the actual seat of war, and have had but trifling intercourse, if any, with the hostile tribes.
Do not forget me in your prayers, and obtain prayers for the wretched. I have just received a second letter from Father Hoeken from the Flathead village of St. Ignatius. He has several nations there. The conversions among the Indians have been very consoling and numerous in the course of last year.
In the name of all the Indians east and west of the mountains, he implores me to revisit them. The Blackfeet, Crows, Assiniboins, Sioux and others incessantly implore our aid.
These nations are still very numerous. They number over
70,000 souls. Religious should, before all else, be children of obedience. It is the affair of our superiors. We shall never cease to aid them by our prayers, and commend them in a special manner to the remembrance of the pious.