and nights among them. I was welcomed everywhere - they met me most eagerly, with the calumet of peace in their hands, and showed me a most simple but hearty kindness. They listened to my teachings with much diligence and attention. It was most touching and consoling to have the poor Indian mothers come to me, leading their little children or carrying them in their arms or on their backs, and to hear them say " O Black-robe! oh, bless our little children and offer them to the Great Spirit;" signifying in their simplc language that they would have them regenerated in the holy waters of baptism. Thus I had the consolation, in these various meetings and visits, of giving baptism to more than goo infants and to a good number of the sick and aged.
The following little anecdote, connected with the last baptisms administered, may perhaps not be without interest. It was among a band of Yankton Sioux; I had finished the ceremonies of a large number of baptisms, and night was falling. I was about leaving the place for my lodging, when I saw something moving, some distance off, dragging
itself along the path. I stopped, in doubt, to see what this strange animal or moving mass might be. On approaching it, I was surprised to behold a poor old Indian woman, covered with wretched rags of buffalo-skin -a cripple, having
lost the use of her hands and feet. She had heard the news, that the Black-robe, the priest, had arrived in their camp and was baptizing the children, and she, too, desiring that happiness as well, had dragged herself a considerable distance from her lodge to come to me. On seeing me, the good old woman raised her two palsied hands and cried " Oh, my father, have pity on me - I too wish to be the child of the Great Spirit - oh, pour water on my forehead and speak the holy words! The whites call me Marieit is the name cf the good and great mother in heaven;
when I die, I wish to go to my good mother." I instructed the poor Indian Marie and she received baptism, with the most pious sentiments and in transports of joy and happi