DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO 61
time, but, as has not been infrequent with children of mixed blood, his sons were not successful in life and in assisting them his property was dissipated. His last years were spent in con- ditions of poverty as abject as those of his childhood and much harder to bear. He died at the advanced age of eighty-seven, by the public unrecognized and forgotten.
The body of David Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abby in London with high honors and his tablet is visited by thousands, but the body of David Thompson lies in an un- marked grave in the Mount Royal cemetery at Montreal. Both were devout men and beloved by those in their employ or inti- mate association. David Livingstone was a missionary of the cross and died among the people he went to serve and we would not diminish in the least the honors due to his name. David Thompson lived the principles of his faith in God amid the debaucheries of liquor in the fur trade as practiced by a large number of those engaged in it. His scientific contributions to our knowledge of the unexplored lands of North America entitle him to honor as one of the greatest land geographers if not the greatest the English race has ever produced.
A conclusion appropriate to the title of this address is found in the brief journal entry of David Thompson when at Kullyspell House on Sunday, April 22nd, 1810: "A fine Easter 13 Sunday, rested all day."
13 The first known observance of Easter in Idaho.
