History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, 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 by order of the government of the United States; Volume 1

Page 87

1Si1 Lewil and Clarke's Expedit.ion Horned We ase ), WJ10 made use of tile civiliz. ed indecorum ot refusm. g t o be s eeu ' and when captain Lewis called be was told the chief was not at home. In the cou~so of the day seven of the northwest company's traders arriVed fr~m the Assiniboin river, and one of their in~erproters havmg ~n­dertaken to circulate among the Indians unfavourable I e· ports, it become necessary to warn them of the conse~ueuccs if they did not desist from sueh proceedings. The river fell two inches to-day and the weather became very c~ld .. Wednesday 28. About eight o'clock last evo~m~ It be­gan to suow and continued till daybreak, after which It ceas­ed till seven o'clock, but then resumed and continued during the day, tuo wcatbrr being cold and the rivet· full of fl~a~­ing ice: about eight o'clock Poscopsahe came down to vu1t us with some wat·riors; we gave thorn l)rcsents and cntcr­ta; ned them with all that might amuse their curiosity, and at parting we told them that we had hcarll of the British trader, 1\lr. Laroche, having attempted to distribute medals and ilags among t1tem, but that il10se emblems ~ou)d .not be received from any other than the American natiOn WJth­out ineurring the displeasure of their great father the pre· sident. They left us much pleased with their treatment. 1'hc river fell one inch to-day. Thursday ~9. 1,he wind is again from the north west, the weather cold, and the snow which fell yesterday and lad · night is thirteen inches in depth. The river closed d~ring the night at the village above, and fell two feet; but tlusaf­ternoon it began to rise a little. Mr. Laroehc, the principal ofthc seven traders, came with one of his men to see us; we told him that we should not permit him to give medals and tlags to the Indians; he declared that he had no such in ten· tion, and we then suffered him to make usc of one of our in· terpreters, 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 Up the .Missom·i. 135 mast dislocated his shoulder, nor ''as it tiU after four trials that we replaced it. Friday so. About eight o'clock an Indian came to the op­~ osite bank of the rl~er, calling out that he had somethin' Important to commumcate, and on sending for him, he told us that five Man dans had been met about eigbt leagues to the southwest by a party of S.i oux, who had killed one oftbem, wounded two, and taken nme horses; that four of the Wat. tasoons were missing, and that the Mandans expected an at­tack. We thought this an excellent opportunity to dlscoun- · tenance the injurious reports against us, and to fix the wa. vering confidence of the nation. Captain Clarke therefore instantly crossed the river witb twenty-three men strongly armed, and circling the town ap11roaehcd it from behind. His unexpected appearance sut•priscd and alarmed the chiefs, who came out to meet him, and conducted him to the village. He then told them that l1aving heard of the outrage just Qommitted, he had come to assist his dutiful children· that if they would assemble their warriors and those of the na­tion, l1e would lead them against the Sioux and avenge the blood of their countrymen. After some minutes conversa­tion, Oheenawthe Chayenne arose;" We now see," saidhe, "that what you bave 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 w ben you told us that the othet• nations were inclined to peace with us, we went out careless-ly in s~all parties, and some have been killed by the Sioux and R1caras. But I knew that the Ricaras were liars and I told tlaeir chief who accompanied you, that his whol; 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 a~eetl to make peace with them, because our two fathers