April 25, 1834
Cold morning. At seven thirty, 44 1/2°F [6.9°C]. Light southeast wind between hora 11 and 12. Early departure at five o’clock. Soon we saw two burning fires on the right bank, but nobody was there. The bushes everywhere had a strong green coloring. After eight o’clock we saw two boats ahead of us, and we caught up [with them] an hour later. They had lit fires on the bank, and we stopped for a while, too. Papin, Ortubise, and his wife were there, and the square skin boats were loaded with [hides, pelts, and/or furs] and led by a clerk, [also named] Papin. Another company clerk was there as well. Papin gave us some game and a swan. Dreidoppel collected onions. The weather was very warm and nice. We stayed for perhaps one and a half hours and departed about eleven o’clock. I took along a certain Crenier, who had injured his hand, as well as some Indian women. The heavily loaded leather boats, one of them steered by Ortubise, soon fell behind. At twelve o’clock, 65°F [18.3°C], wind as in the morning. A dog caught a mouse (with 6 young ones in her), probably Arvicola xanthognathos.
At three thirty the mouth of the Big Cheyenne River remained to our right. [We saw] a herd of numerous antelope, a swan, and wild geese. Toward evening we caught up again with two leather canoes [loaded] with robes and left them behind. In the evening we stopped 15 to 20 miles above Fort Pierre, on the right bank, and the leather boats joined us, too. [Papin’s party] set up a tent, and we bivouacked together. Papin, the clerk of the Fur Company, had given us game and a swan that [were] prepared now. The meat of the latter was said to be very delicious. Night clear, calm, nice.