them. I showed our chapel to the chiefs, who appeared to take great interest in the explanation I gave them of the cross, the altar and the images of the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Afterward they urgently begged me to come and make them a visit, to baptize their children, and they made me a present of a fine beaver skin for a tobaccobag. I in turn gave them some chaplets for the children and to each one a fair copper cross, which they received with great gratitude, kissing them respectfully and putting them around their necks. When speaking, they addressed me in the most cordial manner. They are scarcely more than a hundred miles from Council Bluffs. (8)
The new Indian territory, as lately arranged by the Government, will have as its limits the Red river on the south, and on the east the State of Arkansas and that of Missouri, with the river of the same name; so that we have already seen a good portion of it. The territory now contains the following nations: Poncas, Dourvas [?], Otoes, Kansas, Osages, Kickapoos, Potawatomies, Delawares, Shawanos, Weas, Piankishaws, Peorias, Kaskaskias, Ottowas, Senecas, Sauks, Quapaws, Creeks, Cherokees and Choctaws. There are about 100,000 of them, sad remnants of once powerful nations. When the Europeans visited the new world for the first time, they found its islands and shores extremely populous; but several tribes that were flourishing, have now disappeared from the surface of the earth; the very names of many are unknown. As fast as the whites extended their dominion in the east, the savages withdrew toward the west, leaving behind them, at every step that they took, mournful monuments of their misfortunes and decadence. Here to-day are 100,000 of them, pushed out upon the borders of the vast and uninhabitable prairie; hunting cannot suffice for their subsistence; they are unused to labor; one may well, therefore, feel serious apprehensions concerning their lot. Ah! if there were
(8) The Omahas were on the right or west bank of the Missouri river, twenty-five miles below Sioux City.