Note 181 — OREGON MISSIONS AN OUTLINE SKETCH OF OREGON TERRITORY AND ITS MISSIONS

Addressed to Bishop (later Archbishop) John Hughes of New York. From the time of the descriptive letter number ii, written from Willamette valley October 9, 1844, to the beginning of this letter in February, 1845, Father de Smet had made a journey to his previously-founded missions in the interior. Leaving Vancouver, he ascended the river to Fort Walla Walla, thence crossed Spokane plains and the mountains to the camp of the Pend d’Oreille on Clark’s Fork, where he met Father Adrian Hoeken. There a deputation from the Cœur d’Alènes waited on the father to persuade him to visit their mission of Sacred Heart, where he was received November 11 by Father Nicolas Point. Setting forth thence, eight days later he found the road to the Flatheads impracticable because of floods and ice, so that he was obliged to pass the winter (1844-45) with the Pend d’Oreille in their winter quarters on Clark’s Fork.—Ed.