CHAPTER II 1
EN ROUTE TO THE GREAT COUNCIL.2
Up river with Christian Hoeken - High water - Cholera - Death of Father Hoeken - Beauties of the Upper Missouri - The Indian Question - Emptiness of the country - Smallpox among the Sioux - De Smet ministers to the victims-Cholera among the Aricaras-Remnant of the Mandan village - Fort Union.
St. Louis to Fort Union.
®N the 7th of June, [1851] accompanied by Father Christian Hoeken, I embarked at this place on board the steamer St. Ange,3 to go to the Rocky Mountains. The boat ran to Fort Union, which is about three miles above the mouth of the river Yellowstone, on the northern side, and about 2,000 miles northwest of St. Louis. Several pas
1 Comprises Letters II and III, Second Series, Western Missions and Missionaries.
z Father De Smet's original narrative of the journey of 1851 was written in six parts in English, and completed prior to December 26, 1851. He then translated it into French (invoking the aid of his friend, Father Verhaegen, to purge it of "Anglicisms and Flandricisms ") in the form of six letters addressed to Father Terwecoren, of Brussels, and dated between the 16th and 30th of January, 1852. The first three of these were transmitted to the Father General for his approval on February lo, 1852, and the remaining three on the 23d. The series appeared in the Precis Historiques and were afterwards published as Letters II to VII, Second Series of the Cinquante Nouvelles Lettres. They were thence translated into English, and appear as Letters II to VII, Second Series, Western Missions and Missionaries. This English text is followed for the most part in the present work.
a The owner and master of the boat was the distinguished Missouri river pilot and navigator, Joseph La Barge. Captain La Barge was a dear and intimate friend of Father De Smet, and always lent the aid of his boats to the Catholic missionary enterprises. Captain La Barge was born in 1815 and died in 1899.