ghted many
generations of readers; but on much of the ground where that author's
famous characters lived, hunted, fought and died, big towns have sprung
up, and the Indians, driven to live in reservations and to become,
practically, pensioners of the Government, have been shorn of nearly
all their greatness.

When the white man gained the ascendency in North America there came a
better opportunity for missionary work, and notable among those who
went to labour among the Indians was Mary Riggs, who, with her husband,
worked for thirty-two years among the Sioux--the Red Indians of Dakota.
She was born on November 10, 1813, at Hawley, Massachusetts, her father
being General Thomas Longley, who had fought in the war of 1812.
Evidently he was not a wealthy man, for Mary began her education at the
common town school, where she had for her schoolfellows the children of
some of the poorest inhabitants. Later, she attended better schools,
and at the age of sixteen became a teacher in one at Williamstown,
Massachusetts. Her salary was only one dollar a week, but she gave her
father the whole of her first quarter's earnings, as a slight return
for the money he had spent on her education. After a time she obtained
a better appointment at a school at Bethlehem, and while there she met
Stephen R. Riggs, a young man who was studying for the Presbyterian
ministry. They became engaged, and a few months later Stephen Riggs
told his future wife that he should like to become a missionary to the
Red Indians, among whom work had recently been started. She expressed
her willingness to accompany him, and, therefore, he at once offered
himself to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, by
whom he was accepted.

The young people were married on February 16, 1837, and about a
fortnight later began their long journey to the Far West. Travelling
was in those days, of course, very different from what it is now, and
the young missionaries had to go by stage _via_ New York, Philadelphia,
and across the mountains to Pittsburg until they came to the Ohio.
Snow, rain and mud made their journey by stage particularly unpleasant,
but rest and comfort came on the steamer which bore them down the river.

On June 1, 1837, they arrived at Fort Snelling, near where the
Minnesota joins the Mississippi. Here they remained until the
beginning of September, living in a log-house, and learning the Dakota
language with the help of a mission