Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 29).djvu/136

 In October the two missionaries met at Vancouver, which was their place of residence through the courtesy of James Douglas, Esq., and on the 10th of the same month they again separated, Mr. Blanchet starting for Willamette, and Mr. Demers for Cowlitz. Their object was to spend the winter months at these points in the further instruction of their flocks. During the first year they baptized three hundred and nine persons. The following spring Mr. Demers visited the Chinouks, a tribe living below fort George.[28] From the Chinouks he repaired to Vancouver, to meet the concourse of traders who assemble there in the month of June, after which he set out for his stations at Walla Walla, Okanagan and Colville, as he had done the preceding year. About this time Father De Smet, S. J., was sent on a visit by his superior to the Flathead Indians, who had implored this favor by repeated deputations from their country to {34} the bishop of St. Louis. He found, to his great surprise, that Oregon already possessed two Catholic missionaries; he wrote to Mr. Demers, informing him that he would return to St. Louis, according to the order of his superiors, to procure further aid for the promising missions of the Rocky Mountains.

Mr. Blanchet having visited the people at Nisqualy, was soon called away by a special embassy from the Indians of Puget sound, who requested his ministry. It was on this occasion at Whitby that he met with the savages already acquainted with certain practices of the Catholic church, though they had never seen a missionary.[29] His*