for some among us have done very wrong; but the Great Spirit has punished us, and this makes us think that he will not reject us. We have lost our head chief and several others this year, besides a number of children, who died before they could be baptized. This last appeared to us the greater loss, and made us think that the Great Spirit wished to show us, by punishing us in this way, that it is a great evil to forget his baptism. Now that we are all together again at the village of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we try to satisfy the Black-robe, or rather to satisfy our Father who is in heaven; also we are trying to get our hearts right for our first communion. To help us in this, our Black-robe speaks to us four times each day, and our chiefs almost all day and part of the night; several of us are to have that happiness on the first great day of Mary of the next moon, and perhaps all the others by Christmas. Thou knowest better than we, Father, that those are two very great days, and that of the first communion the greatest of our life; come and see us, then, to witness our happiness. Oh! if thou couldst be among thy children on that day, it seems to us that we would have nothing more to wish for. We wish to show thee that we know now that the greatest good that thou couldst do us, was to show us the way to heaven, as thou didst do, and to give us Black-robes to keep us walking in it; and to show thee that it is not with our words alone that we love thee, but with our hearts; for we wish at present to do what our fathers may tell us; those are the last words of our hearts. Now, Father Pierre, we ask only one thing, that thou wilt come thyself to say whether the Coeur d'Alenes love thee as thou wouldst have them. We have spoken." On the 9th I bade farewell to Father Hoeken and his small but interesting colony of about 300 persons; 200 being away on the winter hunt."' I yielded with pleasure
"7 The following incident and narrative of the attempted journey to the Flatheads are from the manuscript journal. Other incidents of the same journey were published in Letter XXI of the Oregon Missions.