commerce, which is the misery of the savages in every relation.(5)
I visit the Indians in their wigwams, either as a missionary, if they are disposed to listen to me, or as a physician to see their sick. When I find a little child in great danger, and I perceive the parents have no desire to hear the word of God, I spread out my vials: I recommend my medicines strongly. I first bathe the child with a little camphor; then taking some baptismal water, I baptize it without their suspecting it - and thus I have opened the gate of heaven to a great number, notwithstanding the wiles of hell to hinder them from entering.
During the winter a chief of a neighboring nation brought me his child, attacked with a very dangerous malady; it only had a breath of life remaining. The father asked medicine from me. I gave him to understand that his child was past recovery, but that I had the means of rendering it, after death, the happiest of his nation. I explained to him the favors arising from the sacrament of baptism. The chief, quite delighted, offered me his son in order to secure its happiness, and the child died on the following day.
I might cite you a great number of other consoling traits with which Heaven favors us, but my sheet is too small to allow of it.
I will consecrate this last page to a description of the principal incidents of my excursion of 360 miles farther into the Indian Territories, through the country of the Omahas, and in the immense tract of country occupied by the Sioux.
The object of this journey was to afford the benefit of
(5) Father De Smet here touches upon one of the greatest evils that has characterized the relations of the white man with the Indian under the United States Government, from the beginning until very recent times. In spite of all its efforts the Government was never able to suppress what the author very justly describes as an "abominable traffic."