bison hunt on the plains of the upper Missouri. They joined my little band, and we traveled together. I found them mild, affable, polite in disposition, and above all very eager for the word of God. For several consecutive days I conversed with them on different points of faith and on the Church. After an instruction on the importance and necessity of baptism, they earnestly implored me to grant that favor to three of their little children. They were the first fruits of this tribe. When these families parted with us, all testified the most lively gratitude for what they had heard and learned with happiness: they assured me that the whole tribe would willingly accept the beautiful word of the Great Spirit, which I had announced to them, and they gave me a most pressing invitation to visit them at the earliest moment in order to instruct them.
Six months after, in April, 1842, I proceeded to their quarters. My good Coeur d'Alenes, who had been my traveling companions, had admirably prepared the way for my visit, and infused into all their countrymen an eager desire to hear the good tidings of the gospel. In consequence of the account which they gave, the chiefs had already hastened to depute to St. Mary's Mission several young men, selected from the most intelligent, in order to ask for missionaries to instruct them in the holy truths of religion.
The tidings of my coming soon spread through all the country. The Indians were to be seen flocking from all sides, through forest and plain, by the rivers and the great lake, to meet me and hear the law of God from the very lips of a Black-robe. My visit, consequently, had the most beneficial results. I baptized all the little children in the tribe and a good member of adults, who had hastened with holy avidity to come and receive the mustard seed mentioned in the gospel.
Among these was good Louise Sighouin. Enlightened by a special grace, and wishing to turn to the glory of God and the good of souls the rank which she occupied and the