David takes the liberty of sending to Bruté some dispatches for Europe which are very numerous because there are so many Europeans there. He sends them with one of their merchants, Mr. Shadburn, who is not a Catholic but married to one. He knows nothing new except that he has been ill and kept to his room for three or four days. There is no news from the Bishops who have taken the steamboat from Louisville to St. Louis. They do not know if the ice has hindered them or how the Bishop and Father Stephen Theodore Badin will return. Everything goes as usual. The new students learn English. Their expenses are very great. The cathedral is not yet covered because of the illness of the man who was to take care of the rafters. Among the letters he has sent Bruté is one to Cardinal Litta concerning his nomination to the coadjutorship written at the suggestion of the two Bishops Benedict Joseph Flaget of Bardstown and Louis William DuBourg of Louisiana. He wants to refuse the bulls of appointment but Flaget says this is the work of Providence and that David cannot refuse them. He exposes the situation to the Cardinal in all candor and confidence. His great sorrow is his loss of liberty that when he would be replaced he could retire and prepare for death, whereas a bishop is a slave. He expresses his feelings under such circumstances and begs Bruté's prayers. :: II-3-n A.L.S. French 2pp. 4to. and folio, 5