that country and the happiness and tranquillity of the Indians, all seem to require that I should go. I speak of this because I feel that it would be a very sensible affliction to me to have to start out again on a long and uncertain road to the Great Desert without having first received late letters from your uncle Francis, dear Paul, etc.
St. Louis University, March I5, 1864.
My dear Gustave:
I have received your two dear good letters of the IIth of January and I1th of February.
Since my return to St. Louis after my long and painful journey I have been in rather bad shape. Like a regular old man, I am full of infirmities-my head especially troubles me the most. I can seldom leave my room and go out of the house. For some time past my greatest privation is to be unable even to celebrate holy mass. It is the first time since I was ordained priest in 1827 that I have been prevented by sickness from celebrating at the altar. I can see that the doctors are not without some uneasiness on the score of my health. As for myself I am not without hope; for that matter, we are in the Lord's hands; may he. do with us according to his holy will. I am conscious of a wish to be able to renew and continue my missions and travels among the Indian tribes of the great plains. They have great need of being visited and of receiving good advice. For the last two years they have been making merciless war upon the whites, pushed to the limit of endurance by the injustices and provocations of the latter. Three to four thousand soldiers are on the point of leaving St. Louis to subjugate the warlike tribes, and annihilate them if they can. The Government desires me to go thither as pacificator, and I will do so gladly if in any way my health allows it. As the old Flemish proverb says: " When the