I had scarcely regained the path, when I met her husband, almost bent to the earth by age and infirmity; he could hardly drag himself along. He had been setting a trap in the forest for the bucks. The Flatheads who had preceded me had told him of my arrival. As soon, therefore, as he Percéived me, he began to cry out, with a trembling voice: " Oh, how delighted I am to see our
Father before I die. The Great Spirit is good - oh, how happy my heart is." And the venerable old man pressed my hand most affectionately, repeating again and again the same expressions. Tears fell from my eyes on witness ing such affection. I told him that I had just left his hut,
and had baptized his wife. " I heard," said he, " of your arrival in our mountains, and of your baptizing many of our people.. I am poor and old; I had hardly dared to hope for the happiness of seeing you. Black-gown, make me as happy as you have made my wife. I wish also to be
long to God, and we will always love him." I conducted him to the borders of a stream that flowed near us, and after a brief instruction, I administered to him the holy sacrament of baptism, naming him Simon. On seeing me depart, he repeated, impressively: " Oh, how good is the Great Spirit. I thank you, Skylax (Black-robe), for the favor you have conferred on me. Oh, how happy is my heart. Yes, I will always love the Great Spirit. Oh, how good the Great Spirit is, how good lie is."
During that same journey, I discovered in a little but of bulrushes five old men, who appeared to be fourscore years old. Three of them were blind, and the other two had but one eye each; they were almost naked, and offered a real personification of human misery. I spoke to them for a considerable time on the means of salvation, and on the bliss of another world. Their answers edified me much, and affected me even to tears; they were replete with the love of God, a desire of doing right and of dying well. You might have heard these good old men crying