Sioux country, and, I hope, with more success than last year. I commend myself to your good prayers .s
On reaching the base of the Rocky Mountains, I met two of our Italian Fathers (Giorda and Imoda), and two coadjutor Brothers, who have settled among the Blackfoot tribes. Tliis nation numbers about 1o,ooo souls. The meeting was unexpected on the part of my dear brothers in.. Christ, and the joy was all the greater. I found them in a rather bad way, lacking, in fact, almost everything, even necessaries, and I had expected as much. Thanks to a remnant of the funds obtained in Belgium (in I86o-6I), I was enabled to bring them assistance. I had the great cor-solation to find them safe and sound, and to procure for them, in good order, a fine assortment of church ornaments and sacred vessels, victuals for nearly a year, garments and bed coverings, which they sadly needed, agricultural and carpenters' tools, several plows, some picks and shovels, an ambulance and a wagon-all of which were absolutely necessary, in a new establishment among io,ooo nomadic savages, whom it is desired to christianize and civilize.
These worthy brothers are laboring among the Blackfeet with tireless zeal and courage. At the time of my visit they had been barely six months in that country, and the number of baptisms inscribed on the register came to upwards of
a "After leaving Fort Benton I visited several camps of Blackfeet, Crows, Assiniboins, and Mandans, the nation of the Minnetarees or Grosventres, who were all in one place, and the Aricaras. When I left St. Louis it was my desire to visit the numerous tribes of the Sioux or Dakotas, supposed to be thirty to forty thousand in number, and to spend three months among them. An unfortunate incident prevented my doing it. A few days before my arrival at Fort Pierre, the head chief of the Sioux tribes had been killed by his own people, because of his friendship for the whites. Consequently the country was in confusion and much agitated against the whites. It was impossible for me to obtain an interpreter or guides to accompany me into the interior of the country where they dwell, which is very vast. I have put off this visit and mission to next spring." (Extract from letter to Father-General, August 18, 1862.)