ascended by a crooked and difficult trail on the eastern side, but is easy of access from the west. Here I found myself in company with some of the hands from Fort Colville, who had seventeen pack-horses to manage. Darkness came upon us in the forest, but we worked ourselves out, with much difficulty and misery; two of the packhorses from Colville, and one of mine, were lost, but we found them again the next day. We camped toward nine in the evening, on the shore of Lake De Boey, which was literally covered with wild swans, geese and ducks. One of the hunters fired off his gun over the lake, and the innumerable multitude of birds rose in a mass, the beating of their wings resembling the deep sound which ordinarily accompanies an earthquake.
On the 6th, Reverend Father Hoeken came to meet me, accompanied by several of the Kalispels of the Bay, among whom I had proposed two years before to establish a mission, but the approach of the snowy season had compelled me to defer the examination of the spot and the plan of building, until the following spring. They displayed every mark of friendship and joy at my return among them; they conducted me in triumph to their camp, and received me there amidst volleys of musketry and the sounding of trumpets. It would be impossible to describe the feelings of my heart at thus meeting with the first band of my dear neophytes and children in God, and to represent to you the real joy which animated them on this occasion. How much had we not to communicate to each other! I gave them some little and to them interesting details of the vast countries through which I had traveled in order to promote the interest and welfare of the Indians, since I bade them farewell, that is, within fifteen months. I had crossed the great American desert. and passed through many warlike, nomadical nations, extending from the Pacific Ocean to the frontier of the State of Missouri. I had traveled over the United States from New Orleans to Boston-visited Louisville, Cincinnati.