at the recollection no doubt of the innocent and happy days of their childhood, when the pious hand of a mother led them to the foot of the altar, and when later they practiced regularly their religious duties.
They made good and pious resolutions on this occasion, and the emotion that they showed during the divine service gave evidence that the germ of faith, so long sterile at the bottom of their hearts, would blossom and bring forth fruits of salvation there by the practice of the Christian virtues. Toward evening, I baptized thirty children with all the ceremonies of the ritual.
From all that I have seen and heard of the Blackfeet, during the five weeks I have spent among them, I am firmly convinced that a mission to this tribe would produce results very fortunate and very consoling for the religion. It is assuredly a task full of difficulties and obstacles, requiring the zeal and courage of an apostle; one must be prepared for a life of crosses, privation and patience; they are savages in the full meaning of the word, accustomed to wreak vengeance on their enemies and wallow in blood and carnage. They are plunged in coarse superstitions which brutalize their souls; they worship the sun and moon and offer them sacrifices of propitiation and thanksgiving. Now they cut deep gashes in their bodies and catch the blood; now they strike off joints of their fingers and present them to their divinities, crying: " I do thee this favor, Apistotokio (God, Spirit), I give thee my blood; do me also a favor on the war-path, and when I come again I will worship thee with scalps that I take from my enemies."
Despite their cruelties and abominable superstitions, a bright light is beginning, it would seem, to dispel the shadows under which these poor pagans have lived for so many ages.' * * * During the five weeks that I stayed among them, they were as assiduous and attentive as possible to the instructions I gave them, and seemed to listen with pleasure to the consoling truths of the gospel.
2 Omitted portion is a letter of Father Point's.