spring of 1842, Father De Smet unexpectedly made his appearance at Vancouver, after a providential escape from shipwreck, in descending the river Columbia. Fortunately he had left the barge in which his fellow-travellers and his baggage were; and by this means he was saved, while his effects and five of his companions were swallowed up in the rapids.[36]
The three missionaries met together, first at Willamette, and then at Vancouver, and formed their plans for a concert of action in the great work of evangelizing the natives of Oregon. The Indians of New Caledonia had repeatedly asked for Catholic missionaries, and Mr. Demers started for that country. Having embarked in a boat of the Hudson Bay Company, he reached his destination after a travel of two months. The journey, though fatiguing, was most consoling in its results. He was received by the savages with open arms, and it is impossible to describe the ardor with which they drank in the words of heavenly life as they fell from his {39} lips. The Indians in this region appear to be no less predisposed to receive the truths of Christianity than the Flatheads, who have evinced a peculiar propensity to virtue.
While Mr. Demers was so successfully occupied among the tribes of New Caledonia, Father De Smet was bending his steps back to St. Louis, to procure additional laborers for the mission. Two clergymen, the Rev. Fathers De Vos and Hoeken,[37] with three lay brothers, were immediately*
