CHAPTER V.;
RETURN TO ST, LOUIS.
Return to the mountains - Much water -- Exciting passage of the woods-Eastward to Fort Benton in July -Blaekfeet to have a mission -Horses worn out - Down as far as Omaha in a skiff -His expense account.
S for me, I had accomplished among the Indians the task which the Government had imposed upon me. I explained to the general my motives for desiring to return to St. Louis byway of the interior. He acceded to my desire with the greatest affability, and in an answer which he addressed to me on this matter, he bore most honorable testimony to my services.
About the 15th of June, I again left Vancouver with the chiefs, to return to the mountains. I passed the 7th, 8th and 9th of July at the Mission of the Sacred Heart, among the Cueur d'Alenes. Thence I continued my route for St. Ignatius with Father Congiato, and completed the trip in a week; not, however, without many privations, which deserve a short mention here.
Imagine thick, untrodden forests, strewn with thousands of trees thrown down by age and storms in every direction; where the path is scarcely visible, and is obstructed by barricades, which the horses are constantly compelled to leap, and which always endanger the riders. Two fine rivers, or rather great torrents,-the Cceur d'Alene and St. Francis Borgia,- traverse these forests in a most winding course; their beds are formed of enormous detached masses of rock, and large slippery stones, rounded by the action of the water. The first of these torrents is crossed thirty-nine times, and the second thirty-two times, by the only path; the water 1 Continuation of foregoing letter.