84 



BIBLIOGKAPHY OF THE 



Sinet (P. J. de) — Coutinued. 



G.ind, impr. &, litla. de V. Vandcr 

 Scbeldeu, | ^ditenr. [1848.] 



2 p. 11. pp.i-ix, 9-389, map, 16^.— Tal)lo com- 

 parative, &c. pp. 373-377, iucliidos a few words 

 of Chickasab and Muskobgee. 



Copies seen : Bancroft, Cougress, Shea. 



The edition in English : Oregon Missions, 

 New York, 1847, 16°, does not iucliulo these 

 linguistics. 



Field's Essay, No. 1425, titles an edition in 

 French : Paris, 1848, 12°. At the Field sale, 

 a copy, Xo. 2158, brought $3.25. 



Peter John Do Smet, missionary, born in Ter- 

 monde, Belgium, December 31, 1801 ; died in 

 St. Louis, Mo., in May, 1S72. He studied in 

 the Episcopal Seminary of Mechlin, and while 

 there he felt called to devote himself to the 

 conversion of the ludi.iug. When Bishop 

 Nerinx visited Belgium in search of missiona- 

 ries, Do Smet, with five other students, volun- 

 teered to accompany him. The Government 

 gave orders to stop them, but they escaped the 

 officers and sailed from Ainsterdam in 1821. Af- 

 ter a short stay in Philadelphia, De Smet entered 

 the .Jesuit novitiate at \yhitemarsh, Md. Here 

 be took the Jesuit habit, but after two years the 

 house was dissolved, and be was about to re- 

 turn to Belgium when be was invited by Bishop 

 Dubourg to Florissant, where be completed his 

 education and took bis vows. In 1828 he went 

 to St. Louis and took part in establishing the 

 University of St. Louis, in which he was after- 

 ward professor. In 1838 he was sent to estab- 

 lish a mission among the Pottawattamios on 

 Sugar Creek. lie built a chapel, and beside it 

 the log huts of himself, Father Verreydt, and 

 a lay brother. lie erected a school, which was 

 800U crowded with pupils, and in a short time 

 converted most of the tribe. In 1840 be begged 

 the bishop of St. Louis to permit him to labor 

 among the Flatbeads of the Rocky Mountains. 

 When it was represented to him that there was 

 no money for sueb an expedition, he said that 

 sutficient means would assuredly come from 

 Europe, and set out on April 30, 1810, from West- 

 port with the annual caravan of the American 

 fur company, whose destiuation was Green 

 River. Ho arrived on July 14 in the camp of 

 Peter Valley, where about l.COO Indians had 

 assembled to meet him. They had retained tra- 

 ditions of the French missionaries of two cen- 

 turies before, and De Smet found it easy to con 

 vert them. With the aid of an interpreter ho 

 (rauislated the Lord's ijrayer, the Creed, and 

 the Commandments into their language, and in 

 a fortnight all the Flatbeads know these prayers 

 and commandments, which were afterward ex- 

 plained to them. During bis journey back to 

 St. Louis he was on several occasions sur- 

 rounded by war parties of the Blackfeet, but as 

 soon as they recognized his black gown and cru- 

 cifix they .showed the greatest veneration for 

 him. lie thus laid the foundation of the ex- 

 traordinary iuUucnco that he afterward excr- 



Smet (P. J. do) — Coiitimiod. 



cised over the Indians. In the spring of 1841 

 be set out again with two other missionaries 

 and three lay brothers, all expert mechanics, 

 and after passing through several tribes cro.ssed 

 the Platte and met at Fort Hall a body of Flat- 

 heads who bad come 800 miles to escort the 

 missionaries. On September 24 the party 

 reached Bitterroot Eiver, where it was decided 

 to form a permanent settlement. A plan for a 

 mission village was drawn up, a cross planted, 

 and the mission of St. Mary's begun. The lay 

 brothers built a church and residence, while De 

 Smet went to Colville to obtain provisions. On 

 bis return the Blackfeet wariior.s went on the 

 winter chase, and be remained in the village 

 familiarizing himself with the language, into 

 which he translated the catechism. He then re- 

 solved to visit Fort Vancouver, hoping to find 

 there the supplies necessary to make St. Mary's 

 a fixed mission. On bis way he visited several 

 tribes and taught them the ordinary prayers 

 and rudiments of religion. After a narrow es- 

 cape from drowning in Columbia Kiver be 

 reached Fort Vancouver, but was deceived in 

 his hope of finding supplies, and on his return 

 to St. Mary's be resolved to cross the wilder- 

 ness again to St. Louis. There he laid the 

 condition of bis mission before his superiors, 

 who directed him to go to Europe and appeal 

 for aid to the people of Belgium and France. 

 He excited great enthusiasm for his work in 

 those countries, several priests of bis order 

 asked permission to join him, and the sisters of 

 the Congregation of Our Lady volunteered to 

 undertake the instruction of the Flathead cbil 

 dren. He sailed from Antwerp in December, 

 1843, with five Jesuits and six sisters, and 

 reached Fort Vancouver in August, 1844. Ho 

 was offered land on the Willamette River for a 

 central mission and at once beg.'in to clear 

 ground and erect bnildings. The work ad- 

 vanced so rapidly that in October the sisters, 

 who bad already begun their school in the ojieu 

 air, were able to enter their convent. In 1845 

 be began a series of missions among the Zingo- 

 mencs, Sinpoils, Okenaganes, Flatbows, and 

 Koetenays, which extended to the watershed 

 of the Saskatchewan and Columbia, the camps 

 of the wandering Assiniboins and Creeks, and 

 the stations of Fort St. Anno and Bourassa. Ho 

 visited Europe several times in search of aid 

 for bis mis.sions. Indeed ho calculated that his 

 iourneya up to 1853, by land and watei, must 

 have been more than five times the circumfer- 

 ence of the earth. The ability and influence of 

 Father De Smet were cordially acknowledged 

 by the government of the United States, and 

 his aid was often sought in preventing Indian 

 wars. Thus, he put an eiul to the Sioux war, 

 .and in Oregon be induced the Yahamas and 

 other tribes under Kamiakim to cease hostili- 

 ties. He was chaplain in the expedition to 

 Utah, and opened new missions among the 

 tribes in that Territory. During his last visit 



