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Set out early this morning as usual current strong with frequent riffles; employ the cord and seting poles. the oars scarcely ever being used except to pass the river in order to take advantage of the shore and cur-rent. at the distance of 33/4 m. passed the entrance of a large Creek 15 yds. wide which discharges itself on Lard. near the center of a Lard. bend it is a bold runing stream this we called Howard's Creek after Thomas P. Howard one of our party. at the distance of one mile further we passed the entrance of a small run which falls in just above a rocky clift on Lard. here the hills or reather mountains again recede from the river and the valley again widens to the extent of several miles with wide and fertile bottom lands. covered with grass and in many places a fine terf of greenswoard. the high lands are thin meagre soil covered with dry low sedge and a species of grass also dry the seeds of which are armed with a long twisted hard beard at the upper extremity while the lower point is a sharp subulate firm point beset at it's base with little stiff bristles standing with their points in a contrary direction to the subulate point to which they answer as a barb and serve also to pres it forward when onece entered a small distance. these barbed seed penetrate our mockersons and leather legings and give us great pain untill they are removed. my poor dog suffers with them excessively, he is constantly hinting and scratching himself as if in a rack of pain. the prickly pear also grow here as abundantly as usual. there is another species of the prickly pear of a globular form, composed of an assemblage of little conic leaves springing from a common root to which their small points are attached as a common center and the base of the cone forms the apex of the leaf which is garnished with a circular range of sharp thorns quite as stif and more keen than the more common species with the flat leaf, like the Cockeneal plant. on entering this open valley I saw the snowclad tops of distant mountains before us. the timber and mountains much as heretofore. saw a number of beaver today and some otter, killed one of the former, also 4 deer; found a deer's skin which had been left by Capt.
The Enesher an Skillutes are much better clad than they were last fall, there men have generally legings mockersons and large robes; many of them wear shirts of the same form with those of the Shoshone Chopunnish &c highly ornamented with porcupine quills. the dress of their women differs very little from those of the great rapids and above. their children frequently wear robes of the large grey squirrel skins, those of the men and women are principally deer skins, some wolf, elk, bighorn and buffaloe; the latter they procure from the nations who sometimes visit the Missouri. indeed a considerable poportion of their wearing apparel is purchased from their neighbours to the N. W. in exchange for pounded fish copper and beads. at present the principal village of the Eneshur is below the falls on the N. side of the river. one other village is above the falls on the S. side and another a few miles above on the N. side. the first consists of 19, the 2cd of 11, and the 3rd of 5 lodges. their houses like those of the Skillutes have their floors on the surface of the ground, but are formed of sticks and covered with mats and straw. they are large and contain usually several families each for fuel they use straw, small willows and the southern wood. they use the silk grass in manufacturing their fishing nets and bags, the bear grass and cedar bark are employed in forming a variety of articles. they are poor, dirty, proud, haughty, inhospitable, parsimonious and faithless in every rispect, nothing but our numbers I beleive prevents their attempting to murder us at this moment.
Their legings are most usually formed of the skins of the Antelope dressed without the hair. in the men they are very long and full each leging being formed of a skin nearly entire. the legs, tail and neck are also left on these, and the tail woarn upwards; and the neck deeply fringed and ornimented with porcupine qulls drags or trails on the ground behind the heel. the skin is sewn in such manner as to fit the leg and thye closely; the upper part being left open a sufficient distance to permit the legs of the skin to be dran underneath a girdle both before and behind, and the wide part of the skin to cover the buttock and lap before in such manner that the breechcloth is unnecessary. they are much more decent in concealing those parts than any nation on the Missouri the sides of the legings are also deeply fringed and ornimented. sometimes this part is ornimented with little fassicles of the hair of an enimy whom they have slain in battle.
Jefferson the President of the U States in releif on one side and clasp hands with a pipe and tomahawk on the other, to the other Chiefs we gave each a small medal which were struck in the Presidency of George Washing Esqr. we also gave small medals of the last discription to two young men whom the 1st Chief informed us wer good young men and much rispected among them. we gave the 1st Chief an uniform coat shirt a pair of scarlet legings a carrot of tobacco and some small articles to each of the others we gave a shirt leging handkerchief a knife some tobacco and a few small articles we also distributed a good quantity paint mockerson awls knives beads lookingglasses &c among the other Indians and gave them a plentifull meal of lyed corn which was the first they had ever eaten in their lives. they were much pleased with it. every article about us appeared to excite astonishment in ther minds; the appearance of the men, their arms, the canoes, our manner of working them, the back man york and the segacity of my dog were equally objects of admiration.
I soon obtained three very good horses for which I gave an uniform coat, a pair of legings, a few handkerchiefs, three knives and some other small articles the whole of which did not cost more than about 20$ in the U States. the Indians seemed quite as well pleased with their bargin as I was. the men also purchased one for an old checked shirt a pair of old legings and a knife. two of those I purchased Capt.
I soon purchased three horses and a mule. for each horse I gave an ax a knife handkercheif and a little paint; & for the mule the addition of a knife a shirt handkercheif and a pair of legings; at this price which was quite double that given for the horses, the fellow who sold him made a merit of having bestoed me one of his mules. I consider this mule a great acquisition.
Capt C. now joined us having just made an end of his medical distrabution. we gave a phiol of eyewater to the Broken Arm, and requested that he would wash the eyes of such as might apply for that purpose, and that when it was exhausted we would replenish the phiol. he was much pleased with this present. we now gave the Twisted hair one gun and a hundred balls and 2 lbs. of powder in part for his attention to our horses and promised the other gun and a similar quantity of powder and lead when we received the ballance of our horses. this gun we had purchased of the indians below for 2 Elkskins. this evening three other of our original stock of horses were produced, they were in fine order as well as those received yesterday. we have now six horses out only, as our old guide Toby and his son each took a horse of ours when they returned last fall. these horses are said to be on the opposite side of the river at no great distance from this place. we gave the young men who had delivered us the two horses this morning some ribbon, blue wampum and vermillion, one of them gave me a hansome pare of legings and the Broken Arm gave Capt.
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