D
D'Abbadie, Antoine. See Abbadie, Antoine d'. thousand Tatholics within the territory of the Diocese
of Dacca arc still subject to him. In the interest of more effective niissionaiy work, Propaganda, 18 April, 1834, appointed Robert of St. Ledger, a priest of the Society of Jesus, Vicar Apostolic of C'alcutta and the territory under its political jurisdiction, which at the time included the entire province of Bengal. In 1850, at the instance of Archbishop Carew, Vicar Apostolic of Bengal, Pius IX divided the province into two vicariates Apostolic, one of Eastern, the other of Western Bengal. A subsequent subdivision (1870) resulted in the e.stablishment of a third allot- ment, the Vicariate of Central Bengal. The territory of the third vicar Apostolic was taken in part from the Eastern and in part from the Western vicariates.
On the creation of the hierarchy in India, Sept., 1886, the Eastern vicariate became the Diocese of Dacca, the district of Arakan (Burma) being substi- tuted for that of Assam, which in 1889 became a pre- fecture Apostolic. With Dacca City as centre, the diocese is bounded on the north by the Prefecture Apostolic of Assam, on the east by the Vicariates of Northern and Southern Burma, on the south by the Bay of Bengal, and on the west by the Bay of Bengal and the Diocese of Krishnagar. According to the latest Government survey the area thus enclosed measured fifty-nine thousand square miles, the popu- lation in the census of 1902 registered slightly above seventeen millions. The first occupant of the new see was Augustine Louage, a priest of the Congregation of
_^ the Holy Cross, W'ho on his death in 1894 was suc-
pass from the end of the Lake of the lilinoLs'[Michigani ceeded by Bishop Hurth. Except for an interim of to the River of St. Louis" (the Illinois). This canal, twelve years (1876-18SS) when the mis.sion was m projected by Dablon 23.3 years ago, was the subject of care of members of the Bcnedictme Order, religious of a special message from the Governor of Illinois to the the Congregation of the Holy Cross have laboured in State Legislature in March, 1907. After founding Eastern Bengal since 1853. Since 1888 the Institute Sault Ste. Marie, Dablon became, in 1670, Superior of the Holy Cross has had from Rome exclusive charge General of all the Canadian Missions, retaining that of the mission. The nine "centres "into which the Dio-
Dablon, Claude, Jesuit mi.ssion.ary, b. at Dieppe,
France, in February, 1618; d. at Quebec, 3 May,
1697. At the age of twenty-one he entereil the Sori-
ety of Jesus, and after his course of stiulies and teach-
ing in France, arrived in Canada in 1655. He was at
once deputed with Chaumonot to begin a central mis-
sion among the Iroquois at Onondaga. The diary he
kept of this journey and of his return to Quebec in the
year following gives a graphic account of the terrify-
ing conditions under which these journeys were made.
In 1661 he accompanied Druillcttes, the Apostle of
Maine, on an expedition overland to Hudson Bay. the
purpose of which was to establish missions among the
Indians in that region and perchance to discover an
outlet through Hudson Bay to the China Sea. The
expedition was unsuccessful and is only chronicled as
another abortive attempt to. find the famous North-
West Pa.ssage. In 1()08 D.ablon was on Lake Supe-
rior with Ailouez and Mar(;[uette, forming with them
what Bancroft calls the "illustrious triumvirate",
and he was the first to inform the world of the rich
copper mines of that region, so valuable to the com-
merce of to-day. It was Dablon who appointed Mar-
quette to undertake the expedition which resulted in
the discovery of the Upper j\li.ssissippi ; he also gave
Marquette's letters and charts to the world. In con-
nexion with this discovery he called attention to the
feasibility of passing from Lake Erie to Florida "by
cutting a canal through only half a league of prairie to
office until 1680. He was reappointed in 1686 and
remained superior until 1693. His contributions to
the "Relations" possess the highest value, his de-
scriptions of places and people and his narration of
events being singularly clear and comprehensive.
Thwaites. Jesuit Rdatiom (Cleveland, 1896-1801), Inde.x LX.XII. 189; SOMMERVOGEL, Bi6(. de la C. de J.. II, 17T3-1775; Ue B.4CKEB, I, 1504; Campbell, Pioneer Priests of N. Amer.. (New York, 1908). 101; . Rochemonteix, Les Jesuites et La Nouvelle France aa XVIP""' siidc (Paris, 1895-1896), II, III, pa^aim;^ Ch.vrlevoix. ed. Shea, History and General Descrip
XI, 71; Harris, History of the Karly Missions in Western
Cajw<io_ (Toronto, 1893), XXyil; Bancroft, History of the
V. S. (Boston, 1879), II, 32, 33.
E. P, Spillane.
eese of Dacca is divided give opportunity to the twenty
missionaries at work in it to carrj' on an active prop-
aganda in outlying districts. In each centre there
is a school, and in many of the dependent stations
there is a catechumenate under the immediate super-
vision of local catechists and the elders of the respec-
tive communities. In Dacca, Chittagong, and Akyab
the mission conducts schools in which students, irre-
spective of religious profession, are prepared for " en-
. ., r. ,.T ,. , „_ , ,v „. „ ,. •. trance" or collegiate work. The academy for girls in
turn of a™ France (New \ork, 18(2), II, III; Shea, History of -„„x. _f *!,„„„ nities is Hirpctf-H hv n otoff nf -^^f iiii..u the Catholic Missions in the U. S.. l5S9-lsr,l, (New York, 1855), ??" ,"' tnese cities is airectea Dy a, start ot .ii> nuns, 241; _Do.\oHOE, The Iroquois and the Jesuits (Buffaio,_1895), Daughters of Our Lady of the Missions (23), and the
Sisters Catechists (12). The diocesan school attend- ance for 1907 numbered 1768 pupils.
The Church in the Diocese of Dacca experiences all the obstacles common to foreign missionary work the world over. Dacca City is three-fifths Mohammedan, and among the Hindus of Eastern Bengal the tradi- establishcd in 1534 the .See of Goa, conferring upon it tional caste will oppose, for .some time at least, an spiritualjuri.sdictionoverallthePortuguesepossessions effective barrier to the rapid spread of the Catholic from the Cape of Good Hope to China. Early in the Faith. As Dacca, however, is the college town of India, sixteenth centurj' the Portuguese found their way the percentage of students being relatively greater into Eastern Bengal, and the Eurasian and native here than in any other city of the empire, Catholicism Christian communities that grew up around the sev- has continually brightening prospects opening before eral .settlements were, in virtue of the aforesaid Con- it, in and around the capital of Bengal-Assam. The stitution, subject to the ecclesiastical authority of influential .Som.aj of Dacca is one of the many present- Goa, and later (1606) to the See of Mylapore. sufTra- day manifestations of the increasingly accurate appre- gan to Goa. When the political power of Portugal elation of the part or function of reiuson in life. The was replaced by Briti.sh rule in India, the Bishop of widespread awakening of a critical rationalistic spirit, Mylapore still retained juri.sdiction over the Church which has already questioned the feasibility of many HI Bengal, and seven thousand out of the twenty-two caste obscr\'ances, will eventually work harm to the
601
Dacca, Diocese of (Dacchensis), in Bengal, India.
By the Constitution "vEquam reputamus " Paul III
