DE SMET, PIERRE-JEAN. - Jesuit, missionary, b. at Termond (Belgium) on 30 Jan. 1801; d. at St Louis (Missouri) on 23 May 1873. Having emigrated to the United States in 1821 with the desire to dedicate himself to missions and having entered the Society of Jesus, in 1830 he began the long series of journeys (covering more than 180,000 miles) that would bring him into contact with numerous Indian tribes, even the most formidable and warlike, scattered throughout the Rocky Mountain region. The Indians loved him and showed themselves docile to his exhortations and advice, calling him “the great blackrobe.” He thus became the peacemaker among warring tribes and the intermediary between the Indians and the government of the United States, preventing massacres and bringing about peace treaties. In favor of his Indians, he crossed the ocean nineteen times, gathering missionaries and alms.
The conversions he effected, the missions he founded, the scientific observations he made, and the providential adventures he experienced are recounted in his numerous writings; among the principal ones are: *Letters and sketches* (Philadelphia 1843); *Oregon missions and travels over the Rocky Mountains in 1843-46* (New York 1847); *Voyage au grand désert en 1851* (Brussels 1853); *Western missions and missionaries* (New York 1853); *New indian sketches* (ibid. 1865). To these must be added: H. M. Chattenden-A. T. Richardson, *Life, letters and travels of P. J. De S.* (4 vols., New York 1905) and the unpublished *Linton Album*, containing his itineraries from 1821 to his death.