reached Fort Benton on the Missouri on the 29th, visiting the Great Falls on the way. The last time he had been at Benton was in 1846, while the post still bore the name of Fort Lewis. It had been his intention on leaving General Harney to travel all the way to St. Louis on horseback, but his animals gave out and he decided to go on by skiff. After full conferences with the resident missionaries, he left the fort August 5th with a skiff and oarsman furnished him by the fur company. He made the trip in entire safety to Omaha, where he found a steamer, and in that way made the rest of the journey to St. Louis, arriving there September 23d.
It is not an easy thing in this day to appreciate what a journey like that meant -traveling day after day in a frail skiff on the waters of a turbulent and treacherous stream, amid scenes of utter wildness, without the sight of a white man's house except occasional trading posts, and all the way in a land of savage tribes. Father De Smet has left a record of this journey which is worth reading. He says of the manner in which they lived: "During this long trip on the river we passed the nights in the open air, or under a little tent, often on sandbars to avoid the troublesome mosquitoes, or on the skirts of a plain, or in an untrodden forest. We often heard the howlings of the wolves, and the grunting of the grizzly bear disturbed our sleep, but without alarming us. In the desert one perceives that God has implanted in the breast of these wild beasts the fear of man. In the desert also we are enabled in a particular way to admire and to thank the divine providence which watches with so much solicitude over his children. There is admirably verified the text of St. Matthew: "Consider the birds of the air, they sow not, but your Heavenly Father feeds them; are ye not of much more value than they?"(3) During the whole route, our
(3) This and other scriptural quotations given by Father De Smet are not from the King James version.