tribe who cast out the missionaries with such relentless rigor should thus have been, through their children, a means of introducing them to other tribes of whose existence their fathers never heard. Irving gives in Astoria the names of the first two individuals of these classes that arrived on the Lower Columbia - Regis Brugière, a half-breed, and Ignace Shonowane, an Iroquois. (2)
The half-breeds and Iroquois circulated freely in quest of furs among the tribes of the Columbia Basin. They told these tribes of the priests of Canada - the famous black gowns who taught the only true religion. Upon the susceptible minds of the Flatheads their accounts made a deep impression. They eagerly sought further knowledge and even learned such of the religious rites and customs of the Church as their ignorant preceptors could communicate. They became much concerned about their own spiritual state. If what was told them was true -that their religion was false and that they were all in danger of perdition and could be rescued therefrom only by embracing the new faith - was it not high time for them to learn what that faith was? These considerations crept into their minds slowly, not through any direct missionary preaching, but from the casual hints of the irreligious trappers who now and then talked with them on the subject, and perhaps even sought to work upon their feelings from mere motives of curiosity or amusement.
A dozen years or more of this intercourse had aroused a
(2) It is said that the Iroquois went to the Rocky Mountains in a company of about twenty-four. Whether the Ignace Shonowane of Irving was one of the number does not appear, but the name Ignace was a great one among the little band and shows from what past associations it must have sprung. The leader of these Iroquois was Ignace La Mousse, or Old Ignace, called the "Apostle of the Flatheads," who deserves to be canonized among the saints of the tribe. He early acquired a great influence over the Flatheads and it was largely upon his initiative that deputations were sent to St. Louis for the purpose of securing religious teachers.