of his fall; the prestige which hitherto surrounded his name and his deeds began to fail. About this time the fur company had just provisioned Fort Union at the place where
it stands to-day. It had been supplied with two years' stock of goods for trade with the nations of the Upper Missouri. In hopes of repairing, in some manner, the great loss that he had just undergone, to arouse the dejected courage of his soldiers, to " cover the dead "- that is to say, to put an end to the mourning in the families which had lost near kindred in the last battle, Tchatka promised them boldly " that he would render them all rich, and would load them with an abundance of spoils, so that all the horses of the tribe would not be able to carry them. He had been favored with a new dream - a dream which will not deceive them, provided they enter into his designs, and that they be faithful in
the execution of his orders." He had formed the project of seizing Fort Union, with a band of 200 select warriors. Tchatka presented himself there. He affected a singular friendship for the whites. He attempted to make the superintendent, Mr. M [cKenzie], believe that he was en route, with his band, for the country of the Minnetarees [or Grosventres] of [the] Missouri, their enemies; that they had need of some munitions of war; and that they intended con tinuing on their way at daybreak. Hospitality was kindly accorded to them The chief played his part so well, that the ordinary precaution of disarming guests, and putting their weapons under lock and key, was neglected on this occasion. The plan that Tchatka had developed to his
warriors was to retire to the different chambers of the fort, and to massacre, during their sleep, at a given signal, all those who occupied them. By a happy incident, some days previous to this enterprise, all the Canadian employees at the fort, to the number of about eighty, had come to Fort Union for goods to trade with the Crows and the Blackfeet. Notwithstanding this strong reinforcement, the savages might have succeeded in their design had not a still more favorable happening brought their project to light. An Assiniboin had a sister married to one of the merchants from the North. Desirous of saving the life of his sister, and of sheltering her in the melee which was to take place, he communicated to her, under the strictest secrecy, the intentions of the chief, inviting her to come and pass the night
in his room,'that he might the better protect her. The woman promised to follow him ; but went immediately to warn her husband against the danger which menaced him as well as all the whites at the fort. The husband announced the plot to the superintendent and to all the gentlemen in charge. The employees, one after the other, were called, without arousing the least suspicion. They quitted their apartments quietly, were armed in the twinkling of an eye, took possession of the two bastions and of all the important points of the fort. When all the precautions were taken, Tchatka and the principal braves of his band were invited to repair to the parlor of the commandant, who openly reproached them with their black treachery. Giving no heed to their protestations, he gave them their choice, either to quit the fort without blows, or to be chased from it by the big guns (cannon), which were leveled at them. Tchatka accepted the former without hesitation, and instantly withdrew, confused and vexed at having lost so fine an opportunity of enriching himself and his tribe, at having failed in his promise and in the accomplishment of his pretended dream.
Tchatka had exhausted all his medicine sack, or provision of poisons. His former northern friends had refused to furnish him any more. He was absolutely determined on