ery agreeably: we treated the men, on
that day, with the best the establishment afforded. Although that was no
great affair, they seemed well satisfied; for they had been restricted,
during the last few months, to a very meagre diet, living, as one may
say, on sun-dried fish. On the 27th, the schooner having returned from
her second voyage up the river, we dismantled her, and laid her up for
the winter at the entrance of a small creek.

The weather, which had been raining, almost without interruption, from
the beginning of October, cleared up on the evening of the 31st; and the
1st January, 1812, brought us a clear and serene sky. We proclaimed the
new year with a discharge of artillery. A small allowance of spirits was
served to the men, and the day passed in gayety, every one amusing
himself as well as he could.

The festival over, our people resumed their ordinary occupations: while
some cut timber for building, and others made charcoal for the
blacksmith, the carpenter constructed a barge, and the cooper made
barrels for the use of the posts we proposed to establish in the
interior. On the 18th, in the evening, two canoes full of white men
arrived at the establishment. Mr. M'Dougal, the resident agent, being
confined to his room by sickness, the duty of receiving the strangers
devolved on me. My astonishment was not slight, when one of the party
called me by name, as he extended his hand, and I recognised Mr. Donald
M'Kenzie, the same who had quitted Montreal, with Mr. W.P. Hunt, in the
month of July, 1810. He was accompanied by a Mr. Robert M'Lellan, a
partner, Mr. John Reed, a clerk, and eight _voyageurs_, or boatmen.
After having reposed themselves a little from their fatigues, these
gentlemen recounted to us the history of their journey, of which the
following is the substance.

Messrs. Hunt and M'Kenzie, quitting Canada, proceeded by way of
Mackinac and St. Louis, and ascended the Missouri, in the autumn of
1810, to a place on that river called _Nadoway_, where they wintered.
Here they were joined by Mr. R. M'Lellan, by a Mr. Crooks, and a Mr.
Mueller, traders with the Indians of the South, and all having business
relations with Mr. Astor.

In the spring of 1811, having procured two large keel-boats, they
ascended the Missouri to the country of the _Arikaras_, or Rice Indians,
where they disposed of their boats and a great part of their luggage, to
a Spanish trader, by name _Manuel Lisa_. Having purchased o