A depiction of the black angel of cholera bringing death to its victims.
An outbreak of cholera in St.
Louis claimed the lives of thousands. Seven out of ten white
inhabitants in a trading post at Bellevue, on the Missouri River,
fell victim. Thousands of Indians on the high plains
contracted the scourge from white traders travelling up and down
the river on steamboats.
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That year, an
extraordinary number of falling stars, all sweeping across the sky
in a westerly direction, were an omen to the Indians of great
mortality.