The first members of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost arrived in the Gabon estuary in 1844. Their activities were largely confined to the northern shore of the estuary and nearby Cape Esterias until 1878. When they began to establish posts on the coasts from Loango to Rio Muni and at various points in the Ogooué and N'Gounié valleys. The establishment of New Kamerun and the coming of the First World War delayed their penetration into the Fang areas of the northern interior until the 1920s. Prior to the early 1880s all of Gabon belonged to the Vicariate Apostolic of the Two Guineas with its bishop at Libreville. After that time the southern coasts were assigned to the new Vicariate Apostolic of Loango. Loango itself formed part of the colony of Gabon until 1918 when it was definitively attached to the Middle Congo.The kinds of records deriving from the Spiritan presence in Gabon, which are housed in the mother house of the French province, include: (1) the Bulletin Général de la Congrégation, handwritten from 1857 to 1885 and then printed. The Bulletin summarizes the activities of each vicariate and each mission station, annually at first and then for periods of two to four years. (2) Annual and five-year reports to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome; annual reports to the Oeuvres de la Propagation de la Foi and the Oeuvre de la Sainte Enfance, French lay organizations which provided the bulk of the funds for missionary activities; reports to the superior-general of the congregation and later to the secretary for African missions.
