"All that I have said is a proof that it would not be difficult to overcome this ancient antipathy of the Indians against the Americans, and to avoid the difficulties that are constantly springing up afresh, if only a good choice be made of the men who are sent to them to transact the business."
This is a summary sketch of the hostilities that broke out between the tribe of the Coeur d'Alenes and the United States. I will proceed with my journey among them in my next letter.
h had reached the great Coeur d'Alene lake on the 18th of October, 1858. I will give you an idea of the country occupied by this tribe and of the missionary field that our Fathers are tending.
The Coeur d'Alene country is truly picturesque; it is one of the most beautiful in Washington Territory. Nature seems singularly to have favored it, and on all my various visits I have always greatly admired it. From north to south and from east to west, the extent of country which the Coeur d'Alenes occupy may be a hundred miles. The surface is mountainous throughout. Father Joset, who has been fifteen years a missionary in this country, compares it to Jura, one of the most beautiful cantons of his native Switzerland. It has, he says, the same climate, the same display of large and small valleys, hills and mountains covered with fine forests. Here, in these primeval forests, trees of different sorts are mingled. There are ten distinct varieties in the nature of pines, firs, spruce, larch, etc. ; the cedar occurs in all its grandeur; ivy, poplar and aspen abound, especially in the valleys.
The Coeur d'Alene lake, with its twenty-five bays and promontories, may have a length of close to thirty miles by a width of five; the range of mountainous hills that in
1 From the French of the third Belgian edition, vol. IV.