sued to put a stop to the depredations of the Indians and to secure a permanent peace with them.
Tell them how good it is to be at peace with the Government, whereas their utter extermination will be the result if they continue in hostility to the white people.
I have very great confidence in your prudence and capacity for this mission and therefore forbear to give you specific instructions for your guidance.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. P. DOLE, Commissioner.
Fort Sully, Dakota. Territory, July 12, I864.4
H. G. MONSEIGNEUR ARCHBISHOP PURCELL
Monseigneur.- Herewith I send you a testimonial which the Peace Commission, lately sitting at Fort Rice, has given to our well-beloved missionary, Father P. J. De Smet.
Probably you are informed in regard to the work of this commission during the last year. In the month of May of the current year the commission succeeded in convoking at Fort Laramie, on the Platte river, a certain number of chiefs belonging to the most formidable and most warlike tribes. The Hunkpapas, however, still refused to enter into any arrangement with the whites, and it is unnecessary to say that no treaty with the Sioux was possible, if this large and hostile tribe was unwilling to concur in it. In this condition of affairs, the Reverend Father De Smet, who has consecrated his life to the service of the true religion and of humanity, offered himself, despite his great age, to endeavor to penetrate to the hostile camps and to use his influence with the chiefs to induce them to appear before the commission at Fort Rice. As the letter of the members of the
4 From the French of the third Belgian edition. The original of General Stanley's letter was not available to the editors.