CHAPTER VI.
THE GREAT COUNCIL OF 1851.
Trials and discouragements - Restlessness of the Plains tribes - Government decides to hold council - De Smet asked to go - Voyage of the St. Ange - Cholera on board - Death of Father Hoeken - Arrival at Fort Union - Departure on overland journey to Fort Laramie - Fort Alexander - Lake De Smet - The Oregon trail - Arrival at the council ground - Proceedings of the council - Return to St. Louis.
It is a fact not easily explained that Father De Smet never again returned to his great field of missionary work, nor ever revisited those regions except twice, and both times upon other business. And yet we have his repeated statements that it was the cherished desire of his heart to spend the remainder of his days among his dear Indians, and he undoubtedly sought, as much as he could consistently with his vows, to bring about such a result. "I am like a soldier," he wrote to a friend. "When I receive orders I march whither I am sent. Yet, like a soldier, I may have my preferences, and I need not tell you that these are decidedly for the Indian country." And again: "I regret very much the plains, the Indians and the wilderness with all their privations, miseries and dangers. They were treats indeed compared with the monotony with which I am surrounded." Again, in a very feeling letter to the Father General, he implores the privilege of being sent away to some obscure mission there to spend the remainder of his days.
The "monotony" which Father De Smet complains of undoubtedly relates to the character of the duties with which he was charged during the greater part of his life as an ordained priest. He occupied almost continuously the position of procurator of the Province, an office which related