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Soon after I had dispatched this party the Chief of the Enesher's and 15 or 20 of his people visited me and appeared to be anxious to See the articles I offered for the horses. Several of them agreeed to let me have horses if I would add Sundery articles to those I offered which I agreeed to, and they lay'd those bundles by and informed me they would deliver me the horses in the morning.

I told the Cheifs and wariers of the village who were there present that we were anxious that Some of the village Should go and See their great father and hear his good words & recve his bountifull gifts &c. and told them to pitch on Some Man on which they could rely on and Send him to See their Great father, they made the Same objections which the Chief had done before. a young man offered to go down, and they all agreeed for him to go down the charector of this young man I knew as a bad one and made an objection as to his age and Chareckter at this time Gibson who was with me informed me that this young man had Stole his knife and had it then in his possession, this I informed the Chief and directed him to give up the knife he delivered the knife with a very faint apology for his haveing it in his possession.

I think the late ravages of the small pox may well account for the number of remains of vilages which we find deserted on the river and Sea coast in this quarter. Gass remained in order to bring the ballance of the meat to the river at a point agreeed on, where the Canoe is to meet them again tomorrow morning.

Colter one of our men expressed a desire to join Some trappers who offered to become Shearers with and furnish traps &c. the offer a very advantagious one, to him, his Services Could be dispenced with from this down and as we were disposed to be of Service to any one of our party who had performed their duty as well as Colter had done, we agreed to allow him the prvilage provided no one of the party would ask or expect a Similar permission to which they all agreeed that they wished Colter every Suckcess and that as we did not wish any of them to Seperate untill we Should arive at St.

I offered to take his little Son a butifull promising Child who is 19 months old to which they both himself & wife wer willing provided the Child had been weened. they observed that in one year the boy would be Sufficiently old to leave his mother & he would then take him to me if I would be so freindly as to raise the Child for him in Such a manner as I thought proper, to which I agreeed &c. we droped down to the Big white Cheifs Mandan Village 1/2 a mile below on the South Side, all the Indians proceeded on down by land. and I walked to the lodge of the Chief whome I found Sorounded by his friends the men were Setting in a circle Smokeing and the womin Crying. he Sent his bagage with his wife & Son, with the Interpreter Jessomme & his wife and 2 children to the Canoes provided for them. after Smoking one pipe, and distributing Some powder & lead which we had given him, he informed me that he was ready and we were accompd to the Canoes by all the Village Maney of them Cried out aloud. as I was about to Shake with the Grand Cheifs of all the Villages there assembled they requested me to Set one minit longer with them which I readily agreed to and directed a pipe to be lit. the Cheifs informed that when we first came to their Country they did not beleive all we Said we then told them. but they were now Convinced that every thing we had told them were true, that they Should keep in memory every thing which we had Said to them, and Strictly attend to our advice, that their young men Should Stay at home and Should no go again to war against any nation, that if any atacted them they Should defend themselves, that we might depend on what they Said, and requested us to inform their great father. the also requested me to tell the Ricaras to Come and See them, not to be afraid that no harm Should be done them, that they were anxious to be in peace with them.

and wish him to Camp near us untill we Crossed the Mountains which he agreeed to do, and was much pleased we have turned our attentions towards the twisted hair who has Several Sons grown who are well acquainted as well as himself with the various roads through the rocky Mountains and will answer very well as guides to us through those Mountains-In the Council to day the father of Hohastillpelp Said the Chopunnish were fully Convinced of the advantages of peace and ardently wished to cultivate peace with their neighbours. early last Summer 3 of their brave men were Sent with a pipe to the Shoshones on the S E. fork of Lewis's river in the Plains of Columbia, their pipe was disreguarded and their 3 men murdered, which had given rise to the War expedition against that nation last fall; that their warriers had fallen in with and killed 42 of the Shoshones with the loss of 3 men only on their part; that this had Satisfied the blood of the deceased friends and they would never again make war against the Shoshones, but were willing to receve them as friends-. That as we had not Seen the Indians towards Fort de prere they did not think it Safe to venture over to the Plains of the Missouri, where they would fondly go provided those nations would not kill them.

La Rock and one of his men Came to visit us we informed him what we had herd of his intentions of makeing Chiefs &c. and forbid him to give meadels or flags to the Indians, he Denied haveing any Such intention, we agreeed that one of our interpeters Should Speak for him on Conditions he did not Say any thing more than what tended to trade alone- he gave fair promises &.