Line Railroad to the Deer Lodge valley, where they arrived early in September. The main Flathead camp had joined them while passing through the Beaverhead valley. The party continued their route down the Deer Lodge and Hell Gate valleys to the modern site of Missoula, and then passed up the Bitter Root valley some thirty miles, where they chose the site of their first establishment and commenced work upon it September 24, 1841.
Notwithstanding all they had brought with them for the needs of the mission, it was at once seen that further provisions and tools would have to be procured, and as the nearest point where they could possibly be obtained was Fort Colville on the Columbia, it was decided that Father De Smet should make a journey thither before winter set in. He accordingly left St. Mary's Mission, the name of the new establishment, October 28th, and after a long and trying journey through dense forests and over a rough country he reached his destination in safety. He returned to St. Mary's early in December, having been absent but little over a month.
The missionaries now labored with unabating zeal, in which the Indians joined, to get their establishment into working order. Things were moving so prosperously that, as Father De Smet naively remarks, the jealousy of the demons of darkness was aroused, and they were treated to a few trifling set-backs; as for example the "sickness of the interpreter and sexton" when their assistance was most needed; a hurricane which came near demolishing in an instant all the fruits of their labors; and the church organ accidentally broken by one of the Indians. "All seemed to conspire against them; but the day of baptism arrives and every cloud disappears."
The fathers entered upon the religious portion of their work with determined zeal and devotion. They struck directly at the root of the evils of savage society as they understood them. One of their greatest difficulties was in regulating the subject of marriage. They adopted the principle