CHAPTER VII.1
FOUNDING OF ST. MARY'S MISSION.
Arrival on banks of Bitter Root river and founding of St. Mary's mission - Cceur d'Alène Indians solicit missionaries- Other well-disposed tribes-The problem of the Blackfeet-Prowess of the Flatheads -Their exemplary piety -Plan to make them the nursery for a vast Christian community - Working details - Church and farm buildings - Futile opposition of the devil - Baptisms and marriages - First Blackfoot convert - Father Point goes to the winter hunt.
Bitter Root, the Place selected for the first Reduction, October 18, 1841.
F'FER a journey of four months and a half on horseback through the desert, and in spite of our actual want of bread, wine, sugar, fruit, and all such things as are called the conveniences of life, we find our strength and courage increased, and are better prepared than ever to work at the conversion of the souls that Providence entrusts to our care. Next to the Author of all good things, we returned thanks to her whom the Church reveres as the Mother of her Divine Spouse, since it has pleased the divine goodness to send us the greatest consolations on
1 This chapter consists of Letter IX, Letters and Sketches, dated St. Mary's, October 18, 1841, and addressed to the Father Provincial, paralleled by Letter VII, Second Voyage, Voyages aux MontagnesRocheuses, dated " Bitter Root, place selected for First Reduction," October 26th and addressed to the Theresian Nuns of Termonde; Letters X, Letters and Sketches, and VIII, Voyages aux MontagnesRocheuses, dated St. Mary's, October 26th and addressed respectively to the Provincial and to A Father of the Company of Jesus; Letters XII, Letters and Sketches, and XI, Voyages aux MontagnesRockeuses, dated respectively December 30th and December 31st, and addressed to A Father; and two pages from Book 11, Letters and Sketches. The English text has mainly been adhered to.