Roothaan, of blessed memory, imposed it upon me as a duty to write very fully in regard to them and to enter into minute details upon everything that concerned the Indian missions, the diverse countries inhabited by the Indians, the manners, customs, beliefs, etc., of these strange and unfortunate tribes. My numerous letters consisting of five volumes bear witness that I have at least endeavored to discharge the duty laid upon me, and with humility and assurance, I hope that I can add that I have tried to do it faithfully. The present Very Reverend Father-General encourages me by his letters to continue to give the details of
my missionary labors year after year. All the superiors and provincials of Missouri have also called for them, and I have always been submissive to their requests in the spirit of obedience. Pardon me this long preamble, Very Reverend Father, which I have thought necessary to bring the case before you.
For some years past I have been subjected to criticisms, often personal and malevolent, on the part of several Gern-:an priests, who are saying in America, on the testimony of one or several Fathers of your province, that my name is only an assumed name in the letters which are printed and the books that are published afterward bearing my name. The reverend and good Father Hasard, after his arrival at St. Louis, declared that it was the opinion in his province that I merely lent my name to the letters that were published. In the course of last month, in the Upper Missouri and during my mission among the savages, I met and made the acquaintance of the Reverend Joseph Anthony Maria Gaes of Freiburg in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, cousin of the Reverend Father Augustus Gramm, S. J. During our familiar and fraternal conversations and interviews, I read him copies of three long letters upon the mis
sion among the Indians in which I was then engaged. The reverend gentleman expressed his gratitude, accompanied by an admission which surprised me; this was "that the