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 NORTHERN

115

NORTHMEN

After the death of Bishop Shanley, the diocese was divided. Rt. Rev. James O'Reilly, as Bishop of Fargo, has charge of the eastern part, and Rt. Rev. Vincent Wehrle, O.S.B., rules over the western part as Bishop of Bismarck. According to the census of 1907, the Catholic population was 70,000 but a subsequent count shows the number much larger, and the latest estimate by Father O'DriscoU, secretary of the Fargo diocese, places it at about 90,000. There are in the two dioceses, 140 priests; 14 religious houses; 1 mon- astery; 7 academies; 5 hospitals; and about 250 churches. The Sisters of St. Joseph have a hospital at Fargo and one at Grand Forks, and an academy at Jamestown. The Sisters of St. Benedict have estab- lishments at Richardton, Glen Ellen, Oakes, Fort Yates, and a hospital at Bismarck. The Presentation Nuns have an academy and orphanage at Fargo. Sis- ters of Mary of the Presentation are established at Wild Rice, Oakwood, Willow City, and Lisbon. The Ursuline Sisters conduct St. Bernard's Academy at Grand Forks. Three Sisters of Mercy opened a mis- sion school at Belcourt in the Turtle Mountains among the Chippewa in 1SS4, and continued to teach until

1907, when their convent was destroyed by fire. They established at Devil's Lake, St. Joseph's hospital in 1895 and the Academy of St. Mary of the Lake in

1908. The State has several active councils of the Knights of Columbus and Courts of the Catholic Order of Foresters. Among the Catholics distinguished in public life are John Burke, three times elected governor; John Carmody, Justice of the Supreme Court; Joseph Kennedy, Dean of the Normal College, State University; W. E. Purcell, U. S. Senator; and P. D. Norton, Secretary of State.

Slale Hist. Society, I, II (Bismarck, 1906-8); History and Biog- raphy of North Dakota (Chicago, 1900); Irving, Astoria (New York); Willahd, Story of the Prairies (Chicago, 1903); North Dakota Blue Books (Bismarck. 1899-1909) ; North Dakota Maga- zines, pub. by Comm. of -Agriculture (Bismarck, 1908); Catholic Almanac (1910): Journal of the :i6th Annual Convocation of the Episcopalian Church (Fargo, 1 10); 10th Biennial Report of Supt. Pub. Instruction (Bismarck, 1908) ; Minutes of Gen. Assembly of Presbyterian Church (Philadelphia, 1910); L.irned. Reference Digest; New .imerican Ency (1876); Norwegian American in Norwegian (Minneapolis, 1907) ; Clapp, Clays of North Dakota in Economic Geology, II, no. 6 (Sept. and Oct., 1907); North Dakota Codes (1905); Session Laws (1907-9); R003EVELT, Winning of the West, IV (New York. 18S9-96); University Catalogue (1910); The Bulletin, a diocesan publication (Fargo, March and May. 1909).

M. H. Brennan.

Northern Missions. See Germant, Vic.\riate Apostolic of Northern; Denmark; Norway;

Sweden.

Northern Territory, Prefecture Apostolic op THE. — The Northern Territory, formerly Alexander Land, is that part of Australia bounded on the north by the ocean, on the south by South Australia, on the east by Queensland and on the west by Western Aus- traha. It thus Ues almost entirely within the tropics, and has an area of 523,620 square miles. It is crown land, but was provisionally annexed to South Austra- lia, 6 July, 1863. It is practically uninhabited; the population is roughly estimated at between 25,000 and 30,000, of whom less than a thousand are Europeans, about 4000 Asiatics mostly Chinese, the remainder being aborigines. There are but two towns, Palmens- ton at Port Darwin, with a population of 600, and Southport on Blackmore River, twenty-four miles south. There is transcontinental telegraphic com- munication (over 2000 miles) established in 1872, be- tween Palmerston and Adelaide, but railroad com- munication extends only 146 miles south of the former town, a distance of over 1200 miles from the northern terminal of the railway. There are large navigable rivers in the north, and Port Darwin is probably sur- passed in the world as a deep water port by Sydney Harbour alone. The annual rainfall varies from sixty- two inches on the coast, where the climate resembles that of French Cochin China to six inches at Char- lotte Waters. Droughts, cattle disease, and the finan-

cial crisis of 1891 have combined to retard the devel- opment of the country. John McDouall Stuart, the pioneer explorer, and his successors declare that large tracts in the interior are suitable for the cultivation of cotton and the breeding of cattle, while the govern- ment officials at Port Darwin have grown spices, fibre plants, maize, and ceara rubber with great success. The crown lands (only 473,278 of the total 334,643,522 acres have been leased) are regulated by the North Territory Crown Lands Act of 1890-1901.

Northern Territory has a varied ecclesiastical his- tory. In 1847, by a decree of the Sacred Congregation (27 May), it was made a diocese (Diocese of Port Vic- toria and Palmerston), Joseph Serra, O.S.B., conse- crated at Rome, 15 August, 1848, b^ing appointed to the see. He, however, was transferred in 1849 before taking possession to Daulia, and nominated coadjutor "cum jure successionis", and temporal administrator of the Diocese of Perth; he retired in 1861 and died in 1886 in Spain. He was succeeded by Mgr Rosendo Salvator, O.S.B., consecrated at Naples on 15 .August, 1849, but he was not able to take possession of his see, for in the meantime the whole European population had abandoned the diocese; consequently he returned to the Benedictine Abbey of New Norcia in Western Australia where he resided as abbot nullius. Resign- ing the See of Port Victoria, 1 August, 1888, he was appointed titular Bishop of Adrana, 29 March, 1889. Seven years previously the Jesuits of the Austrian Province were commissioned to establish a mission for the purpose of civilizing and converting the aborigines; about sixteen members of the order devoted themselves to the work and stations were established at Rapid Creek (St. Joseph's), seven miles north-east of Palmerston, Daly River (Holy Rosar}') and Serpentine Lagoon (Sacred Heart of Jesus). There were 2 churches, 1 chapel, and 2 mixed schools. In 1891 there were about 260 Catholics in the mission. However the work did not thrive and after about twenty years' labour the Jesuits withdrew, Father John O'Brien, S.J., being the last administrator. On their withdrawal the diocese was administered by Bishop William Kelly of Geraldton. Somewhat later the mission was confided to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Issoudun and established in 1906 as the Prefecture Apostolic of the Northern Territory. Very Rev. Francis Xavier Gsell, M.S.H.,b. 30 Octo- ber, 1872, was elected administrator Apostolic on 23 April, 1906. He resides at Port Darwin. At present there are in the prefecture 3 missionaries, 2 churches, and 1 chapel.

Missiones Catholicce (Rome, 1907); Australasian Catholic Di- rectory (Sydney, 1910) ; Gordon, Australasian Handbook for 1891; Basedow, Anthropological Notes on the North-Western coastal tribes of the Northern Territory of South Australia in Trans., Proc. and Reports of the Royal Society of South Australasia, XXXI (Ade- laide, 1907), 1-62; Parsons, Historical account of the pastoral and mineral resources of the North Territory of South .4 ustralia in Proc. of the Royal Geog. Soc. of Australasia, South .\ustnilin Branch, V (Adelaide, 1902), appendix, 1-16; Holtze, CapnhiUties of the Northern Territory for tropical agriculture (Adelaide, 1902), appen- dix, 17-27.

Andrew A. MacErlean.

Northmen, the Scandinavians who, in the ninth and tenth centuries, first ravaged the coasts of West- em Eiu'ope and its islands and then turned from raid- ers into settlers. This article will be confined to the history of their exodus.

Tacitus refers to the "Suiones" (Germ., xliv, xlv) living beyond the Baltic as rich in arms and ships and men. But, except for the chance appearance of a small Viking fleet in the Meuse early in the sixth century, nothing more is heard of the Scan- dinavians until the end of the eighth century, when the forerunners of the exodus appeared as raiders off the English and Scotch coasts. In their broad outlines the pohtical -divisions of Scandina\aa were much as they are at the present day, except that the Swedes were confined to a narrower territory.