am somewhat acquainted with the ground, I will take the liberty of pointing out a few. A fair judgment and a firm will to suffer much, though without gaining much ground, since, in the new lands which it is proposed to evangelize, the obstacles are greater and more numerous than among the nations on the west of the Rocky Mountains. It is not a conquest but a painful labor - many sufferings, few consolations. If you had at your disposal any subjects whom such a prospect might terrify, we might still keep them for our colleges and send out some of our men who are able to endure such fatigues.
Your Paternity, in writing me on the 29th of August last, had the kindness to inquire regarding the state of my health. I am well, thanks be to God. I suffer but little from my rheumatism of late, and I feel fit to undertake and endure afresh all the privations connected with such expeditions. A sign from your Paternity will make me take incontinent the road to the plains of the West, where so many thousands of souls are groaning under the empire of Satan. The hope of baptizing so many thousands of poor little children, and of preparing for death so many poor old people, whose dispositions are generally admirable, inspire me with the necessary courage to return to a post which I have always regretted.
The establishment of missions seems so much the more urgent to-day, when the Mormons (a sect of fanatics) and the French socialists under the lead of Cabet are proposing to go and form new States in the midst of the great desert. The Mormons are there already, 50,000 to 6o,ooo in number. Cabet is negotiating at this moment to go and occupy a large territory east of the Rocky Mountains. The poor simple savages will be their dupes, unless we forestall them and implant as much as possible the truths of our holy religion in their hearts.