He has, lately, addressed a letter to the Canadian press, every word of which is an unmitigated falsehood. Of course, the Bishop of Montreal, who is more than ever opposed to our colonization plan, has published that lying letter in his journal; more than that, he has reproduced the testimony of a perjured man, who swears that many of the people of Illinois are bitten and killed by the rattlesnakes, and those who escape are taxed six cents for each pane of glass of their windows.
Will you be discouraged by this opposition? I hope not. This opposition is the greatest evidence we could have that our scheme is from God, and that He will support you. I am tempted to interdict Mr. Lebel, and send him back to Canada, for writing things which he so well knows to be false. The want of a French-speaking priest for your countrymen of Chicago is the only thing which has prevented me from withdrawing his faculties. But I have warned him that if he writes any more against the truth, I will punish him as he deserves.
For you, my dear sir, I will address to you the very words which God Himself addressed to His servant, Joshua: “Be strong, and of good courage; for unto this people shalt thou divide, for an inheritance, the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them” (Joshua 1: 6).
1 agree with what you wrote me in your last letter, that the charge I have given you of Bourbonnais, pro tempore, will seriously interfere with your other numberless duties towards your dear emigrants. But there is no help; the only thing I can promise, is to relieve you as soon as possible. I have no other priest to whom I can trust the interesting mission of Bourbonnais. For Father Huick is too old and infirm for such a work. It is evidently the will of God that you should extend your labors over the first limits you had fixed. Be faithful to the end, and the Lord will be with you, and support you throughout all your labors and tribulations.
Truly Yours,
✠ Oliv Vandeveld,
Bishop of Chicago.
During the next six months, more than 500 families from France, Belgium and Canada came and gave to our colony a life, power and prosperity impossible for me to depict. The joy I felt at this unforeseen success was much diminished, however, by the sudden news that Mr. Courjeault had come back from France, where he spent only one month.
Not daring to visit Bourbonnais again, he was lurking on the frontiers of Indiana, only a few miles distant, evidently with some sinister intention.
Driven to a state of madness by his jealousy and hatred, that unfortunate man addressed to me, on the 23d of January, 1853, the most abusive letter I ever received, and ended it by telling me that the fine (though unfinished) church of Bourbonnais, which he had built, was to be burned, and that my life would be in danger if I remained at the head of that mission.