ing. Father De Vos and his companions' had reached St. Mary's among the Flatheads in safety - the whole tribe of the Cceur d'Alenes was converted - a church had already been built among them - 436 savages had been baptized from the nations of New Caledonia - a great number of nations were persistently calling for Black-robes - a large convent was being organized on the Willamette.
a Fathers Peter De Vos and Adrien Hoeken and Brother J. B. McGean, who started for the mountains after Father De Smet's return to St. Louis in 1842, and reached St. Mary's in the following spring. A second party, consisting of Fathers Joseph Joset and Peter Zerbinati with Brother Vincent Magri, all of whom were fresh arrivals from Europe, followed them a few months later, arriving in the summer of 1843.
Peter De Vos was born in Ghent in 1797. He came to America in 1836, and chose the field of the western missions, though of delicate health, being subject, it appears, to hemorrhages. He remained eight years among the Flatheads and in the Willamette valley, and was thence transferred to the College of Santa Clara, California, where he died April 17, 1859.
Adrien Hoeken, younger brother of Christian Hoeken, whose death in 1851 is recounted in these letters, was born in Holland in 1815. He opened the mission of St. Ignatius among the Kalispels, and ten years later (1854) with Father Menetrey, the present St. Ignatius, Montana, the former site having proved unsuitable. He also reopened in 1859 the abandoned mission to the Blackfeet. He died at Marquette College, Milwaukee, April 19, 1897.
Father Zerbinati was accidentally drowned near St. Mary's in the summer of 1845.
Brother Magri died at Lewiston, Idaho, June 18, 1869. He was a skilled mechanic, and while at St. Ignatius was in charge of the grist and sawmills.