of Calcutta and the schools of the Orient have given me the utmost pleasure.
I have had a good deal of running around to do in the interest of our missions in January and February. I have been back in St. Louis since the 22d of this month. In Washington I had the honor of being presented to our president, Lincoln, and I talked with him for over an hour.
Mr. Blondeel, the Belgian ambassador, showed me a great deal of affection; he is very well disposed toward us. He obliged me to dine with him, together with the ambassadors of France, Russia and Spain. They all had their grands cordons, and I had a frock coat well worn and with two buttons gone. However, it all went off very agreeably. I did the best I could among these great personages; but I remain of the opinion that I shall always be more at my ease sitting on the grass and surrounded with savages, each one making his jokes and at the same time eating with good appetite a fair rib or roasting piece of buffalo or fat dog. I succeeded very well in the settlement of my business in Washington, insuring the existence of several of our missions, which had been in some danger for lack of pecuniary aid, due from the Government, for the support of four large schools, in which more than 4oo Indian children are being educated, boarded, lodged and clothed.
On the 22d, Washington's birthday, I reached St. Louis and found the city all in movement. It was estimated that more than 40,000 citizens took part in the procession. It was three full hours in its passage. It was the greatest manifestation ever made in St. Louis, and all in favor of the Union " as it was." You will already have learned from the papers of the recent Union victories; I will not go into any political details to-day - the " fiat lux " is still a long way off.
In a good and consoling letter lately received from His Paternity, he permits me to return next spring among the numerous tribes of the great desert, east of the Rocky 95