Father Pierz tells the Bishop of his many and great tribulations. When he was sent to the mission of Sault Ste. Marie on November 4, 1836 with the order to enlarge the church, the Bishop had assured him that he would pay the old church debts, owed to Mr. Rancher. Pierz therefore undertook the building of the church on voluntary subscriptions, which, however, were not all redeemed. He had a stone foundation made, in the inside a solid floor was laid and the building fitted with lathes. In the priest house 5 rooms were finished. He had proceeded with the greatest economy and he and his help worked with the other workers. He also spent $60 of his own money. He always endeavored to build in such a way as not to have any debts on the church. But Mr. Francher who took it upon himself to manage the church money, collected all the money and used part of it to pay off the old church debt and added new debts to Pierz's account. In order to pay off that new debt and the traveling expenses to Grande Portage, the Company took all his potatoes in Sault Ste. Marie. He had spent over $100 for the cultivation and enclosure of the fields and gardens and he hoped to receive a fine compensation for his potatoes, but those robbers took 154 Minots about 171 bushels paid him 4 shillings 97 1/3 cents instead of $1, and in that way he was cheated out of his fortune. Because he bought some fishing nets for his livelihood and intended to start a farm and raise some cattle on his new mission in Grande Portage, these scoundrels thought he was doing it for speculation, which would be detrimental to them. They want the Indians to remain uncivilized and poor and to keep them in slavery so they can cheat them longer. Therefore these people tried to frustrate his mission and they began to persecute him in every possible way. They poisoned his cow, which he bought with borrowed money, right on the first night and the little calf is also sick. He paid his board to Mr. Cote, so that he would not owe anything to the Company. He even gave his watch away. He started his own household with a hired man. Two pounds of butter, two pounds of bacon and a little four are his whole winter supply, more he could not afford to buy. The poor Indians, who themselves are in danger of starvation, gave him a few fishes so he would be able to barely exist through the winter and work for his beloved Indians. The Bishop had given him the written assurance of giving the mission in Sault Ste. Marie $200 a year through Father Baraga and had promised him orally $200 for the mission in Grande Portage. However, he cannot live on empty promises. Neither for Sault Ste. Marie nor for Grand Portage did he receive any support. He did not even receive an answer to his many letters and his reports about the missions. When he lost all his belongings he entreated the Bishop to send him the most necessary mission requisites but he received no answer. He wrote to his friends in Europe to send him the things indispensable for his mission but those gangsters of the Company would not send the letters away. He had to tell his Indians that he could not start a mission and could not give them a new livelihood on the new farm and many of them had to go away to earn a living somewhere else. As he is persecuted by the American Fur Company, left destitute by the Bishop, ans weighed down by poverty, he cannot do his work as a missionary. Therefore he intends to leave the service of the Bishop in the Spring. However, he still hopes that the Bishop will keep his word and send him the rest of the promised money, also the necessary money for the church in Sault Ste. Marie and some money for his other mission expenses which he is not obliged to pay from his own money. He should send that amount with the first ship to Mr. John Ord, government agent of Sault Ste. Marie in the Spring either by walking over the ice or by using an Indian canoe after the ice has melted, to hear the Easter confessions, if another priest does not arrive there before him. :: III-2-g A.L.S. German 4pp. 8vo.