The weather was now very cold, although August had
not passed. Ink froze in the pen during the night, and the meadows were
white with frost; but the days were warm, even hot.
In the absence of Captain Clark, his colleague and party had been
visited by Cameahwait and about fifty of his band, with their women and
children. Captain Lewis' journal says:--
"After they had camped near us and turned loose their horses, we called
a council of all the chiefs and warriors, and addressed them in a
speech. Additional presents were then distributed, particularly to
the two second chiefs, who had, agreeably to their promises, exerted
themselves in our favor. The council was then adjourned, and all the
Indians were treated with an abundant meal of boiled Indian corn and
beans. The poor wretches, who had no animal food and scarcely anything
but a few fish, had been almost starved, and received this new luxury
with great thankfulness. Out of compliment to the chief, we gave him
a few dried squashes, which we had brought from the Mandans, and he
declared it was the best food he had ever tasted except sugar, a small
lump of which he had received from his sister Sacajawea. He now declared
how happy they should all be to live in a country which produced so many
good things; and we told him that it would not be long before the white
men would put it in their power to live below the mountains, where they
might themselves cultivate all these kinds of food, instead of wandering
in the mountains.
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