[147] See De Smet's letter on securing funds, and preparations, in Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, i, pp. 272-275.—Ed.
[148] Father Nicolas Point was sojourning at Westport when De Smet returned from his first mission to the Flatheads. Selected to accompany the new mission, Father Point served at St. Mary's until 1842, when after a summer with the Indians on a buffalo hunt, he founded in the autumn of that year the Cœur d'Alène mission. This he made the seat of his work until his recall in 1846. On his return journey he spent some months among the Blackfeet, laying the foundation for the work that later ripened into St. Peter's mission. He baptized over six hundred persons, chiefly children, and turned to much advantage his talent for drawing, whereby he attracted the indifferent tribesmen. He passed the ensuing winter at Fort Union, where he exercised a salutary restraint over the lawless traders and half-breeds. See Historical Society of Montana Contributions, iii, pp. 246-248. The next spring he was sent to Upper Canada, and died at Quebec in 1868.—Ed.
[149] Henri de Verger, count de La Rochejacquelein (1772-94), was one of the most popular generals of the Vendéan peasants, during their revolt against the republic of the French Revolution. He had been a member of the king's guard, but after the famous Tenth of August retreated to his ancestral home, and there put himself at the head of the uprising, and although but twenty-one years of age was chosen general-in-chief (1793). His courage and military daring made him the favorite hero of the royalists. He was killed by a republican soldier.—Ed.
[150] Father Gregory Mengarini remained in charge of the Flathead mission at St. Mary's until 1850. He was an accomplished linguist, and so mastered the Indian dialect that by means of his speech he could pass for a Flathead. He printed a Salishan grammar (1861), and prepared a Salishan-English dictionary. In 1850 it was decided to abandon St. Mary's for a time, whereupon Father Mengarini retired to the newly-established Jesuit college at Santa Clara, California, where he died in 1886. For his portrait see Palladino, Indian and White in the Northwest, p. 31.—Ed.
[151] William Claessens lived at the Flathead mission until near the close of his life. Ordered to Santa Clara, California, to rest, he died there (October 11, 1891), just after celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his entrance upon missionary work. For his portrait see ibid., p. 62.
Joseph Specht never permanently left the Flathead mission, dying at St. Ignatius in 1884, one of the oldest white inhabitants of Montana. For his portrait see ibid., p. 60.
Charles Huet joined Father Point in establishing the Cœur d'Alène mission. See ante, note [67].—Ed.
[152] De Smet went up to Westport by the "Oceana," a steamboat of about 300 tons, built in 1836.—Ed.
[153] A mission school was established among the Shawnee in 1829 by Reverend Thomas Johnson of the Missouri conference of the Methodist church, and was conducted by that missionary and his wife, and Reverend and Mrs. William Johnson. In 1839 the school was removed to a location about two miles southwest of Westport, where a grant of land was secured, and an industrial school maintained for Indian children until 1862.—Ed.
[154] For the early stretch of the Oregon Trail see Wyeth's Oregon, in our volume xxi, p. 49, note 30. The California emigrants were met at Sapling Grove.