and with his blessing received from His Grandeur all the necessary powers for exercising the holy ministry in his immense district, which embraces the Territories of Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and a part of Dakota. I took the boat on the 28th of April.
As on former occasions, Mr. Charles Chouteau received me on board his boat with his habitual kindness and cordiality. He gave me the quietest and most commodious stateroom, and at once had an altar prepared therein. Thanks to his charity, I found myself installed as if at home in one of the Society's houses. I have the consolation of offering the holy sacrifice every day, in a kind of antechamber contiguous to mine. A good number of Catholics can assemble here, and they come every Sunday to assist at mass and fulfill their religious duties.
Among our travelers, who are some 150 in number, we have all the various shades of the Protestant sects, deists, atheists and believers in " elective affinities," who have broken all marriage and family ties. On a long-distance American steamboat, a priest therefore finds abundance of occupation. In the crowd he always finds some persons who respond to the Lord's grace, willingly receive instruction and are converted. One can awake better thoughts in most of them, and often remorse, which bears fruit later. When he first comes into the midst of such an assemblage, the priest is attentively observed: they seem to measure you from head to foot; it is like the curious beast in the menagerie, they stare at you with surprise, and are rather slow in approaching you. But the first reserve once broken, you are overwhelmed with questions concerning all the points of religion, some quite often sensible, but ordinarily they are outlandish, sometimes even rude and indelicate; this denotes a profound and deplorable ignorance, which inspires only pity and compassion.
From the 28th of April until this 17th of May, the boat has barely made 3.40 miles. It is constantly running aground on heaps of sand, which practically bar the river.