avoidable; when, in 1823, at the suggestion of John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, the Right Reverend Du Bourg, Bishop of Louisiana, proposed to Father Van Quickenborne, Master of Novices, that he would be given a tract of land near St. Louis if he would establish a novitiate there. The offer was gladly accepted and steps were at once taken to carry it into effect.
In the company of twelve who set out on the long journey from the Chesapeake to the Mississippi was a youth named De Smet, the subject of the present sketch. The date of departure, April. 11, 1823, is a notable one in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States, and the journey was thoroughly characteristic of the pioneer times in which it was made. Two large wagons were hired to convey the heavier articles from Baltimore to the Ohio river, and a light spring wagon for the smaller articles. As to the travelers themselves, they had no other transportation than that which nature had provided them, and they made the entire distance "pedibus apostolorum, staff in hand," as Father De Smet puts it. The journey was full of interest in spite of its genuine hardship at that season of the year. The route lay wholly through Protestant communities and most of the people had doubtless never seen a priest before. They imagined the black-gowns to be a band of adventurers, seeking their fortune, and they frequently besought them to remain. The same petition with different motives came from the few Catholics they met, who were longing for the services of a priest.
At Wheeling on the Ohio the travelers purchased two flatboats with the intention of making the descent of the river by water. The boats were lashed together into a single craft, and in this manner the little party made its way, borne by the current, between shores which were then in their natural wildness and beauty. At Louisville they portaged their baggage around the Falls and sent the empty boat over them in charge of a pilot. They then continued their voyage to Shawneetown, Illinois, where the old over-