have been wholly impossible. Moreover it would have been extremely hazardous for these Indians, alone as they would have been, to have traversed the territory of their enemies the Blackfeet. Finally, every consideration would have led them to return by the way they went, and while they may have traveled from St. Louis to Independence (near Kansas City) by boat, they probably joined the regular caravan at that point. The annual rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company for 1832 was in Pierre's Hole, on the borders of their country, and here in fact a large band of both the Nez Percé and Flathead Indians were gathered. May they not have been looking for their absent brethren, and would not this have been the natural place to expect them?
As to the Catlin pictures the facts are even more uncertain. It is well known that, as an authority on historical or even descriptive matters, Catlin did not stand well, and his claim may be simply the embellished account of some commonplace incident. His general carelessness of statement is illustrated in his reference to the two men who died in St. Louis as "old and venerable men," whereas the record of their burial gives their age as about forty-one years. There were always Indians on the boats of the American Fur Company and generally in considerable numbers and of different tribes. The artist had no lack of subjects, and his subsequent identification of these particular two Indians as the ones who visited General Clark in the fall of 1831 cannot be accepted without question.
But again the manner of their journey home, or whether they ever reached there, like that of the mythical oration, is of comparatively little importance. The great fact is that they had sown seed in fertile ground. They had aroused the Christian spirit throughout the United States and the result was a prompt response to their call. In the year following that of the publications in the Christian Advocate the Methodists sent out two missionaries, Jason and Daniel Lee. These missionaries did not stop among the Flatheads