indispositions of our worthy and good Giorda. I trust and pray that the rest he is enjoying at St. Ignatius, after his laborious missionary excursions, may soon restore him. I am thankful, at the same time, for all the good news you give me of my other dear brothers in Christ and concerning the good Sisters of Providence. I hope ere this all the goods I brought over to Benton will have safely reached them. As I have heard nothing of them since, I must own I feel somewhat uneasy.
The letter you had the great kindness to write for me on the prospects of Montana was published in the Guardian o f St. Louis and was extensively copied by the other Catholic papers in the Union. I forwarded the number containing said letter to your address in Virginia City, which, I hope, will have reached you. Your long and interesting letter on the Rocky Mountain missions, I sent to Very Reverend Father Weld, Provincial of the Society of Jesus in England, immediately after my arrival in St. Louis toward
the middle of August. I confided it to the care of a friend on his way to Europe, together with several letters of my own on my late missionary excursion. I learned a few days ago that they did not reach their respective addresses.
I would gladly comply with your request, in your last letter, if I were in a condition to do it. For the present time I find it impossible. I am kept very much occupied with the performances of the numerous duties imposed upon me by my office, and together with indispositions and necessary excursions I find it indeed difficult to attend to all of them. After a little while I may probably have to proceed to Washington in the interest of our missions among the Potawatomies and Osage Indians, which will occupy me for a good while. I shall not omit the occasion to recommend strongly our missions in Montana and Idaho. I regret exceedingly not to have a full knowledge and statement of their position and their wants. What you have written to me in your letter of the 18th of September last will, how-