including Generals Sherman, Sheridan, Harney, Terry and several others. They went to Omaha via Chicago and thence to Cheyenne, holding a council with some Sioux bands on the way. From Cheyenne they made a brief pleasure excursion to Sherman Pass across which the new Union Pacific railway had but recently been built. The commissioners then went to Fort Laramie while De Sniet returned to Omaha to go from there to Fort Rice. He left Omaha on the steamer Columbia, but made slow progress owing to low water.
Father De Smet in his narrative of this voyage mentions some of the characteristic experiences which his long acquaintance with the Indian country had developed. If it was known that he was coming up the river there were always people at the landings to see him. "When the boat stopped to cut or load a supply of wood," he writes, " I often had occasion to exercise the holy ministry among the inhabitants of the region who came down to the woodyard or wharf, marrying couples who were awaiting the presence of a priest to receive the nuptial benediction, and regenerating in the holy waters of baptism a great number of children and numerous adults."
And this is the experience he usually passed through when he found himself among a boat-load of passengers "When the priest appears in the midst of such a throng lie is critically scrutinized. He is measured from head to foot. He is like a curious beast in a menagerie. He is regarded with surprise and people are slow to approach him. But once the ice is broken, he is overwhelmed with questions upon all points of religion. These questions are quite often sensible enough, but generally they are odd and sometimes even indelicate and gross, denoting a profound ignorance which inspires only pity and compassion."
The Columbia arrived at Fort Rice Allay 24th. Father De Smet passed a week in religious work among the Indians and Catholic soldiers, baptizing, marrying, and receiving