The winter encampment of the expedition, Fort Mandan, was situated on the left bank of the Missouri, about opposite the future Fort Clark, and some 7 or 8 miles below the mouth of Knife River, and consequently several miles from the first Mandan village. Here the expedition remained until April 7, 1805. The lower of the Mandan villages was "Matootonha," the second and smaller was "Rooptahee." The list continues and refers to "the third village which is called Mahawha, and where the Arwacahwas reside." "The fourth village where the Minnetarees live, and which is called Metaharta." A fifth village is mentioned but its name is not given. (Op. cit., pp. 120-121.) Referring to these more in detail the narrative tells something of their origin: November 21, 1804, "The villages near which we are established are five in number, and are the residence of three distinct nations: the Mandans, the Ahnahaways, and the Minnetarees. The history of the Mandans, as we received it from our interpreters and from the chiefs themselves, and as it is attested by existing monuments, illustrates more than that of any other nation the unsteady movements and the tottering fortunes of the American nations. Within the recollection of living witnesses, the Mandans were settled forty years ago in nine villages, the ruins of which we passed about eighty miles below, and situated seven on the west and two on the east side of the Missouri. The two finding themselves wasting away before the small-pox and the Sioux, united into one village, and moved up the river opposite to the Ricaras. The same causes reduced the remaining seven to five villages, till at length they emigrated in a body to the Ricara nation, where they formed themselves into two villages, and joined those of their countrymen who had gone before them. In their new residence they were still insecure, and at length the three villages ascended the Missouri to their present position. The two who had emigrated together still settled in the two villages on the northwest side of the Missouri, while the single village took a position on the southeast side. In this situation they were found by those who visited them in 1796; since which the two villages have united into one. They are now in two villages, one on the southeast of the Missouri, the other on the opposite side, and at the distance of three miles across. The first, in an open plain, contains about forty or fifty lodges, built in the same way as those of the Ricaras: the second, the same number, and both may raise about three hundred and fifty men.