deal with him, as a man of sound judgment, strict integrity, and one on whose fidelity they can implicitly rely. A keen discerner of the characters of men, he loves to speak especially of those whites, distinguished for their fine qualities, that have visited him, and often mentions with pleasure the sojourn among them of Colonel Robert Campbell, of St. Louis, and of Major Fitzpatrick, whom he adopted, in ac
cordance with Indian ideas of courtesy, as his brothers. He has preserved all his first fervor of devotion, and now, as when you knew him, one can hardly ever enter his wigwam in the morning or evening without finding him with his
rosary in his hands, absorbed in prayer. He cherishes a most affectionate remembrance of you and of the day he was baptized; he longs ardently to see you once more before his death, and but yesterday he asked me, when and by what
road you would return. In speaking thus he expressed the desire of all our Indians, who all equally regret your long absence.
" It was proposed, during the summer of 1854, to begin a new mission' about 1cgo miles northeast of the Kalispels, not far from the Flathead lake, about fifty miles from the old mission of St. Mary's, among the Flatheads, where a convenient site had been pointed out to us by the Kalispel chief, Alexander, your old friend, who often accompanied you in your travels in the Rocky Mountains. Having set out from the Kalispel Mission on the 28th of August, 1854, I arrived at the place designated on the 24th of September, and found it such as it had been represented - a beautiful region, evidently fertile, uniting a useful as well as pleasing variety of woodland and prairie, lake and river - the whole crowned in the distance by the white summit of the mountains, and sufficiently rich withal in fish and game. I shall never for.. get the emotions of hope and fear that filled my heart, when for the first time I celebrated mass in this lonely spot, in the open air, in the presence of a numerous band of Kalispels, who looked up to me, under God,
2 The present St. Ignatius, Montana.