CHAPTER I.
Journey to Council Bluffs.
Pursuit of the steamboat - Indians by the way - Site of St. Joseph - Inconveniences of river navigation - The Otoes and their minister - First touch of Indian life - Disappointing reception by the Potawatomies - Beginning of missionary work.
Reverend Father Superior: (1)
Your Reverence will have been uneasy, and will no doubt have desired for some time to receive news from this quarter. Opportunities to get letters through to you by way of Ft. Leavenworth are rare and uncertain and besides we have all been sick for a fortnight, which we attribute to the change from the thin warm water of the river to springwater as cold as ice. Father Felix is still indisposed.
I left the village of the Kickapoos on the 25th of May for the fort [Leavenworth], meaning to wait there for a boat. When I reached there I was surprised to learn from Mr. Hamilton that the Wilmington had left the place two hours before. Arming myself with a good switch, I applied it to the sides of my poor Rozinante, and galloping, galloping, we made together seven miles in half an hour. I reached the path where the boat was taking on wood in time. Nothing very remarkable happened during the voyage. The first night we stopped two miles from the village of Pashishi. Here the captain bought some twenty cords of wood, cut by the Indian women. The passengers amused themselves with putting up small coins on sticks to test the skill of the little Indians in shooting with the bow : one especially, only
(1) A hitherto unpublished fragment in French, giving a description of Father De Smet's journey from the Kickapoo village to the Potawatomies in 1838. Written June, 1838, at the Potawatomi Mission, Council Bluffs.