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Show Lewis and Clarke's Expedition continues several miles; on the south it rises from tbe watet· at different heights, from twenty to one hundred and fifty feet, and higher as it recedes on the river: it consists of yellow and brown clay, with soft sandston~ imbeded in it, and is covered with timber, among which may be observed some red cedar: the lands on the opposite side are low and subject to inundation, but contain willows, cottonwood, and many grapes. A prah·ie.wolf came near the bank and barkedat us; we attempted unsuccessfully to take him. This part of' the river abounds in heaver. )Ve encamtwd on a sandisland in a bend to the north, having made twenty miles and a quarter. August 18. Set out at daylight with a breeze from the southeast, and passed several sandbars. Between ten and eleven miles, we came to a spot on the south, " 'here a Mr. 1\tlacl~ay had a trading establishment in the year 1795 and t796, which he called Fort Charles. At fourteen miles, we reached a creek on the south, on which tl1e Maims reside, and at seventeen miles and a quarter, formed a camp on a sandbar, to the south side of the river, opposite the lower point of a large island. From this place sergeant Ordway and four men were detached to the Maha village with a flag and a present, in order to induce them to come and hold a council with us. 'rhcy returned at twelve o'clock the next day, August 141. After crossing a prairie covered with bigh grass, they reached the Maha creek, along which tlwy pl'O· ceeded to its tlaree forks, which join near the village: they crossed the north branch and went along the south; the walk was very fatiguing, as they were fot·ced to break their wa~ through grass, sunflowers and tbistlcs, all aboYc ten feel high, and interspersed with wild pea. Five miles from out• camp they reached the position of the ancient l\faha village: it had once consisted of tlu_ec hundred cabins, but was burnt about four years ago, soon after the smallllOX had destroyed four hundred men, and a proportion of women and children. On a hill, in the rreat· of the village, arc the ~t'2:ft''i Up the .7tli81ouri. -of' the nation; to the south of which runs the fork of the Maha creek: thii they ct·osscd whero it was about ten yards wide, and followed its course to the Missouri, passing along a ridge of hill for one and a half mile, and a long pond between that and the Missouri: they tlaen rccr·ossed the MaLa creek, and arrived at the camp, having seen no tracks of Jndians nor any sign of recent cultivation. In the morning 15th, some men were sent to examine the cause o1' a large smoke from the northeast, and which seemed to indicate that some Indians were ncar; but they found that a small party, who bad lately passed that way, l1ad left some trees burning, and that the wind from that quaa·ter bJ.;w the smoke dir·cct]y towards us ~ Our camp lies about three miles northeast from the old Maha. village, and is in latitude 42° iS' 41". The accounts we have had of the effects or the smallpox on that nation are most distressing; it is not known in what way it was first communicated to them, though probably by some war party. They Jmd been a military and powerful people; hut when these warriors saw their stl'engtb wasting before a malady which they could not resist, their p,hrenzy was extreme; they burnt their village, and many of them put to death their wives and childa•en, to save them ft·om so cruel au a1Hiction, and thai all might go together to some bettet• country. On the 16th, we still waited for the Indians: a party bad g{)ne out ycste~·day to the l\laha creek, which was damned up by the hcavet• between the camp and the village: a secoml went to-day. They made a kind of dt•ag with small willows and bark, and swept the creek: the first company brought three hundred and eighteen, the secoml upwards of eight hundred, consisting of pike, bass, fish resembling salmon, trout, redhorse, buffaloe, one rockfish, one flatback, perch, catfish, a small species of perch called, on tho Ohio, silverfish, a shrimp of the same size, shape and flavour of those about Neworlcans, ami the lower part of the Mississippi. We also found very fat muscles; and on the river as well as |