History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark Part 10

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 a.s.siniboins headed by their chief, called by the French, Son of the Little Calf, have arrived at the villages.

Sat.u.r.day 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 a.s.siniboins, 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 quant.i.ty 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.

Sat.u.r.day 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 sc.r.a.ping 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 s.h.i.+eld 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 princ.i.p.al 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 quant.i.ties and wasted by carelessness.

Sat.u.r.day 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 quant.i.ty 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 princ.i.p.al food during the winter. The horses of the Mandans are so often stolen by the Sioux, Ricaras, and a.s.siniboins, 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 gra.s.s, 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.

Sat.u.r.day 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 quant.i.ties 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 pa.s.sed 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 circ.u.mference, 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 emba.s.sy 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 pa.s.sed 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.

Sat.u.r.day, 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 friends.h.i.+p 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.

Sat.u.r.day 2. Mr. Laroche one of the N.W. company's traders has just arrived with merchandise from the British establishments on the a.s.siniboin. 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.siniboins, who a few days since visited the Mandans, returned, and attempted to take horses from the Minnetarees, who fired on them; a circ.u.mstance which may occasion some disturbance between the two nations.