when I inform you that we were sixteen days ascending the river, and but four in descending the same. On returning to the Bay, accompanied by Reverend Father Hoeken and several chiefs, my first care was to examine the lands belonging to this portion of the tribe of Kalispels and select a fit site for erecting the new establishment of St. Ignatius.' We found a vast and beautiful prairie, three miles in extent, surrounded by cedar and pine, in the neighborhood of the cavern of New Manresa and its quarries, and a fall of water more than Zoo feet, presenting every advantage for the erection of mills. I felled the first tree, and after having taken all necessary measures to expedite the work, I departed for Walla Walla, where I embarked in a small boat and descended the Columbia as far as Fort Vancouver.
The melting of the snow had occasioned a considerable freshet and our descent was very rapid. The place was indicated to me where, a few months previously, four travelers from the United States had miserably perished, victims of their own temerity and presumption. When advised to provide themselves with a guide, they answered they had no need of any; and when warned that the river was dangerous and deceptive, the pilot, with a scoffing boast, replied, " I am capable of guiding my barge, were it even across the in fernal gulf." The monitor wished them a fortunate voyage,
but at the same time trembled for their fate, saying: " This
Further history of the first Mission of St. Ignatius, among the Kalispels.- This establishment was maintained for ten years by Father Hoeken, but in 1854 it was abandoned for a more favorable site, that of the present St. Ignatius Mission, a few miles from Selish station on the Northern Pacific railroad, at that time considered the territory of the Upper Pend d'Oreilles. The reasons for the change are thus given by Father Palladino: "It was subject to inundation at the melting of heavy snow-falls in the mountains, and, further, the missionaries having now acquired a better knowledge of the country, a more central position with reference to other tribes was deemed preferable, as greater good could be accomplished. Consequently, at the request of the Indians themselves, the mission was removed."