MISSOURI. 
the wind north; the thermometer at fun-rife 21 0 below o; 
the ice in the atmofphere fo thick as to render the wea¬ 
ther hazy, and give the appearance of two funs reflefting 
one another. On the 12th, the wind ftill north; the 
thermometer at fun-rife 38° below o. On the 17th, the 
thermometer was at fun-rife 1 45 0 below o. On the 19th, 
the weather moderated; but the thermometer continued 
for many days below o. 
The whole of this country, on both fides of the Mif- 
fouri, is occupied by fcattered tribes of Indians; and, 
notwithftanding the richnefs of the foil, there is hardly 
any part of the earth’s furfa.ce more thinly inhabited. 
The Sioux Indians confift of nine tribes, which occupy 
a vaft extent of country ; and, when the numbers in each 
are added together, they amount to no more than 2650. 
This account comprifes the men, that is, the fighting- 
men ; and may perhaps be multiplied by four to give the 
total number of inhabitants, which, by that computation, 
will amount to 10,600. In other parts of the fame trail, 
the population appears to be more fcanty. Thefe men, 
however, are not entirely hunters ; they live in villages; 
they feem to raife fome corn, and many of them are pro¬ 
vided with horfes. Their numbers appear to be in gene¬ 
ral on the decline ; owing probably to the ravages of the 
fmall-pox, and the effebls of fpirituous liquors, added to 
the Hate of almoft perpetual warfare in which they live 
with one another. The game which the country pro¬ 
duces, does not feem to be in very great abundance. 
One of the Indian nations which they met in the courfe 
of the firfl: fuinmer, the Ricaras, made ufe of no fpirituous 
liquors of any kind, and refufed to tafte any when of¬ 
fered them. The Ricaras, of which they faw three vil¬ 
lages, containing in all about 450 men, are tall and well 
proportioned, the women handfome and lively, though 
to them, as among other favages, falls all the drudgery 
of the field, and all the labour of procuring l'ubfiftence, 
except by hunting. Thefe people are poor, but kind and 
generous ; and, although they receive thankfully what is 
given them, do not beg like the Sioux. The women are 
handfomer than thofe of the former' nation, but, like 
them, are difpofed to be liberal of their favours ; and it 
is curious indeed to obferve how much the point of ho¬ 
nour in this refpebt is reverfed among all the favage tribes 
which our travellers have defcribed. That a wife or a 
filler ftiould grant any favour to a llranger without the 
confent of her hulband or brother, is a caufe of offence, 
and is confidered as a great difgrace. On the other hand, 
the confent of the hulband or brother is not difficult to 
be obtained; and they are even gratified by having an 
opportunity of granting it. A black lervant, belonging 
to the American party, produced at firfl: great aftonifli- 
ment among people who law a man of that colour for the 
firfl: time. He foon, however, casne to be very much in 
the good graces of the women, and with this the liuf- 
bands, inllead of being jealous, appeared to be highly 
gratified. In many refpetls, the Ricaras were the gentlell 
and molt amiable tribe of Indians which our travellers 
had yet met with. One day a Ricara chief who had made 
them a vifit was prefent when, conformably to the fen- 
tence of a court-martial, corporal punilhment was inflibled 
on one of the loldiers. The fight affedled him very much, 
and he cried all the time of the punilhment. “ We ex¬ 
plained the offence, and the reafons for what was done; 
he acknowledged that examples were neceffary, and that 
he himfelf had given them, by punilhing with death ; but 
his nation never flogged even children from their birth.” 
The civilized nations of the world may be alhamed to 
think how much they Hand in need of the leflon which 
the feeling and good fenfe of this poor favage are calcu¬ 
lated to afford them. 
The Mandans are another nation on the banks of this, 
river, higher up than the Ricaras. See Mandan, in this 
volume ; and the article Louisiana, vol. xiii. p. 699. 
After palling the winter-months in the fmall fort which 
they had erected on the north bank of the river, in the 
533 
territory of the Mandans, they refumed their voyage on 
the 7th of April, 1805, having difpatched their large boat 
with a part of their men to return, with fome prefents for 
the prelident, and an account of their proceedings. Af¬ 
ter this diminution, the party coniilled of thirty-two, in¬ 
cluding the two commanders. The courfe of the river 
from this point lies confiderably more to the well; from 
about the great bend, already mentioned, to where they 
now were, their courfe had been nearly north. After this, 
it was mollly well; inclining at firfl: towards the north ; 
afterwards weft, with a little fouth, for a great length. 
The river preferves the fame character, decreafing flowly 
in magnitude, and ftill flowing through an alluvial coun¬ 
try; where there is no very high ground, and where the 
plains are traverfed by the elk, the buffalo, the antelope, 
&c. The face of the country, foon after they entered on 
this part of their voyage, is defcribed on both fides of the 
river, as prefenting from the heights the appearance of 
one fertile unbroken plain ; extending itfelf, as far as the 
eye could reach, without a tree or a llirub, except in moift 
fituations, or on the fteep declivities of hills where they 
were Iheltered from the ravages of fire. The current in 
this part of the river was lefs rapid, and the navigation 
more fafe and eafy than on the lower part, fo that they 
made from eighteen or twenty miles a day. As they ad¬ 
vanced, they obferved, on the fides of the hills, on the 
banks of the river, and even on the fluid-bars, a white fub- 
llance, which appeared in confiderable quantities on the 
furface of the ground, and tailed like a mixture of com¬ 
mon with glauber falts. Many of the ftreams which came 
from the foot of the hills were fo impregnated with this 
fubftance, that the water was of an unpleafant tafte and a 
purgative quality. They obferved alfo carbonated wood. 
As they held on their courfe, they found the fame ap¬ 
pearances of fait and coal; alio of pumice-ftone and a 
kind of burnt earth. A little farther on, the hills exhi¬ 
bited large irregular broken malfes of rocks, fome of which, 
although two hundred feet above the river, leemed, at 
fome remote period, to have been fubjeft to its influence, 
and were apparently worn frnooth by the agitation of the 
water. The rocks as here enumerated confift of white and 
grey granite, flint, limeftone, freeftone, and occalionally 
broken llrata of a black coloured ftone like petrified wood, 
which makes good whetftones. The ulual appearances of 
coal and pumice-ftone continued, the coal being of a bet¬ 
ter quality when burned, making a hot and lafting fire, 
but emitting very little linoke or flame. At a point a 
little higher up than this, the bed of coal is faid to be in 
fome places fix feet thick. They faw large herds of deer, 
elk, buffaloes, and antelopes, with wolves hovering round 
them, and fometimes catching the ftragglers. The female 
buffalo would defend her young as long as ffie could re¬ 
treat as fall as the herd, but would not venture to a great 
dillance. 
So late as the 27th of April, the ice was ftill floating in 
great quantities down the river. They law alfo great 
numbers of buffaloes, and fome carcafes of them partly 
devoured by wolves. Thele had either funk through the 
ice in the winter, or had been drowned in attempting to 
crol's on the ice. It often happens that on thefe occaflons 
the flioals of ice move down, carrying along with them 
the buffaloes, which are then lean and in a weak Hate. 
The Indians are very dexterous in attacking the buffalo 
in this helplefs fituation, where he could not exert his 
ftrength, even if he were ever lb much pofleffed of it. This 
is a very unlooked-for way in Which the bodies of animals 
are carried down rivers, and may be at length buried in 
their lands. The elephants of the Yenelea and the Lena 
may have been thus carried down the ftreams of theie 
great rivers, and depofitedin the places where their bones 
are now found. 
The moll formidable animals which they encountered 
in this voyage, were the white and brown bears. The 
Indians are very much afraid of them, and never attack 
them but in parties of fix or eight; and even then are 
often 
