Lewis: February 6, 1805

Meriwether Lewis · Fort Mandan (winter)

That night's camp, per the NPS campsite reconstruction (Bergantino): Fort Mandan, ND (left shore)

6th February Wednesday 1805. Fair morning Wind from N. W. had a sley
prepared against the return of the horses which Capt Clark had promised to
send back as soon as he should be able to procure a load of meat. visited
by many of the natives among others the Big white, the Coal, big-man,
hairy horn and the black man, I smoked with them, after which they
retired, a deportment not common, for they usually pester us with their
good company the ballance of the day after once being introduced to our
apartment. Shields killed three antelopes this evening. the blacksmiths
take a considerable quantity of corn today in payment for their labour.
the blacksmith’s have proved a happy resoce to us in our present situation
as I believe it would have been difficult to have devised any other method
to have procured corn from the natives. the Indians are extravegantly fond
of sheet iron of which they form arrow-points and manufacter into
instruments for scraping and dressing their buffaloe robesI
permited the blacksmith to dispose of a part of a sheet-iron callaboos
which had been nearly birnt out on our passage up the river, and for each
piece about four inches square he obtained from seven to eight gallons of
corn from the natives who appeared extreemly pleased with the exchange-