have also called for them, and I have always been submissive to their requests in the spirit of obedience."
Nearly all of Father De Smet's writings are in the form of letters, published mainly in Europe where they would be most effective in securing generous aid for the missions. They were later translated in large, part into English and published in the United States. These letters were extensively edited before publication, by Father De Smet's express request, and were shorn of whatever might possibly offend in America. They were not letters in the strict sense of the term, but careful dissertations, often addressed to several different parties, and they contain little of a personal character. The style bears evidence of this editorial revision. `'While it is more polished, particularly in the English translations, than in the genuine letters not written for publication, it has less of the freedom and vigor which were so characteristic of whatever Father De Smet said or did.
The correspondence of Father De Smet is in both French and English, with a line or two of vernacular Flemish (if writing to his family) whenever he was saying something that he did not want read if it fell into the wrong hands. He did not have a very perfect command of English. He was frequently mixed up on his tenses and occasionally on his prepositions and pronouns. He indulged in excessively long sentences, some, of which are so involved that they cannot be disentangled except by breaking them up into separate parts. Yet in spite of these drawbacks there was a freshness, vigor and originality of expression that make his personal letters more attractive than those written expressly for publication.
Like all men who attain positions of prominence in the public eye, Father De Smet provoked the jealousy of inferior natures who were envious of a career which they could not equal. Elsewhere we have noted the accusations presented to the Father General at Rome concerning the subject-matter of Father De Smet's writings.