wild beasts, without pity, or the least remorse, or any thought that the killing of a savage comes under the head of murder. A certain. C-, a Methodist minister, transformed into a colonel of militia and placed at the head of a fort, ordered the massacre (children, women, and old men included) of several hundred Indians, who had come to make a friendly visit to the post, according to their habit of many years' standing. All the papers were full of it and the frightful atrocity was fully exposed; still the monster found admirers and defenders, and still wears his epaulets. This is one case among a thousand. Is it surprising that the victims of such cruelties and oppressions, having no recourse to any laws for justice, rise furious, dig up the tomahawk and make their appeal to their quiver and scalping-knife, as their last and only resort for the remedy that is denied them elsewhere?
University of St. Louis, December 30, 1854. Reverend Father:'
The " Indian Question " has been much agitated in the United States during the course of this year. Two great Territories, Kansas and Nebraska, will henceforth form a portion of the great confederation. They embrace all that part of the wilderness included between the confines of the State of Missouri and the forty-ninth degree of north latitude, and extend westward to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.
Questions concerning the future of the Indians have frequently been laid before me by persons who appear interested in the destiny of these poor creatures. Knowing the
s Letter addressed to the editor Precis Historiques, dated St. Louis, December 30, 1854. Forms Letter XIV, Second Series, Cinquante Nouvelles Lettres and Western Missions and Missionaries. The latter text is here followed. Father De Smet made numerous copies of these questions and answers, in French and English, for various correspondents.