JOURNAL. 
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245- 
Grossventres, or Bigbellied Indians who inha- 
bit the plains up Maria's river ; of which they 
gave the following account. On the evening of the 
26th Captain Lewis and his party met with eight of 
thofee Indians, who seemed very friendly and gave 
them two robes. In return Captain Lewis gave one 
of them, who was a chief, a medal ; and they all con- 
tinued together during the night ; but after break 
of day the next morning, the Indians snatched up 
three of our men's guns and ran off with them. One 
Indian had the guns of two men, who pursued and 
caught him, and one of them killed him with his 
knife j and they got back the guns. Another had 
Captain Lewis's gun, but immediately gave it up. 
The party then went to catch their horses, and found 
the Indians driving them off ; when Captain Lewis 
shot one of them, and gave him a mortal wound ; 
who notwithstanding returned the fire, but without 
hurting the Captain. So our men got all their own 
horses, but one, and a number of those belonging ta 
the Indians, as they ran off in confusion and left every 
thing they had. Our men then saddled their horsesj 
and made towards the Missouri as fast as possible ; 
after Captain Lewis had satisfied himself with res- 
pect to the geography of the country up Maria's 
river. 
; We this day took the articles out of the place of 
deposit, and examiiied the lai*ge red periogue w^e left 
I) ere, and found it too rotten to take down the river. 
Wc therefore took what nails out of it we could, kft 
our horses on the plains and proceeded down the 
river. About the time we started, a heavy gust of 
rain and hail accompanied with thunder and light- 
iiing came on and lasted about an hour, after which 
we had a cloudy wet afternoon, and in the evening we 
encamped about twenty five miles below the forks. 
Tuesday 29th, Early in a cloudy morning we com- 
menced our voy age from the mouth of Maria's rivc^r ; 
X 2 
