190 Expedition to the 



Major replied, that his opinion ought to have been asked 

 previously to the retaliatory measure, which had already 

 been prematurely taken, as they were not certain that the 

 Konzas were the offenders, and that this ought to have been 

 ascertained before any depredation on the Konzas had been 

 committed. But the course which he would now advise 

 them to pursue was, to send a deputation to the Konzas, for 

 the purpose of ascertaining the fact, to return the Konzas' 

 horses, and to demand their own. This course seemed sa- 

 tisfactory to the warrior, who, however, stated that if the 

 Konzas attempted to steal horses from them in future, he 

 would certainly lead a war party himself against them. 



35th. Mr. Woods, of the Missouri Fur Company, has 

 returned from a trading excursion. He reports that he saw 

 several of the Pawnee caches, which had been broken open 

 and robbed of their corn by the Omawhaws. This is by no 

 means a rare occurrence with the Indians, but it does not 

 appear that it has ever led to hostilities between nations ; 

 they say that when a person is in want of food, he has a right 

 to take any he can find. 



Corporal Norman, who went out this morning to kill rab- 

 bits, returned, about noon, with twenty-seven, which he had 

 killed with single balls. 



February 9th. Several Oto Indians have visited us with- 

 in this day or two, and one of them, Ca-he-ga-in-ya, remained 

 with us last night; he was finely dressed, had on a chief's 

 coat laced with silver, and a profusion of wampum about his 

 neck, and suspended to his ears ; he departed this morning, 

 on his way to the Omawhaws, to trade for horses. 



The ice on the Missouri is sixteen inches in thickness, 

 that of the Boyer creek fifteen and three fourths. 



12th. Messrs. Dougherty, Peale, and myself, with an as- 

 sistant, encamped at a pond near the Boyer to obtain fish ; 

 we cut several holes in the ice of the pond, and obtained one 

 Otter and a number of small fishes, amongst which three 



