CHAPTER VI.

FATHER P. J. DE SMET, S. J.--HIS FIRST JOURNEY TO THE
ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

The priest whom Providence had destined for the new field was no other than Peter De Smet, S. J., now about to enter a career of world-wide fame as the apostle of the Northwest.

Termonde, a prosperous, neat little town of East Flanders, Belgium, and situated at the confluence of the Sheld and Dender, gave birth to the future missionary of the Rocky Mountains, January 31, 1801. At an early age he entered the Society of Jesus, and afterward crossed the Atlantic, desirous of service on the American Missions. Seemingly poor health not long after brought him back to his native country, whence, however, he returned to the United States in 1837.

In 1837 our American Bishops assembled in the First Plenary Council of Baltimore, confided the spiritual care of the Indians to the Society of Jesus, and Father De Smet, one year after his return to America, was detailed by the Superiors to open a mission among the Potowatamies in Kansas. He was planning to extend his missionary work further, when our two brave Iroquois, Peter Gaucher and Young Ignace, arrived from the Flat Head County, to please anew the cause of their brethren in the Rocky Mountains.

Fixed with zeal for souls and moved by the faith, constancy and earnestness of these children of the forest, Father De Smet felt drawn toward them, and resolved to do all in his power in their behalf, by offering himself to his Superiors to labor among them. On the matter being discussed, it seemed preferable that two Fathers should be sent, but sufficient means to the amount of $1,000 even by loan, could not be raised to defray the expenses of the expedition. It was therefore decided that Father De Smet should go with a confrére.

As soon as spring opened, Father De Smet set out on his

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long journey with Young Ignace, who had remained behind to be his guide, while Peter Gaucher, as may be inferred from Bishop Rosati's letter, had started for home in the latter part of October to bring the good tidings to the nation. The Father left St. Louis, March 27, going by boat to Westport, now Kansas City, where he joined the annual expedition of the American Fur Company. With a party numbering about thirty he left Westport April 30, going thence to a point on Green River where was at the time the rendezvous for all western travelers.

About the time that Father De Smet was leaving St. Louis, Peter Gaucher appeared most unexpectedly in the Flat Head Camp on Eight Mill Creek in the Bitter Root Valley, bringing the news that Black Robe was surely coming, led by Young Ignace. Peter's journey home from St. Louis at that season may be considered indeed a very remarkable feat. Death had stared him in the face from cold and starvation. The announcement that the priest was coming brought joy to the whole tribe, and the chief at once detailed ten of his warriors to go ahead and meet the man of God and escort him into their camp, while he would follow on with the rest of his people.

The Westport caravan arrived at Green River on June 30, and here a most delightful surprise was in store for Father De Smet. The Flat Head warriors, send ahead to meet him, had reached the spot sometime before and were waiting for him. On the following Sunday, July 5, he celebrated Mass before a motley, yet respectful crowd of Indians and whites, the latter being mostly fur traders, hunters and trappers. The altar was erected on a little elevation and decorated with boughs and garlands of wild flowers. The temple, the most magnificent of God's own making, had for vault the azure sky, and for floor the boundless expanse of the Wilderness. The spot, from that time on, became known to both Indians and Whites as "The Prairie of the Mass."

Bidding adieu to his traveling companions of the plains, the next day Father De Smet, with his escort, started toward the head waters of the Snake river, and some eight days' journey through mountain defiles brought him to the main body of the Flat Heads. They were encamped in Pierre Hole Valley, on the line that separates Idaho from Wyoming south of Pleasant

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Valley, having come so far from their home, some 800 miles to meet the missionary. They had been joined at the start and on the road by detached bands of other tribes, Nez Percés, Pend d'Oreilles and Kalispels, numbering, all told, some 1,600 souls, and had already set up in their midst a lodge for the missionary.

Upon the Father's arrival in the camp there was the most lively demonstration of joy, in which all, men and women and children, took part. "Immediately the whole village was in commotion," wrote Father De Smet to his friend, Father Barbelin, "men, women and children all came to meet me and shake hands, and I was conducted in triumph to the lodge of the great chief who had the appearance of a patriarch." Surrounded by the leading men and principal warriors of the nation, the great chief, whose name was the "Big Face," addressed Father De Smet as follows:

This day the Great Spirit has accomplished our wishes and our hearts are swelled with joy. Our desire to be instructed was so great that three times we had deputed our people to the great Black Robe in St. Louis to obtain priests. Now, Father, speak and we will comply with all that you will tell us. Show us the way we have to go to the home of the Great Spirit.

Then, says Father De Smet, "he resigned his authority to me; but I replied that he mistook the object of my coming among them; that I had no object in view but the salvation of their souls, and that they were to remain as they were, until circumstances should allow them to settle in a permanent spot."

After having settled on the hours proper for prayers and instructions, one of the chiefs brought Father De Smet a little bell, with which he was to give the sign to call them together. "The same evening," continues Father De Smet, "about two thousand persons were assembled before my lodge, to recite might prays in common. The prayers having been said, a solemn canticle of praise, of their own composition, was sung by these children of the mountains to the Author of their being. It would be impossible for me," he adds, "to describe the emotions I felt at this moment. I wept for joy and admired the wonderful ways of that kind providence which in His infinite mercy had deigned to send me to these poor people, to announce to them the glad tidings of salvation."

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With marvelous eagerness, the whole tribe set about learning their religious duties. "The great chief," writes Father De Smet, "was first up in the morning at the dawn of day, and mounted on his horse, would ride through the camp to arouse his people, crying out to them; 'Come, courage my children; open your eyes. Address your first thoughts and words to the Great Spirit. Tell Him that you love Him and ask Him to have pity on you. Courage, for the sun is about to appear; it is time that you went to the river to wash yourselves. Be prompt at your Gather's lodge at the first sound of the bell; be quiet when you are there; open your ears to hear and your hearts to hold fast all the words that he says to you.'"

A few days after the whole camp was on the move along Henry's Fork, of the Snake River, to Henry's Lake, which is its source. Here Father De Smet, on July 23, ascended one of the peaks, rising from the top of the main range, and, with a pocket knife, engraved on the soft stone the following inscription:

SANCTUS IGNATIUS PATRONUS MONTIUM--die 23 Julii 1840.

And here also, his soul, overflowing with emotion at the inspiration solemnity and grandeur of the scene before him, broke forth in the following rhyme, which is transcribed from his diary:

"Salut Roche Majestueuse!
Futur asile de bonheur,
Des ses tresors le Divin Coeur
T'ouvre aujourd 'hui la source hereuse."

This may be rendered:

"Ye Rockies hail! Majestic Mounts!
Of future bliss the favored shrine.
For you God's Heart Divine
Opens this day its precious founts."

Moving thence a short distance, they crossed what is now the Idaho line and camped in Montana; first, at the head-waters of the Beaverhead River, not far from Red Rock Lake, ;then, along the banks of the same river and in the Big Hole Basin; finally, on Jefferson Island, at the lower end of the Boulder Valley, near

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the three forks of the Missouri. Thus on the banks of the Beaverhead-Jefferson River, Christianity was first preached and the hold Sacrifice of the Mass was first celebrated in Montana.

Begun on the very day of his arrival, Father De Smet's missionary work among those good Indians continued unabated to the moment of his departure. What his labors were, as well as the earnestness of his pupils to profit by them, may be gathered from the following letter, which he wrote from his last camping place near the three forks of the Missouri. It was addressed to the Very Rev. F. N. Blanchet, V. G., (afterwards first Archbishop of Portland, Oregon), and ran as follows:

Very Reverend Sir:

Your reverence will be glad to learn that Mgr. Rosati, Bishop of St. Louis, in concert with my provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in Missouri and in compliance with the desire often repeated of the Flat Heads, Pend d'Oreilles, and a great number of Nez Percés, has sent me to the Rocky Mountains to visit these missions. I have found the first two in the best desirable disposition, well resolved to stand by the true children of Jesus Christ. The few weeks I had the happiness to pass among them have been the happiest of my life and five me firm hope, with the grace of God, to see soon in this country, so long forsaken, the fervor of the first Christians. Since I am among them, I have three, four and five instructions daily. They cannot be tired, all come to my lodge at the first ringing of the bell. They are anxious to lose none of my words relating to these instructions on these heavenly subjects, and if I had the strength to speak to them they would listen to me whole days and nights. I have baptized about two hundred of their little children and I expect to baptize in a short time one hundred and fifty adults.

The Very Rev. F. N. Blanchet had crossed the rocky Mountain two years before and was devoting himself at this time to the spiritual welfare of the French Canadian and the Indians on the banks of the Willamette and along the Columbia.

Father De Smet's letter was sent through Indians and Hudson Bay company men to Colville, and thence brought to St. Paul, Oregon, and handed to the Very Rev. F. N. Blanchet by his missionary companion, the Rev. Modest Demers, afterward first Bishop of Vancouver, Island.

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From all he saw of those dusky children of the forest, Father De Smet became convinced that there was here a field of real promise. Hence his intention of hastening back to St. Louis, to urge the establishment of a permanent mission among the Flat heads. He laid open his mind to the tribe, who felt greatly pleased to the proposal; and the assurance that he would return in the spring with other Black Robes to stay among them tempered their grief for his departure. Upon this he bade a hearty farewell to all of his neophytes and set out on his homeward journey.

Father De Smet had picked up or the rendezvous on Green river a good Fleming form Ghent, John Baptiste de Velder, an old grenadier of Napoleon, who had left his native country at the age of thirty, and had passed the last fourteen years in the wilds of the Rockies in the capacity of beaver hunter. He had almost forgotten the Flemish language, says Father De Smet, excepting his prayers and a song which he had learned at his mother's knees and which he repeated every day. This man stayed by the Father during the journey to St. Louis, being at times his only companion.

From the Gallatin Valley, where he parted with the main body of the Flat Heads, on August 27, Father De Smet and his companion, de Velder, crossed over the Yellowstone country, being escorted for a considerable distance by a number of Flat Head warriors. Our travelers' course lay through the land of the Crows, Blackfeet, Gros Ventres, Assiniboines, and the Sioux. Passing safely an Assiniboine party, they fell in with a fierce band of Blackfeet, who are once surrounded them. The long black gown of the missionary, the crucifix, which glittered on his bosom whenever he journeyed in the Indian country, arrested the eyes of the Blackfeet chief. "Who art thou?" asked he. "He is a Black Robe," said the Father's companion, who had some knowledge of the language. "He is the man who speaks to the Great Spirit.' In a moment all was changed. Invited to eat

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with the missionary, the chief showed still greater respect when he saw him address the Great spirit before the frugal meal. This ended, twelve Indians stretched a buffalo robe before the Father, with motions indicating their wish that he should be seated upon it. Supposing it was intended for a mat, he did so; but they raised it aloft, and so bore him in triumph to their village. There, too, he was treated with every honor. "It is the happiest day of my life," said the chief. "It is the first time that we see among us the Black Robe, the man who speaks to the Great Spirit. These are the braves of my tribe; and I have brought thee here that the remembrances of thy presence may be forever engraved on their memories."

The missionary and his companion directed their course toward Fort Union on the Missouri, a little above the mouth of the Yellowstone. Here they rested a few days, resuming their journey on September 23, toward Fort Clark, where they made a short stop. Having reached Forts Pierrre and Vermillion, they took a canoe, under the guidance of an Iroquois half-breed, who landed them safe at St. Joseph Mission or Council Bluffs, on November 24. The river closed with ice the next day, and Father De Smet made the rest of the journey by land, arriving at St. Louis among his brethren on the last day of the year.