kindness and friendliness. He put me in possession of a nice little closet or attic, the only place available, where my altar, bed and all my things were straightway arranged, and in a few minutes I found myself in a real little chez moi, glad and happy to have escaped from the noise and tumult of the boat.
I went to work the next day, while awaiting the arrival of the steamboat Bighorn, which had on board my provisions and necessary outfit, for my long journey across the plains. Every day I have had the consolation of saying mass, instructing the Indians and baptizing the little children that they brought me, the number of whom already amounts to Zoo. The Yanktons are scattered over their reservation for a distance of thirty miles. The spring rains and winds often render travel by land quite difficult.
I learn that the Bighorn, which left St. Louis on the 12th of April, will be here to-morrow; so I wait. The leaves of the cottonwoods along the river are coming out rapidly; the grass on the plains is visibly shooting up and promises abundance for the wild animals and for travelers or beasts; everything seems to call me to be going.
I have given the chief Pananniapapi the beautiful interesting letter of Sister Louise Regiers, written at the request of the worthy Ladies of the Poor Churches. The chief asks me to thank those respectable ladies in his name for their great kindness toward him and especially for the good prayers that they offer to heaven in his behalf. He greatly admired the little images they sent him, which he distributed among the different lodges or families of his tribe.
Fort Buford, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, 2,240 miles above St. Louis, July 8, 1867.6
I suppose my letters of April 3oth and May 15th have reached you. In the first, I gave you my itinerary from 5 From the French of the third Belgian edition, volume VI.