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February 7, 1805
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.
February 8, 1805
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 buffalo-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 buffalo is generally obtained in large quantities
and wasted by carelessness.
February 9, 1805
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.
Additional Notes
Early on the 5th, the hunters went out and killed two buffalo
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 buffalo 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.
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