of the memory of former years, Father De Smet found Father Ravalli, one of the noblest men that ever labored in the ranks of the Church in Montana, rebuilding the long neglected mission in St. Mary's valley.
Father De Smet left St. Ignatius on the 8th of September; reached the mission of the Sacred Heart on the 18th and Fort Vancouver on the 8th of October. After a brief delay here, he sailed from Portland, October 13th, stopped at Victoria, Vancouver Island, and reached San Francisco on the 21st. There were no incidents of especial importance on the rest of the journey. He left San Francisco on the 3d of November, crossed the Isthmus on the 18th and reached New York on Thanksgiving Day. He called at Washington on his way west and finally reached St. Louis on the ist of December. " The day following," he writes, " I offered the holy sacrifice of the altar, as a thanksgiving service for all the benefits received from heaven in my long, painful and dangerous tour, upon rivers and seas and in diverse lands, through numerous bands of hostile Indians, in the mountainous portions of Idaho infested by white marauders and assassins of the lowest and vilest sort, and on the two great oceans, the Pacific and Atlantic, ranged at present by hostile ships of the American Confederacy." (3)
The terrible state of things in the Sioux country at this time gave the Government a good deal of uneasiness. It was unfortunate that just as the great strain of the Rebellion was taxing its energies to the utmost, it should find the most powerful confederacy of Indians on the continent in bitter hostility against it. When Father De Smet passed through Washington on his way home in December the Secretary of Interior and Commissioner of Indian Affairs besought him to try again to see the Sioux and induce them to come to terms. It was a difficult role which he was asked to fill. His mission had always been one of peace. On the banner
(3) In all these recent extensive travels and those yet remaining, it should be kept in mind that Father De Smet was getting to be an old man. He was now sixty-three years of age.