them, mingled with a kind of terror partly from a sense of grave
responsibility in speaking to so many whose probation was so nearly
closed, and partly from a sense of fear of hearing them say to me "Go
home; when we were free we would not hear you preach to us; why do you
come here to torment us when we are in chains and cannot go away." It
was a great relief to find them listening intently to all I had to
say."

The prisoners were supplied with Bibles and other books, and for a
time, the prison became a school. They were all eager to learn. The
more their minds were directed to God and His Word, the more they
became interested in secular studies.

Very soon the Indians of their own accord began holding meetings every
morning and evening in which they sang and spoke and prayed. In a short
time, there were ninety converts that would lead in public prayer. Of
those who were executed, thirty were baptized. Standing in a foot of
snow, manacled two and two, they frequently gathered to sing and pray
and listen to the words of eternal life. Of this work, the Rev. Gideon
H. Pond wrote at the time; "There is a degree of religious interest
manifested by them, which is incredible. They huddle themselves
together every morning and evening, read the scriptures, sing hymns,
confess one to another and pray together. They declare they have left
their superstitions forever, and that they do and will embrace the
religion of Jesus."

In March, Mr. Pond visited Mankato again and spent two Sabbaths with
the men in prison, establishing them in their new faith. Before his
departure, he administered the Lord's supper, to these new converts.
And again the Mankato prison-pens witnessed a strange and wondrous
scene. Three hundred embittered, defeated Indian warriors, manacled,
fettered with balls and chains,--but clothed and in their right
minds,--were sitting in groups upon the wintry grounds reverently
observing the Lord's supper. Elders Robert Hopkins, Peter Big-Fire and
David Grey Cloud officiated with reverence and dignity. The whole
movement was marvelous! It was like a "nation born in a day." And after
many years of severe testing, all who know the facts, testify that it
was a genuine work of God's Holy Spirit. The massacre and the
subsequent events destroyed the power of the Priests of Devils, which
had previously ruled and ruined these wretches' tribes. They
themselves, exploded the dynamite under the throne of Paganism and
shatte