tenaux, until they had seen whether we had deceived
them or not in our promises of furnishing them with arms and ammunition.
They had been disappointed in their hopes of receiving them from Mr.
Evans and were afraid that we too, like him, might tell them what was
not true. We advised them to continue at peace, that supplies of every
kind would no doubt arrive for them, but that time was necessary to
organize the trade. The fact is that the Assiniboins treat the Mandans
as the Sioux do the Ricaras; by their vicinity to the British they get
all the supplies, which they withhold or give at pleasure to the remoter
Indians: the consequence is, that however badly treated, the Mandans and
Ricaras are very slow to retaliate lest they should* lose their trade
altogether.

Monday 19. The ice continues to float in the river, the wind high from
the northwest, and the weather cold. Our hunters arrived from their
excursion below, and bring a very fine supply of thirty-two deer, eleven
elk, and five buffaloe, all of which was hung in a smokehouse.

Tuesday 20. We this day moved into our huts which are now completed.
This place which we call Fort Mandan, is situated in a point of low
ground, on the north side of the Missouri, covered with tall and heavy
cottonwood. The works consist of two rows of huts or sheds, forming an
angle where they joined each other; each row containing four rooms, of
fourteen feet square and seven feet high, with plank ceiling*, and the
roof slanting so as to form a loft above the rooms, the highest part of
which is eighteen feet from the ground: the backs of the huts formed a
wall of that height, and opposite the angle the place of the wall was
supplied by picketing; in the area were two rooms for stores and
provisions. The latitude by observation is 47 degrees 21' 47", and the
computed distance from the mouth of the Missouri sixteen hundred miles.

In the course of the day several Indians came down to partake of our
fresh meat; among the rest, three chiefs of the second Mandan village.
They inform us that the Sioux on the Missouri above the Chayenne river,
threaten to attack them this winter; that these Sioux are much irritated
at the Ricaras for having made peace through our means with the Mandans,
and have lately ill treated three Ricaras who carried the pipe of peace
to them, by beating them and taking away their horses. We gave them
assurances that we would protect them from all their enemies.

Novemb