DEATH OF FATHER HOECKEN.
“Between one and two o’clock at night, when all on board was calm and silent, and the sick in their wakefulness heard naught but the sighs and moans of their fellow-sufferers, the voice of Father Hoecken was suddenly heard. He was calling me to his assistance. Awaking from a deep sleep, I recognized his voice, and dragged myself to his pillow. Ah, me! I found him ill and even in extremity. He asked me to hear his confession: I at once acquiesced in his desire. Dr. Evans, a physician of great experience and remarkable charity, endeavored to relieve him, and watched by him, but his care and remedies proved fruitless. I administered extreme unction; he responded to all the prayers with a recollection and piety which increased the esteem that all on board had conceived for him. I could see him sinking. As I was myself in so alarming a state, and fearing that I might be taken away at any moment, and thus share his last abode in this land of pilgrimage and exile, I besought him to hear my confession, if he were yet capable of listening to me. I knelt, bathed in tears, by the dying couch of my brother in Christ—of my faithful friend—of my sole companion in the lonely desert. To him in his agony, I, sick and almost dying, made my confession! Strength forsook him; soon, also, he lost the power of speech, although he remained sensible to what was passing around him. Resigning myself to God’s holy will, I recited the prayers of the agonizing with the formula of the plenary indulgence, which Christ grants at the hour of death. Father Hoecken, ripe for heaven, surrendered his pure soul into the hands of his Divine Redeemer on the 19th of June, 1851, twelve days after our departure from St. Louis.
BURIAL OF FATHER HOECKEN.
“The passengers were deeply moved at the sight of the lifeless body of him who had so lately been ‘all to all,’ according to the language of the apostle. Their kind father quitted them at the moment in which his services seemed to be the most necessary. I shall remember with deep gratitude the solicitude evinced by the passengers to the reverend father in his dying moments. My resolution not to leave the body of the pious missionary in the desert was unanimously approved. A decent coffin, very thick, and tarred within, was prepared to receive his mortal remains: a temporary grave was dug in a beautiful forest, in the vicinity of the mouth of the Little Sioux, and the burial was performed with all the ceremonies of the Church, in the evening of the 19th of June, all on board assisting.”
On the return trip from Fort Union, Captain La Barge, despite the protests of the passengers, took Father Hoecken’s remains on board and delivered them to the Jesuits at St. Louis, and they were buried in the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Florissant, whither Father De Smet was to follow twenty-two years later.
ABATEMENT OF THE PLAGUE.
After the burial of Father Hoecken near the mouth of the Little Sioux River, Captain La Barge put everyone ashore, made the passengers roam around the neighborhood, unloaded and aired all the baggage, and completely renovated the boat. These measures, with the increasing healthfulness of the country as the boat entered the more arid sections, brought complete relief from the plague. Only one more death occurred, and in a short time everything assumed a normal aspect. The boat reached Fort Union on the 14th of July, and here Father De Smet left it to make a journey overland, southward to Fort John, on the Laramie River, where a great council of plains Indians was to assemble. Captain La Barge went on a hundred miles further, to the mouth of Poplar River, it being, as he then understood, the highest point reached by any steamboat; but it was not much, if any, farther than the Assiniboine went in 1834.
CHARACTER OF FATHER DE SMET.
This may be a proper place to record some incidents in the career of Father De Smet which fell under Captain La Barge’s observation. De Smet, as is well known, traveled a great deal in nearly all parts of the far northwest. Sometimes he went around by sea, and then came overland to the headwaters of the Missouri; sometimes he went by the Oregon trail; and at others by the Missouri River. La Barge, who saw much of him, found him always a pure and excellent man, very companionable, full of anecdotes, and fearless and brave in all situations. He was liked by everyone who knew him. The Mormons were well acquainted with him and thought much of him. The Indians had the very highest regard for his character, and he seemed always to be safe in their hands. The Government of the United States likewise held him in high esteem, and on several occasions called on him for responsible and delicate work among the Indians.
Father De Smet entertained the most affectionate regard for Captain La Barge. He presented him with autograph copies of all his works, and always referred to him in terms of deepest affection. The incidents which follow were witnessed by La Barge himself.