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ment, when the twelve warriors, seizing each a piece of the robe, took me up, and headed by their chief, carried me in triumph to their village. In the lodge of the great chief the most conspicuous place was assigned me, and he addressed me thus: This day is the happiest day of my life. For the first time do we behold among us a man who is so closely united with the Great Spirit. Blackgown, you see before you the chief warriors of my tribe; I have invited them to this feast, in order that they may keep the remembrance of your coming among us as long as they live.' Then he invited me to speak again to the Great Spirit (to say grace). I began in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, etc., and immediately all present lifted up their hands towards heaven; when I had concluded they all struck the ground. I asked the chief what they meant by this ceremony. 'When we lift up our hands,' said he, we signify that all our dependence is on the Great Spirit, and that he in his fatherly care provides for all our wants; we strike the ground to signify that we are only worms and miserable creeping beings in his sight.' He asked me in his turn, what I had told the Great Spirit. Unhappily the Canadian was a poor interpreter, still I endeavored to make them understand, as well as I could, the Lord's Prayer. The chief showed great eagerness to know what I said. He ordered his son and two other intelligent young men to accompany me to the fort, in order to learn the principles of the Christian doctrine, and to be at the same time a safeguard against the Indians that might be inimically disposed towards us.

"Two days afterwards we met an Indian, whose horse was bending under a load of buffalo meat. Seeing us without provisions, he requested us to accept what might be of benefit to us, advising us to take the whole, for, said he, in the vicinity of the fort, game is very scarce.

"Five days afterwards we arrived at Fort Pierre. Thence I traveled through prairies for nineteen days successively. We were often obliged to cook our meals with dried herbs;

not a stick was to be found. When I arrived at Fort Vermillion, I was apprised that the Santees had been on a warlike expedition against the Pottawattomies, of the Council Bluffs, among whom I had labored the two preceding years. I invited them to a council, and gave them a severe reprimand for violating the solemn promise which they had made the year before to me, of living with their neighbors on amicable terms. I showed them the injustice of attacking a peaceable nation without being provoked; the dreadful consequence of the Pottawattomies' revenge, that might end in extinction of their tribe. I was requested to be once more the mediator, and they told me that they had resolved to bury the tomahawk forever. I had lost two horses on the road; the one I was riding could hardly support me any longer, and I was yet three hundred miles distant from Council Bluffs. I resolved of course to embark on the Missouri, and engaged a native Iroquois to be my pilot. At first we were favored with fine weather, but this lasted only a few days. Very soon inclement weather set in with frost and snow; and several times as we drifted down the rapid stream, our frail canoe was on the point of being dashed to pieces against the numberless snags that obstruct the navigation. This dangerous trip lasted ten days. We generally spent the night on a sandbar. We had only a few frozen potatoes left when we perceived a beautiful deer gazing at us, and apparently waiting to receive its mortal blow. We shot at it. At last we arrived safe at the Bluffs, and on the same day the river was closed by ice.

"So many escapes from the midst of so many dangers thoroughly convinced me that this undertaking is the work of God, who reached from end to end mightily, and ordered all things sweetly. I am now preparing for my return, and will start early in the spring, accompanied by three Fathers and as many Brothers. You are aware such expeditions cannot be undertaken without the necessary means, and the fact is, I have no other reliance but providence and the kindness of friends. I hope they will not be

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wanting. I know that you must feel deeply interested in this meritorious good work, I therefore take the liberty of recommending it to your generosity, and that of your friends; every little contribution will help. I will be very graceful to you, if you have the kindness to forward to my address at St. Louis University, Mo., before the end of March, or middle of April, the amount you have collected. I recommend myself and my dear neophytes to your good prayers and holy sacrifices, and rest assured that we shall not forget our benefactors.

P. J. DESMET.”

CHAPTER II.

FATHER DE SMET AGAIN AMONG THE SIOUX.

In the spring of 1841 Father DeSmet again set out with Father Nicolaus Point, a Vendean, Father Gregory Mengarini, a Roman, and three lay brothers, all expert mechanics. Leaving Westport on the last day of April, they passed the friendly Kansas, who still remembered the visits of La Croix, the Cheyennes, the treacherous Banacs on the Platte, then the less reliable Pawnees, and at last on the 15th of August, met at Fort Hall the Flathead escort, who had come eight hundred miles to join the missionaries. Father DeSmet went on to Oregon and traveled among the Flatheads, Coeurs d'Alenes, Kalispels, Koetenays, NezPerces or Pierced Noses, Shuyelpis, Okoetenays and other Indian tribes, to whom he preached the Gospel and baptized 1654 of them.

He returned to St. Louis after spending one year among these Indians and gave an account of his work. His Provincial directed him to Europe to make further Provisions for the conversion of the Indian tribes and their civilization. In Europe DeSmet excited the greatest enthusiasm in behalf of his work.

Having obtained considerable relief, he on the 12th of December, 1843, sailed from Antwerp with Fathers Vercruysse, Accolti, Ravalli, Nobili, a lay brother and six sisters of the Congregation of our Lady, and after a long and dangerous voyage, arrived at Fort Vancouver, on the 15th of August, 1844. He remained among the Indians till 1847, and on his return from the Rocky Mountains took a road which led him through the Southern Hills, following the Fort Laramie and White River trail.

In the spring of 1848 he again set out for his distant mission and took a road which led him through the Black Hills.

The country between the Missouri and the Black Hills, taking the route along the northern boundary line of Nebraska, is described by Father DeSmet in a letter to the members of the Central Councils of Lyons and Paris, France.

"GENTLEMEN:

"UNIVERSITY OF ST. LOUIS, June 1, 1849.

"A transient visit to some tribes of the Sioux, on the Upper Missouri, on my way back from the Rocky Mountains, left in me an ardent desire to see those poor Indians again. I was anxious to judge more maturely of their disposition, and ascertain with greater certainty what hopes might be entertained from the establishment of a mission among them. During the course of last summer, my superiors granted me this truly consoling privilege. In order to reach their villages, I was obliged to ascend the Missouri as far as Bellevue (a village situated in the territory of the Ottos, 610 miles from St. Louis) and then pursue my journey on horseback, over immense prairies, for about twentyfive days.

"An excursion through the magnificent' plains of the Great American Desert, and, above all, in the vicinity of this noble river, which descends in innumerable torrents from the Rocky Mountains, offers undoubtedly many charms, and might afford material for description replete with interest; but it would be a theme on which I had predecessors,

and, moreover, it would be giving the letters which I have the honor to address to you an extent quite beyond what I dare assume.

"I will content myself with a sketch by M. Nicollet, my own experience enabling me to appreciate the exact fidelity of his picture: Consider the boundless extent of a prairiescan one by one its undulations, and, borne as it were from wave to wave, from valley to hill-top, find yourself in presence of the limitless plain which is spread out before you; journey onward hours, days, and weeks will succeed each other, and emotions of ever-varying delight will captivate the mind, while the spectacle of inexhaustible wealth and new beauties will fascinate the eye. Without doubt there will be moments in which the ardors of a burning sun, and the privation of pure water capable of allaying thirst, will force you to remember that the best of earthly joys have their hidden thorns; but these trials are rare and brief. A gentle breeze almost continually refreshes the atmosphere in these vast plains, and the surface is so uniform as to baffle a surprise for the most crafty enemy. The route is one field of verdure, enameled with odoriferous wild flowers, whose brilliant beauty has no witness but the azure firmament. It is particularly during summer that the aspect of the prairie breathes gayety, grace, and life, and if there be any one moment in which they may excite all the sympathies of the traveler, it is when an Indian hunter, in pursuit of the deer or bison, animates this immense solitude with his presence and motions. I pity the man whose heart remains unaffected before so ravishing a spectacle.'

"My land journey commenced at Bellevue, nine miles beyond the Nebraska or Platte river, thence to the mouth of the Niobrara or Eau-qui-court, ten days' march. We met not a single Indian, and no vestige of human habitation greeted the eye. But ever and anon we distinguished small artificial mounds erected by the hand of man; irregular heaps of stones, and tombs containing the mortal remains of Indians, carefully wrapped up in buffalo robes.

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