Belgium. We shall not cease to pray, with our dear neophytes, for their happiness here below and for eternity.
I may later write you a longer account of my last trip, as you have called for in several of your letters; on this occasion I have little time left and must necessarily be short; I can only give you a cursory notice of the country I passed through.'
I left St. Louis on the 9th of May. I baptized several hundred children on my way up the Missouri, at the different posts where Indians had gathered to await the ar rival of the boat. All were very kind and attentive to me. We had no hindrance, neither from enemies nor from any other obstacles on the river, till we reached the mouth of Milk river - 2,400 miles above St. Louis. Here, good depth of water failed, and the captain put all his passengers ashore (eighty in number) and 200 tons of merchandise; this left us about 300 miles from our destination. Three days after the boat had left us we were attacked by a powerful band of Sioux warriors, about 6oo in number. Our camp was in an awful fix and no ways prepared for such a visit. All rushed to their arms in a rather confused
manner. For my own part I had no time to reflect and had nothing to do with fire-arms. I recommended myself to the Lord, and full of confidence in the prayers which I knew were [being] offered for me in many places, I walked, or rather ran, up to the vanguard of the enemy, about forty strong. The partisan or captain of the band happily recognized me and he cried out, " It is the Black-gown, who saved my sister." They all looked bewildered, but were kind and shook hands with me. We had a long talk, in which I gave them some salutary advice, backed with some coffee, sugar and hard biscuits, and they left us without further molestation. The Indian brave, my friend, was the
s Additional data upon the journey of 1863.-From a letter to Father Murphy, March 30, 1864.