use of liquor is the first step and it is poured into them until their nature is changed and altogether brutalized. They sin, but they are more sinned against. " This practice of the destruction of a people of whom Providence has given us the guardianship, originating in such cases, is unworthy of the civilization of the age in which we live, and revolting to every sentiment of humanity." (McClelland, Secretary of the Interior.) Very respectfully, etc.
St. Louis University, Oct. 27, 1872.
Reverend P. P. GIORDA and GUIDI:
Reverend Dear Fathers.- I was truly happy in receiving your letter and am very thankful for all the news it contains. I am particularly grateful for your kind invitation and would gladly make the journey if my health permitted. I may decide this question early next spring. However, I must add that the doctor who attends me gives me but very little hope and calls me a bird for the cat. It has afforded me a great deal of consolation to have been able to assist good Father Guidi and his two companions, who are now preparing to enter the great vineyard of the Lord in Montana and Idaho. I wish them every success in the great work before them.
Many thanks for the pious remembrances of the good Indians. I sympathize with the Flatheads in their sorrows and the injustices done them. Their separation from the whites and their baneful influence may, I hope, be in time a service to them. I trust the Fathers will not abandon these good people whom General Stevens considered the model tribe among all the American Indians. Remember me to
them. I daily offer up my prayers to God for their perse-