CHAPTER I.
THE VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN' IN 1844. Antwerp to Valparaiso.
They put to sea-They are seasick-They see strange fishesThey fear pirates-Pleasant weather-Neptune visits them and they are all merry-Celestial phenomena -Whales, icebergs and volcanic rocks - Tempest drives them toward coast- Arrival at Valparaiso - They go ashore for rest - The Fathers visit Santiago - Notes on the country- Climate and products.
®N the 9th of January, 1844, two masses were celebrated early in the morning on board the fine brig In f atigable, of Antwerp, lying in the mouth of the Schelde. The east wind which wee had been awaiting for twenty-eight days 1 This and the following chapter are here translated for the first time from Father De Smet's manuscript journal. The substance of the sea voyage was published as Letter 1, Western Missions and Missionaries,
in the form of a letter to the Provincial from Lima, May 26, 1844. The entry into the Columbia is described in Missions de l'Oregon, Letter I, thence translated as Letter II, Oregon Missions: but the manuscript account has been chosen for publication as being somewhat fuller.
2 Fathers De Smet, John Nobili, Michael Accolti, Anthony Ravalli and Louis Vercruysse, Brother Francis Huybrechts and six sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Namur.
John Nobili was born in Rome in 1812. After six years of great hardships in the Oregon missions, he was transferred to California In 1855 he was made rector of the College of Santa Clara, and he died on March rst of the following year.
Father Ravalli died at St. Mary's on the Bitter Root, October 2, 1884, in his seventy-third year-"fifty years a Jesuit and forty years a missionary." His fame stands very high in Montana, where a later generation knew more of him than even of Father De Smet.
Louis or Aloys Vercruysse was born at Courtrai, Belgium, in 18o6,
and died there July 12, 1867. He was stationed for a time at St. 14081