BOOK III. CHAPTER I. FATHER DE SMET. Brave pious heart, and loving too as brave, I owe thee much, and yet I cannot pay, Upon a hundred thousand heads, embrowned May they once more their Blackrobe, whiterobed see, On September 24th, 1815, Right Reverend William Louis Dubourg was consecrated Bishop of Upper and Lower Louisiana. (The former including the Black Hills.) On account of the troubled times, he decided not to reside in New Orleans, his See City, but to make St. Louis his home. So soon as he became acquainted with the general condition of his extensive diocese, he requested Father Anthony Kohlman, at that time Provincial of the Jesuits in Maryland, to send some Fathers of the society to establish a college in his diocese and take spiritual charge of the Indian tribes that still lingered in Missouri. Owing to the circumstance that there were not more members of the society in Maryland at that period than were strictly required to fulfill obligations which had been previously assumed, Father Kohlman was not then able to comply with the Bishop's zealous wish for help. Early in the year 1823, Bishop Dubourg went to Washington City for the purpose of consulting President Monroe and the Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, on the subject of devising means for educating children of the Indian tribes within his diocese. He was kindly received by these courteous officials, and during his interview with them, Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary of War, suggested the expediency of inviting the Jesuits of Georgetown to furnish members of their order to assist in that work. The Bishop at once laid this proposition before Rev. Charles Neale, who had recently succeeded Rev. Anthony Kohlman in the office of Provincial. The Bishop offered to donate a fertile farm near the Missouri river in a northwestern direction from St. Louis and at a distance of seventeen miles from that town, and make over to them his own church and residence in St. Louis. Father Neale believed it might be possible for him to promptly accept the former offer, with the view of getting up a school, but priests could not be spared over and above to take charge of the church in St. Louis. The Bishop's kind offer was made at an opportune time for the Jesuits of Maryland to spare a number of their younger members, as the sequel will show. In the year 1820, Rev. Charles Nerinckx went to Europe on business connected with his missions in Kentucky, and when he returned to the United States in 1821, he was accompanied by a number of young men, most of whom were natives of Belgium, who came to America with the intention of devoting their lives to priestly and missionary employments. Among them were F. J. Van Assche, P. J. DeSmet, P. J. Verheagen, J. A. Elet, F. L. Verreydt and J. B. Smedts from Belgium, whose aim in coming to the United States was to join the Jesuits' Society in Maryland, a pur pose which they were encouraged to execute by the pious Father Nerinckx. They were admitted as novices at White Marsh, Prince George's County, Maryland, on October 6th, 1821, and up to the time of their reception as novices they were under the impression, that in taking such a step, they were preparing to enter upon a missionary upon a missionary career among the aboriginal savages of America, for they believed that the Jesuits of Maryland had, or else were to have a number of Indian tribes under their spiritual care. The master of novices at White Marsh was the Rev. Charles Van Quickenborne, a Belgian priest from Ghent, who had come to the United States in 1817 also with the view of becoming a Jesuit and going to missions among the Indians. At the beginning of the year 1823, Rev. Charles Neale, Provincial of the Jesuits in Maryland, and the master of novices, Rev. Charles Van Quickenborne, had determined that it was expedient to transfer the novices from White Marsh in Prince George's County to St. Thomas' Manor in Charles County. It had become necessary to take this step owing to the impoverished condition of the novitiate of White Marsh and the inability of the province to support the novices. The soil at White Marsh, which was originally fertile, had been exhausted by successive crops of corn and tobacco raised upon it for generations, without a year of intermission and besides that farm was burdened with a heavy debt, whereas the land in Charles County was very productive and the premises unencumbered by any debt. It was under these circumstances, and while actually deliberating about the removal of the novices from White Marsh to Charles County, that Bishop Dubourg at the suggestion of John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, again applied to the Jesuits of Maryland for a community of the order to settle in Missouri with a view of founding missions and schools among the Indian tribes dwelling within his diocese. His request was made at an auspicious time and his offer of the farm near Florissant readily accepted as a providential solution of the difficulties in which the novitiate at White Marsh was then involved. The Provincial, Rev. Charles Neale, proposed the wish of Bishop Dubourg to Father Quickenborne, novice master, and expressed his own desire for the pious rector of White Marsh to be the leader and superior of a band including such of the novices as might freely choose to accompany him, and that with them and a few older members he should start for Missouri so soon as necessary arrangements for the journey could be made. Father Van Quickenborne gave his cordial approval to the undertaking, which he did all the more fully and promptly, as it was a desire of being a missionary among the savage Indians, that had first prompted him to leave his native land and come to America. Father Van Quickenborne announced to the novices the decision made by the provincial concerning his destination for Missouri, that a community of the society was to be established there, with a view of getting up a school for Indian boys and to sending out missionaries to evangelize the wild tribes. He also made known to them, that any of the novices who desired to accompany him would be free to do so, whereupon the six young Belgians already named as coming with Father Nerinckx to the United States in 1821, answered enthusiastically that nothing could be more pleasing to them than to be his companions in a journey to the region where the red man dwelt and his colaborers in such work; they were already longing for the time to come, when the opportunity would be afforded them of devoting their lives to the conversion and civilization of the wild Indians in the Far West. It was now plain that the pious designs of the zealous and far-seeing Bishop Dubourg were at length to be realized and that his plans for christianizing the Western tribes of Indians were likely to produce some good results. He believed, that while the young men were trained in virtue and learning at their new home in Missouri, the little community could support itself mainly by the excellent farm the members were to receive, and that a few years would |