CHAPTER XIII.

Visitors at Rendezvous--Advent of Missionaries--What Brought Them--Bonneville's account of the Nez Perces and Flatheads--An Enthusiastic View of Their Characters--Origin of some of Their Religious Observances--An Indian's Idea of a God--Material Good Desired--Mistake of the Missionaries--First Sermon in the Rocky Mountains--Interrupted by Buffaloes--Precept and Example--Dr. Whitman's Character--The Missionaries Separate--Dr. Whitman Returns to the States, 181