Fort Mandan, North Dakota — Patrick Gass: November 30, 1804
The party traveled along black bluffs to the south and prairie bottom to the north. An Indian on shore asked to join them on the way to the Arikara villages, but they declined. With a fair wind, they covered nine miles by 10 a.m., paused for breakfast, then briefly halted to speak with a large group of Indians camped on the south side before sailing on. Late in the day, rough waves rocked the boat so badly that their old chief refused to continue, and they camped on the north bank.
passed black bluffs on the south side, and handsome prairie
bottom on the north ; saw an Indian on the shore, and the
chief we had on board spoke to him. He said he wished to
come on board and go with us to the Rees; but we did not
take him. The wind was fair and we made 9 miles by 10
o’clock. We saw a great number of Indians coming down
to the river on the south side. We stopt for breakfast about
LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION 43
200 yards from the shore : then proceeded about a mile ; near
to the place where the Indians were encamped on the south
side ; we halted and spoke to them and then went on under a
fine breeze of wind.
A short time before night, the waves ran very high and
the boat rocked a great deal, which so alarmed our old chief,
that he would not go any further. We encamped on the
north side.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
We passed black bluffs on the south side, and a handsome prairie bottom on the north; saw an Indian on the shore, and the chief we had on board spoke to him. He said he wished to come on board and go with us to the Rees, but we did not take him. The wind was fair and we made 9 miles by 10 o'clock. We saw a great number of Indians coming down to the river on the south side. We stopped for breakfast about 200 yards from the shore, then proceeded about a mile; near to the place where the Indians were camped on the south side, we halted and spoke to them and then went on under a fine breeze of wind.
A short time before night, the waves ran very high and the boat rocked a great deal, which so alarmed our old chief that he would not go any further. We camped on the north side.
This modernization is AI-generated for accessibility. The original above is the authoritative version.
Entities mentioned in this entry
Auto-extracted from the entry text. Hover any entity for context.
