camps, in order to sound further their dispositions in a religious point of view, I left the country of the Blackfeet in order to repair to St. Louis, where the affairs of the missions were awaiting me. During the residence of Father Point among those Indian populations, he collected many interesting traits concerning the character and manners of the savages; he had the kindness to communicate them to me. I sent a copy of his relation to our superiors in Europe; but I do not think it has ever been published. In the hope that it will afford you pleasure, and that it will prove worthy of your attention, I transmit to you some of the principal extracts. In 1847, Father Point wrote me
" I think I can say, to the glory of the only Author of all Good, that with his grace I have not lost my time among the Blackfeet. I have performed 667 baptisms, the records of which are in due form; I have taken notes of whatsoever appeared to me suitable for interesting the curious or
edifying the pious. During the winter I was accustomed, daily, to give three instructions, or catechetical lessons, proportioned to the three very different classes of my auditors. It is unnecessary for me to say that the prayers have all been translated into Blackfoot, and learned in Fort Lewis and in the camp of the Piegans, and there is scarcely any camp among the Blackfeet in which the sign of the cross is not held in veneration, and even practiced, at least among those individuals who have had any intercourse with the missionary.
" Of the twenty-five or thirty camp-leaders, or chiefs, who visited me or whom I have visited, there is not one who has not given me ideas of his people or tribe less disadvantageous than those generally entertained, and of course among the whites who inhabit the Indian Territory as elsewhere., Among the different camps, there is a species of emulation as to which shall have the Black-robe, or rather the mission, on its lands. Concerning this article I have decided nothing. I have only said that in case a Reduction were formed, it would be built in the position or local-