PART I.
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION.
1838-1839.
Itinerary of Father De Smet from 1821 to 1839 inclusive.
1821.
In the month of July Father De Smet, then in his twenty-first year, left Belgium, his native country, in company with the Very Reverend Mr. Nerinckx, missionary to Kentucky - Passed through Holland, visiting several of its cities - Embarked at the Island of Texel on board the brig Columbus - Sailed on August 15th - Crossed the Atlantic (first time) in forty days - Landed at Philadelphia - Went by steamer to Baltimore - Went thence to Washington and Georgetown by stage - Thence to the Novitiate of Whitemarsh, fifteen miles from Annapolis, where he and his six companions entered the Society of Jesus - Remained at Whitemarsh eighteen months.
Distance traveled during year, 4,520 miles.
1823.
Early in the spring Father De Smet and his six Belgian companions left Whitemarsh with Fathers Van Quickenborne and Timmermans, who were sent by Monseigneur Du Bourg, Bishop of Louisiana and Missouri, to St. Ferdinand, near St. Louis, to found there the first Jesuit establishment in the western portions of North America since the suppression of the Society - Passed by way of Baltimore, Fredericktown and Cumberland to Wheeling on the Ohio, all the way " pedibus apostolorum, staff in hand "- Embarked at Wheeling in two house boats and descended the Ohio to Shawneetown, Ill., where they left the river and crossed the country on foot with much fatigue to the Mississippi