134 NARRATIVE OF 1853. 
hands, something rarely seen amongst the Indians. We afterwards visited the field—a large 
fire was burning and around it sat Indians roasting and eating potatoes. There appeared to be 
a great scarcity of proper implements, and in digging potatoes I noticed that many had nothing 
better than sharpened sticks. 
The train arrived about one o'clock, and Pére Gazzoli allowed us to turn our animals into the 
enclosure. 
I will remark that Brother Maginn declares himself to be, like many other naturalized citizens, 
a good democrat; inquired who was President, and appeared much pleased to learn that he 
- was a democrat. 
Mr. Stanley took a sketch of the Mission. 
I have heard of an ingenious method of hunting deer which is practiced by the Indians and 
is worth while to relate. When the Coeur d'Alénes, Pend d’ Oreilles, Spokanes, and Nez 
Percés meet together to fish and hunt, they form a large circle, and upon the trees around its 
circumference attach pieces of cloth made to resemble the human figure as much as possible. 
Then the hunters enter the area and startup the deer. Each cloth having the effect of a man, 
the deer being afraid to pass them are kept within the circle and easily killed. Last year the 
Pend d Oreilles killed 800 in one hunt; the Coeur d'Alénes more than 400. It is said that the 
Cœur d'Alénes on the St. Joseph river have finer lands and larger prairies than those of this 
Mission. 
October 14.—A Nez Percéz, Frank, who, with two men, arrived yesterday from Walla- 
Walla in three days, (and probably three nights, ) and who stopped here to exchange horses for 
flour, says that fifty wagons have crossed the military road from Walla-Walla to Nisqually. 
The distance for pack animals from here to Walla-Walla is six days, to Colville four days, and 
four days to the Pend d'Oreilles Mission. For the provisions we have purchased of the pére 
he takes whatever we chose to give. I leave with him a letter to Mullan to be forwarded, with 
the request that he will accompany it by one from himself. When the Indians returned from 
the field I addressed them as follows: 
“Т am glad to see you and find that you are under such good direction. I have come four 
times as far as you go to hunt buffalo, and have come with directions from the Great Father to 
see you, to talk to you, and to do all I can for your welfare. І see cultivated fields, a church, 
houses, cattle, and the fruits of the earth, the work of your own hands, The Great Father 
will be delighted to hear this, and will certainly assist you. Go on, and every family will have 
a house and a patch of ground, and every one will be well clothed. I have had talks with the 
Blackfeet, who promise to make peace with all the Indian tribes. Listen to the good father and 
to the good brothers who labor for your good." In the evening I had a long conversatior with 
the pére and the brothers. 
October 15.—We started at 8 o'clock, after having given Brother Charles as many lariats for 
raising the timbers of the church as we could spare, and made 18} miles, meeting on the way 
some forty Indians—Cceur d’ Alénes, Nez Percés, and Spokanes—on their way to buffalo. We 
camped to-day in a beautiful prairie, called the Wolf’s Lodge, with good grass. Here we found 
nearly 100 Spokanes, with some 300 horses, on their way to the hunt. Among them there were 
only three Nez Percés. We gave them a little tobacco and some fresh pork. "Towards sundown 
this evening I was greatly interested in observing our friends, the Spokanes, at their devotions. 
A bell rang, and the whole band gathered in and around a large lodge for evening prayers. 
There was something solemn and pathetic in the evening psalm resounding through the forests 
