some trees burning, and that the wind from that quarter
blew the smoke directly towards us. Our camp lies about three miles
northeast from the old Maha village, and is in latitude 42 degrees 15'
41". The accounts we have had of the effects of the smallpox on that
nation are most distressing; it is not known in what way it was first
communicated to them, though probably by some war party. They had been a
military and powerful people; but when these warriors saw their strength
wasting before a malady which they could not resist, their phrenzy was
extreme; they burnt their village, and many of them put to death their
wives and children, to save them from so cruel an affliction, and that
all might go together to some better country.

On the 16th, we still waited for the Indians: a party had gone out
yesterday to the Maha creek, which was damned up by the beaver between
the camp and the village: a second went to-day. They made a kind of drag
with small willows and bark, and swept the creek: the first company
brought three hundred and eighteen, the second upwards of eight hundred,
consisting of pike, bass, fish resembling salmon, trout, redhorse,
buffaloe, one rockfish, one flatback, perch, catfish, a small species of
perch called, on the Ohio, silverfish, a shrimp of the same size, shape
and flavour of those about Neworleans, and the lower part of the
Mississippi. We also found very fat muscles; and on the river as well as
the creek, are different kinds of ducks and plover. The wind, which in
the morning had been from the northwest, shifted round in the evening to
the southeast, and as usual we had a breeze, which cooled the air and
relieve us from the musquitoes, who generally give us great trouble.

Friday 17. The wind continued from the southeast, and the morning was
fair. We observe about us a grass resembling wheat, except that the
grain is like rye, also some similar to both rye and barley, and a kind
of timothy, the seed of which branches from the main stock, and is more
like a flaxseed than a timothy. In the evening, one of the party sent to
the Ottoes, returned with the information that the rest were coming on
with the deserter: they had also caught Liberte, but, by a trick, he
made his escape: they were bringing three of the chiefs in order to
engage our assistance in making peace with the Mahas. This nation having
left their village, that desirable purpose cannot be effected; but in
order to bring in any neighbou