The number of half-breed and Indian children baptized among the Sioux amounts to several hundred. I conferred the same sacrament upon six adults far advanced in years, two of whom were over ninety, and dwelt in a little but of buffalo skins, in which a poor fire with difficulty imparted a little warmth to their members, chilled and stiffened with age. They received me with great joy. I spoke to them of the Great Spirit, of the necessity of baptism, of the future life, of the blessed or miserable eternity which must follow this state of being. They listened with avidity to the instructions which .I repeated during several days, and, in fine, received the sacrament of regeneration. They were never weary of telling me again and again that they had never ceased to love the Great Spirit, and that, being ignorant of more suitable prayers, they had daily offered him the first fruits of the calumet!
This recalls to my mind a fact, insignificant in itself, which nevertheless proved a source of genuine consolation to me. On my arrival in the nation of the Brules, I was singularly surprised to find myself followed by a youth about fifteen years of age, whom my presence seemed to afford a degree of pleasure which it would be difficult for me to describe. The little kind encouragement by which I responded to his manifestation of contentment, so effectually conciliated his affection for me, that the efforts and threats even of the savages who surrounded me could not remove him any length of time from my person. Scarcely had they taken him from my side by violence, when another path brought him back; he even penetrated into the grand council of the chiefs, in which the expeditious diplomacy of the Brules agitated the questions of which my arrival among them required a solution. Night came on, and terminating the deliberations of the assembly, obliged me to withdraw
came on the poor girl resumed her journey and walked several days and nights in succession with very little rest. At last she reached her father's camp, a few minutes after he arrived on his return from Fort Pierre."