CHAPTER IX."
RETURN TO ST. LOUIS.
De Smet leaves Point among Blackfeet and starts for the States - Fort Benton to Kansas City by skiff - Beasts and birds - Bad Lands - Elkhorn Steeple - Their boat sinks - Various encounters with Indians - Making progress with the Sioux - Mormon encampments - Meets President Young - New town of St. Joseph - Driven from river by ice.
FTER maturely weighing the various plans which might be most useful for the conversion and civilization of these tribes, it was decided that Father Point' should stay among the Blackfeet, to prepare the way for an establishment and to prosecute the instruction and conversion of that people, while I should descend the river to St. Louis, to inform our superiors of the state of the missions and the necessity of increasing the number of missionaries, and to plead the cause of the Blackfeet with them. It was on the 28th of September [1846] that I said farewell to my
1 This chapter follows the French text of Letter XXVI, Missions de I'Oregon, and corresponds in part to the latter portion of Letter XXIV, Oregon Missions, printed as addressed to the Provincial of Missouri from the St. Louis University, January 1, 1847.
'Further history of the Blackfeet Missions.-Father Point remained among the Blackfeet through the ensuing winter, but in the spring of 1847 left Fort Lewis for Canada, in compliance with orders issued three years before by his superiors in Europe,, which had been that length of time in reaching him. No further efforts were made in behalf of the Blackfeet until 1859, in April of which year Father Adrien Hoeken came among them. He established a mission on the Teton river, near the present town of Choteau. This was abandoned in March, ig6o, for a site on Sun river, which was occupied until the following August, when Father Hoeken returned to the States. The Mission of St. Peter's was founded that same year by Fathers Giorda and Imoda and has been maintained to the present time, with an interruption between the years 1866 and 1874.