6th. February Wednesday 1805.
Fair morning Wind from
N.W. had a sley prepared against
the return of the horses which Capt Clark
had promised to
send back as soon as he should be able to procure a load
of
meat. visited by many of the natives among others the Big
white,
the Coal, big-man, hairy horn and the black man, I
smoked with them, after
which they retired, a deportment not
common, for they usually pester us
with their good company
the ballance of the day after once being
introduced to our
apartment. Shields killed three antelopes this evening.
the
blacksmiths take a considerable quantity of corn today in payment
for their labour. the blacksmith's have
proved a happy
reso[r]ce to us in our present situation as I believe it
would
have been difficult to have devised any other method to have
procured corn from the natives. the Indians are extravegantly
fond
of sheet iron of which they form arrow-points and manufacter
into instruments for scraping and
dressing their buffaloe
robes. I permited the blacksmith to dispose of a
part of a
sheet iron callaboos (camboose,[20]
stove) which had been nearly
birnt out on our passage
up the river, and for each piece about
four inches square he obtained from
seven to eight gallons of
corn from the natives who appeared extreemly
pleased with
the exchange
