dle of the mission valley, and it has always proved to the weary traveler and destitute emigrant a St. Bernard in the Ceeur d'Alene Mountains. I fear that the location of our road, and the swarms of miners and emigrants that must pass here year after year, will so militate against the best interests of the mission that its present site will have to be changed or abandoned. This, for themselves and the Indians, is to be regretted; but I can only regard it as the inevitable result of opening and settling the country. I have seen enough of Indians to convince me of this fact that they can never exist in contact with the whites; and their only salvation is to be removed far, far from their presence. But they have been removed so often that there seems now no place left for their further migration; the waves of civilization have invaded their homes from both oceans, driving them year after year toward the Rocky Mountains; and now that we propose to invade these mountain solitudes, to wrest from them their hidden wealth, where under heaven can the Indians go? And may we not expect to see these people make one desperate struggle in the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains for the maintenance of their last homes and the preservation of their lives? It is a matter that but too strongly commends itself to the early and considerate attention of the General Government. The Indian is destined to disappear before the white man, and the only question is, how it may best be done, and his disappearance from our midst be tempered with those elements calculated to produce to himself the least amount of suffering, and to us the least amount of cost."
You may see from this extract from Captain Mullan's report to his Government, the real tendency of what we have to fear for the future of the Indian tribes in the vast Idaho Territory.
To proceed with my tale, the Church of the Sacred Heart, with that of St. Ignatius, are the two monuments of the Rocky Mountains; they are well adorned with pictures and statues, which are the admiration as well of the whites as