hood. The country in every direction around 

 them, for several hundred miles, is entirely bare- 

 of timber, except on the water courses and steep 

 declivities of hills, where it is sheltered from the 

 ravages of fire. The remains of the ancient vil- 

 lages of these people are to be seen on many parts 

 of the Missouri, from the mouth of the Tetone 

 river, to the Mandans. The rapacious Sioux 

 Tetons, rob them of their horses, plunder their 

 gardens and fields, and sometimes murder them 

 without opposition, claim the country around 

 them, although they are the oldest inhabitants, 

 and treat them as merely tenants at will. Still 

 they maintain a partial trade with their oppressors, 

 the Tetons, to whom they barter horses, corn, 

 beans, and a species of tobacco which they culti- 

 vate, and receive in return guns, ammunition, 

 kettles, axes, and other articles, brought from the 

 river Saint Peters. The Ricaras obtain these 

 horses and mules from their western neighbours, 1 

 who frequently visit them for the purpose of 

 traffic. 



The Mandans, consisting of three hundred and 

 fifty warriors, and twelve hundred and fifty inhab- 

 itants, are the most friendly, and well disposed 

 Indians who live on the Missouri. They are 

 brave, humane, and hospitable. Several years 

 ago they lived in six villages, about forty miles 

 below their present towns. From repeated visit- 

 ations of the small pox, and the frequent attacks 

 of the Sioux, they have been reduced to their 



