September 29, 1833
Cranes woke up at the same time we did and, calling out loudly, soared up into the hazy, dreary dawning sky. It was cool early that morning, until the rising sun brought a little warmth. Several wolves appeared in the forest. At a timber deposit on the left bank, we shot at prairie hens and found the fresh footprints of Indians. At 8:30 we had to our right the hill where, on the way up, I had shot the sparrow hawk that we could not find.
At 9:15 we landed to the right along the sandy shore before the forest and cooked our breakfast, but we had had no zwieback for a long time, and we no longer had any sugar for the coffee. In the forest the floor was covered with Rhus and rosebushes, whose leaves mostly appeared to be colored a beautiful red. The broadleafed Asclepias [——] already had ripe seeds in its silk capsules. A big bear had been here recently and had made a lair for itself in the thickets.
At 11:30 we left [and] saw somewhat farther ahead a flight of prairie hens, one of which Morrin shot with the rifle. A raw wind arose and made our voyage unpleasant. An old Indian raft (Assiniboine) appeared on the bank; it consisted of short cudgels and thick [——]. At 12:30, [a] view of Fort Union on the left bank in the distance. Renewed zeal seized our crew; at one o’clock we reached the fort.
The appearance of the area had changed very much since our stay in July. At that time there were many Indians here, but now we found only one single tipi inhabited by a half-breed Blackfoot. The whole prairie was barren, dry, and parched. The plants bore seeds now instead of being covered with flowers as [they were] in summer. The forests had turned yellow; the nights [were] cool or cold, the river very low, with sandbars visible throughout, and inside the fort itself, it looked different. Mr. McKenzie had traveled with more than twenty men downriver to the Little Missouri and was not [scheduled] to return for two months. The population of the fort, therefore, was now only about fifty persons. The people were busy with a number of building [projects]. The entire stockade fence was supposed to be rebuilt and was lying on the ground, almost completed. They had constructed a very nice, solid powder magazine from large and hewn stones; it could hold 50,000 pounds of gunpowder. (There were) several other changes and improvements as well. Mr. Hamilton was in charge of the place, [and] working for him were three clerks: Chardon, Brazeau, and Moncravie. Within a short time, more Indians were expected; [—— tipis] of the Assiniboines and 100 [tipis] of the Crees.
Mr. McKenzie had collected several interesting artifacts. A Piegan who was buried here in 1832 had been exhumed and his whole skeleton was reconstructed. I found the opportunity and the space here to open all of our damp boxes and crates on a dry and spacious floor and dry them out well. That kept us busy for several days. A comfortable, well-lit room gave Mr. Bodmer the opportunity to complete several of his drawings. The bad weather at the time made us favor working inside four walls. Mr. Hamilton received us in a very friendly manner, and we were assigned the same living quarters from which we had departed the [previous] summer. There I found the boxes [we] had left behind.