tos, the Chiriquans, the Hurons, and the Iroquois equally wicked before their conversion, which required much time and great help from above? And is it not to the last, that, under God. the Flatheads owe their desire of becoming members of his Church, and the first germs of the copious fruit that has been produced among them? What is more, the Blackfeet are not hostile to Black-gowns. We have been assured by other Indians that we would have nothing to fear, if we presented ourselves amongst them as minis ters of religion. When last year I fell into the hands of one of their divisions, and it was ascertained that I was an interpreter of the Great Spirit, they carried me in triumph on a buffalo robe to their village, and invited me to a banquet, at which all the great men of the tribe assisted. It was on this occasion, that, whilst I said grace, I was astonished to see that they struck the earth with one hand and raised the other toward heaven, to signify that the earth produces nothing but evil, whilst all that is good comes
from above. From all this you will easily conclude that the harvest is great, whilst the laborers are few.
It is the opinion of the missionaries who accompany me, and of the travelers I have seen in the Far West, in short, of all those who have become acquainted with the Flatheads, that they are characterized by the greatest simplicity, docility and uprightness. Yet, to the simplicity of children is joined the courage of heroes. They never begin the attack, but woe to such as provoke them or treat them unjustly. A handful of their warriors will not shrink from an enemy twenty times more numerous than they; they will stand and repel the assault, and at last put them
to flight, and make them repent their rashness. Not long before my first arrival among them, seventy men of the tribe, finding themselves forced to come to an engagement with a thousand Blackfeet warriors, determined to sustain the attack, and rather to die than retreat. Before the engagement they prostrated themselves and addressed suc11 prayers as they had learned to the Great Spirit. They rose