$2 
JOURNAL. 
iind twenty-three men immediately set out with an 
intention of pursuing the murderers. They went up 
to the first village of the Mandans, but their war- 
riors did not seem disposed to turn out. They sug- 
gested the coldness of the weather ; that the Sioux 
were too far gone to be overtaken ; and put off the 
expedition to the spring of the year. Captain Clarke 
and his party returned the same evening to the fort. 
We have been daily visited by the Indians since we 
came here. Our fort is called Fort Mandan, and by 
observation is in latitude 47. 21, 32. 8.* 
* The course of the Missouri, and distances of places on 
3$ appear to be very erroneously laid down upon the maps of 
I*ouisiana generally. On these the villages of the Mandan* 
&re^aced in about 43 1-2 degress of north latitude and 
112 1-2 of west longitude from Greenwich. This would 
fjlace them about 500 miles nearer the moutli of the Colum- 
bia on the Pacific ocean, than the mmith of the Missouri : 
supposing the moutlv^of the Columbia to be about 124 de- 
crees v/est of London. But the nearest practicable route 
from the Mandan villages to the Tno||th of the Columbia, 
according to Captain Clarke's estiniMe, places them 335 
iTiiles nearer the mouth of the Missouri than that of the 
Columbia ; and by the route actually taken bV the expedi- 
tion to the mouth of the Columbia, they are 200 miles nearer 
the mouth of the Missouri. ^ - 
By Captain Lewis's observations these villages are in lati-* 
tade 47. 21. 32, 8. and according to Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. 
Thompson astronomer to the North West company, in the 
year 1798, determined the northern bend of the Missouri 
to be in latitude 47. 32. north, and longitude lOi. 25. west. 
Now this is probably near the longitude of the Mandan vil- 
lages ; for as it appears by the above statemenit, and by o- 
ther observations of Captain Lewis nearer the mouth of the 
Missouri, that the course up the river is, for a considerable 
distance, nearly due west, and afterw^ards netu'ly due north, 
the difference of longitude and latitude, between the mouth 
of the Missouri and the point where Mr. Thompson took 
his observations, may be added together, in estimating the 
distance : and this will give about 8 1-2 degrees of latitude 
nd 9 degrees of longitude making in the whole 17 1-2 de- 
grees; which from the very meandning' course of the Mis- 
