SEATTLE
665
SEATTLE
fore the time of Edward I (Cambridge, 1895); Maitland, Roman
Canon Law in the Church of England (London, 1898); Hopwood,
Law of Confession in Criminal Cases (London, 1871); Wheat-
ley, Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer
(Oxford, 1846); Maitland, Pleas of the Crown for the County of
Gloucester for the year 1221 (London, 1884); MacNally, Rules
of Evidence on Pleas of the Crown (Dublin, 1802) ; Taylor, Law of
Evidence, ed. Hume-William8, I (10th ed., London, 1906), 647-9;
Best, Law of Evidence, ed. Lely (London, 1906); Alison, Pract.
of the Crim. Law of Scotland, II (Edinburgh, 1833), 586; Tait, Law
of Evidence in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1827) ; Hume, Comment, on
the Law of Scotland respecting Crimes, II (3rd ed., Edinburgh,
1829), xii, 335; Wiomore, System of Evidence in Trials at Common
Law, IV (Boston, 1905), Ixxxiv; Greenleaf, Law of Evidence,
ed. Crosswell, I (15th ed., Boston, 1892), xiii; Corpus juris ger-
manici ant. (Magdeburg, 1738); Guyot, Repertoire unioersel et
raisonne dejurisprud. civ. crim. canon, et benefic, IV (new ed., Paris,
1784). 420; Merlin. Repert. univ. et raisonne dejurisprud. ,\ (5th
ed., Brussels, 1825), 406; Dalloz, Jurisprud. generale, XIV
(Paris, 1853), 754; RivifeRE, HifiuE, and Pont, Codes frangais et
lois usuelles (16th ed., Paris, 1888); Von Wil.mowski and Levy,
Civilprozessordnung und Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz fur das Deutsche
Reich nehst den Einfuhrungsgesetzen, 1 (7th ed., Berlin, 1895);
Nash, Life of Lord Westbury, II (London, 1888); Lilly and
Wallis, The Law Specially affecting Catholics (London, 1893).
R. S. Nolan.
Seattle, Diocese of (Seattlensis), comprises
the entire State of Washington, U. S. A., and em-
braces an area of 66,680 sq. miles with over a million
inhabitants. The diocese was originally created on
24 July, 1846, by Pius IX as the See of Walla Walla,
but on 31 May, 18.50, the name was changed to that
of the Diocese of Nesqually, with Vancouver, Wash-
ington, as the episcopal city. Owing to important
considerations, the title was again changed, in Sep-
tember, 1907, to that of the Diocese of Seattle, with
the new cathedral and residence of the bishop in the
city of the same name on Puget Sound.
One hundred years ago the State of Washington formed a portion of that great terra incognita called the "Oregon Country", whose rugged and romantic wilderness is described by the Jesuit missionary. Father De Smet, in his account of the Oregon missions. The introduction of the Catholic Faith into the States of Washington and Oregon is somewhat remarkable. It was not primarily brought about, as in so many instances, by priests of religious orders, but by secular priests who came at the earnest .solici- tations of Catholic laymen. Simon Plamondon of Cowlitz, Washington, initiated a petition for prie.stp in 1833, and renewed it in the year 1835. Hence, the State of Washington may lay claim to being the cradle of Catholicism in the North-west. The Hudson Bay Company for many years carried on an extensive fur trade in the North-west territory, which extended as far south as the Columbia River. Its employees were a heterogeneous aggregation; and hence, though an English corporation with head- quarters in London, it numbered among them many P'rench Canadians. These hardy trai)pers and hun- ters, far from all civilization and with little hope of ever returning to their homes, took Indian women as wives and established families in the Walla- mette and Cowlitz valleys on land granted to them by the company. These retired hunters, advancing in years, longed for the ministrations of the rehgion of their youth. The fatherly chief factor, Dr. John McLoughhn, who presided at Fort Vancouver (estab- Ushed in 1828), tried to maintain a rehgious spirit among his men, as much from policy as to satisfy their desires, by gathering them on Sundays for reli- gious services; but he clearly saw, though himself a Protestant at that time, that his ministrations did not satisfy the Catholics. Protestant missionaries arrived from the United States. McLoughlin wel- comed them in the midst of his mixed class of settlers, hoping that now the religious problem was solved. He .soon became aware that a denominational brand of Christianity was distasteful to the French Cana- dians. On their behalf, therefore, he sent, in 1834 and 1835, two earnest appeals for priests to the nearest Catholic bishop, Right Rev. J. N. Provencher of Red
River, Canada, and through him to Archbishop J.
Signay of Quebec. Their replies were most discour-
aging; they had no priests to send to so distant a
field. The Hudson Bay Company, moreover, in-
formed of the appeal, refused transportation for any
Cathohc missionaries to their territory. McLoughlin,
however, was not so easily conquered, and his services
to the company were too important to be disregarded.
Finally the Home Office relented, and in 1837 Fathers
F. N. Blanchet and M. Demers of the Archdiocese of'
Quebec were allowed to accompany the annual con-
voy to the North-west.
The two missionaries arrived at Vancouver, Wash- ington, on 24 Nov., 1838. Their reception was an ovation for the Cathohc Faith. Tears were shed when the Holy Sacrifice was offered for the first time. When the few days of mutual joy had passed the
The Catiikdu
priests would wilhngly have proceeded to the south
side of the Columbia, where twenty-six famihes
claimed their services, but the orders of theu- eccle-
siastical superiors disposed otherwise, and they per-
manently located north of the Columbia River. The
Hudson Bay Company maintained no less than
twenty-eight established posts in the territory north
of the Columbia River, which was inhabited by about
100,000 Indians. At Cowlitz, therefore, with its four
Catholic families. Father Blanchet opened his first
mission, which can rightfully claim to be the parent
church of the North-west. Here he erected in 1839 a
log building, twenty by thirty feet in size, which he
dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, and which served as
his chapel and residence. During the erection of this
building an unexpected difficulty presented itself. A
delegation of Nesqually Indians wished to see the
"real Blackrobe" and to be instructed by him. Being
ignorant of their language and at a loss to make him-
self understood, he thought of a novel contrivance to
instruct them. He made a long flat stick or ladder
with forty short parallel lines on it to represent the
four thousand years before Christ; these were fol-
lowed by thirty-three points and three crosses to show
the years of Christ's life and the manner of His death.
A church and twelve perpendicular marks denoted the
beginning of the Catholic Church at the death of
Christ through the Apostles; eighteen further liori-
