things are not done without toil and money, but thanks to the generous charity of our friends in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Kentucky, St. Louis and New Orleans, which place I visited in person and which is always at the head of the others when there is a question of relieving the necessities of the poor, or showing compassion and munificence to any who may be in need of assistance, we were enabled by the resources thence supplied, and by a portion of the funds allowed by the Lyons Association in behalf of the Indian Missions, to undertake this long journey.
You have already learned from my letters of the past year, that I was specially sent among the Flatheads to ascertain their dispositions toward the Black-gowns, whom they had so long desired. I therefore started from St. Louis in April, I84o, and arrived on the banks of the Colorado precisely at the moment when a band of Flat
heads reached that point on their way to meet me. It was
the rendezvous I had given them. Besides the Flatheads, I visited during that journey many other tribes, such as the Pend d'Oreilles (Ear Rings) or Kalispels, Nez Percés (Pierced Noses) or Sapetans, Cheyennes, Snakes or Shoshones, Crows or Absarokas, Grosventres or Minnetarees, Aricaras, Mandans, Kansas, the numerous nations of the
Sioux or Dakotas, the Omahas, Otoes, Iowas, etc. Finding everywhere such good dispositions, I resolved, notwithstanding the approach of winter and frequent attacks of fever, in order to second the visible designs of the divine mercy in favor of so many souls, to commence my journey across the immense ocean of mountains and prairies. I have traveled without any other guide than a compass, without any protection from nations hostile to the whites, but a veteran from Ghent, formerly a grenadier of the Empire, any other provisions, in an arid desert, than what powder and ball and a strong confidence in God might procure us.
I shall not here repeat what I have already communicated to you, of my adventures and the result of this mis-