26th. We set out early with a southwest _History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. 1. To the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed During the Years 1804-5-6.

Ricara chief on shore to join the Mandans who were in great numbers

along it, we proceeded to the camp of the grand chiefs four miles

distant. Here we met a Mr. M'Cracken one of the northwest or Hudson Bay

company, who arrived with another person about nine days ago to trade

for horses and buffaloe robes. Two of the chiefs came on board with some

of their household furniture, such as earthern pots and a little corn

and went on with us; the rest of the Indians following on shore. At one

mile beyond the camp we passed a small creek, and at three more a bluff

of coal of an inferior quality on the south. After making eleven miles

we reached an old field where the Mandans had cultivated grain last

summer, and encamped for the night on the south side, about half a mile

below the first village of the Mandans. In the morning we had a willow

low ground on the south and highland on the north, which occasionally

varied in the course of the day. There is but little wood on this part

of the river, which is here subdivided into many channels and obstructed

by sandbars. As soon as we arrived a crowd of men, women, and children

came down to see us. Captain Lewis returned with the principal chiefs to

the village, while the others remained with us during the evening; the

object which seemed to surprise them most, was a cornmill fixed to the

boat which we had occasion to use, and delighted them by the ease with

which it reduced the grain to powder. Among others who visited us was

the son of the grand chief of the Mandans, who had his two little

fingers cut off at the second joints. On inquiring into this accident,

we found that it was customary to express grief for the death of

relations by some corporeal suffering, and that the usual mode was to

lose two joints of the little fingers, or sometimes the other fingers.

The wind blew very cold in the evening from the southwest. Two of the

party are affected with rheumatic complaints.

CHAPTER V.

Council held with the Mandans--A prairie on fire, and a singular

instance of preservation--Peace established between the Mandans and

Ricaras--The party encamp for the winter--Indian mode of catching

goats--Beautiful appearance of northern lights--Friendly character

of the Indians--Some account of the Mandans--The Ahnahaways and the

Minnetarees--The party acquire the confidence of the Mandans by

taking part in their controversy with the Sioux--Religion of the

Mandans, and their singular conception of the term medicine--Their

tradition--The sufferings of the party from the severity of the

season--Indian game of billiards described--Character of the

Missouri, of the surrounding country, and of the rivers, creeks,

islands, &c.

Saturday, October 27. At an early hour we proceeded and anchored off the

village. Captain Clarke went on shore, and after smoking a pipe with the

chiefs, was desired to remain and eat with them. He declined on account

of his being unwell; but his refusal gave great offence to the Indians,

who considered it disrespectful not to eat when invited, till the cause

was explained to their satisfaction. We sent them some tobacco, and then

proceeded to the second village on the north, passing by a bank

containing coal, and a second village, and encamped at four miles on the

north, opposite to a village of Ahnahaways. We here met with a

Frenchman, named Jesseaume, who lives among the Indians with his wife

and children, and who we take as an interpreter. The Indians had flocked

to the bank to see us as we passed, and they visited in great numbers

the camp, where some of them remained all night. We sent in the evening

three young Indians with a present of tobacco for the chiefs of the

three upper villages, inviting them to come down in the morning to a

council with us. Accordingly the next day,

Sunday, October 28, we were joined by many of the Minnetarees and

Ahnahaways from above, but the wind was so violent from the southwest

that the chiefs of the lower villages could not come up, and the

council was deferred till to-morrow. In the mean while we entertained

our visitors by showing them what was new to them in the boat; all

which, as well our black servant, they called Great Medicine, the

meaning of which we afterwards learnt. We also consulted the grand chief

of the Mandans, Black Cat, and Mr. Jesseaume, as to the names,

characters, &c. of the chiefs with whom we are to hold the council. In

the course of the day we received several presents from the women,

consisting of corn, boiled hominy, and garden stuffs: in our turn we

gratified the wife of the great chief with a gift of a glazed earthen

jar. Our hunter brought us two beaver. In the afternoon we sent the

Minnetaree chiefs to smoke for us with the great chief of the Mandans,

and told them we would speak in the morning.

Finding that we shall be obliged to pass the winter at this place, we

went up the river about one and a half miles to-day, with a view of

finding a convenient spot for a fort, but the timber was too scarce and

small for our purposes.

Monday, October 29. The morning was fine and we prepared our presents

and speech for the council. After breakfast we were visited by an old

chief of the Ahnahaways, who finding himself growing old and weak had

transferred his power to his son, who is now at war against the

Shoshonees. At ten o'clock the chiefs were all assembled under an awning

of our sails, stretched so as to exclude the wind which had become high;

that the impression might be the more forcible, the men were all

paraded, and the council opened by a discharge from the swivel of the

boat. We then delivered a speech, which like those we had already made

intermingled advice with assurances of friendship and trade: while we

were speaking the old Ahnahaway chief grew very restless, and observed

that he could not wait long as his camp was exposed to the hostilities

of the Shoshonees; he was instantly rebuked with great dignity by one of

the chiefs for this violation of decorum at such a moment, and remained

quiet during the rest of the council. Towards the end of our speech we

introduced the subject of our Ricara chief, with whom we recommended a

firm peace: to this they seemed well disposed, and all smoked with him

very amicably. We all mentioned the goods which had been taken from the

Frenchmen, and expressed a wish that they should he restored. This being

over, we proceeded to distribute the presents with great ceremony: one

chief of each town was acknowledged by a gift of a flag, a medal with

the likeness of the president of the United States, a uniform coat, hat

and feather: to the second chiefs we gave a medal representing some

domestic animals, and a loom for weaving; to the third chiefs medals

with the impressions of a farmer sowing grain. A variety of other

presents were distributed, but none seemed to give them more

satisfaction than an iron corn mill which we gave to the Mandans.

The chiefs who were made to-day are: Shahaka or Big White, a first

chief, and Kagohami or Little Raven, a second chief of the lower village

of the Mandans, called Matootonha: the other chiefs of an inferior

quality who were recommended were, 1. Ohheenaw, or Big Man, a Chayenne

taken prisoner by the Mandans who adopted him, and he now enjoys great

consideration among the tribe. 2. Shotahawrora, or Coal, of the second

Mandan village which is called Rooptahee. We made Poscopsahe, or Black

Cat, the first chief of the village, and the grand chief of the whole

Mandan nation: his second chief is Kagonomokshe, or Raven man Chief;

inferior chiefs of this village were, Tawnuheo, and Bellahsara, of which

we did not learn the translation.

In the third village which is called Mahawha, and where the Arwacahwas

reside, we made one first chief, Tetuckopinreha, or White Buffaloe robe

unfolded, and recognized two of an inferior order: Minnissurraree, or

Neighing Horse, and Locongotiha, or Old woman at a distance.

Of the fourth village where the Minnetarees live, and which is called

Metaharta, we made a first chief, Ompsehara, or Black Moccasin: a second

chief, Ohhaw, or Little Fox. Other distinguished chiefs of this village

were, Mahnotah, or Big Thief, a man whom we did not see as he is out

fighting, and was killed soon after; and Mahserassa, or Tail of the

Calumet Bird. In the fifth village we made a first chief Eapanopa, or

Red Shield; a second chief Wankerassa, or Two Tailed Calumet Bird, both

young chiefs; other persons of distinction are, Shahakohopinnee, or

Little Wolf's Medicine; Ahrattanamoekshe, or Wolfman chief, who is now

at war, and is the son of the old chief we have mentioned, whose name is

Caltahcota, or Cherry on a Bush.

The presents intended for the grand chief of the Minnetarees, who was

not at the council, were sent to him by the old chief Caltahcota; and we

delivered to a young chief those intended for the chief of the lower

village. The council was concluded by a shot from our swivel, and after

firing the airgun for their amusement, they retired to deliberate on the

answer which they are to give to-morrow.

In the evening the prairie took fire, either by accident or design, and

burned with great fury, the whole plain being enveloped in flames: so

rapid was its progress that a man and a woman were burnt to death before

they could reach a place of safety; another man with his wife and child

were much burnt, and several other persons narrowly escaped destruction.

Among the rest a boy of the half white breed escaped unhurt in the midst

of the flames; his safety was ascribed to the great medicine spirit, who

had preserved him on account of his being white. But a much more natural

cause was the presence of mind of his mother, who seeing no hopes of

carrying off her son, threw him on the ground, and covering him with the

fresh hide of a buffaloe, escaped herself from the flames; as soon as

the fire had passed, she returned and found him untouched, the skin

having prevented, the flame from reaching the grass on which he lay.

Tuesday 30. We were this morning visited by two persons from the lower

village, one the Big White the chief of the village, the other the

Chayenne called the Big Man; they had been hunting, and did not return

yesterday early enough to attend the council. At their request we

repeated part of our speech of yesterday, and put the medal round the

neck of the chief. Captain Clarke took a periogue and went up the river

in search of a good wintering place, and returned after going seven

miles to the lower point of an island on the north side, about one mile

in length; he found the banks on the north side high, with coal

occasionally, and the country fine on all sides; but the want of wood

and the scarcity of game up the river, induced us to decide on fixing

ourselves lower down during the winter. In the evening our men danced

among themselves to the great amusement of the Indians.

Wednesday 31. A second chief arrived this morning with an invitation

from the grand chief of the Mandans, to come to his village where he

wished to present some corn to us and to speak with us. Captain Clarke

walked down to his village; he was first seated with great ceremony on a

robe by the side of the chief, who then threw over his shoulders another

robe handsomely ornamented. The pipe was then smoked with several of the

old men who were seated around the chief; after some time he began his

discourse, by observing that he believed what we had told him, and that

they should soon enjoy peace, which would gratify him as well as his

people, because they could then hunt without fear of being attacked, and

the women might work in the fields without looking every moment for the

enemy, and at night put off their moccasins, a phrase by which is

conveyed the idea of security when the women could undress at night

without fear of attack. As to the Ricaras, he continued, in order to

show you that we wish peace with all men, that chief, pointing to his

second chief, will go with some warriors back to the Ricaras with their

chief now here and smoke with that nation. When we heard of your coming

all the nations around returned from their hunting to see you, in hopes

of receiving large presents; all are disappointed and some discontented;

for his part he was not much so, though his village was. He added that

he would go and see his great father the president. Two of the steel

traps stolen from the Frenchmen were then laid before captain Clarke,

and the women brought about twelve bushels of corn. After the chief had

finished, captain Clarke made an answer to the speech and then returned

to the boat, where he found the chief of the third village and Kagohami

(the Little Raven) who smoked and talked about an hour. After they left

the boat the grand chief of the Mandans came dressed in the clothes we

had given him, with his two children, and begged to see the men dance,

in which they willingly gratified him.

Thursday, November 1st. Mr. M'Cracken, the trader whom we found here,

set out to-day on his return to the British fort and factory on the

Assiniboin river, about one hundred and fifty miles from this place. He

took a letter from captain Lewis to the northwest company, inclosing a

copy of the passport granted by the British minister in the United

States. At ten o'clock the chiefs of the lower village arrived; they

requested that we would call at their village for some corn, that they

were willing to make peace with the Ricaras, that they had never

provoked the war between them, but as the Ricaras had killed some of

their chiefs, they had retaliated on them; that they had killed them

like birds, till they were tired of killing them, so that they would

send a chief and some warriors to smoke with them. In the evening we

dropped down to the lower village where captain Lewis went on shore, and

captain Clarke proceeded to a point of wood on the north side.

Friday, November 2. He therefore went up to the village where eleven

bushels of corn were presented to him. In the meantime Captain Clarke

went down with the boats three miles, and having found a good position

where there was plenty of timber, encamped and began to fell trees to

build our huts. Our Ricara chief set out with one Mandan chief and

several Minnetaree and Mandan warriors; the wind was from the southeast,

and the weather being fine a crowd of Indians came down to visit us.

Saturday 3. We now began the building of our cabins, and the Frenchmen

who are to return to St. Louis are building a periogue for the purpose.

We sent six men in a periogue to hunt down the river. We were also

fortunate enough to engage in our service a Canadian Frenchmen, who had

been with the Chayenne Indians on the Black mountains, and last summer

descended thence by the Little Missouri. Mr. Jessaume our interpreter

also came down with his squaw and children to live at our camp. In the

evening we received a visit from Kagohami or Little Raven, whose wife

accompanied him, bringing about sixty weight of dried meat, a robe and a

pot of meal. We gave him in return a piece of tobacco, to his wife an

axe and a few small articles, and both of them spent the night at our

camp. Two beavers were caught in traps this morning.

Sunday 4. We continued our labours: the timber which we employ is large

and heavy, and chiefly consists of cottonwood and elm with some ash of

an inferior size. Great numbers of the Indians pass our camp on their

hunting excursions: the day was clear and pleasant, but last night was

very cold and there was a white frost.

Monday 5. The Indians are all out on their hunting parties: a camp of

Mandans caught within two days one hundred goats a short distance below

us: their mode of hunting them is to form a large strong pen or fold,

from which a fence made of bushes gradually widens on each side: the

animals are surrounded by the hunters and gently driven towards this

pen, in which they imperceptibly find themselves inclosed and are then

at the mercy of the hunters. The weather is cloudy and the wind moderate

from the northwest. Late at night we were awaked by the sergeant on

guard to see the beautiful phenomenon called the northern light: along

the northern sky was a large space occupied by a light of a pale but

brilliant white colour: which rising from the horizon extended itself to

nearly twenty degrees above it. After glittering for some time its

colours would be overcast, and almost obscured, but again it would burst

out with renewed beauty; the uniform colour was pale light, but its

shapes were various and fantastic: at times the sky was lined with light

coloured streaks rising perpendicularly from the horizon, and gradually

expanding into a body of light in which we could trace the floating

columns sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating and shaping into

infinite forms, the space in which they moved. It all faded away before

the morning. At daylight,

Tuesday 6, the clouds to the north were darkening and the wind rose high

from the northwest at eight o'clock, and continued cold during the day.

Mr. Gravelines and four others who came with us returned to the Ricaras

in a small periogue, we gave him directions to accompany some of the

Ricara chiefs to the seat of government in the spring.

Wednesday 7. The day was temperate but cloudy and foggy, and we were

enabled to go on with our work with much expedition.

Thursday 8. The morning again cloudy; our huts advance very well, and we

are visited by numbers of Indians who come to let their horses graze

near us: in the day the horses are let loose in quest of grass, in the

night they are collected and receive an armful of small boughs of the

cottonwood, which being very juicy, soft and brittle, form nutritious

and agreeable food: the frost this morning was very severe, the weather

during the day cloudy and the wind from the northwest. We procured from

an Indian a weasel perfectly white except the extremity of the tail

which was black: great numbers of wild geese are passing to the south,

but their flight is too high for us to procure any of them.

November 10. We had again a raw day, a northwest wind, but rose early

in hopes of finishing our works before the extreme cold begins. A chief

who is a half Pawnee came to us and brought a present of half a

buffaloe, in return for which we gave him some small presents and a few

articles to his wife and son: he then crossed the river in a buffaloe

skin canoe; his wife took the boat on her back and carried it to the

village three miles off. Large flocks of geese and brant, and also a few

ducks are passing towards the south.

Sunday 11. The weather is cold. We received the visit of two squaws,

prisoners from the Rock mountains, and purchased by Chaboneau. The

Mandans at this time are out hunting the buffaloe.

Monday 12. The last night had been cold and this morning we had a very

hard frost: the wind changeable during the day, and some ice appears on

the edges of the rivers; swans too are passing to the south. The Big

White came down to us, having packed on the back of his squaw about one

hundred pounds of very fine meat: for which we gave him as well as the

squaw some presents, particularly an axe to the woman with which she was

very much pleased.

Tuesday 13. We this morning unloaded the boat and stowed away the

contents in a storehouse which we have built. At half past ten ice began

to float down the river for the first time: in the course of the morning

we were visited by the Black Cat, Poscapsahe, who brought an Assiniboin

chief and seven warriors to see us. This man, whose name is Chechawk, is

a chief of one out of three bands of Assiniboins who wander over the

plains between the Missouri and Assiniboin during the summer, and in the

winter carry the spoils of their hunting to the traders on the

Assiniboin river, and occasionally come to this place: the whole three

bands consist of about eight hundred men. We gave him a twist of tobacco

to smoke with his people, and a gold cord for himself: the Sioux also

asked for whiskey which we refused to give them. It snowed all day and

the air was very cold.

Wednesday 14. The river rose last night half an inch, and is now filled

with floating ice. This morning was cloudy with some snow: about seventy

lodges of Assiniboins and some Knistenaux are at the Mandan village, and

this being the day of adoption and exchange of property between them

all, it is accompanied by a dance, which prevents our seeing more than

two Indians to-day: these Knistenaux are a band of Chippeways whose

language they speak; they live on the Assiniboin and Saskashawan rivers,

and are about two hundred and forty men. We sent a man down on horseback

to see what had become of our hunters, and as we apprehend a failure of

provisions we have recourse to our pork this evening. Two Frenchmen who

had been below returned with twenty beaver which they had caught in

traps.

Thursday 15. The morning again cloudy, and the ice running thicker than

yesterday, the wind variable. The man came back with information that

our hunters were about thirty miles below, and we immediately sent an

order to them to make their way through the floating ice, to assist them

in which we sent some tin for the bow of the periogue and a towrope. The

ceremony of yesterday seem to continue still, for we were not visited by

a single Indian. The swan are still passing to the south.

Friday 16. We had a very hard white frost this morning, the trees are

all covered with ice, and the weather cloudy. The men this day moved

into the huts, although they are not finished. In the evening some

horses were sent down to the woods near us in order to prevent their

being stolen by the Assiniboins, with whom some difficulty is now

apprehended. An Indian came down with four buffaloe robes and some corn,

which he offered for a pistol, but was refused.

Saturday, November 17. Last night was very cold, and the ice in the

river to-day is thicker than hitherto. We are totally occupied with our

huts, but received visits from several Indians.

Sunday, November 18. To-day we had a cold windy morning; the Black Cat

came to see us, and occupied us for a long time with questions on the

usages of our country. He mentioned that a council had been held

yesterday to deliberate on the state of their affairs. It seems that not

long ago, a party of Sioux fell in with some horses belonging to the

Minnetarees, and carried them off; but in their flight they were met by

some Assiniboins, who killed the Sioux and kept the horses: a Frenchman

too who had lived many years among the Mandans, was lately killed on his

route to the British factory on the Assiniboin; some smaller differences

existed between the two nations, all of which being discussed, the

council decided that they would not resent the recent insults from the

Assiniboins and Knistenaux, until they had seen whether we had deceived

them or not in our promises of furnishing them with arms and ammunition.

They had been disappointed in their hopes of receiving them from Mr.

Evans and were afraid that we too, like him, might tell them what was

not true. We advised them to continue at peace, that supplies of every

kind would no doubt arrive for them, but that time was necessary to

organize the trade. The fact is that the Assiniboins treat the Mandans

as the Sioux do the Ricaras; by their vicinity to the British they get

all the supplies, which they withhold or give at pleasure to the remoter

Indians: the consequence is, that however badly treated, the Mandans and

Ricaras are very slow to retaliate lest they should* lose their trade

altogether.

Monday 19. The ice continues to float in the river, the wind high from

the northwest, and the weather cold. Our hunters arrived from their

excursion below, and bring a very fine supply of thirty-two deer, eleven

elk, and five buffaloe, all of which was hung in a smokehouse.

Tuesday 20. We this day moved into our huts which are now completed.

This place which we call Fort Mandan, is situated in a point of low

ground, on the north side of the Missouri, covered with tall and heavy

cottonwood. The works consist of two rows of huts or sheds, forming an

angle where they joined each other; each row containing four rooms, of

fourteen feet square and seven feet high, with plank ceiling*, and the

roof slanting so as to form a loft above the rooms, the highest part of

which is eighteen feet from the ground: the backs of the huts formed a

wall of that height, and opposite the angle the place of the wall was

supplied by picketing; in the area were two rooms for stores and

provisions. The latitude by observation is 47° 21' 47", and the computed

distance from the mouth of the Missouri sixteen hundred miles.

In the course of the day several Indians came down to partake of our

fresh meat; among the rest, three chiefs of the second Mandan village.

They inform us that the Sioux on the Missouri above the Chayenne river,

threaten to attack them this winter; that these Sioux are much irritated

at the Ricaras for having made peace through our means with the Mandans,

and have lately ill treated three Ricaras who carried the pipe of peace

to them, by beating them and taking away their horses. We gave them

assurances that we would protect them from all their enemies.

November 21st. The weather was this day fine: the river clear of ice and

rising a little: we are now settled in our new winter habitation, and

shall wait with much anxiety the first return of spring to continue our

journey.

The villages near which we are established are five in number, and are

the residence of three distinct nations: the Mandans, the Ahnahaways,

and the Minnetarees. The history of the Mandans, as we received it from

our interpreters and from the chiefs themselves, and as it is attested

by existing monuments, illustrates more than that of any other nation

the unsteady movements and the tottering fortunes of the American

nations. Within the recollection of living witnesses, the Mandans were

settled forty years ago in nine villages, the ruins of which we passed

about eighty miles below, and situated seven on the west and two on the

east side of the Missouri. The two finding themselves wasting away

before the small-pox and the Sioux, united into one village, and moved

up the river opposite to the Ricaras. The same causes reduced the

remaining seven to five villages, till at length they emigrated in a

body to the Ricara nation, where they formed themselves into two

villages, and joined those of their countrymen who had gone before them.

In their new residence they were still insecure, and at length the three

villages ascended the Missouri to their present position. The two who

had emigrated together still settled in the two villages on the

northwest side of the Missouri, while the single village took a position

on the southeast side. In this situation they were found by those who

visited them in 1796; since which the two villages have united into one.

They are now in two villages, one on the southeast of the Missouri, the

other on the opposite side, and at the distance of three miles across.

The first, in an open plain, contains about forty or fifty lodges, built

in the same way as those of the Ricaras: the second, the same number,

and both may raise about three hundred and fifty men.

On the same side of the river, and at the distance of four miles from

the lower Mandan village, is another called Mahaha. It is situated in a

high plain at the mouth of Knife river, and is the residence of the

Ahnahaways. This nation, whose name indicates that they were "people

whose village is on a hill," formerly resided on the Missouri, about

thirty miles below where they now live. The Assiniboins and Sioux forced

them to a spot five miles higher, where the greatest part of them were

put to death, and the rest emigrated to their present situation, in

order to obtain an assylum near the Minnetarees. They are called by the

French, Soulier Noir or Shoe Indians; by the Mandans, Wattasoons, and

their whole force is about fifty men.

On the south side of the same Knife river, half a mile above the Mahaha

and in the same open plain with it, is a village of Minnetarees surnamed

Metaharta, who are about one hundred and fifty men in number. On the

opposite side of Knife river, and one and a half mile above this village

is a second of Minnetarees, who may be considered as the proper

Minnetaree nation. It is situated in a beautiful low plain, and contains

four hundred and fifty warriors. The accounts which we received of the

Minnetarees were contradictory. The Mandans say that this people came

out of the water to the east, and settled near them in their former

establishment in nine villages; that they were very numerous, and fixed

themselves in one village on the southern side of the Missouri. A

quarrel about a buffaloe divided the nation, of which two bands went

into the plains, and were known by the name of Crow and Paunch Indians,

and the rest moved to their present establishment. The Minnetarees

proper assert, on the contrary, that they grew where they now live, and

will never emigrate from the spot; the great spirit having declared that

if they moved they would all die. They also say that the Minnetarees

Metaharta, that is Minnetarees of the Willows, whose language with very

little variation is their own, came many years ago from the plains and

settled near them, and perhaps the two traditions may be reconciled by

the natural presumption that these Minnetarees were the tribe known to

the Mandans below, and that they ascended the river for the purpose of

rejoining the Minnetarees proper. These Minnetarees are part of the

great nation called Fall Indians, who occupy the intermediate country

between the Missouri and the Saskaskawan, and who are known by the name

of Minnetarees of the Missouri, and Minnetarees of Fort de Prairie; that

is, residing near or rather frequenting the establishment in the prairie

on the Saskaskawan. These Minnetarees indeed, told us that they had

relations on the Saskaskawan, whom they had never known till they met

them in war, and having engaged in the night were astonished at

discovering that they were fighting with men who spoke their own

language. The name of Grosventres, or Bigbellies is given to these

Minnetarees, as well as to all the Fall Indians. The inhabitants of

these five villages, all of which are within the distance of six miles,

live in harmony with each other. The Ahnahaways understand in part the

language of the Minnetarees: the dialect of the Mandans differs widely

from both; but their long residence together has insensibly blended

their manners, and occasioned some approximation in language,

particularly as to objects of daily occurrence and obvious to the

senses.

November 22. The morning was fine, and the day warm. We purchased from

the Mandans a quantity of corn of a mixed colour, which they dug up in

ears from holes made near the front of their lodges, in which it is

buried during the winter: this morning the sentinel informed us that an

Indian was about to kill his wife near the fort; we went down to the

house of our interpreter where we found the parties, and after

forbidding any violence, inquired into the cause of his intending to

commit such as atrocity. It appeared that some days ago a quarrel had

taken place between him and his wife, in consequence of which she had

taken refuge in the house where the two squaws of our interpreter lived:

by running away she forfeited her life, which might have been lawfully

taken by the husband. About two days ago she had returned to the

village, but the same evening came back to the fort much beaten and

stabbed in three places, and the husband now came for the purpose of

completing his revenge. He observed that he had lent her to one of our

serjeants for a night, and that if he wanted her he would give her to

him altogether: we gave him a few presents and tried to persuade him to

take his wife home; the grand chief too happened to arrive at the same

moment, and reproached him with his violence, till at length they went

off together, but by no means in a state of much apparent love.

November 23. Again we had a fair and warm day, with the wind from the

southeast: the river is now at a stand having risen four inches in the

whole.

November 24. The wind continued from the same quarter and the weather

was warm: we were occupied in finishing our huts and making a large rope

of elk-skin to draw our boat on the bank.

Sunday, November 25. The weather is still fine, warm and pleasant, and

the river falls one inch and a half. Captain Lewis went on an excursion

to the villages accompanied by eight men. A Minnetaree chief, the first

who has visited us, came down to the fort: his name was Waukerassa, but

as both the interpreters had gone with captain Lewis we were obliged to

confine our civilities to some presents with which he was much pleased:

we now completed our huts, and fortunately too, for the next day,

Monday, November 26, before daylight the wind shifted to the northwest,

and blew very hard, with cloudy weather and a keen cold air, which

confined us much and prevented us from working: the night continued very

cold, and,

Tuesday 27, the weather cloudy, the wind continuing from the northwest

and the river crowded with floating ice. Captain Lewis returned with two

chiefs Mahnotah, an Ahnahaway, and Minnessurraree a Minnetaree, and a

third warrior: they explained to us that the reason of their not having

come to see us, was that the Mandans had told them that we meant to

combine with the Sioux and cut them off in the course of the winter: a

suspicion increased by the strength of the fort, and the circumstance of

our interpreters having both removed there with their families: these

reports we did not fail to disprove to their entire satisfaction, and

amused them by every attention, particularly by the dancing of the men

which diverted them highly. All the Indians whom captain Lewis had

visited were very well disposed, and received him with great kindness,

except a principal chief of one of the upper villages, named

Mabpahpaparapassatoo or Horned Weasel, who made use of the civilized

indecorum of refusing to be seen, and when captain Lewis called he was

told the chief was not at home. In the course of the day seven of the

northwest company's traders arrived from the Assiniboin river, and one

of their interpreters having undertaken to circulate among the Indians

unfavourable reports, it become necessary to warn them of the

consequences if they did not desist from such proceedings. The river

fell two inches to-day and the weather became very cold.

Wednesday 28. About eight o'clock last evening it began to snow and

continued till daybreak, after which it ceased till seven o'clock, but

then resumed and continued during the day, the weather being cold and

the river full of floating ice: about eight o'clock Poscopsahe came down

to visit us, with some warriors; we gave them presents and entertained

them with all that might amuse their curiosity, and at parting we told

them that we had heard of the British trader, Mr. Laroche, having

attempted to distribute medals and flags among them, but that those

emblems could not be received from any other than the American nation

without incurring the displeasure of their great father the president.

They left us much pleased with their treatment. The river fell one inch

to-day.

Thursday 29. The wind is again from the northwest, the weather cold, and

the snow which fell yesterday and this night is thirteen inches in

depth. The river closed during the night at the village above, and fell

two feet; but this afternoon it began to rise a little. Mr. Laroche, the

principal of the seven traders, came with one of his men to see us; we

told him that we should not permit him to give medals and flags to the

Indians; he declared that he had no such intention, and we then suffered

him to make use of one of our interpreters, on his stipulating not to

touch any subject but that of his traffic with them. An unfortunate

accident occurred to sergeant Pryor, who in taking down the boat's mast

dislocated his shoulder, nor was it till after four trials that we

replaced it.

Friday 30. About eight o'clock an Indian came to the opposite bank of

the river, calling out that he had something important to communicate,

and on sending for him, he told us that five Mandans had been met about

eight leagues to the southwest by a party of Sioux, who had killed one

of them, wounded two, and taken nine horses; that four of the Wattasoons

were missing, and that the Mandans expected an attack. We thought this

an excellent opportunity to discountenance the injurious reports against

us, and to fix the wavering confidence of the nation. Captain Clarke

therefore instantly crossed the river with twenty-three men strongly

armed, and circling the town approached it from behind. His unexpected

appearance surprised and alarmed the chiefs, who came out to meet him,

and conducted him to the village. He then told them that having heard of

the outrage just committed, he had come to assist his dutiful children;

that if they would assemble their warriors and those of the nation, he

would lead them against the Sioux and avenge the blood of their

countrymen. After some minutes conversation, Oheenaw the Chayenne arose;

"We now see," said he, "that what you have told us is true, since as

soon as our enemies threaten to attack us you come to protect us and are

ready to chastise those who have spilt our blood. We did indeed listen

to your good talk, for when you told us that the other nations were

inclined to peace with us, we went out carelessly in small parties, and

some have been killed by the Sioux and Ricaras. But I knew that the

Ricaras were liars, and I told their chief who accompanied you, that his

whole nation were liars and bad men; that we had several times made a

peace with them which they were the first to break; that whenever we

pleased we might shoot them like buffaloe, but that we had no wish to

kill them; that we would not suffer them to kill us, nor steal our

horses; and that although we agreed to make peace with them, because our

two fathers desired it, yet we did not believe that they would be

faithful long. Such, father, was my language to them in your presence,

and you see that instead of listening to your good counsels they have

spilt our blood. A few days ago two Ricaras came here and told us that

two of their villages were making moccasins, that the Sioux were

stirring them up against us, and that we ought to take care of our

horses; yet these very Ricaras we sent home as soon as the news reached

us to-day, lest our people should kill them in the first moment of grief

for their murdered relatives. Four of the Wattasoons whom we expected

back in sixteen days have been absent twenty-four, and we fear have

fallen. But father the snow is now deep, the weather cold, and our

horses cannot travel through the plains; the murderers have gone off: if

you will conduct us in the spring, when the snow has disappeared, we

will assemble all the surrounding warriors and follow you."

Captain Clarke replied that we were always willing and able to defend

them; that he was sorry that the snow prevented their marching to meet

the Sioux, since he wished to show them that the warriors of their great

father would chastise the enemies of his obedient children who opened

their ears to his advice; that if some Ricaras had joined the Sioux,

they should remember that there were bad men in every nation, and that

they should not be offended at the Ricaras till they saw whether these

ill-disposed men were countenanced by the whole tribe; that the Sioux

possessed great influence over the Ricaras, whom they supplied with

military stores, and sometimes led them astray, because they were afraid

to oppose them: but that this should be the less offensive since the

Mandans themselves were under the same apprehensions from the

Assiniboins and Knistenaux, and that while they were thus dependant,

both the Ricaras and Mandans ought to keep on terms with their powerful

neighbours, whom they may afterwards set at defiance, when we shall

supply them with arms, and take them under our protection.

After two hours conversation captain Clarke left the village. The chief

repeatedly thanked him for the fatherly protection he had given them,

observing that the whole village had been weeping all night and day for

the brave young man who had been slain, but now they would wipe their

eyes and weep no more as they saw that their father would protect them.

He then crossed the river on the ice and returned on the north side to

the fort. The day as well as the evening was cold, and the river rose to

its former height.

Saturday, December 1. The wind was from the northwest, and the whole

party engaged in picketing the fort. About ten o'clock the half-brother

of the man who had been killed, came to inform us that six Sharhas or

Chayenne Indians had arrived, bringing a pipe of peace, and that their

nation was three days march behind them. Three Pawnees had accompanied

the Sharhas, and the Mandans being afraid of the Sharhas on account of

their being at peace with the Sioux, wished to put both them and the

three Pawnees to death; but the chiefs had forbidden it as it would be

contrary to our wishes. We gave him a present of tobacco, and although

from his connexion with the sufferer, he was more embittered against the

Pawnees than any other Mandan, yet he seemed perfectly satisfied with

our pacific counsels and advice. The Mandans, we observe, call all the

Ricaras by the name of Pawnees; the name of Ricaras being that by which

the nation distinguishes itself.

In the evening we were visited by a Mr. Henderson, who came from the

Hudson bay company to trade with the Minnetarees. He had been about

eight days on his route in a direction nearly south, and brought with

him tobacco, beeds, and other merchandize to trade for furs, and a few

guns which are to be exchanged for horses.

Sunday, December 2. The latter part of the evening was warm, and a thaw

continued till the morning, when the wind shifted to the north. At

eleven o'clock the chiefs of the lower village brought down four of the

Sharhas. We explained to them our intentions, and advised them to remain

at peace with each other: we also gave them a flag, some tobacco, and a

speech for their nation. These were accompanied by a letter to messrs.

Tabeau and Gravelines at the Ricara village, requesting them to preserve

peace if possible, and to declare the part which we should be forced to

take if the Ricaras and Sioux made war on those whom we had adopted.

After distributing a few presents to the Sharhas and Mandans, and

showing them our curiosities we dismissed them, apparently well pleased

at their reception.

Monday, December 3. The morning was fine, but in the afternoon the

weather became cold with the wind from the northwest. The father of the

Mandan who was killed brought us a present of dried pumpkins and some

pemitigon, for which we gave him some small articles. Our offer of

assistance to avenge the death of his son seemed to have produced a

grateful respect from him, as well as from the brother of the deceased,

which pleased us much.

Tuesday 4th. The wind continues from the northwest, the weather cloudy

and raw, and the river rose one inch, Oscapsahe and two young chiefs

pass the day with us. The whole religion of the Mandans consists in the

belief of one great spirit presiding over their destinies. This being

must be in the nature of a good genius since it is associated with the

healing art, and the great spirit is synonymous with great medicine, a

name also applied to every thing which they do not comprehend. Each

individual selects for himself the particular object of his devotion,

which is termed his medicine, and is either some invisible being or more

commonly some animal, which thenceforward becomes his protector or his

intercessor with the great spirit; to propitiate whom every attention is

lavished, and every personal consideration is sacrificed. "I was lately

owner of seventeen horses," said a Mandan to us one day, "but I have

offered them all up to my medicine and am now poor." He had in reality

taken all his wealth, his horses, into the plain, and turning them loose

committed them to the care of his medicine and abandoned them forever.

The horses less religious took care of themselves, and the pious votary

travelled home on foot. Their belief in a future state is connected with

this tradition of their origin: the whole nation resided in one large

village under ground near a subterraneous lake; a grape-vine extended

its roots down to their habitation and gave them a view of the light:

some of the most adventurous climed up the vine and were delighted with

the sight of the earth, which they found covered with buffaloe and rich

with every kind of fruits: returning with the grapes they had gathered,

their countrymen were so pleased with the taste of them that the whole

nation resolved to leave their dull residence for the charms of the

upper region; men, women and children ascended by means of the vine; but

when about half the nation had reached the surface of the earth, a

corpulent woman who was clambering up the vine broke it with her weight,

and closed upon herself and the rest of the nation the light of the sun.

Those who were left on earth made a village below where we saw the nine

villages; and when the Mandans die they expect to return to the original

seats of their forefathers; the good reaching the ancient village by

means of the lake, which the burden of the sins of the wicked will not

enable them to cross.

Wednesday 5. The morning was cold and disagreeable, the wind from the

southeast accompanied with snow: in the evening there was snow again and

the wind shifted to the northeast: we were visited by several Indians

with a present of pumpkins, and by two of the traders of the northwest

company.

Thursday 6. The wind was violent from the north northwest with some

snow, the air keen and cold. At eight o'clock A.M. the thermometer stood

at ten degrees above 0, and the river rose an inch and a half in the

course of the day.

Friday, December 7. The wind still continued from the northwest and the

day is very cold: Shahaka the chief of the lower village came to apprise

us that the buffaloe were near, and that his people were waiting for us

to join them in the chase: captain Clark with fifteen men went out and

found the Indians engaged in killing the buffaloe, the hunters mounted

on horseback and armed with bows and arrows encircle the herd, and

gradually drive them into a plain or an open place fit for the movements

of horse; they then ride in among them, and singling out a buffaloe, a

female being preferred, go as close as possible and wound her with

arrows till they think they have given the mortal stroke; when they

pursue another till the quiver is exhausted: if, which rarely happens,

the wounded buffaloe attacks the hunter, he evades his blow by the

agility of his horse which is trained for the combat with great

dexterity. When they have killed the requisite number they collect their

game, and the squaws and attendants come up from the rear and skin and

dress the animals. Captain Clarke killed ten buffaloe, of which five

only were brought to the fort, the rest which could not be conveyed home

being seized by the Indians, among whom the custom is that whenever a

buffaloe is found dead without an arrow or any particular mark, he is

the property of the finder; so that often a hunter secures scarcely any

of the game he kills if the arrow happens to fall off: whatever is left

out at night falls to the share of the wolves, who are the constant and

numerous attendants of the buffaloe. The river closed opposite the fort

last night, an inch and a half in thickness. In the morning the

thermometer stood at one degree below 0. Three men were badly

frostbitten in consequence of their exposure.

Saturday 8. The thermometer stood at twelve degrees below 0, that is at

forty-two degrees below the freezing point: the wind was from the

northwest. Captain Lewis with fifteen men went out to hunt the buffaloe;

great numbers of which darkened the prairies for a considerable

distance: they did not return till after dark, having killed eight

buffaloe and one deer. The hunt was, however, very fatiguing, as they

were obliged to make a circuit at the distance of more than seven miles;

the cold too, was so excessive that the air was filled with icy

particles resembling a fog, and the snow generally six or eight inches

deep and sometimes eighteen, in consequence of which two of the party

were hurt by falls, and several had their feet frostbitten.

Sunday 9. The wind was this day from the east, the thermometer at seven

degrees above 0, and the sun shone clear: two chiefs visited us, one in

a sleigh drawn by a dog and loaded with meat.

Monday 10. Captain Clarke who had gone out yesterday with eighteen men

to bring in the meat we had killed the day before, and to continue the

hunt, came in at twelve o'clock. After killing nine buffaloe and

preparing that already dead, he had spent a cold disagreeable night on

the snow, with no covering but a small blanket, sheltered by the hides

of the buffaloe they had killed. We observe large herds of buffaloe

crossing the river on the ice, the men who were frostbitten are

recovering, but the weather is still exceedingly cold, the wind being

from the north, and the thermometer at ten and eleven degrees below 0:

the rise of the river is one inch and a half.

Tuesday 11. The weather became so intensely cold that we sent for all

the hunters who had remained out with captain Clarke's party, and they

returned in the evening several of them frostbitten. The wind was from

the north and the thermometer at sunrise stood at twenty-one below 0,

the ice in the atmosphere being so thick as to render the weather hazy

and give the appearance of two suns reflecting each other. The river

continues at a stand. Pocapsahe made us a visit to-day.

Wednesday, December 12. The wind is still from the north, the

thermometer being at sunrise thirty-eight degrees below 0. One of the

Ahnahaways brought us down the half of an antelope killed near the fort;

we had been informed that all these animals return to the Black

mountains, but there are great numbers of them about us at this season

which we might easily kill, but are unwilling to venture out before our

constitutions are hardened gradually to the climate. We measured the

river on the ice, and find it five hundred yards wide immediately

opposite the fort.

Thursday 13. Last night was clear and a very heavy frost covered the old

snow, the thermometer at sun rise being twenty degrees below 0, and

followed by a fine day. The river falls.

Friday 14. The morning was fine, and the weather having moderated so

far, that the mercury stood at 0, captain Lewis went down with a party

to hunt; they proceeded about eighteen miles, but the buffaloe having

left the banks of the river they saw only two, which were so poor as not

to be worth killing, and shot two deer. Notwithstanding the snow we were

visited by a large number of the Mandans.

Saturday 15. Captain Lewis finding no game returned to the fort hunting

on both sides of the river, but with no success. The wind being from the

north, the mercury at sunrise eight degrees below 0, and the snow of

last night an inch and a half in depth. The Indian chiefs continue to

visit us to-day with presents of meat.

Sunday 16. The morning is clear and cold, the mercury at sunrise 22°

below 0. A Mr. Haney with two other persons from the British

establishment on the Assiniboin, arrived in six days with a letter from

Mr. Charles Chabouilles, one of the company, who with much politeness

offered to render us any service in his power.

Monday 17. The weather to-day was colder than any we had yet

experienced, the thermometer at sunrise being 45° below 0, and about

eight o'clock it fell to 74° below the freezing point. From Mr. Haney,

who is a very sensible intelligent man, we obtained much geographical

information with regard to the country between the Missouri and

Mississippi, and the various tribes of Sioux who inhabit it.

Tuesday 18. The thermometer at sunrise was 32° below 0. The Indians had

invited us yesterday to join their chace to-day, but the seven men whom

we sent returned in consequence of the cold, which was so severe last

night that we were obliged to have the sentinel relieved every half

hour. The northwest traders however left us on their return home.

Wednesday 19. The weather moderated, and the river rose a little,

so that we were enabled to continue the picketing of the fort.

Notwithstanding the extreme cold, we observe the Indians at the village

engaged out in the open air at a game which resembled billiards more

than any thing we had seen, and which we inclined to suspect may have

been acquired by ancient intercourse with the French of Canada. From

the first to the second chief's lodge, a distance of about fifty yards,

was covered with timber smoothed and joined so as to be as level as the

floor of one of our houses, with a battery at the end to stop the rings:

these rings were of clay-stone and flat like the chequers for drafts,

and the sticks were about four feet long, with two short pieces at one

end in the form of a mace, so fixed that the whole will slide along the

board. Two men fix themselves at one end, each provided with a stick,

and one of them with a ring: they then run along the board, and about

half way slide the sticks after the ring.

Thursday 20. The wind was from the N.W. the weather moderate, the

thermometer 24° above at sunrise. We availed ourselves of this change to

picket the fort near the river.

Friday 21. The day was fine and warm, the wind N.W. by W. The Indian

who had been prevented a few days ago from killing his wife, came with

both his wives to the fort, and was very desirous of reconciling our

interpreter, a jealousy against whom on account of his wife's taking

refuge in his house, had been the cause of his animosity. A woman

brought her child with an abscess in the lower part of the back, and

offered as much corn as she could carry for some medicine; we

administered to it of course very cheerfully.

Saturday, 22d. A number of squaws and men dressed like squaws brought

corn to trade for small articles with the men. Among other things we

procured two horns of the animal called by the French the Rock mountain

sheep, and known to the Mandans by the name of ahsahta. The animal

itself is about the size of a small elk or large deer: the horns winding

like those of a ram which they resemble also in texture, though larger

and thicker.

Sunday, 23d. The weather was fine and warm like that of yesterday: we

were again visited by crowds of Indians of all descriptions, who came

either to trade or from mere curiosity. Among the rest Kogahami, the

Little Raven, brought his wife and son loaded with corn, and she then

entertained us with a favourite Mandan dish, a mixture of pumpkins,

beans, corn, and chokecherries with the stones, all boiled together in a

kettle, and forming a composition by no means unpalatable.

Monday, 24th. The day continued warm and pleasant, and the number of

visitors became troublesome. As a present to three of the chiefs, we

divided a fillet of sheepskin which we brought for spunging into three

pieces each of two inches in width; they were delighted at the gift,

which they deemed of equal value with a fine horse. We this day

completed our fort, and the next morning being Christmas,

Tuesday, 25th, we were awaked before day by a discharge of three

platoons from the party. We had told the Indians not to visit us as it

was one of our great medicine days; so that the men remained at home and

amused themselves in various ways, particularly with dancing in which

they take great pleasure. The American flag was hoisted for the first

time in the fort; the best provisions we had were brought out, and this,

with a little brandy, enabled them to pass the day in great festivity.

Wednesday, 26th. The weather is again temperate, but no Indians have

come to see us. One of the northwest traders who came down to request

the aid of our Minnetaree interpreter, informs us that a party of

Minnetarees who had gone in pursuit of the Assiniboins who lately stole

their horses had just returned. As is their custom, they came back in

small detachments, the last of which brought home eight horses which

they had captured or stolen from an Assiniboin camp on Mouse river.

Thursday, 27th. A little fine snow fell this morning and the air was

colder than yesterday, with a high northwest wind. We were fortunate

enough to have among our men a good blacksmith, whom we set to work to

make a variety of articles; his operations seemed to surprise the

Indians who came to see us, but nothing could equal their astonishment

at the bellows, which they considered as a very great medicine. Having

heretofore promised a more particular account of the Sioux, the

following may serve as a general outline of their history:

Almost the whole of that vast tract of country comprised between the

Mississippi, the Red River of Lake Winnepeg, the Saskaskawan, and the

Missouri, is loosely occupied by a great nation whose primitive name is

Darcota, but who are called Sioux by the French, Sues by the English.

Their original seats were on the Mississippi, but they have gradually

spread themselves abroad and become subdivided into numerous tribes. Of

these, what may be considered as the Darcotas are the Mindawarcarton, or

Minowakanton, known to the French by the name of the Gens du Lac, or

People of the Lake. Their residence is on both sides of the Mississippi

near the falls of St. Anthony, and the probable number of their warriors

about three hundred. Above them, on the river St. Peter's, is the

Wahpatone, a smaller band of nearly two hundred men; and still farther

up the same river below Yellow-wood river are the Wahpatootas or Gens de

Feuilles, an inferior band of not more than one hundred men; while the

sources of the St. Peter's are occupied by the Sisatoones, a band

consisting of about two hundred warriors.

These bands rarely if ever approach the Missouri, which is occupied by

their kinsmen the Yanktons and the Tetons. The Yanktons are of two

tribes, those of the plains, or rather of the north, a wandering race of

about five hundred men, who roam over the plains at the heads of the

Jacques, the Sioux, and the Red river; and those of the south, who

possess the country between the Jacques and Sioux rivers and the

Desmoine. But the bands of Sioux most known on the Missouri are the

Tetons. The first who are met on ascending the Missouri is the tribe

called by the French the Tetons of the Boise Brule or Burntwood, who

reside on both sides of the Missouri, about White and Teton rivers, and

number two hundred warriors. Above them on the Missouri are the Teton

Okandandas, a band of one hundred and fifty men living below the

Chayenne river, between which and the Wetarhoo river is a third band,

called Teton Minnakenozzo, of nearly two hundred and fifty men; and

below the Warreconne is the fourth and last tribe of Tetons of about

three hundred men, and called Teton Saone. Northward of these, between

the Assiniboin and the Missouri, are two bands of Assiniboins, one on

Mouse river of about two hundred men, and called Assiniboin Menatopa;

the other, residing on both sides of White river, called by the French

Gens de Feuilles, and amounting to two hundred and fifty men. Beyond

these a band of Assiniboins of four hundred and fifty men, and called

the Big Devils, wander on the heads of Milk, Porcupine, and Martha's

rivers; while still farther to the north are seen two bands of the same

nation, one of five hundred and the other of two hundred, roving on the

Saskaskawan. Those Assiniboins are recognised by a similarity of

language, and by tradition as descendents or seceders from the Sioux;

though often at war are still acknowledged as relations. The Sioux

themselves, though scattered, meet annually on the Jacques, those on the

Missouri trading with those on the Mississippi.

CHAPTER VI.

The party increase in the favour of the Mandans--Description of a

buffaloe dance--Medicine dance--The fortitude with which the

Indians bear the severity of the season--Distress of the party for

want of provisions--The great importance of the blacksmith in

procuring it--Depredations of the Sioux--The homage paid to the

medicine stone--Summary act of justice among the Minnetarees--The

process by which the Mandans and Ricaras make beads--Character of

the Missouri, of the surrounding country, and of the rivers,

creeks, islands, &c.

Friday, 28th. The wind continued high last night, the frost severe, and

the snow drifting in great quantities through the plains.

Saturday, 29th. There was a frost fell last night nearly one quarter of

an inch in depth, which continued to fall till the sun had gained some

height: the mercury at sunrise stood at 9° below 0: there were a number

of Indians at the fort in the course of the day.

Sunday, 30th. The weather was cold, and the thermometer 20° below 0. We

killed one deer, and yesterday one of the men shot a wolf. The Indians

brought corn, beans, and squashes, which they very readily gave for

getting their axes and kettles mended. In their general conduct during

these visits they are honest, but will occasionally pilfer any small

article.

Monday, 31. During the night there was a high wind which covered the ice

with hillocks of mixed sand and snow: the day was however fine, and the

Indians came in great numbers for the purpose of having their utensils

repaired.

Tuesday, January 1, 1805. The new year was welcomed by two shot from the

swivel and a round of small arms. The weather was cloudy but moderate;

the mercury which at sunrise was at 18°, in the course of the day rose

to 34° above 0: towards evening it began to rain, and at night we had

snow, the temperature for which is about 0. In the morning we permitted

sixteen men with their music to go up to the first village, where they

delighted the whole tribe with their dances, particularly with the

movements of one of the Frenchmen who danced on his head. In return they

presented the dancers with several buffaloe robes and quantities of

corn. We were desirous of showing this attention to the village, because

they had received an impression that we had been wanting in regard for

them, and they had in consequence circulated invidious comparisons

between us and the northern traders: all these however they declared to

captain Clarke, who visited them in the course of the morning, were made

in jest. As captain Clarke was about leaving the village, two of their

chiefs returned from a mission to the Grosventres or wandering

Minnetarees. These people were encamped about ten miles above, and while

there one of the Ahnahaways had stolen a Minnetaree girl: the whole

nation immediately espoused the quarrel, and one hundred and fifty of

their warriors were marching down to revenge the insult on the

Ahnahaways. The chief of that nation took the girl from the ravisher,

and giving her to the Mandans requested their intercession. The

messengers went out to meet the warriors, and delivered the young damsel

into the hands of her countrymen, smoked the pipe of peace with them,

and were fortunate enough to avert their indignation and induce them to

return. In the evening some of the men came to the fort and the rest

slept in the village. Pocapsahe also visited us and brought some meat on

his wife's back.

Wednesday, January 2. It snowed last night, and during this day the same

scene of gayety was renewed at the second village, and all the men

returned in the evening.

Thursday 3. Last night it became very cold, and this morning we had some

snow: our hunters were sent out for buffaloe, but the game had been

frightened from the river by the Indians, so that they obtained only

one: they however killed a hare and a wolf. Among the Indians who

visited us was a Minnetaree who came to seek his wife: she had been much

abused and came here for protection, but returned with him; as we had no

authority to separate those whom even the Mandan rites had united.

Friday 4. The morning was cloudy and warm, the mercury being 28° above

0: but towards evening the wind changed to northwest, and the weather

became cold. We sent some hunters down the river, but they killed only

one buffaloe and a wolf. We received the visit of Kagohami who is very

friendly, and to whom we gave a hankerchief and two files.

Saturday 5. We had high and boisterous winds last night and this

morning: the Indians continue to purchase repairs with grain of

different kinds. In the first village there has been a buffaloe dance

for the last three nights, which has put them all into commotion, and

the description which we received from those of the party who visited

the village and from other sources, is not a little ludicrous: the

buffaloe dance is an institution originally intended for the benefit of

the old men, and practised at their suggestion. When buffaloe becomes

scarce they send a man to harangue the village, declaring that the game

is far off and that a feast is necessary to bring it back, and if the

village be disposed a day and place is named for the celebration of it.

At the appointed hour the old men arrive, and seat themselves

crosslegged on skins round a fire in the middle of the lodge with a sort

of doll or small image, dressed like a female, placed before them. The

young men bring with them a platter of provisions, a pipe of tobacco,

and their wives, whose dress on the occasion is only a robe or mantle

loosely thrown round the body. On their arrival each youth selects the

old man whom he means to distinguish by his favour, and spreads before

him the provisions, after which he presents the pipe and smokes with

him. Mox senex vir simulacrum parvæ puellæ ostensit. Tune egrediens

eætu, jecit effigium solo et superincumbens, senili ardore veneris

complexit. Hoc est signum. Denique uxor e turba recessit, et jactu

corporis, fovet amplexus viri solo recubante. Maritus appropinquans

senex vir dejecto vultu, et honorem et dignitatem ejus conservare

amplexu uxoris illum oravit. Forsitan imprimis ille refellit; dehine,

maritus multis precibus, multis lachrymis, et multis donis vehementer

intercessit. Tune senex amator perculsus miserecordia, tot precibus, tot

lachrymis, et tot donis, conjugali amplexu submisit. Multum ille

jactatus est, sed debilis et effoetus senectute, frustra jactatus est.

Maritus interdum stans juxta guadit multum honore, et ejus dignitati sic

conservata. Unus nostrum sodalium multum alacrior et potentior

juventute, hac nocte honorem quartour maritorum custodivit.

Sunday 6. A clear cold morning with high wind: we caught in a trap a

large gray wolf, and last night obtained in the same way a fox who had

for some time infested the neighbourhood of the fort. Only a few Indians

visited us to-day.

Monday 7. The weather was again clear and cold with a high northwest

wind, and the thermometer at sunrise 22° below 0; the river fell an

inch. Shahaka the Big White chief dined with us, and gave a connected

sketch of the country as far as the mountains.

Tuesday 8. The wind was still from the northwest, the day cold, and we

received few Indians at the fort. Besides the buffaloe dance we have

just described, there is another called medicine dance, an entertainment

given by any person desirous of doing honour to his medicine or genius.

He announces, that on such a day he will sacrifice his horses, or other

property, and invites the young females of the village to assist in

rendering homage to his medicine; all the inhabitants may join in the

solemnity, which is performed in the open plain and by daylight, but the

dance is reserved for the virgins or at least the unmarried females, who

disdain the incumbrance or the ornament of dress. The feast is opened

by devoting the goods of the master of the feast to his medicine, which

is represented by a head of the animal itself, or by a medicine bag if

the deity be an invisible being. The young women then begin the dance,

in the intervals of which each will prostrate herself before the

assembly to challenge or reward the boldness of the youth, who are often

tempted by feeling or the hopes of distinction to achieve the adventure.

Wednesday 9. The weather is cold, the thermometer at sunrise 21° below

0. Kagohami breakfasted with us, and captain Clarke with three or four

men accompanied him and a party of Indians to hunt, in which they were

so fortunate as to kill a number of buffaloe: but they were incommoded

by snow, by high and squally winds, and by extreme cold; several of the

Indians came to the fort nearly frozen, others are missing, and we are

uneasy, for one of our men who was separated from the rest during the

chase has not returned: In the morning,

Thursday 10, however, he came back just as we were sending out five men

in search of him. The night had been excessively cold, and this morning

at sunrise the mercury stood at 40° below 0, or 72 below the freezing

point. He had however, made a fire and kept himself tolerably warm. A

young Indian, about thirteen years of age, also came in soon after. His

father who came last night to inquire after him very anxiously, had sent

him in the afternoon to the fort: he was overtaken by the night, and was

obliged to sleep on the snow with no covering except a pair of antelope

skin moccasins and leggings and a buffaloe robe: his feet being frozen

we put them into cold water, and gave him every attention in our power.

About the same time an Indian who had also been missing returned to the

fort, and although his dress was very thin, and he had slept on the snow

without a fire, he had not suffered the slightest inconvenience. We have

indeed observed that these Indians support the rigours of the season in

a way which we had hitherto thought impossible. A more pleasing

reflection occurred at seeing the warm interest which the situation of

these two persons had excited in the village, the boy had been a

prisoner and adopted from charity, yet the distress of the father proved

that he felt for him the tenderest affection, the man was a person of no

distinction, yet the whole village was full of anxiety for his safety

and when they came to us, borrowed a sleigh to bring them home with

ease, if they survived, or to carry their bodies if they had perished.

Friday 11. We despatched three hunters to join the same number whom we

had sent below about seven miles to hunt elk. Like that of yesterday the

weather to-day was cold and clear, the thermometer standing at 38° below

0. Poscopsahe and Shotahawrora visited us, and past the night at the

fort.

Saturday 12. The weather continues very cold, the mercury at sunrise

being 20° below 0. Three of the hunters returned, having killed three

elk.

Sunday 13. We have a continuation of clear weather, and the cold has

increased, the mercury having sunk to 34° below 0. Nearly one half of

the Mandan nation passed down the river to hunt for several days; in

these excursions men, women and children, with their dogs, all leave the

village together, and after discovering a spot convenient for the game,

fix their tents; all the family bear their part in the labour, and the

game is equally divided among the families of the tribe. When a single

hunter returns from the chase with more than is necessary for his own

immediate consumption, the neighbours are entitled by custom to a share

of it: they do not however ask for it, but send a squaw, who without

saying any thing, sits down by the door of the lodge till the master

understands the hint, and gives her gratuitously a part for her family.

Chaboneau who with one man had gone to some lodges of Minnetarees near

the Turtle mountain, returned with their faces much frostbitten. They

had been about ninety miles distant, and procured from the inhabitants

some meat and grease, with which they loaded the horses. He informs us

that the agent of the Hudson bay company at that place, had been

endeavouring to make unfavourable impressions with regard to us on the

mind of the great chief, and that the N.W. company intend building a

fort there. The great chief had in consequence spoken slightly of the

Americans, but said that if we would give him our great flag he would

come and see us.

Monday 14. The Mandans continue to pass down the river on their hunting

party, and were joined by six of our men. One of those sent on Thursday

returned, with information that one of his companions had his feet so

badly frostbitten that he could not walk home. In their excursion they

had killed a buffaloe, a wolf, two porcupines and a white hare. The

weather was more moderate to-day, the mercury being at 16° below 0, and

the wind from the S.E. we had however some snow, after which it remained

cloudy.

Tuesday 15. The morning is much warmer than yesterday, and the snow

begins to melt, though the wind after being for some time from the S.E.

suddenly shifted to N.W. Between twelve and three o'clock A.M. there was

a total eclipse of the moon, from which we obtained a part of the

observation necessary for ascertaining the longitude.

We were visited by four of the most distinguished men of the

Minnetarees, to whom we showed marked attentions, as we knew that they

had been taught to entertain strong prejudices against us; these we

succeeded so well in removing, that when in the morning,

Wednesday 16, about thirty Mandans, among whom six were chiefs came to

see us, the Minnetarees reproached them with their falsehoods, declaring

that they were bad men and ought to hide themselves. They had told the

Minnetarees that we would kill them if they came to the fort, yet on the

contrary they had spent a night there and been treated with kindness by

the whites, who had smoked with them and danced for their amusement.

Kagohami visited us and brought us a little corn, and soon afterwards

one of the first war chiefs of the Minnetarees came accompanied by his

squaw, a handsome woman, whom he was desirous we should use during the

night. He favoured us with a more acceptable present, a draft of the

Missouri in his manner, and informed us of his intention to go to war in

the spring against the Snake Indians; we advised him to reflect

seriously before he committed the peace of his nation to the hazards of

war; to look back on the numerous nations whom war has destroyed, that

if he wished his nation to be happy he should cultivate peace and

intercourse with all his neighbours, by which means they would procure

more horses, increase in numbers, and that if he went to war he would

displease his great father the president, and forfeit his protection. We

added that we had spoken thus to all the tribes whom we had met, that

they had all opened their ears, and that the president would compel

those who did not voluntarily listen to his advice. Although a young man

of only twenty-six years of age, this discourse seemed to strike him. He

observed that if it would be displeasing to us he would not go to war,

since he had horses enough, and that he would advise all the nation to

remain at home, until we had seen the Snake Indians, and discovered

whether their intentions were pacific. The party who went down with the

horses for the man who was frostbitten returned, and we are glad to find

his complaint not serious.

Thursday 17. The day was very windy from the north; the morning clear

and cold, the thermometer at sunrise being at 0: we had several Indians

with us.

Friday 18. The weather is fine and moderate. Messrs. Laroche and

M'Kenzie, two of the N.W. company's traders, visited us with some of the

Minnetarees. In the afternoon two of our hunters returned, having killed

four wolves and a blaireau.

Saturday 19. Another cloudy day. The two traders set out on their

return, and we sent two men with the horses thirty miles below to the

hunting camp.

Sunday 20. The day fair and cold. A number of Indians visit us with corn

to exchange for articles, and to pay for repairs to their household

utensils.

Monday 21. The weather was fine and moderate. The hunters all returned,

having killed during their absence three elk, four deer, two porcupines,

a fox and a hare.

Tuesday 22. The cold having moderated and the day pleasant, we attempted

to cut the boats out of the ice, but at the distance of eight inches

came to water, under which the ice became three feet thick, so that we

were obliged to desist.

Wednesday 23. The cold weather returned, the mercury having sunk 2°

below 0, and the snow fell four inches deep.

Thursday 24. The day was colder than any we have had lately, the

thermometer being at 12° below 0. The hunters whom we sent out returned

unsuccessful, and the rest were occupied in cutting wood to make

charcoal.

Friday 25. The thermometer was at 25° below 0, the Wind from N.W. and

the day fair, so that the men were employed in preparing coal, and

cutting the boats out of the ice. A band of Assiniboins headed by their

chief, called by the French, Son of the Little Calf, have arrived at the

villages.

Saturday 26. A fine warm day: a number of Indians dine with us: and one

of our men is attacked with a violent pleurisy.

Sunday 27. Another warm and pleasant day: we again attempted to get the

boat out of the ice. The man who has the pleurisy was blooded and

sweated, and we were forced to take off the toes of the young Indian who

was frostbitten some time since. Our interpreter returned from the

villages, bringing with him three of Mr. Laroche's horses which he had

sent in order to keep them out of the way of the Assiniboins, who are

very much disposed to steal, and who have just returned to their camp.

Monday 28. The weather to-day is clear and cold: we are obliged to

abandon the plan of cutting the boat through the ice, and therefore made

another attempt the next day,

Tuesday 29, by heating a quantity of stones so as to warm the water in

the boat, and thaw the surrounding ice: but in this too we were

disappointed, as all the stones on being put into the fire cracked into

pieces: the weather warm and pleasant: the man with the pleurisy is

recovering.

Wednesday 30. The morning was fair, but afterwards became cloudy. Mr.

Laroche the trader from the northwest company paid us a visit, in hopes

of being able to accompany us on our journey westward, but this proposal

we thought it best to decline.

Thursday 31. It snowed last night, and the morning is cold and

disagreeable, with a high wind from the northwest: we sent five hunters

down the river. Another man is taken with the pleurisy.

Friday, February 1. A cold windy day: our hunters returned having killed

only one deer. One of the Minnetaree war chiefs, a young man named

Maubuksheahokeah or Seeing Snake, came to see us and procure a war

hatchet: he also requested that we would suffer him to go to war against

the Sioux and Ricaras who had killed a Mandan some time ago: this we

refused for reasons which we explained to him. He acknowledged that we

were right, and promised to open his ears to our counsels.

Saturday 2. The day is fine: another deer was killed. Mr. Laroche who

has been very anxious to go with us left the fort to-day, and one of the

squaws of the Minnetaree interpreter is taken ill.

Sunday 3. The weather is again pleasant: disappointed in all our efforts

to get the boats free, we occupied ourselves in making iron spikes so as

to prize them up by means of long poles.

Monday 4. The morning fair and cold, the mercury at sunrise being 18°

below 0, and the wind from the northwest. The stock of meat which we

had procured in November and December being now nearly exhausted, it

became necessary to renew our supply; captain Clarke therefore took

eighteen men, and with two sleighs and three horses descended the river

for the purpose of hunting, as the buffaloe has disappeared from our

neighbourhood, and the Indians are themselves suffering for want of

meat. Two deer were killed to-day but they were very lean.

Tuesday 5. A pleasant fair morning with the wind from northwest: a

number of the Indians come with corn for the blacksmith, who being now

provided with coal has become one of our greatest resources for

procuring grain. They seem particularly attached to a battle axe, of a

very inconvenient figure: it is made wholly of iron, the blade extremely

thin, and from seven to nine inches long; it is sharp at the point and

five or six inches on each side, whence they converge towards the eye,

which is circular and about an inch in diameter, the blade itself being

not more than an inch wide, the handle is straight, and twelve or

fifteen inches long; the whole weighing about a pound. By way of

ornament, the blade is perforated with several circular holes. The

length of the blade compared with the shortness of the handle render it

a weapon of very little strength, particularly as it is always used on

horseback: there is still however another form which is even worse, the

same sort of handle being fixed to a blade resembling an espontoon.

Wednesday, February 6. The morning was fair and pleasant, the wind N.W.

A number of Indian chiefs visited us and withdrew after we had smoked

with them contrary to their custom, for after being once introduced into

our apartment they are fond of lounging about during the remainder of

the day. One of the men killed three antelopes. Our blacksmith has his

time completely occupied, so great is the demand for utensils of

different kinds. The Indians are particularly fond of sheet iron, out of

which they form points for arrows and instruments for scraping hides,

and when the blacksmith cut up an old cambouse of that metal, we

obtained for every piece of four inches square seven or eight gallons of

corn from the Indians, who were delighted at the exchange.

Thursday 7. The morning was fair and much warmer than for some days, the

thermometer being at 18° above 0, and the wind from the S.E. A number of

Indians continue to visit us; but learning that the interpreter's squaws

had been accustomed to unbar the gate during the night, we ordered a

lock put on it, and that no Indian should remain in the fort all night,

nor any person admitted during the hours when the gate is closed, that

is from sunset to sunrise.

Friday 8. A fair pleasant morning, with S.E. winds. Pocopsahe came down

to the fort with a bow, and apologized for his not having finished a

shield which he had promised captain Lewis, and which the weather had

prevented him from completing. This chief possesses more firmness,

intelligence, and integrity, than any Indian of this country, and he

might be rendered highly serviceable in our attempts to civilize the

nation. He mentioned that the Mandans are very much in want of meat, and

that he himself had not tasted any for several days. To this distress

they are often reduced by their own improvidence, or by their unhappy

situation. Their principal article of food is buffaloe-meat, their corn,

beans, and other grain being reserved for summer, or as a last resource

against what they constantly dread, an attack from the Sioux, who drive

off the game and confine them to their villages. The same fear too

prevents their going out to hunt in small parties to relieve their

occasional wants, so that the buffaloe is generally obtained in large

quantities and wasted by carelessness.

Saturday 9. The morning was fair and pleasant, the wind from the S.E.

Mr. M'Kenzie from the N.W. company establishment visited us.

Sunday 10. A slight snow fell in the course of the night, the morning

was cloudy, and the northwest wind blew so high that although the

thermometer was 18° above 0, the day was cooler than yesterday, when it

was only 10° above the same point. Mr. M'Kenzie left us, and Chaboneau

returned with information that our horses loaded with meat were below,

but could not cross the ice not being shod.

Monday 11. We sent down a party with sleds, to relieve the horses from

their loads; the weather fair and cold, with a N.W. wind. About five

o'clock one of the wives of Chaboneau was delivered of a boy; this being

her first child she was suffering considerable, when Mr. Jessaume told

captain Lewis that he had frequently administered to persons in her

situation, a small dose of the rattle of the rattlesnake which had never

failed to hasten the delivery. Having some of the rattle, captain Lewis

gave it to Mr. Jessaume who crumbled two of the rings of it between his

fingers, and mixing it with a small quantity of water gave it to her.

What effect it may really have had it might be difficult to determine,

but captain Lewis was informed that she had not taken it more than ten

minutes before the delivery took place.

Tuesday 12. The morning is fair though cold, the mercury being 14° below

the wind from the S.E. About four o'clock the horses were brought in

much fatigued; on giving them meal bran moistened with water they would

not eat it, but preferred the bark of the cottonwood, which as is

already observed forms their principal food during the winter. The

horses of the Mandans are so often stolen by the Sioux, Ricaras, and

Assiniboins, that the invariable rule now is to put the horses every

night in the same lodge with the family. In the summer they ramble in

the plains in the vicinity of the camp, and feed on the grass, but

during cold weather the squaws cut down the cottonwood trees as they are

wanted, and the horses feed on the boughs and bark of the tender

branches, which are also brought into the lodges at night and placed

near them. These animals are very severely treated; for whole days they

are pursuing the buffaloe, or burdened with the fruits of the chase,

during which they scarcely ever taste food, and at night return to a

scanty allowance of wood; yet the spirit of this valuable animal

sustains him through all these difficulties, and he is rarely deficient

either in flesh or vigour.

Wednesday 13. The morning was cloudy, the thermometer at 2° below 0, the

wind from the southeast. Captain Clarke returned last evening with all

his hunting party: during their excursion they had killed forty deer,

three buffaloe, and sixteen elk; but most of the game was too lean for

use, and the wolves, who regard whatever lies out at night as their own,

had appropriated a large part of it: when he left the fort on the 4th

instant, he descended on the ice twenty-two miles to New Mandan island,

near some of their old villages, and encamped, having killed nothing,

and therefore without food for the night.

Early on the 5th, the hunters went out and killed two buffaloe and a

deer, but the last only could be used, the others being too lean. After

breakfast they proceeded down to an Indian lodge and hunted during the

day: the next morning, 6th, they encamped forty-four miles from the fort

on a sand point near the mouth of a creek on the southwest side, which

they call Hunting creek, and during this and the following day hunted

through all the adjoining plains, with much success, having killed a

number of deer and elk. On the 8th, the best of the meat was sent with

the horses to the fort, and such parts of the remainder as were fit for

use were brought to a point of the river three miles below, and after

the bones were taken out, secured in pens built of logs, so as to keep

off the wolves, ravens and magpies, who are very numerous and constantly

disappoint the hunter of his prey: they then went to the low grounds

near the Chisshetaw river where they encamped, but saw nothing except

some wolves on the hills, and a number of buffaloe too poor to be worth

hunting. The next morning 9th, as there was no game and it would have

been inconvenient to send it back sixty miles to the fort, they returned

up the river, and for three days hunted along the banks and plains, and

reached the fort in the evening of the twelfth much fatigued, having

walked thirty miles that day on the ice and through the snow in many

places knee deep, the moccasins too being nearly worn out: the only game

which they saw besides what is mentioned, was some growse on the

sandbars in the river.

Thursday 14. Last night the snow fell three inches deep; the day was,

however, fine. Four men were despatched with sleds and three horses to

bring up the meat which had been collected by the hunters. They returned

however, with intelligence that about twenty-one miles below the fort a

party of upwards of one hundred men, whom they supposed to be Sioux,

rushed on them, cut the traces of the sleds, and carried off two of the

horses, the third being given up by intercession of an Indian who seemed

to possess some authority over them; they also took away two of the

men's knifes, and a tomahawk, which last however they returned. We sent

up to the Mandans to inform them of it, and to know whether any of them

would join a party which intended to pursue the robbers in the morning.

About twelve o'clock two of their chiefs came down and said that all

their young men were out hunting, and that there were few guns in the

village. Several Indians however, armed some with bows and arrows, some

with spears and battle-axes, and two with fusils, accompanied captain

Lewis, who set out,

Friday 15, at sunrise with twenty-four men. The morning was fine and

cool, the thermometer being at 16° below 0. In the course of the day one

of the Mandan chiefs returned from captain Lewis's party, his eye-sight

having become so bad that he could not proceed. At this season of the

year the reflexion from the ice and snow is so intense as to occasion

almost total blindness. This complaint is very common, and the general

remedy is to sweat the part affected by holding the face over a hot

stone, and receiving the fumes from snow thrown on it. A large red fox

was killed to-day.

Saturday 16. The morning was warm, mercury at 32° above 0, the weather

cloudy: several of the Indians who went with captain Lewis returned, as

did also one of our men, whose feet had been frostbitten.

Sunday 17. The weather continued as yesterday, though in the afternoon

it became fair. Shotawhorora and his son came to see us, with about

thirty pounds of dried buffaloe meat and some tallow.

Monday 18. The morning was cloudy with some snow, but in the latter part

of the day it cleared up. Mr. M'Kenzie who had spent yesterday at the

fort now left us. Our stock of meat is exhausted, so that we must

confine ourselves to vegetable diet, at least till the return of the

party: for this, however, we are at no loss, since both on this and the

following day,

Tuesday 19, our blacksmith got large quantities of corn from the Indians

who came in great numbers to see us. The weather was fair and warm, the

wind from the south.

Wednesday, 20th. The day was delightfully fine; the mercury being at

sunrise 2° and in the course of the day 22° above 0, the wind southerly.

Kagohami came down to see us early: his village is afflicted by the

death of one of their eldest men, who from his account to us must have

seen one hundred and twenty winters. Just as he was dying, he requested

his grandchildren to dress him in his best robe when he was dead, and

then carry him on a hill and seat him on a stone, with his face down the

river towards their old villages, that he might go straight to his

brother who had passed before him to the ancient village under ground.

We have seen a number of Mandans who have lived to a great age; chiefly

however the men, whose robust exercises fortify the body, while the

laborious occupations of the women shorten their existence.

Thursday 21. We had a continuation of the same pleasant weather. Oheenaw

and Shahaka came down to see us, and mentioned that several of their

countrymen had gone to consult their medicine stone as to the prospects

of the following year. This medicine stone is the great oracle of the

Mandans, and whatever it announces is believed with implicit confidence.

Every spring, and on some occasions during the summer, a deputation

visits the sacred spot, where there is a thick porous stone twenty-feet

in circumference, with a smooth surface. Having reached the place the

ceremony of smoking to it is performed by the deputies, who alternately

take a whiff themselves and then present the pipe to the stone; after

this they retire to an adjoining wood for the night, during which it may

be safely presumed that all the embassy do not sleep; and in the morning

they read the destinies of the nation in the white marks on the stone,

which those who made them are at no loss to decypher. The Minnetarees

have a stone of a similar kind, which has the same qualities and the

same influence over the nation. Captain Lewis returned from his

excursion in pursuit of the Indians. On reaching the place where the

Sioux had stolen our horses, they found only one sled, and several pair

of moccasins which were recognised to be those of the Sioux. The party

then followed the Indian tracks till they reached two old lodges where

they slept, and the next morning pursued the course of the river till

they reached some Indian camps, where captain Clarke passed the night

some time ago, and which the Sioux had now set on fire, leaving a little

corn near the place in order to induce a belief that they were Ricaras.

From this point the Sioux tracks left the river abruptly and crossed

into the plains; but perceiving that there was no chance of overtaking

them, captain Lewis went down to the pen where captain Clarke had left

some meat, which he found untouched by the Indians, and then hunted in

the low grounds on the river, till he returned with about three thousand

pounds of meat, some drawn in a sled by fifteen of the men, and the rest

on horseback; having killed thirty-six deer, fourteen elk, and one wolf.

Friday, 22nd. The morning was cloudy and a little snow fell, but in the

afternoon the weather became fair. We were visited by a number of

Indians, among whom was Shotawhorora, a chief of much consideration

among the Mandan, although by birth a Ricara.

Saturday, 23d. The day is warm and pleasant. Having worked industriously

yesterday and all this morning we were enabled to disengage one of the

periogues and haul it on shore, and also nearly to cut out the second.

The father of the boy whose foot had been so badly frozen, and whom we

had now cured, came to-day and carried him home in a sleigh.

Sunday, 24th. The weather is again fine. We succeeded in loosening the

second periogue and barge, though we found a leak in the latter. The

whole of the next day,

Monday, 25th, we were occupied in drawing up the boats on the bank: the

smallest one we carried there with no difficulty, but the barge was too

heavy for our elk-skin ropes which constantly broke. We were visited by

Orupsehara, or Black Moccasin, and several other chiefs, who brought us

presents of meat on the backs of their squaws, and one of the

Minnetarees requested and obtained permission for himself and his two

wives to remain all night in the fort. The day was exceedingly pleasant.

Tuesday 26. The weather is again fine. By great labour during the day we

got all the boats on the bank by sunset, an operation which attracted a

great number of Indians to the fort.

Wednesday 27. The weather continues fine. All of us employed in

preparing tools to build boats for our voyage, as we find that small

periogues will be much more convenient than the barge in ascending the

Missouri.

Thursday 28. The day is clear and pleasant. Sixteen men were sent out to

examine the country for trees suitable for boats, and were successful in

finding them. Two of the N.W. company traders arrived with letters; they

had likewise a root which is used for the cure of persons bitten by mad

dogs, snakes, and other venomous animals: it is found on high grounds

and the sides of hills, and the mode of using it is to scarify the

wound, and apply to it an inch or more of the chewed or pounded root,

which is to be renewed twice a day; the patient must not however chew or

swallow any of the root, as an inward application might be rather

injurious than beneficial.

Mr. Gravelines with two Frenchmen and two Indians arrived from the

Ricara nation, with letters from Mr. Anthony Tabeau. This last gentleman

informs us that the Ricaras express their determination to follow our

advice, and to remain at peace with the Mandans and Minnetarees, whom

they are desirous of visiting; they also wish to know whether these

nations would permit the Ricaras to settle near them, and form a league

against their common enemies the Sioux. On mentioning this to the

Mandans they agreed to it, observing that they always desired to

cultivate friendship with the Ricaras, and that the Ahnahaways and

Minnetarees have the same friendly views.

Mr. Gravelines states that the band of Tetons whom we had seen was well

disposed to us, owing to the influence of their chief the Black

Buffaloe; but that the three upper bands of Tetons, with the Sisatoons,

and the Yanktons of the north, mean soon to attack the Indians in this

quarter, with a resolution to put to death every white man they

encounter. Moreover, that Mr. Cameron of St. Peter's has armed the Sioux

against the Chippeways, who have lately put to death three of his men.

The men who had stolen our horses we found to be all Sioux, who after

committing the outrage went to the Ricara villages, where they said that

they had hesitated about killing our men who were with the horses, but

that in future they would put to death any of us they could, as we were

bad medicines and deserved to be killed. The Ricaras were displeased at

their conduct and refused to give them any thing to eat, which is

deemed the greatest act of hostility short of actual violence.

Friday, March 1. The day is fine, and the whole party is engaged, some

in making ropes and periogues, others in burning coal, and making battle

axes to sell for corn.

Saturday 2. Mr. Laroche one of the N.W. company's traders has just

arrived with merchandise from the British establishments on the

Assiniboin. The day is fine, and the river begins to break up in some

places, the mercury being between 28° and 36° above 0, and the wind from

the N.E. We were visited by several Indians.

Sunday 3. The weather pleasant, the wind from the E. with clouds; in the

afternoon the clouds disappeared and the wind came from the N.W. The men

are all employed in preparing the boats; we are visited by Poscapsahe

and several other Indians with corn. A flock of ducks passed up the

river to-day.

Monday 4. A cloudy morning with N.W. wind, the latter part of the day

clear. We had again some Indian visitors with a small present of meat.

The Assiniboins, who a few days since visited the Mandans, returned, and

attempted to take horses from the Minnetarees, who fired on them; a

circumstance which may occasion some disturbance between the two

nations.

Tuesday 5. About four o'clock in the morning there was a slight fall of

snow, but the day became clear and pleasant with the mercury 40° above

0. We sent down an Indian and a Frenchman to the Ricara villages with a

letter to Mr. Tabeau.

Wednesday 6. The day was cloudy and smoky in consequence of the burning

of the plains by the Minnetarees; they have set all the neighbouring

country on fire in order to obtain an early crop of grass which may

answer for the consumption of their horses, and also as an inducement

for the buffaloe and other game to visit it. The horses stolen two days

ago by the Assiniboins have been returned to the Minnetarees. Ohhaw

second chief of the lower Minnetaree village came to see us. The river

rose a little and overran the ice, so as to render the crossing

difficult.

Thursday, 7th. The day was somewhat cloudy, and colder than usual; the

wind from the northeast. Shotawhorora visited us with a sick child, to

whom some medicine was administered. There were also other Indians who

brought corn and dried buffaloe meat in exchange for blacksmith's work.

Friday 8. The day cold and fair with a high easterly wind: we were

visited by two Indians who gave us an account of the country and people

near the Rocky mountains where they had been.

Saturday 9. The morning cloudy and cool, the wind from the north. The

grand chief of the Minnetarees, who is called by the French Le Borgne,

from his having but one eye, came down for the first time to the fort.

He was received with much attention, two guns were fired in honour of

his arrival, the curiosities were exhibited to him, and as he said that

he had not received the presents which we had sent to him on his

arrival, we again gave him a flag, a medal, shirt, armbraces and the

usual presents on such occasions, with all which he was much pleased. In

the course of the conversation, the chief observed that some foolish

young men of his nation had told him there was a person among us who was

quite black, and he wished to know if it could be true. We assured him

that it was true, and sent for York: the Borgne was very much surprised

at his appearance, examined him closely, and spit on his finger and

rubbed the skin in order to wash off the paint; nor was it until the

negro uncovered his head, and showed his short hair, that the Borgne

could be persuaded that he was not a painted white man.

Sunday 10. A cold windy day. Tetuckopinreha, chief of the Ahnahaways,

and the Minnetaree chief Ompsehara, passed the day with us, and the

former remained during the night. We had occasion to see an instance of

the summary justice of the Indians: a young Minnetaree had carried off

the daughter of Cagonomokshe, the Raven Man, second chief of the upper

village of the Mandans; the father went to the village and found his

daughter, whom he brought home, and took with him a horse belonging to

the offender: this reprisal satisfied the vengeance of the father and of

the nation, as the young man would not dare to reclaim his horse, which

from that time became the property of the injured party. The stealing of

young women is one of the most common offenses against the police of the

village, and the punishment of it always measured by the power or the

passions of the kindred of the female. A voluntary elopement is of

course more rigorously chastised. One of the wives of the Borgne

deserted him in favour of a man who had been her lover before the

marriage, and who after some time left her, and she was obliged to

return to her father's house. As soon as he heard it the Borgne walked

there and found her sitting near the fire: without noticing his wife, he

began to smoke with the father; when they were joined by the old men of

the village, who knowing his temper had followed in hopes of appeasing

him. He continued to smoke quietly with them, till rising to return, he

took his wife by the hair, led her as far as the door, and with a single

stroke of his tomahawk put her to death before her father's eyes: then

turning fiercely upon the spectators, he said that if any of her

relations wished to avenge her, they might always find him at his lodge;

but the fate of the woman had not sufficient interest to excite the

vengeance of the family. The caprice or the generosity of the same chief

gave a very different result to a similar incident which occurred some

time afterwards. Another of his wives eloped with a young man, who not

being able to support her as she wished they both returned to the

village, and she presented herself before the husband, supplicating his

pardon for her conduct: the Borgne sent for the lover: at the moment

when the youth expected that he would be put to death, the chief mildly

asked them if they still preserved their affection for each other; and

on their declaring that want, and not a change of affection had induced

them to return, he gave up his wife to her lover, with the liberal

present of three horses, and restored them both to his favour.

Monday 11. The weather was cloudy in the morning and a little snow fell,

the wind then shifted from southeast to northwest and the day became

fair. It snowed again in the evening, but the next day,

Tuesday 12, was fair with the wind from the northwest.

Wednesday 13. We had a fine day, and a southwest wind. Mr. M'Kenzie came

to see us, as did also many Indians who are so anxious for battle-axes

that our smiths have not a moment's leisure, and procure us an abundance

of corn. The river rose a little to-day, and so continued.

Thursday 14. The wind being from the west, and the day fine, the whole

party were employed in building boats and in shelling corn.

Friday 15. The day is clear, pleasant and warm. We take advantage of the

fine weather to hang all our Indian presents and other articles out to

dry before our departure.

Saturday 16. The weather is cloudy, the wind from the southeast. A Mr.

Garrow, a Frenchman who has resided a long time among the Ricaras and

Mandans, explained to us the mode in which they make their large beads,

an art which they are said to have derived from some prisoners of the

Snake Indian nation, and the knowledge of which is a secret even now

confined to a few among the Mandans and Ricaras: the process is as

follows: glass of different colours is first pounded fine and washed,

till each kind, which is kept separate, ceases to stain the water thrown

over it: some well seasoned clay, mixed with a sufficient quantity of

sand to prevent its becoming very hard when exposed to heat, and reduced

by water to the consistency of dough, is then rolled on the palm of the

hand, till it becomes of the thickness wanted for the hole in the bead;

these sticks of clay are placed upright, each on a little pedestal or

ball of the same material about an ounce in weight, and distributed over

a small earthen platter, which is laid on the fire for a few minutes,

when they are taken off to cool: with a little paddle or shovel three or

four inches long and sharpened at the end of the handle, the wet pounded

glass is placed in the palm of the hand: the beads are made of an oblong

form wrapped in a cylindrical form round the stick of clay which is

laid crosswise over it, and gently rolled backwards and forwards till

it becomes perfectly smooth. If it be desired to introduce any other

colour, the surface of the bead is perforated with the pointed end of

the paddle and the cavity filled with pounded glass of that colour: the

sticks with the string of beads are then replaced on their pedestals,

and the platter deposited on burning coals or hot embers: over the

platter an earthern pot containing about three gallons, with a mouth

large enough to cover the platter, is reversed, being completely closed

except a small aperture at the top, through which are watched the bead:

a quantity of old dried wood formed into a sort of dough or paste is

placed round the pot so as almost to cover it, and afterwards set on

fire: the manufacturer then looks through the small hole in the pot,

till he sees the beads assume a deep red colour, to which succeeds a

paler or whitish red, or they become pointed at the upper extremity; on

which the fire is removed and the pot suffered to cool gradually: at

length it is removed, the beads taken out, the clay in the hollow of

them picked out with an awl or needle, and it is then fit for use. The

beads thus formed are in great demand among the Indians, and used as

pendants to their ears and hair, and are sometimes worn round the neck.

Sunday 17. A windy but clear and pleasant day, the river rising a little

and open in several places. Our Minnetaree interpreter Chaboneau, whom

we intended taking with us to the Pacific, had some days ago been worked

upon by the British traders, and appeared unwilling to accompany us,

except on certain terms; such as his not being subject to our orders,

and do duty, or to return whenever he chose. As we saw clearly the

source of his hesitation, and knew that it was intended as an obstacle

to our views, we told him that the terms were inadmissible, and that we

could dispense with his services: he had accordingly left us with some

displeasure. Since then he had made an advance towards joining us, which

we showed no anxiety to meet; but this morning he sent an apology for

his improper conduct, and agreed to go with us and perform the same

duties as the rest of the corps; we therefore took him again into our

service.

Monday 18. The weather was cold and cloudy, the wind from the north. We

were engaged in packing up the goods into eight divisions, so as to

preserve a portion of each in case of accident. We hear that the Sioux

have lately attacked a party of Assiniboins and Knistenaux, near the

Assiniboin river, and killed fifty of them.

Tuesday 19. Some snow fell last night, and this morning was cold, windy,

and cloudy. Shahaka and Kagohami came down to see us, as did another

Indian with a sick child, to whom we gave some medicine. There appears

to be an approaching war, as two parties have already gone from the

Minnetarees, and a third is preparing.

Wednesday 20. The morning was cold and cloudy, the wind high from the

north, but the afternoon was pleasant. The canoes being finished, four

of them were carried down to the river, at the distance of a mile and a

half from where they were constructed.

Thursday 20. The remaining periogues were hauled to the same place, and

all the men except three, who were left to watch them returned to the

fort. On his way down, which was about six miles, captain Clarke passed

along the points of the high hills, where he saw large quantities of

pumicestone on the foot, sides and tops of the hills, which had every

appearance of having been at some period on fire. He collected specimens

of the stone itself, the pumicestone, and the hard earth; and on being

put into the furnace the hard earth melted and glazed, the pumicestone

melted, and the hardstone became a pumicestone glazed.

CHAPTER VII.

History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. 1. To the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed During the Years 1804-5-6. · 第 19 / 24 章

26th. We set out early with a southwest wind, and after putting the