At noon we passed the Little Missouri, at the mouth of which there were now extensive sand banks; we stopped a little below it, and found a spot very favourable for the chase, in a forest alternating with morass, high grass, and various plants, where we followed some fresh traces of large elks, without, however, being able to overtake them. We proceeded on our voyage till late in the night, and slept at a spot in the forest which was so dense, that we were compelled to hew down the bushes to make a space for our fire and resting-place. The night was dark, and the loud howling of the wolves was our never-ceasing music. Towards the morning there was a sharp frost, and the sky was partially clouded with the west wind. Our good genius had made us set out unusually early on the 7th November, for we had scarcely left the bank in the morning twilight, when we heard several shot, and soon after, at the very place where we had halted and slept, the loud voices of the Indians calling to us to return. They were, probably, a hunting party of Manitaries, who had been attracted in the early morning by the light of our fire. Being very happy at having, weak as we were, escaped visitors so little to be trusted, our engagés rowed with all their might, and there was soon a good distance between us. Our breakfast was prepared at nine o'clock, when we lay to on the north bank, in a narrow strip of forest, where we found some old Indian hunting lodges, built, in a conical {315} form, of dry timber. They had, doubtless, been left by the Manitaries, who had come thus far on their hunting excursions. The lower part of the huts, or lodges, was covered with the bark of trees; the entrance was square, and bones were scattered in all directions. We proceeded with a bleak, high wind, saw the singular clay tops of the hills, and, in the forest, the stages made of poles, where the Indian hunters dry the flesh of the animals they have taken in the chase. About twelve o'clock we came to the spot where some stakes indicated the former site of a Mandan village. Manoel Lisa, the Spanish fur dealer, had formerly a trading post at this place.[166] Rather further on, after we had turned a point of land, we saw a white horse on the bank, and soon after a group of Indians, with their horses, which they had brought to the river to water. In the wood, close by them, was a winter village of the Manitaries, or Gros Ventres, to which they had removed only two days previous, from their summer dwellings, and whose present chief was Itsichaicha, which the Canadians translate, Monkey-face. They hailed us, but I would not stop, and, the current being strong, we rapidly passed them. An Indian woman, with a handsome brown hound, probably of the European race, stood on the bank, and formed a very interesting object in the wild winter scene. We were now in the centre of the territory of the Manitaries, and were in momentary expectation of meeting with these Indians; in fact, we soon saw several of them on foot and on horseback. We had just doubled a point of land, and were looking for a sheltered spot for landing, when we observed some huts in a lofty wood of poplars, and were immediately called to by some Whites and Indians. We recognized old Charbonneau, and landed at once. It appeared that Messrs. Soublette and Campbell had founded a trading post in the Manitari villages, and that their people, together with these Indians, had arrived but yesterday at the winter village, situated at no great distance. The clerk, who had the management of the business here, was Mr. Dougherty, brother to the Indian agent,[167] who had likewise accompanied Major Long in his expedition to the Rocky Mountains, and who had, at present, old Charbonneau as interpreter. The latter had lately quitted the American Fur Company, but subsequently returned into their service. The Indians, under their principal chief, Lachpitzi-Sihrish (the yellow bear), had arrived, as I have said, but yesterday, in the winter village; and Dougherty, with Charbonneau and several engagés, lived in some huts hastily erected on the bank of the river, while a better and more substantial house was building in the Indian village. Mr. Dougherty, to whom we delivered letters from Mr. Campbell, would not suffer us to proceed, and entertained us with much hospitality. It gave us much pleasure to be again in human society, after having been so long deprived of it. While we were chatting and smoking our cigars, we perceived, near where we were sitting, a row of large casks, and learned that they were all filled with gunpowder, which, considering the high wind that blew directly into the hut, was a great want of prudence. Many interesting Indians came successively, among whom was the old chief, who was particularly struck with our long beards, from which these people have a kind of {316} aversion. The night was stormy and very dark: some of us slept in the boat; Dreidoppel and our engagés in the huts on shore.
The morning of the 8th November was bleak, cold, and frosty. I left the place early, accompanied by Charbonneau, and, after proceeding four miles, landed on the southern bank, to look for a petrified trunk of a tree, which Charbonneau had mentioned to me. While my people were taking their breakfast in a poplar wood, we proceeded alternately through thickets and open plains, towards the neighbouring hills, to the Fontaine Rouge, which was now a marsh covered with ice: not far from this was the tree, which is supposed to be part of an old cedar (juniperus); it is the lower part of a hollow trunk, with a portion of the roots; and, though this mass still perfectly shows the formation of the wood, it is now converted into a sounding stone. As the whole of this interesting specimen was much too ponderous to be removed, I carried off a good many fragments, without, however, disfiguring the tree, which will, doubtless, some day, find a place in some museum in the United States. This kind of petrified wood is not, by any means, unfrequent on the Missouri. Of the many interesting specimens of this kind which I had collected, very few have found their way to Europe.
After breakfast we continued our voyage, at eleven o'clock, and came to the spot where Mr. Pilcher's residence formerly stood, about eleven miles from Fort Clarke.[168] At twelve o'clock we were opposite the first Manitari summer village, and saw, on the other side, many Indians, who hallooed to Charbonneau. They had some smooth-haired hounds, spotted brown and white, with hanging ears, which were, doubtless, of European race. The invitations to land became more vociferous and numerous, and Charbonneau advised us to comply with them, which we did: we were immediately conducted, by a distinguished man, Ita-Widahki-Hisha (the red shield),[169] to his tent, which stood apart on the prairie, on the summit of the bank. The white leather tent was new, spacious, and handsomely ornamented with tufts of hair of various colours, and at each side of the entrance finished with a stripe and rosettes of dyed porcupine quills, very neatly executed. It had been well warmed by a good fire, a most refreshing sight to us. We took our seats around it, with the numerous family, the brother and uncle of the chief, young men, women, and children. The chief had rather a long beard, like the Punca chief, Shudegacheh, and his right breast was tattooed with black stripes. The old uncle had a very ugly countenance; he was fat, and his dress negligent and slovenly. The wife of the chief held a child in her lap, with a thick hare lip. A large dish of boiled maize and beans was immediately set before us; it was very tender and well dressed, and three of us eat out of the dish with spoons made of the horn of buffalo, or bighorn; after which the red Dacota pipe went round. Our people had likewise obtained refreshments, and presented the Indians, in return, with some tobacco and gunpowder. After we had conversed half an hour, through Charbonneau, with these friendly people, and given them an account of our battle with the Assiniboins, their enemies, we took leave and proceeded on our voyage. The {317} Indians accompanied us to the river-side, and on our way thither we saw the skin of a large white wolf hung on a tree, doubtless, by way of medicine, or offering. We left at one o'clock, and at two reached the Manitari village, Awachawi, which lay close to the bank;[170] a couple of women, in their round leather boats, set us across the river; they had hung some wood to their vessel, and rowed with great rapidity; some others were proceeding towards the river, with their boats hanging on their heads and down their backs. I shall describe these boats in the sequel.[171] At three o'clock we reached the Mandan village of Ruhptare, where a number of Indians came to the bank to greet their friends; Charbonneau hid himself, that they might not recognise him and invite him ashore. He had five names among these Indians—the chief of the little village; the man who possesses many gourds; the great horse from abroad; the forest bear; and fifth, which, as often happens among these Indians, is not very refined. After we had passed the bend in the river, we saw the second Mandan village, Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, and, at no great distance beyond it, Fort Clarke, which we reached at four o'clock, and were welcomed on the shore by Mr. Kipp, the director and clerk of the Fur Company, who led us to his house.
FOOTNOTES:
[162] On his outward journey Maximilian gives this river the English form of its name—the Muddy. See our volume xxii, p. 372, note 348.—Ed.
[163] Charles Lucien Bonaparte, prince de Musignano and Canino, for whom see our volume xxii, p. 39, note 15.—Ed.
[164] See Plate 23, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.—Ed.
[165] See our volume xxii, p. 369, note 345. The post was one built in 1825-26 by James Kipp (see our volume xxii, p. 345, note 319), for the Columbia Fur Company. This was transferred (1827) with other property to the American Fur Company, who maintained it, as Maximilian says, until the establishment of the Yellowstone post.—Ed.
[166] This post of Manoel Lisa was the one visited in 1811 by Bradbury and Brackenridge, who found Reuben, brother of Meriwether Lewis, in charge. See our volume v, pp. 152-167; vi, pp. 135-142. It was on the west bank of the Missouri about twelve miles above Knife River, near Emanuel Creek.—Ed.