Fort Mandan, North Dakota — Patrick Gass: December 7, 1804
The white-headed chief of the first Mandan village came to the garrison to report that buffalo were moving from the prairie into the bottomlands. Captain Lewis and eleven men went out at once and found the prairie covered with buffalo, with mounted Indians already hunting them. The Indians killed thirty or forty buffalo using bows and arrows, while the expedition party killed eleven. The Indian horses were well trained to approach the animals closely and then wheel away quickly to avoid charges from wounded buffalo.
white head chief, of the first village of the Mandans, came to
*The course of the Missouri, and distances of places on it appear to be very
erroneously laid down upon the maps of Louisiana generally. On these the villages
of the Mandans are placed in about 43 1-2 degrees of north latitude and 112 1-2 of
west longitude from Greenwich. ‘This would placethem about 500 miles nearer the
mouth of the Columbia on the Pacific ocean, than the mouth of the Missouri: sup-
posing the mouth of the Columbia to be about 124 degrees west of London. But the
nearest practicable route from the Mandan villages to the mouth of the Columbia,
according to Captain Clarke’s estimate, places them 335 miles nearer the mouth of
the Missouri than that of the Columbia; and by the route actually taken by the
expedition to the mouth of the Columbia, they are 900 miles nearer the mouth of the
Missouri.
By Captain Lewis’s observations these villages are in latitude 47. 21. 32. 8. and
according to Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. Thompson, astronomer to the North West company,
in the year 1798, determined the northern bend of the Missouri to be in latitude 47. 32.
LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION 59
our garrison and told us that the buffaloe were in the prairie
coming into the bottom. Captain Lewis and eleven more of
us went out immediately, and saw the prairie covered with
buffaloe and the Indians on horseback killing them. They
killed 30 or 40 and we killed eleven of them. They shoot
them with bows and arrows, and have their horses so trained
that they will advance very near and suddenly wheel and fly
off in case the wounded buffaloe attempt an attack.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
The white head chief of the first village of the Mandans came to* our garrison and told us that the buffalo were in the prairie coming into the bottom. Captain Lewis (Capt. Lewis) and eleven more of us went out immediately, and saw the prairie covered with buffalo and the Indians on horseback killing them. They killed 30 or 40 and we killed eleven of them. They shoot them with bows and arrows, and have their horses so trained that they will advance very near and suddenly wheel and fly off in case the wounded buffalo attempts an attack.
*The course of the Missouri, and the distances of places on it, appear to be very erroneously laid down on the maps of Louisiana generally. On these maps the villages of the Mandans are placed at about 43 1/2 degrees of north latitude and 112 1/2 degrees of west longitude from Greenwich. This would place them about 500 miles nearer the mouth of the Columbia on the Pacific Ocean than the mouth of the Missouri, supposing the mouth of the Columbia to be about 124 degrees west of London. But the nearest practicable route from the Mandan villages to the mouth of the Columbia, according to Captain Clarke's (Capt. Clark's) estimate, places them 335 miles nearer the mouth of the Missouri than that of the Columbia; and by the route actually taken by the expedition to the mouth of the Columbia, they are 900 miles nearer the mouth of the Missouri.
By Captain Lewis's observations these villages are in latitude 47° 21' 32.8", and according to Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. Thompson, astronomer to the North West Company, in the year 1798 determined the northern bend of the Missouri to be in latitude 47° 32'.
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