passions are let loose and they abandon themselves wholly to the spirit of vengeance against the whites for all wrongs and injustices their race has suffered. It is always true that if the savages sin against the whites it is because the whites have greatly sinned against them.
I enter into these sad details and reflections to give you a faint idea of my position and especially that I may gain a share in your pious remembrances, and in those of my dear and worthy brethren and acquaintances. The firm conviction that I am accompanied by many fervent prayers is a most sweet consolation to me and a great encouragement. Conscious of my own nothingness, I place myself confidently in the hands of the holy providence of the Lord and under the protection of our illustrious and good Mother, the
Immaculate Virgin Mary. Pray that I may render myself worthy of these powerful aids and I shall have nothing to
fear. "Si Deus pro nobis quis contra nos?"
I will begin by tracing the route that I have followed in coming from St. Louis to Sioux City. You can easily follow me on the map of America. On the 12th of April last at three o'clock in the afternoon, I left St. Louis for Chicago, the principal city of Illinois, 280 miles away. This city, which I have seen born, already contains upwards of 200,000 inhabitants and is on the highway to prosperity. Our Fathers have built a fine large Gothic church there and established a school which contains nearly i,6oo pupils. Between St. Louis and Chicago there are fifty-three stations, big and little, of which Alton and Springfield are the chief. The railroad passes through a succession of rich and beautiful prairies and plains, diversified here and there by vast forests and thousands of farms, with their innumerable herds of cattle, sheep and horses. All this country is flat rather than rolling and the journey is made in fourteen to fifteen hours.
I left Chicago at half-past eight in the morning on the 13th by the Northwestern railroad for Omaha, capital of the State of Nebraska, at a distance of some 500 miles.