With sentiments of the highest consideration and esteem, I have the honor to be
Honorable and Dear Sir,
Your very humble and obedient servant,
P. S.- When passing through Albany, some six or eight months ago, I paid a visit to Miss Weed, who did me the honor of asking a photograph of my poor self, to place in her beautiful album. I remember to have left one, bearing but a small resemblance. Allow me, Dear Sir, to substitute the inclosed, with my best respects to your kind and good daughter.
St. Louis University, December 24, 1863.
My very dear Brother (FRANCIS) and my very dear CHARLES and PAUL :i9
I wish you a very happy New Year, filled with all the benedictions of heaven. I have just reached St. Louis after a long journey of about eight months and after having covered a distance of nearly 4,000 leagues. I have passed through many dangers, the details of which I will give you later. I set out from St. Louis at the beginning of last
May. I went up the Missouri river for 2,400 miles, as far as the mouth o: Milk river. I then continued my route on horseback for some 1,200 miles, visiting our various missions east and west of the Rocky Mountains. During my mission I had the consolation of baptizing upward of 400 Indians. At Walla Walla, a city of some 2,000 souls, in the Territory of Washington, I embarked upon the Columbia river for Portland, the principal city of Oregon - distance 4oo miles. From Portland I went to Victoria, the capital of Vancouver Island; thence to San Francisco in California; thence to Acapulco in Mexico, and thence to
"From the French.