white population might be even advantageously comprehended within the scope of their aims.

After the Ladies of the Sacred Heart had arranged to commence an academy in St. Louis, where they first went to reside on May 2d, 1827, a desire was generally expressed among the people of the city and throughout the State of Missouri, that the Jesuit Fathers should likewise start a college in St. Louis for the education of young men. Many urged, that the Fathers should not confine their efforts for the welfare of religion and sound education to the Indians, for whom little genuine and enduring good was at all likely to be effected. Bishop Rosati also concurred in this view of the matter and insisted on the expediency of their beginning a college in St. Louis, where he assured them an institution of the kind was much needed and, moreover, the undertaking was sure to prove successful.

These various considerations definitely and finally determined the Jesuit Fathers in 1828, to open a college in St. Louis as soon as the necessary preparations for such a work could be completed. The beneficent gentleman, John Mullanphy, who had donated twenty-five acres of land in the southern limits of St. Louis to the Ladies of the Sacred Heart for an academy, to which he annexed the condition, that they should support perpetually twenty orphan girls, made also an offer of desirable property in St. Louis to Father Van Quickenborne for a college and the proposed gift was coupled with a like condition, but Father Van Quickenborne was not willing to receive property, even as a donation, that was subject to any condition which would bind his successors in office, and which it might afterwards become difficult or odious to fulfill in a college, designed for the higher education.

The Bishop of the diocese made over to the Jesuit Fathers a lot on Ninth street and Christy avenue, which had been given by Jeremiah Conners, then deceased, towards founding a college in St. Louis. The remaining portion of the square west of Ninth street, bounded by Washington

avenue and Christy avenue together with about two-thirds of the next square immediately west, between Tenth and Eleventh streets, was subsequently purchased for the college; the entire premises having a front on Washington avenue of four hundred and seventy-five feet.

The only impediment to their beginning the proposed college in St. Louis at this time was the smallness of their number, for in the year 1828 there were belonging to the Jesuit Mission of Missouri only eight priests and six lay brothers, of whom three were novices. Two of the priests were then residing in St. Charles and the services of the remaining ones were needed for the seminary near Florissant, at the congregation in the village with its annexed stations and for missionary excursions to the Indian tribes, for whose spiritual welfare they were very desirous to provide, since it was principally with a view to such employment they had come to the West.

But despite all discouraging circumstances and difficulties in the way of their new undertaking to promote the interests of education, they finally determined to begin the erection of a building for the college. The foundation was commenced in the autumn of 1828 of a building fifty feet in length by forty feet in width and three stories high besides a basement and attic; it pointed south towards the public road leading out of the town to St. Charles. The site of the college was then surrounded by weedy ponds, groups of sorry oak and suburban farms, the city at that time scarcely extending beyond Third street, the "Rue des Granges" or the Barn street of primitive days. During the session of the "Indian Seminary" near Florissant, 1829-29, there were about fifteen white boys, sons of respectable parents in St. Louis, and some from other localities, who were placed there to be educated. The register of the St. Louis University includes the names of the students who entered the seminary at Florissant, as they were transferred to the college in St. Louis, when it. was ready for the reception of students in 1829. The first name was recorded June 12, 1828, and it was "Charles P.

Chouteau, aged eight years." The records begun at the "Indian Seminary" also contain the names of Francis Cabannee, Julius Cabannee, Du Thil Cabannee, Johan Shannon, William Bolivin, Bryan Mullanphy, Francis Hosseron, Julius Chack, Howard Christy, Alexander La Force Papin, Edmond Paul Chouteau, Thomas Forsythe and Paul A. F. DuBouffay. The building was completed sufficient for use and all preparations were perfected in time to organize classes in the new college on Monday, November 2d, 1829, P. J. DeSmet being appointed Professor.

In the year 1832 it had become necessary for Rev. P. J. DeSmet, on account of protracted ill-health, to withdraw from the Jesuit mission of Missouri and return to his native land, Belgium, for change of air. After reaching his friends and the scene of his youth in Brabant, and East Flanders, he was mindful of his former companions in America; he procured many valuable instruments for the department of physics in the St. Louis University, as also many volumes for the library, and sent them as a donation. They were received on March 7, 1835. Although it was not his expectation when leaving for Europe, ever to see the United States again, yet his health having been completely restored, he returned to Missouri in 1837 and, as is well known, made St. Louis his home during the entire remainder of his extraordinary life. While he was absent in Europe and after his donations were received, the trustees of the University entered on their records the following honorable tribute to him as a benefactor:

"Whereas, the Board and Faculty of the St. Louis University are highly indebted to the liberality and exertions of the Rev. P. J. DeSmet for the splendid apparatus of physical and chemical instruments received at the University on the 7th of March, 1834.

"Resolved, That besides the special thanks already tendered by the board and faculty of the St. Louis University to said Rev. P. J. DeSmet on receipt of the above mentioned apparatus of physical and chemical instruments, the regis

ter of the contributions to the Museum of the St. Louis University be opened with a copy of this resolution and his name be placed at the head of the list of contributors to the Museum.

“ P. J. VERHEAGEN.

"JAMES VAN DE VILDE, Secretary.

"St. Louis University, Sept. 5, 1836.”

Father DeSmet's donation included also a collection of minerals, classified according to the system of Dr. Hany," as mentioned in the list of contributions. The date of their arrival at St. Louis was not in 1834, but 1835, and they were brought over to America along with the above mentioned instruments by Messrs. M. Oakely and P. Verheagen, who arrived in 1835.

On the 2d of May, 1836, he, in company with Father Verheagen, Eisvogels, Verreydt; Brother Mazzelli and Chaessens set out for the Indian Territory, then embracing the present State of Kansas, Nebraska, those parts of North and South Dakota lying west of the Missouri. Father Verhaegen had made arrangements with the Secretary of War at Washington as to the establishment of an Indian mission among the Pottawotamies, and having succeeded the party reached the present site of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and began their mission among the Indians there. A little chapel in honor of St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, twenty-four feet square, surmounted by a modest steeple, soon rose in the wilderness, and beside it a log house for the missionaries. Their field offered a life of crosses, privations, and patience, yet relying on divine grace and the prayers of their brethren, they boldly began their work. The result of the first four months was indeed consoling; many of the Indians showed a great desire for instruction. The missionaries opened a school; their log hut could hold but thirty pupils; it was soon crowded to overflowing. The Indians who left the schools of other

missionaries silent, solitary and empty, crowded the log school of the Jesuit to hear the instruction given twice a

day to those who wished for baptism.

One hundred and

eighty were baptized during the first three months, and even the sick were carried for miles to be enrolled in the flock of the great blackgown. In a letter written in the summer of 1838 (July) to the Lady Superioress of a religious institution of his native place, Father DeSmet says: "I received your letter of March the 13th. All your letters give me great pleasure and much consolation. I do not forget my native place. Continue therefore to send to me the most minute details. You no doubt expect a little recital from the depths of our wilderness. Well, I will exhibit to you the light and the shade. First I must tell you the great loss that we experienced toward the end of April. Our Superior sent us from St. Louis, goods to the amount of $500, in ornaments for the church, and provisions and clothing for a year. For a long time I had been without shoes, and from Easter we were destitute of supplies. All the Pottawottamie nation were suffering from scarcity, having only acorns and a few wild roots for their whole stock of food. At last, about the 20th of April, they announced to us that the much desired boat was approaching. Already we saw it from the highest of our hills. I procured without delay two carts to go in search of our baggage. I reached there in time to witness a very sad sight. The vessel had struck on a sawyer, was pierced and rapidly sinking in the waves. No lives were lost. Of our effects four articles were saved, a plow, a saw, a pair of boots and some wine. Providence was still favorable to us. With the help of the plow, we

were enabled to plant a large field of corn. It was the season for furrowing. 'We are using the saw to enlarge our church, already too small, and build a better house. With my boots I can walk in the woods and prairies without being bitten by the serpents that throng there. And the wine permits us to offer to God every day the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass a privilege that had been denied us for a long time. We, therefore, returned with courage and resignation to the acorns and roots until the 30th of May.