there having declined, they followed us with offers of females for two days.  The Ricaras had been equally accommodating; we had equally withstood their temptation; but such was their desire to oblige that two very handsome young squaws were sent on board this evening, and persecuted us with civilities.  The black man York participated largely in these favours; for instead of inspiring any prejudice, his colour seemed to procure him additional advantages from the Indians, who desired to preserve among them some memorial of this wonderful stranger.  Among other instances of attention, a Ricara invited him into his house and presenting his wife to him, retired to the outside of the door:  while there one of York’s comrades who was looking for him came to the door, but the gallant husband would permit no interruption before a reasonable time had elapsed.

The Ricara lodges are in a circular or octagonal form, and generally about thirty or forty feet in diameter:  they are made by placing forked posts about six feet high round the circumference of the circle; these are joined by poles from one fork to another, which are supported also by other forked poles slanting from the ground:  in the centre of the lodge are placed four higher forks, about fifteen feet in length, connected together by beams; from these to the lower poles the rafters of the roof are extended so as to leave a vacancy in the middle for the smoke:  the frame of the building is then covered with willow branches, with which is interwoven grass, and over this mud or clay:  the aperture for the door is about four feet wide, and before it is a sort of entry about ten feet from the lodge.  They are very warm and compact.

They cultivate maize or Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, watermelons, squashes, and a species of tobacco peculiar to themselves.

Their commerce is chiefly with the traders who supply them with goods in return for peltries, which they procure not only by their own hunting, but in exchange for corn from their less civilized neighbours.  The object chiefly in demand seemed to be red paint, but they would give any thing they had to spare for the most trifling article.  One of the men to-day gave an Indian a hook made out of a pin, and he gave him in return a pair of moccasins.

They express a disposition to keep at peace with all nations, but they are well armed with fusils, and being much under the influence of the Sioux, who exchanged the goods which they get from the British for Ricara corn, their minds are sometimes poisoned and they cannot be always depended on.  At the present moment they are at war with the Mandans.  We are informed by Mr. Gravelines, who had passed through that country, that the Yankton or Jacques river rises about forty miles to the east or northeast of this place, the Chayenne branch of the Red river about twenty miles further, passing the Sioux, and the St. Peter’s about eighty.