Antwerp to return to America, but during the passage of the North Sea he was taken violently ill, and the physician advised him not to continue the voyage. He accordingly landed at Deal in England and returned to Termonde. He arranged to have the instruments sent on without him and they were received at the university March 7, 1835. (5)
Father De Smet now remained two years in Europe devoting his time to the procurement of funds and recruits for the missions and a further equipment for the university. During this period he sent to St. Louis several thousand volumes of books and a large number of fine church pictures. In 1837 he set out for America with three candidates for the priesthood and reached St. Louis after an absence of four years.
The time had now arrived when Father De Smet was to take up in earnest the great work of his life. In the spring of 1838 he was sent with Father Verreydt and two lay brothers to found a mission among the Potawatomies, a part of whom were then located about where the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, now stands. There were also several other tribes or bands of Indians in the same vicin-
(5) Whilst he was absent in Europe, and after his donations were received, the trustees of the university entered on their records the following honorable tribute to him as a benefactor:
"Whereas the board and faculty of the St. Louis University are highly indebted to the liberality and exertions of the Rev. P. J. De Smet, for the splendid apparatus of physical and chymical instruments received at the university on the 7th of March, 1834;
" ‘ Resolved, that, besides the special thanks already tendered by the board and faculty of the St. Louis University to said Rev. P. J. De Smet on receipt of the above-mentioned apparatus of physical and chymical instruments, the register of the contributions to the Museum of St. Louis University be opened with a copy of this resolution, and his name be placed at the head of the list of contributors to the museum.
P. J. Verhaegen.
James Van de Velde, Secretary,
St. Louis University, Sept. 5, 1836. ' "
(Historical sketch of St. Louis University, by Father Walter H. Hill, S. J., P. 58,)