Volume 1

FINAL ADIEU TO THE MANDANS. 403
quitoes ; however, with the kind assistance of our landlord,
who sent out young men, we recovered all our horses.
During this time some of our party were snoring as contentedly
as if their horses had been tied in the hut. At
ten o'clock the rain ceased and the weather cleared up ; we
lost no time in saddling, loading, and taking leave of our
host, to whom we gave what
ammunition we could spare,
for which he was very thankful, although it was a trifle.
We soon after took the road, bidding a final
adieu to the
Mandanes. The road through the wood was very muddy
and bad. We found amazing quantities of poires, perfectly
ripe. The natives here are so surrounded by their different
enemies at all seasons, and particularly when the fruit is
ripe, that the women dare not leave the villages to gather
it, though there is a great plenty of chokecherries, cerises,
etc. Even when they go out to hoe their corn, young
men, well armed, keep on the rounds at short distances
from the women to prevent surprise from an enemy.
This is a necessary precaution, as they have frequently
been attacked while working in the fields. The village
on the N. side lies under a double disadvantage, surrounded
by thick woods for nearly two miles upon the
land side, and having close by a vast quantity of young
sprouts and brushwood, enabling an enemy to approach
very near without being discovered. A single Sioux has
been known to secrete himself for several days among those
bushes until a favorable opportunity has offered, when he
has dispatched a Mandane, and got away with the scalp.
At twelve o'clock we came opposite the upper Big Belly
village, where we found Messrs. McKenzie^and Caldwell
waiting for us. They had just got over, accompanied by Le
• " I did not wish to leave the Missurie so soon," says C. McKenzie, /. c, p.
393, "but Messrs. Chaboillez and Henry pressed me so that I left, after having
disposed of the rest of my goods for some beavers brought me by some
Rocky Mountain Indians during the night. Next morning, I crossed the
Missurie with six horses well loaded and two light to carry myself and Mr.
Caldwell. I was not a little proud when I considered that I was the first
North trader who crossed the Missurie with four packs of beaver."