1840
De Smet stamps with impatience. He resolves to travel as quickly as possible to St. Louis to confront his superiors with the depressing facts and to seek new provisions. In February he sets out for his winter trek through the desert with a single volunteer. On horseback they will try to cover the 700 miles towards St. Louis in a few days, a bold plan indeed. They manage to reach St. Louis unharmed. But De Smet's superior, Father Verhaegen is not willing to give up his St. Joseph mission, and he orders De Smet to return to his post as soon as possible. De Smet prepares for his return trip when Verhaegen changes his mind. Father Peter John De Smet, the stocky and heavy but sympathetic and gracious man of few words, will follow Ignace La Mousse to the Rocky Mountains and in the meantime Father Christian Hoecken will be put in charge of the St. Joseph mission (in September of the following year, Hoecken and Verreydt will transfer what remains of the original 2000 Potawatomis to the St. Mary mission near Sugar Creek in Kansas).
And his luck holds. He is allowed to travel with the caravan of the American Fur Company (AFC) on its annual trip to the mountain rendezvous on banks of the Green. De Smet meets his exotic travel companions on the quay of St. Louis. Some of them are seasoned hunters, such as Jim Bridger and Henry Fraeb. March 27 they set out for Westport (today Kansas City), a 400 mile journey on the Missouri River. In Westport our missionary joins young Ignace, who has spent the winter months at the Kickapoo mission. Together they must make the necessary arrangements to be able to leave with the caravan of Andrew Drips someday in April. De Smet purchases three horses and three mules. With the AFC caravan travel also a few Protestant missionaries with their respective woman and children (Harvey Clark, Alvin Smith and P. Littlejohn) and the first official emigrants to Oregon (Mr. and Mrs Joel P.Walker and their five children).
It is rather late in the month, April 30th to be precise, when Andrew Drips, captain of the AFC brigade, decides to jump off with his 50 travellers, 50 carriages and 60 loaded mules. During the first ten days the convoy makes but 16 miles a day. The heat is suffocating and De Smet doesn't feel very well. Soon his fever runs so high that sitting upright in the saddle becomes problematic. The only solution is to lie down on top of the sacks and bales of one of the carriages. The carts don't have suspension and De Smet's body is brutally shaken. May 18 the brigade reaches the river Nebraska or Platte. The watercourse did not steal its name. 2 miles wide, very shallow (1 to 7 feet) and strewn with islands and sand banks, the Platte is barely navigable. But on its banks fauna and flora are very rich. The waterside abounds with bison and other animals. During a whole month the party travels west along this beautiful river bank and as the ground goes up, the climate becomes more bearable. Near the Grand Island of the North Platte our missionary starts to recover (but he will continue to feel feverish until September). On the 4th of June the brigade crosses the Laramie River. There De Smet meets a small group of Northern Cheyenne Indians. The travellers carry on along the banks of the North Platte, passing by Red Butte, the Sweetwater River and Independence Rock. De Smet calls this rock: the great register of the desert because many westbound travellers engrave their name in the tender stone of the rock. Twenty days will be needed to reach South Pass and the continental divide. On June 26 it starts to snow ! Four days later the caravan reaches the Green River at the mouth of Horse Creek. The Green River is an affluent of the powerful Colorado River which runs southwards through the Grand Canyon to empty itself into the Pacific Ocean.
As agreed Pierre Gaucher awaits the missionary on bank of the Green River. He brought an escort of 9 young warriors. To reach the agreed meeting place, the Flathead delegation had to fend off their worst enemies, the Blackfeet. De Smet and the Flathead delegation will have to watch their step. The Flathead base camp is in Pierre's Hole. De Smet asks his escort to allow for a few days rest near the rendezvous campsite. During the interval De Smet gets acquainted to the peculiar community of mountain men. He also converses with other Indians present: Shoshones (Snakes), as well as Utes and Paiutes.
And then an incredible event occurs. In this godforsaken place De Smet unexpectedly meets a compatriot. It is Jean-Baptiste De Velder from Ghent, who spent thirty years in North America and almost completely forgot its native tongue. Jean-Baptiste, formerly a "grenadier" in the army of Napoleon, was made prisoner in Spain by the troops of Wellington and shipped to an English colony. Somehow he managed to escape to an American vessel and enter the United States. For 14 years he worked as a trapper in the Rocky Mountains. He knows this region and its inhabitants better than whoever and spontaneously offers his services as a guide and interpreter to the missionary. Needless to say, De Smet immediately accepts this godsend proposal.
On July the 5th De Smet celebrates the first Sunday mass in the Rockies. He preaches for the Indians and the trappers in a place which thereafter will be called the prairie of the Holy Sacrament. Time has come to go to the base camp of the Flatheads. With De Velder, ten Flatheads and ten French-Canadian trappers he sets out in north-westerly direction. The party travels through a small valley, Jackson's Little Hole, and crosses a range of lofty snow-covered mountains, to reach Jackson's Hole and the Snake River. They have to cross this swift river using so called bull boats. In southernmost part of the Tetons they follow a pass which brings them to the terminus of the voyage: Pierre's Hole. It is a valley of 25 miles at the foot of the impressive Teton mountains. Approximately thousand Flathead, Pend d'Oreille and Nez Percé Indians camp in this valley. This large number of natives travelled 180 miles to meet their promised missionary. The chief of the Flatheads, Big Face, welcomes Father De Smet with great enthusiasm. During four days the missionary preaches and instructs them. At last they have their own Black Robe.
On July the 16th the camp is broken down and the whole village travels northwards to the headwaters of the Missouri. For three weeks they cover approximately 10 miles a day. The trail starts near Henry's Fork on the Snake River, crosses the continental divide between Henry's lake and Red Rock lake, close to Red Rock Creek. Then they continue along the Beaverhead (close to today's Dillon in Montana) towards the Jefferson River. The Jefferson is one of the three source rivers of the Missouri. August 6 they reach the area where the prairie and mountain Indians meet to hunt bison in an effort to build up enough food provisions for the coming winter months. In the next 17 days the Flatheads kill and process about 500 animals. On August the 23rd De Smet writes a letter to the Fathers Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers who run a catholic mission on the Willamette River, not far from Fort Vancouver.
The Indians prepare to return to their homelands. In order to report to his superiors, De Smet has to try to return to St. Louis before the winter. He promises the Indians to return next spring with more missionaries. On August the 27th De Smet and De Velder leave with an escort of twenty young warriors. They travel the trail William Clark followed on his homeward trip to the Yellowstone River. It is a vague path along the Galatin River, over the Bozeman pass and crossing the Yellowstone desert, with its endless plains and deep canyons. The trail runs through the country of the Crows and the hostile Blackfeet. At the confluence of the Yellowstone and the Bighorn they visit a large Crow village. From here they travel to Fort Alexander (AFC) on the Rosebud River. De Smet decides to dismiss his Flathead escort.
On September the 13th De Smet and De Velder continue their trip, but they are not alone. Everywhere they encounter evidence of the presence of small groups of Blackfoot Indians. September 20 they reach the confluence of the Yellowstone and the Missouri. There they visit another AFC outpost : Fort Union. For three days they enjoy the hospitality of the master of the fort, James Kipp. He advises to them to descend the Missouri in a canoe. Autumn is fast approaching and they still need to travel more than 2000 miles! But as none of them has any canoeing skills, De Smet and De Velder prefer to continue on horseback. They know it will double their travel time. September 23 they leave with a group tradesmen en route for the country of the Aricara Indians. Three days later they meet a village of friendly Mandans and the Gros Ventres. After reaching Fort Clark the party is reduced to De Smet, De Velder and a Canadian. Their next stop is Fort Pierre, ten days east. Five days later they enter Sioux country. It doesn't take long for them to intercept the intruders. The Canadian informs the Sioux that one of the intruders is a French Black Robe". For these Indians it is the first time that they meet somebody who is familiar with the Great Spirit. Their aggressiveness makes place for exuberant joy and De Smet is transported in the village on a buffalo robe. De Smet's party will be escorted by three Sioux warriors to Fort Pierre. From there they travel to the next fort : Fort Vermillion. There De Smet learns of new hostilities between Yankton Sioux and Potawatomis. November 10 they meet a solitary Iroquois in the canoe. They will travel with him in his canoe to Council Bluffs. It is mid-November, and ice patches start to appear on the Missouri River. The river is completely frozen, when they reach Council Bluffs ten days later. Happily they can rest a while in the St. Joseph mission, run by Christian Hoecken and Felix Verreydt. The number of Potawatomi families living near the mission is reduced to 50. (Here De Velder disappears from De Smet's letters, but it is most probable that he travelled with Father De Smet to St. Louis.)
On December the 14th, after three weeks of rest, De Smet sets out on horseback to Westport where he arrives on the 22th . In this outpost live 23 families, mostly retiring Iroquois and French-Canadian trappers with their Indian wives and children. Father Nicolas Point arrived in Westport on the 1st of November. Point, a French Jesuit born in Rocroi, is an architect and draughtsman. His mission is to prepare De Smet's second voyage to the Rocky Mountans. In the meantime he built a small church for the local community in Westport. Father De Smet travels with the postal diligence from Independence to St. Louis. On New Year's day he steps through the gate of St. Louis University. He has been absent for nine months or 279 days and travelled more than 4300 miles. He immediately goes to Philadephia in order to plead for a permanent mission in the Rockies and to raise some funding.
In the meantime 154 Jesuits are active in Missouri. Sixteen of them were born in the USA. Furthermore there are 45 Irishmen, 42 Belgians, 16 Dutchman, 13 Germans, 11 Italians, 9 French and 2 Spaniards.