14 November: In the morning, seven thirty, 30 3/4°F [−0.7°C]. A strong, raw, cold wind, west hora 4 south, was blowing across the prairie. Today they put glass windows in our house. The wind was so unpleasant and strong that they could not saw wood outdoors. Sky bright and clear. Beyond the river there was a dark cloudbank and a gray, hazy horizon. Péhriska-Rúhpa was here for a long time and [was given] food along with several others. At twelve thirty,41°F [5°C]. The same ugly wind continued to blow.

At noon some people arrived here with letters; [they] had been sent by Mr. Picotte at the Yanktonai trading house. They had only business papers and no letters from the lower Missouri; [those] had not arrived yet but were expected any day. Mr. Picotte was in St. Louis in May and June, where at that time twenty-five to thirty people died of cholera each day. The Sioux were now dispersed across the prairies, but a rather good beaver trade had been conducted with them. Ortubise had remained with Mr. Picotte.

A deaf-mute Mandan visited us, sitting down like an automaton. He also did not smoke tobacoo. He wrapped in a blanket and had [a] bow and arrows slung over his shoulders. He was a strong man; his height [was five feet] eight to nine Prussian inches. M6I have seen cripples, dwarfs, harelips, crippled limbs, and deaf-mutes among North American Indians. Among the Brazilians I never experienced that. [Ed.: As he did in several instances in volumes 1 and 2, Maximilian here expresses a person's height as a number of inches. Evidence in the Reise indicates that these expressions should be understood as five feet plus teh given number of inches in Prussian measure. A Prussian inch was approximately 1.03 English inches. See NAJ, 1:373n121 and 2:82-83n93.]

[Page 3:29]Mr. Kipp now had seventeen men. He therefore decided to take my boat out of the water tomorrow, hecause he [would] soon have to send many people away. He kept up a conversation with the deaf-mute using signs [and] was very skillful at it. About eveing, Wolf Chief (Cháratä-Numakschi) and a few other Mandans visited us. They were anxious to receive news from the lower Missouri. The chief wore his leather shift [fastened] with a long row of shiny, large buttons after the fashion of the whites. He stayed until we ate and [was given] meat, coffee, and corn bread. At the beginning the Indians did not like to drink coffee. They considered it to be medicine. But now they all like to drink it very much. It was medicine for him not to smoke from a stone pipe. He asked Dreidoppel for his wooden one. In the night the severe wind abated and it became nice weather with frost.