is not only a stimulus to noble actions, but a greater preventive of evil, than all chastisements united.
Human ingenuity is useful, but it can do little towards the salvation of souls, if it be not joined to fervent prayer. Every missionary should be convinced of this truth. Our pious neophytes have experienced the efficacy of frequent recourse to Heaven. Each day they had invoked the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Holy Heart of Mary; and the first Friday and Saturday of March proved the most successful hunting days. We had invoked the patron of hunters, and our chase was relatively fortunate. We had implored the protection of the glorious St. Michael, and never did our chiefs display greater valor {407} in the presence of the enemy. We had entreated the Apostle of the Indies to obtain the conversion of the Indians, and one party of Black-Feet falls under our power, whilst the other amicably visits us, and departs, exclaiming, "The prayer of the Flat-Heads shall be ours." In fine, we had taken St. Raphael as our guide; our journey was long, fatiguing, and perilous, nevertheless, no serious accident occurred, though we often fell on the ice and rocks. Not a hunter in our camp was there who did not remark this manifest protection; and nearly all testified their gratitude to God by a fervent communion.
On Passion Sunday one hundred and three approached the holy table. The evening of so happy a day was crowned by the erection of a cross, to which they gave the name of Eugene, because the previous evening a quiver of that excellent Flat-Head, and a letter written on a piece of skin, after the Indian fashion, apprised us that he had been massacred in the neighborhood by a party of Banax. We then remembered, with consolation, that, on Ash Wednesday, a few days before his death, he came to see us, and during his stay received the holy communion.
