great kindness to set at liberty all the prisoners and hostages, both Cceur d'Alenes and Spokans, and he intrusted to my charge to bring them on their way, and return them to their respective nations. These good Indians, particularly the Ceeur d'Alenes, had given the greatest edification to the soldiers during their captivity: these men often surrounded them with admiration, to witness the performance of their pious exercises, morning and evening, and in listening to their prayers and hymns. During the whole journey, these good Indians testified the utmost gratitude to me, and their punctual performance of their religious duties was a source of great consolation and happiness to me.
On the 21st of November I arrived at the Mission of the Sacred Heart, among the Ceeur d'Alenes. I was detained at the mission by the snow until the 18th of February, 1859. During this interval snow fell with more or less abundance on forty-three days and nights, on seven days it rained, we had twenty-one cloudy days, and sixteen days of clear and cold weather. I left the mission on the 18th of February with the Reverend Father Joset, who accompanied me until we met Father Hoeken, who had promised to meet us on Clark's river. The ice, snow, rain and winds impeded very much our course, in our frail canoes of bark, on the rivers and great lakes: we often ran considerable risk in crossing rapids and falls, of which Clark's river is full. I counted thirty-four of these in seventy miles. We met with several camps of Indians in winter quarters on every side. On the approach of the winter season, they are obliged to scatter in the forests and along the lakes and rivers, where they live by the chase and fishing. They received us everywhere with the greatest kindness, and, notwithstanding their extreme poverty, willingly shared with us their small rations and meagre provisions. They eagerly embraced the occasion to attend to their religious duties and other exercises of piety: attending at the instructions with great attention, and with much zeal and fervor, at mass, and