Thursday, 7th.  The day was somewhat cloudy, and colder than usual; the wind from the northeast.  Shotawhorora visited us with a sick child, to whom some medicine was administered.  There were also other Indians who brought corn and dried buffaloe meat in exchange for blacksmith’s work.

Friday 8.  The day cold and fair with a high easterly wind:  we were visited by two Indians who gave us an account of the country and people near the Rocky mountains where they had been.

Saturday 9.  The morning cloudy and cool, the wind from the north.  The grand chief of the Minnetarees, who is called by the French Le Borgne, from his having but one eye, came down for the first time to the fort.  He was received with much attention, two guns were fired in honour of his arrival, the curiosities were exhibited to him, and as he said that he had not received the presents which we had sent to him on his arrival, we again gave him a flag, a medal, shirt, armbraces and the usual presents on such occasions, with all which he was much pleased.  In the course of the conversation, the chief observed that some foolish young men of his nation had told him there was a person among us who was quite black, and he wished to know if it could be true.  We assured him that it was true, and sent for York:  the Borgne was very much surprised at his appearance, examined him closely, and spit on his finger and rubbed the skin in order to wash off the paint; nor was it until the negro uncovered his head, and showed his short hair, that the Borgne could be persuaded that he was not a painted white man.

Sunday 10.  A cold windy day.  Tetuckopinreha, chief of the Ahnahaways, and the Minnetaree chief Ompsehara, passed the day with us, and the former remained during the night.  We had occasion to see an instance of the summary justice of the Indians:  a young Minnetaree had carried off the daughter of Cagonomokshe, the Raven Man, second chief of the upper village of the Mandans; the father went to the village and found his daughter, whom he brought home, and took with him a horse belonging to the offender:  this reprisal satisfied the vengeance of the father and of the nation, as the young man would not dare to reclaim his horse, which from that time became the property of the injured party.  The stealing of young women is one of the most common offenses against the police of the village, and the punishment of it always measured by the power or the passions of the kindred of the female.  A voluntary elopement is of course more rigorously chastised.  One of the wives of the Borgne deserted him in favour of a man who had been her lover before the marriage, and who after some time left her, and she was obliged to return to her father’s house.  As soon as he heard it the Borgne walked there and found her sitting near the fire:  without noticing his wife, he began to smoke with the father; when they were joined by the old men of the village, who knowing his temper had followed in hopes of appeasing him.