Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 29).djvu/179

 No. IV

A. M. D. G.

St. Francis Xavier, Willamette, June 20th, 1845.

,[68]

,—In the beginning of February, I set out to visit our different settlements and stations, and to form new ones among the neighboring tribes of our reductions. The entire surface of this region was then covered with snow, five feet deep; and I was compelled to go from the Bay of Pends-d'oreilles to the Horse Plain, in a bark canoe, a distance of 250 miles.[69]

I was among my dear Flatheads and Pends-d'oreilles[70] (ear-rings) of the mountains, during the Paschal time, and had the great consolation of finding them replete with zeal and fervor in fulfilling the duties of true children of prayer. The solemn feast of Easter, all the Flatheads at St. Mary's devoutly approached the most blessed sacrament during my mass; and about three hundred Pends-d'oreilles, (the greater number adults), belonging to the