Wednesday May 14th. 1806.
The morning was fair, we arrose early and dispatched a few
of our hunters to the opposite side of the river, and employed
a part of the men in transporting our baggage to the opposite
shore wile others were directed to collect the horses; at
10 A.M. we had taken our baggage over and collected our
horses, we then took breakfast, after which we drove our horses
into the river which they swam without accedent and all
arrived safe on the opposite shore. the river is 150 y
ds. wide
at this place and extreemly rapid. tho' it may be safely navigated
at this season, as the water covers all the rocks which lie
in it's bed to a considerable debth. we followed our horses
and again collected them, after which we removed our baggage
to a position which we had previously selected for out permanent
camp about half a mile below.
[3]
this was a very
eligible spot for defence it had been an ancient habitation of
the indians; was sunk about 4 feet in the ground and raised
arround it's outer edge about three 1/2 feet with a good wall of
ea[r]th, the whole was a circle of about 30 feet in diameter.
arround this we formed our tents of sticks and grass facing
outwards and deposited our baggage within the sunken space
under a shelter which we constructed for the purpose our
situation was within 40 paces of the river in an extentsive
level bottom thinly timbered with the longleafed pine. here
we are in the vicinity of the best hunting grounds from indian
information, are convenient to the salmon which we expect
daily and have an excellent pasture for our horses. the hills
to the E and North of us are high broken and but partially
timbered; the soil is rich and affords fine grass. in short as
we are compelled to reside a while in this neighbourhood I
feel perfectly satisfyed with our position.
[4]
immediately after
we had passed the river Tunnachemootoolt and Hohâstillpilp
arrived on the south side with a party of a douzen of their
young men; they began to sing in token of friendship as is
their custom, and we sent the canoe over for them. they left
their horses and came over accompanyed by several of their
party among whom were the 2 young men who had presented
us with two horses in behalf of the nation; one of these was
the son of Tunnachemootoolt and the other the son of the
Cheif who was killed by the Minnetares or Fort de Prarie last
year and the same who had given us the mare and Colt. we
received them at our camp and smoked with them; after some
hours Hohâstillpilp with much cerimony presented me with a
very eligant grey gelding which he had brought for that
purpose. I gave him in return a handkercheif 200 balls and
4 lb
s. of powder. with which he appeared perfectly satisfyed.
Collins killed two bear this morning and was sent with two
others in quest of the meat; with which they returned in the
evening; the mail bear was large and fat the female was of
moderate size and reather meagre. we had the fat bear fleaced
in order to reserve the oil for the mountains. both these bear
were of the speceis common to the upper part of the missouri
they may be called white black grizly brown or red bear for
they are found of all those colours. perhaps it would not be
unappropriate to designate them the variagated bear. we gave
the indians who were about 15 in number half the female bear,
with the sholder head and neck of the other. this was a great
treat to those poor wretches who scarcely taist meat once a
month. they immediately prepared a brisk fire of dry wood
on which they threw a parsel of smooth stones from the river,
when the fire had birnt down and heated the stones they placed
them level and laid on a parsel of pine boughs, on these they
laid the flesh of the bear in flitches, placing boughs between
each course of meat and then covering it thickly with pine
boughs; after this they poared on a small quantity of water
and covered the who[l]e over with earth to the debth of four
inches. in this situation they suffered it to remain about 3
hours when they took it out. I taisted of this meat and
found it much more tender than that which we had roasted or
boiled, but the strong flavor of the pine distroyed it for my
pallate. Labuish returned late in the evening and informed
us that he had killed a female bear and two large cubbs, he
brought with him several large darkbrown pheasants which
he had also killed. Shannon also returned with a few pheasants
and two squirrels. we have found our stonehorses
[stallions] so troublesome that we indeavoured to exchange
them with the Chopunnish for mears or gel[d]ings but they
will not excha[n]ge altho' we offer 2 for one, we came to a
resolution to castrate them and began the operation this evening
one of the indians present offered his services on this
occasion, he cut them without tying the string of the stone as
is usual, and assures us that they will do much better in that
way; he takes care to scrape the string very clean and to
seperate it from all the adhereing veigns before he cuts it.
we shall have an opportunity of judging whether this is a
method preferable to that commonly practiced as Drewyer
has gelded two in the usual way. The indians after their
feast took a pipe or two with us and retired to rest much
pleased with their repast. these bear are tremendious animals
to them; they esteem the act of killing a bear equally great
with that of an enimy in the field of action. I gave the claws
of those which Collins killed to Hohâstillpilp.
