the slightest knowledge of a Supreme Being, and hence the facility with which they believe anything that at all resembles the Word of God.
Very reverend and dear Father, your humble and obedient servant,
P. J. De Smet, S. J.
No. XX
A. M. D. G.
St. Ignatius, near the Kalispel Bay, }
July 26th, 1846. }
Very Rev. and Dear Father Provincial,—The eighth day after my departure from Fort Vancouver, I landed safely at Walla Walla, with the goods destined for the different missions. In a few days all was ready, and having thanked the good and kind-hearted Mr. McBride,[176] the Superintendent of the Fort, who had rendered me every assistance in his power, we soon found ourselves on the way to the mountains leading a band of pack mules and horses over a sandy dry plain, covered with bunch grass and wormwood. We made about sixteen miles and encamped for the night, in a beautiful little meadow, watered by the Walla Walla river, where we found abundance of grass for our animals—these were soon unloaded and left free to graze {240} at leisure; we next made
