turn to their companions; for if they crossed over
to our camp we would put them to death. They asked for some corn, which
Captain Clark refused; they then requested permission to come and
visit our camp, but he ordered them back to their own people. He then
returned, and all our arms were prepared, in case of an attack; but when
the Indians reached their comrades, and informed their chiefs of our
intention, they all set out on their way to their own camp; though
some of them halted on a rising ground and abused us very copiously,
threatening to kill us if we came across. We took no notice of this for
some time, till the return of three of our hunters, whom we were afraid
the Indians might have met. But as soon as they joined us we embarked;
and to see what the Indians would attempt, steered near their side of
the river. At this the party on the hill seemed agitated; some set out
for their camp, others walked about, and one man walked toward the boats
and invited us to land. As he came near, we recognized him to be the
same who had accompanied us for two days in 1804, and was considered a
friend of the whites.

"Unwilling, however, to have any intercourse with these people, we
declined his invitation, upon which he returned to the hill, and struck
the earth three times with his gun, a great oath among the Indians,
who consider swearing by the earth as one of the most solemn forms
of imprecation. At the distance of six miles we stopped on a bleak
sand-bar, where we thought ourselves secure from any attack during the
night, and also safe from the mosquitoes. We had made but twenty-two
miles, but in the course of the day had killed a mule-deer, an animal
we were very anxious to obtain. About eleven in the evening the wind
shifted to the northwest, and it began to rain, accompanied by thunder
and lightning, after which the wind changed to the southwest, and blew
with such violence that we were obliged to hold fast the canoes, for
fear of their being driven from the sand-bar: still, the cables of two
of them broke, and two others were blown quite across the river; nor was
it till two o'clock that the whole party were reassembled, waiting in
the rain for daylight."

The party now began to meet white men in small detachments coming up the
river. On the third of September, for example, they met the first men
who were able to give them news of home. This party was commanded by a
Mr. James Airs (or Ayres), from Mackinaw, by the