the best and most industrious Indians in the Rocky Mountains.
The journey from Fort Colville to Fort Vancouver was marred by an unfortunate accident. At one of the rapids of the Columbia, the barge containing DeSmet's effects, capsized, and all the crew, save three, were drowned. Providentially, Father DeSmet had gone ashore, intending to walk along the bank while the bargemen directed the boat through the rapids. After brief visits at Forts Okanogan and Walla Walla, he hastened on to Vancouver, where he received a most affecting welcome from the pioneer Catholic missionaries of the Oregon Country, Blanchet and Demers. The latter has related how Blanchet and DeSmet ran to meet each other, both prostrating themselves, each begging the other's blessing. It was a meeting fraught with important consequences for the Catholic Church in Oregon.
In his Historical Sketches, Archbishop Blanchet gives us a few details in addition to those mentioned in DeSmet's Letters, from which it appears that Father Demers met the Jesuit missionary at Fort Vancouver, and conducted him to the residence of the Vicar-General at St. Paul. "Rev. M. Demers brought him, to St. Paul," says the Archbishop; "he spent eight days with the Vicar-General, sung High Mass on Sunday, addressed words of exhortation to the congregation. Of the Catholic Ladder he said: 'That plan will be adopted by the missions of the whole world.' DeSmet returned to Vancouver with Father Demers, followed a few days later by Father Blanchet, 'to deliberate on the interests of the great mission of the Pacific Coast.' "At the conference, it was decided that Father Demers should proceed to open a mission in New Caledonia (now British Columbia), leaving the VicarGeneral at St. Paul, while DeSmet should start for St. Louis and Belgium in quest of more workers and material assistance for the missions of Oregon. Dr. McLoughlin, though not yet a Catholic, strongly encouraged Father DeSmet to make every effort to increase the number of Catholic missionaries. On June 30, 1842, DeSmet bade farewell to his new friends----
