Our country in story . ening would callthem together for prayer. This the chiefs did. Afterspending a week with the Shoshones, Father De Smetstarted northward to the valley of the upper Snake, wherehe found a party of Flatheads encamped. On the firstevening, said Father De Smet, I gathered all thesepeople, about one thousand six hundred, around my said the evening prayers and they sang together severalsongs of their own composition on the praises of God. After two months among the Flatheads, Father DeSmet appointed a chief to take his place at time of prayerand to baptize the children.
Our country in story . ening would callthem together for prayer. This the chiefs did. Afterspending a week with the Shoshones, Father De Smetstarted northward to the valley of the upper Snake, wherehe found a party of Flatheads encamped. On the firstevening, said Father De Smet, I gathered all thesepeople, about one thousand six hundred, around my said the evening prayers and they sang together severalsongs of their own composition on the praises of God. After two months among the Flatheads, Father DeSmet appointed a chief to take his place at time of prayerand to baptize the children. He then set out for St. Louisaccompanied by thirty warriors. While journeyingbravely on over trackless wilds, he and his companionssuddenly found themselves surrounded by a savage warparty of Blackfeet. Who are you? asked the leaderof the dreaded band, eyeing the cassock and glitteringcrucifix of the fearless Jesuit. He is a blackrobe, said one of the Flatheads. He isa son of the Great Spirit. 312 OUR COUNTRY IN STORY. ST. MARYS MISSION AMONG THE FLATHEADS One moment of breathless silence, and the blood-thirstyBlackfeet slunk away. Father De Smet and his partycontinued their way peacefully to St. Louis, where theywere warmly welcomed at the University. By spring of the next year, the zealous missionary,accompanied by three more Jesuit priests and two broth-ers, returned tohis gathered themin the BitterrootValley and herefounded in Octo-ber, 1841, a fewmiles south of thepresent Missoula,St. Marys, thefirst permanentJesuit mission in the Far West. Imagine Father De Smetsgrateful joy when he could write to St. Louis in Decem-ber: The whole Flathead nation has been converted andmany Indians of the neighboring tribes baptized. Tirelessly Father De Smet went from tribe to tribe,everywhere instructing his beloved redmen and foundingmissions among them. As soon as a place was wellstarted, he left it in charge of another Jesuit Fatherand went on to start a new mission some
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