Letter XXV.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRECIS HISTORIQUES, BRUSSELS.
The Potawatomies.
TURNHOUT, December 16, 1856.
REV. AND DEAR FATHER:
I am, this day, in the city where one of the most zealous benefactors of foreign missions, I mean the late M. De Nef, resided many years. From this, I shall set out for Holland, and I purpose meeting you again in Brussels, please God, in the month of January.
I yield most cheerfully to the wish you express to publish the letter that I addressed, in 1838, to the excellent Superior of the Orphanage of Termonde, and of which a fragmentary copy was given you at Erps, on the occasion of your pleasant trip to the pious servants of Mary and their edifying pupils. The original letter will, no doubt, be communicated by the house of Termonde. I rely on you for all other pieces you may find in your search for manuscripts.
NATION OF THE POTAWATOMIES, ST. JOSEPH, July, 1838.
VERY KIND MOTHER:
I received your letter of March 13th, with all your good news of Termonde, even dat Charles Geyzel koster geworden is. Ongelwyfelt zat het eenen goeden koster zyn.* All your
(*"Charles Geyze1 is named Vicar. No doubt he will prove a good one.)
communications give me great pleasure and much consolation. I do not forget my native place. Continue, therefore, to send me very frequently the most minute details. All that a Termontois can learn of that point of the globe, even when he finds himself in an American desert, two thousand miles away, amid Indians and wild beasts, is always charming to him. Indeed, the reception of your letter was a holiday for me.
What shall I say to you, Mother, on all that you write me of the actual state of your house, and of the good Marolles that the Lord destines to take care of so many poor and miserable, under the direction of your worthy director ? Ah ! I assure you, I bless God for it, in the sincerity of my heart. If he deigns to hear me, he will keep you all, your orphan boys and girls, your old men and your children, beneath his powerful and holy grace. It is my ardent and daily prayer before the altar. I thank you all, teachers and pupils, that you do not forget me, above all, in your prayers. I hope you will continue to implore the Blessed Virgin to protect our poor missions, and obtain for us, from her Divine Son, who can refuse her naught, the grace and strength necessary to overcome the numerous obstacles which separate the savage from the path of salvation.
You no doubt expect a little recital from the depth of our wilderness. Well, I will exhibit you the light and the shade. It is just that you, who pray so ninth for us, Should know somewhat of the exact state of our affairs. Your prayers for us, *I am sure will, if possible, increase in fervor.
First I will narrate to you the great loss that we experienced towards the end of April. Our superior sent us, from St. Louis, goods to the amount of $500, in ornaments for the church. A tabernacle, a bell, and provisions and clothes for a year. I had been for a long time without shoes, and from Easter we were destitute of supplies. All the Potawatomie nation were suffering from scarcity, having only acorns and a few wild roots for their whole stock of food. At last, about the 20th of April, they announced to
to us that the much-desired boat was approaching. Already we saw it from the highest of our hills. I procured, without delay, two carts to go in search of our baggage. I reached there in time to witness a very sad sight. ` The vessel had struck on a sawyer, was pierced, and rapidly sinking in the waves. The confusion that reigned in the boat was great, . but happily, no lives were lost. , The total damage was valued at $40,000. All the provisions forwarded by government to the savages were on board of her. Of our effects, four articles were saved : a plough, a saw, a pair of boots, and some wine. Providence was still favorable to us. With the help of the plough, we were enabled to plant a large field of corn; it was the season for furrowing. We are using the saw to build a better house and enlarge our church, already too small. With my boots, I can walk in the woods and prairies without fear of being bitten by the serpents which throng there. And the wine permits us to offer to God every day the most holy sacrifice of the mass, a privilege that had been denied us during a long time. We, therefore, returned, with courage and resignation, to the acorns and roots until the 30th of May. That day another boat arrived. By that same steamer I received news from you, as well as a letter from my family and from the good Carmelite superior.
Our congregation already amounts to about three hundred. At Easter we had fifty candidates for the first communion. I recommend, in a very special manner, these poor Indians, that they may maintain their fervor. The dangers and scandals which surround them are very great. I have remarked, in one of my preceding letters, that one of the principal obstacles to the conversion of the savages is drinking. The last boat brought them a quantity of liquors. Already fourteen among them are cut to pieces in the most barbarous manner, and are dead. A father seized his own child by the legs and crushed it, in the presence of its mother, by dashing it against the post of his lodge. Two others most cruelly murdered an Indian woman, a neighbor of ours, and mother of four children. We live in the midst of the most disgusting scenes. The passion of the savages for strong drink is inconceivable. They give horses, blankets, all, in a word, to have a little of this brutalizing liquid. Their drunkenness only ceases when they have nothing more to drink. Some of our neophytes have not been able to resist this terrible torrent, and have allowed themselves to be drawn into it. I wrote an energetic letter to the government against these abominable traffickers. Join your prayers to our efforts to obtain from Heaven the cessation of this frightful commerce, which is the misery of the savages in every relation.
I visit the Indians in their wigwams, either as a missionary, if they are disposed to listen to me, or as a physician to see their sick. '"hen I find a little child in great
danger, and I perceive that the parents have no desire to hear the word of God, I spread out my vials : I recommend my medicines strongly. I first bathe the child with a little camphor; then, taking some baptismal water, I baptize it without their suspecting it-and thus I have opened the gate of heaven to a great number, notwithstanding the wiles of hell to hinder them from entering.
During the winter a chief of a neighboring nation brought me his child, attacked with a very dangerous malady; it only had a breath of life remaining. The father asked
medicine from me. I gave him to understand that his child was past recovery,, but that I had the means of rendering it, after death, the happiest of his nation. I explained to him the favors arising from the sacrament of baptism. The chief, quite delighted, offered me his son in order to secure its happiness, and the child died on the following day.
I might cite you a great number of other consoling traits with which Heaven favors us, but my sheet is too small to allow of it.
I will consecrate this last page to a description of the principal incidents of my excursion of 360 miles further into the Indian Territories, through the country of the Omahas, and in the immense tract of country occupied by the Sioux. The object of this journey was to afford the benefit of baptism to some children, to give adults some ideas of our holy religion, and to establish a durable and advantageous peace between the two nations. Our savages have lived, during the last two years, in a terrible dread of this numerous and warlike nation; lately, also, two of our people had been massacred.
I embarked on the Missouri, the 29th of April, in a steamboat. I met on board, to my great joy, two old friends the one a French mathematician, Mr. Nicollet, a very learned and pious man; the other, Mr. Gayer, a German. These gentlemen are making a scientific excursion of 4500 miles into the Indian countries. The waters of the river were low; the sand-banks and the sawyers very numerous and difficult to pass; the winds strong and contrary. Our progress was very slow. We had many an opportunity to make excursions in the woods and prairies, searching for new minerals, which abound in these wilds, and mire and curious plants, among which we made some beautiful discoveries. I thought of you, nay good mother, when I found myself in those beautiful parterres. I imagined once, for an instant, that you were there, with your little children. I heard your exclamations : " Potten, potten, kinderen ! wel, wel ! . . . . Dat zyn schoone bloemen ! Wie zoude het konnen gelooven ? . . . Maer ziet, maer ziet ! . . . . Komt hier, moeder; hier heb ik eene schoone," etc., etc.* Indeed it was truly the most beautiful view one could fancy. When the bell called us back to the steamer, I quitted those little parks of wild flowers with much difficulty. I gathered a great number of plants, which I preserved in my herbal. We passed over several spots where there were only onions, round, and about as large as the marbles children use for play, but excellent for eating. In another place we gathered a great quantity of asparagus, as thick as a man's thumb. All the passengers of the steamboat regaled themselves with it during four days. I will tell you nothing of our little encounters with the wolves and the serpents; dat zoude het spel verbrodden(that would dispel the charm).
On the route, I instructed and baptized, on the ,vessel, a -woman with her three children, and heard the confessions of a great number of Canadian voyageurs, who were going to the Rocky Mountains.
A tomb attracts attention in these regions; it is the tomb of Black Bird, the great chief of the Omahas. This chief became celebrated by the ascendency which be possessed over his nation ; he was an object of terror and respect to his people, for they believed that he could control life and death. The origin of their belief is as follows: He had procured a large quantity of arsenic, by the aid of a merchant; the latter at the same time instructed him in the method of
(* Vases-flower-pots-children-oh ! what a beautiful flower ! Here
-here, mother, I have one still more lovely, etc., etc. Come here, &c.)
using it; but the wretch soon received his recompense. Black Bird invited him to dine with him on a day appointed, and adroitly administered to him a good dose of his terrible medicine. The merchant, to the great pleasure of his host, died some hours after, is frightful torments. Proud of his attempt, Black Bird soon meditated a perfidious blow, and made great preparation for its execution. He dispatched a party of his people to the chase, so as to kill some deer and buffaloes for his banquet. The principal warriors and the minor chiefs had become jealous of the ascendency that the great chief exercised for some time over the nation. Black Bird, informed of their discontent and murmurs, invited to his feast to the very last of his warriors who had murmured. He lavished his attentions upon them, and showed the most distinguished marks of cordiality to his guests, wishing apparently to be reconciled with them, and to efface the bad impression that his hard-heartedness and haughty bearing had caused. As soon as each one bad emptied his plate, and the poison had begun to act on some, be threw of the mask, and began to harangue them on the great power of his manitou or genius which guided him, and, brandishing his tomahawk in triumph, bade them, with sarcasm and bitterness, " to intone their death songs, if any warlike blood yet circled in their Veins;" adding, with the accent of revenge, "that before the sun's rising"-it was night-" the vultures would fly above their wigwams, and that their wives and children would mourn over their lifeless corpses." It was a night of confusion, tears, fear, and tumult. No one escaped the poison!
The whole life of this man was a chain of crimes and cruelties. Tired of "pouring out blood," as the Indians say, or rather pursued by remorse and despair, he allowed himself to die with hunger. Before expiring, he gave orders to his faithful warriors to bury him on the highest of the hills, an elevation of three hundred feet, seated on his most beautiful courser, facing the impetuous Missouri,-" so that," said he, "I can salute all the voyageurs." His tomb resembles a little hillock. It is surmounted by a pole, to which the Indians attach a flag. It can be easily distinguished eighteen miles off.
Our boat passed near the village of the Omahas, composed of about 1400 souls. It is situated at the extremity of a beautiful prairie, about three miles in extent, at the foot of a little range of hills. No one came to the shore to see us pass,-fearing, it seems, that the small-pox was on board, and might be introduced among them. Only two years ago, by an unpardonable imprudence of the captain, this disease was introduced into the Indian country by the same vessel, and produced ravages frightful and unheard of in the Indian annals. Twenty-five or thirty thousand died in a few weeks. Of twelve hundred men of the tribe of the Mandans, only seven families escaped the contagion. About eighty warriors of this little nation committed suicide in the days of calamity, some in despair at the loss of their children and friends, others through fear of becoming the slaves of their enemies, and the greater number saying that they were horrified at the idea of seeing their bodies corrupted while yet alive.
On the 11th of May I reached my destination, and quitted with regret my four new children in Christ and my two friends. It would have been very gratifying to me to have accompanied these two gentlemen in their lengthy course, if my health and circumstances would have allowed me, so as to visit the numerous nations of the mountains.
On my arrival among the Sioux, the chiefs and warriors of the tribe of Jantons invited me to a feast. All were seat ed in a circle in a grand lodge or tent of buffalo hides. Each one rested his chin on his knees, the legs drawn close up to the body, a position that my corpulency would not allow me to assume. I therefore seated myself like a tailor on his table, with my legs crossed. Every one received a big piece of venison in a wooden trencher; those who cannot finish their portion are permitted to take away-it is their custom-the remains of his plate. I was among this number, and I had enough left for two days.
The repast concluded, I disclosed to them the principal object of my visit among them, viz. : a durable peace between the Sioux and the Potawatomies their neighbors. Having discussed the different points, refuted the false reports that divided the two nations, I persuaded the Sioux to make some presents to the children of such of our Potawatomies as they had killed, which is called covering the dead, and to come and smoke with them the calumet of peace. The feast and the council were terminated with the most perfect cordiality. The same evening I gave them an instruction on the Apostles' Creed, and I baptized a great number of their little children. This nation, dispersed over a wide extent, reckons 32,000 souls.
The object of my voyage being attained, I seized the first opportunity of returning to my mission. The savages, besides, had already struck the camp to follow the bison, which were moving away. My vessel, this time, was a tree hollowed out, which is called a canoe, ten feet in length, by one and a half in width. I could just seat myself iii it. Before this, I had crossed the river in this sort of craft, but never without fear, it being evidently very dangerous; now I had three hundred and sixty miles to descend on the most perilous and most impetuous of rivers, and it was necessary, for I had no other way. Happily I was accompanied by two very skilful pilots, who, in paddling on the right and left, darted with the fleetness of an arrow through the numerous sawyers
with which the river was filled, the frail bark which the slightest shock could overturn. Judge how swift its course is: in three days, sailing from four o'clock in the morning until sunset, we had passed over one hundred and twenty leagues. Two nights only I slept in the open air, having no bed but my buffalo-robe, and no pillow but my travellingbag. Yet, I can assure you, that my slumbers were as peaceable and profound as I ever enjoyed in my life. A good appetite, for the air on the water is fresh, prepared us for three excellent meals each day. My companions were well provided with bread, butter, coffee, and sugar; the game was also abundant, and we had but to select. I never saw so many ducks; geese, bustards, swans, and wild turkeys, in such a short trip. At our last encampment, attracted without doubt by the sight of the fire which sparkled at our feet, a noble stag approached us, trampling with his feet-a little snore, and we might have had our skulls broken in by this enraged animal. It aroused the pilot, who, seizing the gun that was lying beside me, discharged it about two inches from my ear. This report awaked me suddenly, without, however, frightening m
During my route, except the Sioux, I saw only one Indian hunter, and one single village, that of the Omahas. What a contrast with the beautiful, little, and populous Belgium! The huts of the Omahas are built of earth, and are conical; their circumference at the base, one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty feet. To construct them, they plant in the ground long and thick poles, bend and join together all the ends, which are fastened to about twenty posts in the inside. These poles are afterwards covered with bark, over which they put earth about a foot in depth, and then cover the whole with turf. They look like small mounds. A large hole in the summit, permits light to enter and smoke to escape. The fire-place is in the centre, and every but holds from six to ten families.
A young French Creole conducted his wife to me, to have her instructed in our holy religion. He came down with her quite recently from beyond the Rocky Mountains, a distance of eleven or twelve hundred leagues. The recital that she gives me of the life led by her nation, the Ampajoots, is truly heartrending. The soil is one of the most ungrateful; they have no game at fill. If they hazard leaving their country, their more numerous neighbors kill them without mercy. They are without clothes, without habitations, and roam like wild animals in the prairies, where they live on roots, grasshoppers, and large ants. They crush the lastnamed insects between two stones, and make a species of cake of them, which they cook iii the sun or before a fire, to regale themselves with after. This poor Indian woman, aged about twenty-five years, had never eaten meat. Her astonishment was excessive when she first saw chickens, pigs, cows, and oxen, with other domestic fowls and animals, running about our dwellings. As soon as she is sufficiently instructed to receive baptism, I will name her Isabella, and you shall 6e her godmother. Therefore do not forget the poor Ampajoot in your prayers.
Your letter that you mentioned, dated July, did not reach me. The distance is about two thousand miles, and the dangers are great. My letter to the Carmelites is about the
same as this.
I am, excellent Mother,
Your devoted servant,
P. J. DE SMET, S. J.