Louis with him, and there fitted out an expedition under the command of Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor, who had been a prominent member of the exploring party. Pryor had in his command two noncommissioned officers and eleven soldiers. Pierre Chouteau, Sr., with a trading party of thirty-two men, bound for trade on the head waters of the Missouri, also accompanied the expedition. Earlier in the season Manuel Lisa, a well-known Spanish trader of that day, had gone up the river with a party of traders and their supplies.
Pryor and his party left St. Louis in May, 1807. Proceeding prosperously, although slowly, and passing all of the lower Sioux bands in safety, they reached the lower of the two Ree villages at Grand River on the morning of September 9. The Rees fired several guns in the direction of the boats. Pierre Dorion, who accompanied the expedition as interpreter, asked what they wanted. The Indians replied by inviting the party ashore to obtain a supply of provisions. The kind treatment Lewis and Clark had received from the Rees the year before threw the party off their guard, and the boats were ordered to land.
At the Ree village it was learned that the Rees and Mandans were at war with each other and that several of the Teton Sioux bands were joined with the Rees and were present in the village. A Mandan woman who had been captive among the Rees for several years came on board one of the boats and gave the whites some important information. She said that Lisa had passed up a few days before and when he found that the Rees intended
