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Hand looking-glass 267 Cylinder of planks 267 Mandan huts 267 Mandan bed 285 A Mandan letter, in hieroglyphics 285 Child's dart, of stag-horn 285 Stone club, with handle 355 A knotted wooden club 355 Arikkara bird-cage gourds 355 Map of neighborhood of Fort Clark 363

Part II of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America

Reprint of chapters xvi-xxvii of London edition: 1843

[Pg 10]
[Pg 11]

TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA, IN THE YEARS 1832, 1833, AND 1834

[PART II]

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CHAPTER XVI[1]
FIRST STAY AT FORT UNION, FROM JUNE 24TH TO JULY 6TH [1833]

Mr. Mc Kenzie had given us a comfortable lodging in his house, and we lived here very pleasantly, in a plain style, suitable to the resources of so remote a place; for we could not hope to meet with so good a table as we had had on board the steamer. We had, every day, fresh or dried buffalo flesh, bread made of flour, and also a good supply of coffee and wine. The first days passed rapidly in examining the fort and the immediate environs, while, on board the steamer, they began already, on the 25th, to unload and convey the provisions and goods to the fort, so that all was bustle and activity. Eight hundred packs of buffalo hides, each consisting of ten, were immediately embarked, amid a heavy fall of rain, which did much injury to these hides, which are tanned by the Indians. It was, therefore, necessary to open every one of the packs, and dry them again. The furs in the interior of North America are free from a nuisance so common among us, I mean insects, especially moths, which are unknown on the Upper Missouri. Besides the buffalo hides, many beaver, bear, wolf, lynx, fox, and other skins were embarked. Of the wolf and lynx, sixty-two packs, each consisting of 100 skins. Some of the Indians were very troublesome while this was doing, continually asking and begging for various things, particularly tobacco, which they were too indolent to prepare, or to get from the forest for themselves. The tobacco which the Fur Company sells to them, to mix with their leaves or bark, is strong, clammy, and black, and is in twists, six or eight inches long. Most of the Indians now present looked wretchedly poor, and many of them had not even a pipe of their own. Several apartments in the fort were assigned to these visitors, where they cooked and slept.

{199} After we had made ourselves acquainted with the fort, we made excursions into the prairie, especially to the chain of hills, and Mr. Bodmer took many views of the country. In all such excursions it is not usual to go alone, at least not without being well armed, because the Indians, especially war parties, can never be trusted. The Assiniboin having taken in its cargo, was to depart on the afternoon of the 26th of June, and return to St. Louis; the Company, therefore, assembled once more on board, to dine together. About three o'clock, when the whole population of the place was assembled on the beach, we took leave of our travelling companions, Messrs. Sandford and Pratte, with whom some of the Company's clerks had embarked to return to the United States. In order to turn, the Assiniboin first went a little way up the river, and then passed the fort with the rapidity of an arrow, while a mutual salute of a discharge of cannon and musketry was re-echoed from the mountains, and handkerchiefs were waved till a bend of the river hid the vessel, which we had so long inhabited, from our view. On this day the Assiniboins had left the fort to go into the prairie; others, in part much better dressed, had arrived, but only as harbingers of a great number of their people, and of Crees,[2] who, in fact, came on the 27th of June, singly, and in companies.

These Crees did not much differ, in appearance, from the Assiniboins; they are robust, powerful-looking men, with lank hair falling over their shoulders, and a broad flat lock, cut off straight over their eyes; one man, however, had it hanging down to his mouth. Some had their long hair plaited in several tails; many wore skin caps adorned with feathers, and one had the whole tail of a prairie hen; several of them wore the leather cases of their bows wound round their heads, like a turban. Their faces were painted red, some with black stripes, and their dress was like that of the Assiniboins. Several of them wore long wolf skins over their shoulders, with the head of the animal on the breast, and the tail trailing on the ground. Their leggins had a quantity of long leather fringe; the men are said to be often much tattooed, and Franklin says, that this operation is painful, but we were assured that the contrary is the case. The women are said to be well made, and, in the north, they understand how to dye a beautiful red with the roots of Galium tinctorium and boreale, and black with the bark of the alder.

The chief of the Crees was Maschkepiton (the broken arm), who had a medal with the effigy of the President hung round his neck, which he had received on a visit to