[From _Sketches of the Life, Times, and Character of the Rt. Rev.
Benedict Joseph Flaget_ (Louisville, Kentucky, 1852)]
Bishop Dubourg had sailed from Bordeaux on the 1st of July, 1817; and
he had landed at Annapolis on the 4th of September. His _suite_
consisted of five priests--of whom the present Archbishop of New
Orleans was one--and twenty-six young men, some of whom were
candidates for the ministry, and others were destined to become lay
brothers to assist the missionaries in temporal affairs. Several of
these youths were from Belgium; and among them was the V. Rev. D. A.
Deparcq, of our Diocese. A portion of the company started directly for
Baltimore with Bishop Dubourg; the rest, with the Rev. M. Blanc at
their head, remained at Annapolis, where they were entertained with
princely hospitality in the mansion of Charles Carroll of Carrollton,
until the end of October.
Preparations were in the meantime made for crossing the mountains. The
stage then ran westward only once a week; and no less than three weeks
were consumed in transporting the missionary band to Pittsburgh. The
Bishop and M. Blanc were in the last division; but after remaining in
the stage for two days, during which time it had repeatedly upset,
endangering their lives, they finally abandoned it altogether, and
performed the remainder of the journey for five days on foot. About
the middle of November, the missionary company embarked on a flatboat;
and they reached Louisville on the last day of the month. Here they
found the Rev. MM. Chabrat and Shaeffer, who had been sent on by
Bishop Flaget to welcome them to Kentucky. Accompanied by them and by
the Rev. M. Blanc, Bishop Dubourg started immediately for St.
Thomas's, where he arrived in the evening of December 2d.
Bishop Flaget was rejoiced to meet his old friend. "I recognized him
instantly," says he; "see! on meeting me, he has the humility to
dismount, in order to present me the most affectionate salute that ever
was given." Many and long were the "happy conversations" which he held
with his former associate, and now distinguished guest. Bishop Dubourg
officiated pontifically, and preached an admirable sermon in the church
of St. Thomas,--the only cathedral which the Bishop as yet possessed.
On the 12th of December, the two prelates, accompanied by Father
Badin, set out for St. Louis, by the way of Louisville. Here Bishop
Dubourg preached in the chapel erected by M. Badin. On the 18th they
embarked on the steamboat Piqua, and on the 20th reached the mouth of
the Ohio, where they were detained five days by the ice. Their time
was passed chiefly in religious exercises and pious conversations.
The following description of the Piqua and its passengers, from the
pen of Bishop Flaget, may not be uninteresting to us at the present
day, when steamboat building and navigation have so greatly changed
for the better:
"Nothing could be more original than the medley of persons on board this
boat. We have a band of seven or eight comedians, a family of seven or
eight Jews, and a company of clergymen composed of a tonsured cleric, a
priest, and two Bishops; besides others, both white and black. Thus more
than thirty persons are lodged in an apartment (cabin), twenty feet by
twelve, which is again divided into two parts. This boat comprises the
old and the new testament. It might serve successively for a synagogue,
a cathedral, a theatre, an hospital, a parlor, a dining room, and a
sleeping apartment. It is, in fact, a veritable _Noah's ark_, in which
there are both clean and unclean animals;--and what is more
astonishing,--peace and harmony reign here."
They were still at the mouth of the Ohio on the morning of Christmas
day. Not being able to say three Masses, they determined to make three
meditations. At the conclusion of the second, the redoubtable Piqua
resumed her course towards St. Louis. The Bishops and clergy made a
kind of retreat on their Noah's ark. On the evening of Christmas day,
the boat stopped near the farm of the widow Fenwick, a good Catholic,
whom they were happy to visit. M. Badin continued his journey by land
from this point, in order to be able to visit on the way many of his
old friends, Catholic emigrants from Kentucky.
The Bishops returned to the boat, where they found the comedians
performing a play,--that is, engaged in a general fight among
themselves,--until they were separated by the captain. At midnight, on
the 30th, they arrived at St. Genevieve; and early next morning they
sent a messenger to announce their coming to M. De Andreis.
Two hours afterwards, "about thirty of the principal inhabitants came,
with several young men on horseback and a carriage, to escort the
Bishops into the town. We went to the presbytery to put on our
pontifical robes: twenty-four choir-children with the cross at their
head, and four citizens bearing a canopy, conducted us to the church,
where after the installation of Bishop Dubourg, on a throne specially
prepared for the purpose, we sang the _Te Deum_. The whole day was
spent in receiving visits."
On the first day of the year 1818, Bishop Dubourg celebrated
Pontifical Mass at St. Genevieve. The journey was then continued to
Prairie du Rocher and Cahokias to St. Louis, where the prelates
arrived on the 5th. They were received with great pomp, in the best
French style; and Bishop Dubourg was no sooner known than he was
universally esteemed and beloved. He professed himself much pleased
with the dispositions and sentiments of his new flock,--so different
from what he had been led to expect.
Bishop Flaget having now completed his mission, preached his farewell
sermon to the Catholics of St. Louis on the feast of the Epiphany; and
on the next day he turned his face homeward. He and M. Badin performed
the journey on horseback, by the way of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. They
were detained three days at the former place, not being able to cross
the river in consequence of the running ice; and in traversing Illinois
they passed three successive nights in the open air of the prairies.
They reached Vincennes on the 27th of January; and after remaining here
two weeks, attending to missionary duties, they continued their journey.
On the 21st of February, the Bishop found himself once more at his
retired and pleasant home in the seminary of St. Thomas.