CHAPTER I.
OCEAN VOYAGES OF 1853 AND 1857
A glimpse of Paris-Loses his boys-Stormy passage of the Atlantic - Neptune twice blest - Trouble with machinery - Out of coal - Shipwrecked outside Halifax-Undesirable European immigrationBoston and New York - Dangers by rail and river - Another crossing - Comfortable passage- Neptune still there - Fogs of Newfoundland -Lovely day for arrival in New York.
Shipwreck of the Huntboldt.
University of St. Louis, January 1, 1854.
My dear Brothers
PROFIT by my earliest leisure moments, to inform you 11 that we happily arrived at our place of destination on the 27th day of December.
I wish you and your dear childre happy and pros perous New Year, and I implore God pour down upon you daily his choicest favors and blessings. I can never forget the fraternal attachment and extreme goodness manifested to me so continually during my short visit to the land of my nativity.
I inclose you a little sketch of my long and dangerous voyage. As I am overwhelmed with business, I am forced to write in haste - currente calamo.
1 This letter to MM. Charles and Francis De Smet was also furnished by him to the Pricis Historiques, and was reproduced in Cinquante Nouvelles Letires and thence translated for Western Missions and Missionaries, appearing as Letter VIII, Second Series, in both the latter works. The text followed is the English of Western Missions and Missionaries. During the month of January Father De Smet wrote this letter in turn to three different friends in Europe.