This last we found very agreeable, although we have still a little flour which we had deposited at the mouth of Maria's River.

We could give in return only about six bushels of corn, which was all that we could spare." Three days later, the voyagers met a trading-boat belonging to Mr.
Augustus Chouteau, the founder of a famous trading-house in St.Louis.
From this party the captains procured a gallon of whiskey, and with this they served out a dram to each of their men.

"This," says the journal, "is the first spirituous liquor any of them have tasted since the Fourth of July, 1805." From this time forward, the returning explorers met trading parties nearly every day; and this showed that trade was following the flag far up into the hitherto unexplored regions of the American continent.
The explorers, hungry for news from home, would have tarried and talked longer with their new-found friends, but they were anxious to get down to civilization once more.

Their journal also says: "The Indians, particularly the squaws and children, are weary of the long journey, and we are desirous of seeing our country and friends." This quotation from the journal gives us our first intimation that any Indians accompanied Big White to the United States.

He appears to have had a small retinue of followers men, women, and children--with him.
Below the mouth of the Platte, September 12, Lewis and Clark met Gravelines, the interpreter who was sent to Washington from Fort Mandan, in 1805, with despatches, natural history specimens, and a Ricara chief.
The chief had unfortunately died in Washington, and Gravelines was now on his way to the Ricaras with a speech from President Jefferson and the presents that had been given to the chief.