strangers to all care, they live without artificial wants, they are happy as kings, provided that in the course of their whirlwind vagabondage they can find buffalo and antelope. Every man among them is a warrior, and each has the conscious conviction of his personal valor.
As the boat advances, we perceive numerous traces of the passage of large herds of buffalo, along the shore. Between the 4th and 7th of June, without stepping off the boat, our hunters killed ten buffalo in the water and on the bank, besides six antelope, a deer, a hare and two wolves. They took three calves alive, that had got mired and were struggling to escape from the mud. It is easy to raise these calves.
On the 9th, the boat arrived at Fort Berthold,6 x,916 miles above the mouth of the Missouri. I stopped here to wait for news concerning the movements of the Sioux bands. I hastened to send them an express, to acquaint them with my arrival and intentions. I expect their response within a fortnight; if it is favorable, I shall, with the Lord's grace, do my best to go to them in the interior of the country.
The three united nations, the Grosventres, Aricaras and Mandans, received me with the utmost cordiality. They appeared to be delighted when I announced that I had come to spend some time in their village. On the following day, I collected the principal Mandans and Grosventres in one of their big lodges or earthen houses; they are about 150 feet around and can contain over 6oo persons. I made known to them the motiveA of my visit, which were to announce to them the word of the Great Spirit, to baptize the little children, to penetrate, if possible, among their enemies, the Sioux; and to endeavor, in the name of the Great Spirit, to make them relish the words of peace of which I was the
s Fort Berthold was built as a trading-post in 1845, but was occupied as a military post in 1864. It was the successor of Fort Clark, the old trading-post of the Mandan Indians. It was an important military post during the Sioux wars.