consent, to go all the way to St. Louis on horseback, in the hope of meeting a large number of Indian tribes, especially the large and powerful trip of Comanches. I was obliged to renounce this project, for my six horses were entirely worn out, and unfit for making so long a journey; they' were all more or less saddle-galled, and, not being shod, their hoofs were worn in crossing the rocky bottoms of the rivers, and the rough, rocky mountain roads.
In this difficulty, I ordered a little skiff to be made at Fort Benton; worthy Mr. Dawson, superintendent of the Fur Company, had the very great kindness to procure me three oarsmen and a pilot. On the 5th of August I bade adieu to Fathers Congiato and Hoeken, and dear Brother Magri, and embarked on the Missouri, which is celebrated for dangers of navigation -- snags and rapids being numerous in the upper river.
We descended the stream about 2,400 miles in our cockleshell, making fifty, sixty, and sometimes, when the wind favored us, eighty miles a day. We took the first steamboat we met, at Omaha City. The steamer made about 700 miles in six days, and on the zgd of September, vigil of our Lady of Mercy, we entered the port of St. Louis.
During this long trip on the river we passers the nights in the open air, or under a little tent, often on sand-banks, to avoid the troublesome mosquitoes, or on the skirts of a plain, or in an untrodden thick forest. We often heard the howlings of the wolves; and the grunting of the grizzly bear, the king of animals in these parts, disturbed our sleep. but without alarming us. In the desert one perceives that God has implanted in the breast of the wild beasts the fear of man. In the desert, also, r e are enabled in a particular way to admire and to thank that Divine Providence which watches with so much solicitude over his children. There
is admirably verified the text of St. Matthew: " Considcr the birds of the air, they sow not, but your Heavenly Father feeds them; are ye not of much more value than