far and wide, before the first Catholic priest appeared in Oceania.
Etienne Rochouse, a young priest of the so-called association of Picpus, founded at Paris in 1814, had been named "Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Oceania," with title of Bishop of Nelopolis in partibus, and about the close of 1833 embarked at Bordeaux with four missionaries[62] bound for Valparaiso, where the holy brethren arrived on 13th May, 1834. Their design was, wherever practicable, to forestal the Protestant missionaries in their zeal for conversion among the tribes of the South Sea Islands, whence they might diffuse themselves over the neighbouring countries, and thus gradually introduce themselves among the remotest populations, in the hope "that all, whom heresy has led astray and brought under its iron yoke, may be freely brought under the mild and gentle yoke of Catholic doctrine."[63]
In 1836, the catechist Columban Murphy was dispatched to the Sandwich Islands, with instructions to stop at Tahiti on his way, and to make on the spot all possible inquiries as to the probable prospects of establishing a Catholic mission there. This was the first representative of the Romish Church that had visited Tahiti during the thirty-nine years this island was evangelized; and, carried away by the blind religious fanaticism which in former centuries led the Spanish
monks so lamentably astray, Murphy believed that "hell itself must have been moved and puzzled by such an event!"[64] Murphy, or Columban, as he now called himself, travelled as a working carpenter, wore a thick beard, smoked a "cutty" pipe, and might have been taken for anything else under the sun than a Catholic priest. Although serious misgivings were felt by the native authorities as to his real quality, he nevertheless received permission to settle upon the island. He accordingly spent a couple of months here, and laboured with great zeal to pave the way for a Catholic settlement at a future period. In November of the same year, two more missionaries, Fathers Caret and Laval, came on to Tahiti. The circumstances under which they arrived aroused the suspicions of the authorities and of the entire population. For they did not land at Wilks's Harbour, at that time the only accessible harbour on the island, but secretly, on the opposite side. According to the law of the country, however, no captain or owner of a ship was permitted to land a passenger without having previously obtained the permission of the Queen or Governor of the island. After the two Catholic priests had gone the round of the island and had visited nearly all the native villages along the coast, they at last came to Wilks's Harbour, now Papeete, where they received a
most cordial welcome from a Belgian settler, the then American consul, Mr. Moehrenhout.
In the course of an interview which Laval and Caret had with the Queen, they remarked that they had only come to teach the word of God, and presented the youthful and at that period pretty-looking Queen Pomáre with a silk shawl. The Queen did not however seem disposed to accede to their wishes, but ordered the laws of the country to be read before them. The priests however declined listening to them, and took their departure.
A notification was hereupon conveyed to the two strangers that the Queen could not permit them to stay any longer upon the island, and a similar intimation was made to Mr. Moehrenhout. As the schooner which had brought Laval and Caret was preparing to set sail again, the opportunity was seized to dismiss them by the same conveyance which had landed them. They, meanwhile, had blockaded themselves in a house, to which they refused all admission. The schooner thereupon was detained for twenty-four hours, and the Queen's officers surrounded the house, awaiting the moment when the two missionaries were to leave the place. They never made their appearance however. Ultimately the officers of the law were compelled to tear off the roof from the house, while others, forcibly seizing the priests, conveyed them with their paraphernalia on board the schooner, which at once made sail, and carried them back to Gambier Island, whence they had last come. Notwithstanding the
ill-success of this first venture, Pater Caret made his appearance off Tahiti a second time seven weeks later, on board of an American brig, accompanied on this occasion by another priest, Father Maigrat. The captain of the brig, a man named Williams, wrote the Queen a letter requesting permission to land his two passengers. The answer was a firm refusal, and so continued, despite the repeated representations of the captain, as also of the above-mentioned M. Moerenhout. Upon this the captain went to work in true Yankee fashion with the view of landing the two Catholic missionaries by force on the island, but had to give way before the prudent but decided attitude of resistance adopted by the natives, who crowded down to the water's edge and prevented the boats from landing. This last attempt to carry matters with a high hand having failed, the captain set sail and carried off with him the two missionaries.
France, though no longer openly claiming the specific character of a Catholic monarchy as in the days of Louis XIV., but, on the contrary, proclaiming herself, by her laws at least, a free state for all forms of religious worship, apparently thought herself compelled to interfere in this quarrel, with all the weight of a great European power, two of whose subjects had been treated with unmerited indignity. Accordingly in September, 1838, the French frigate Venus, commanded by Commodore Du Petit-Thouars, appeared off Tahiti to demand satisfaction for the ill-treatment of the French missionaries Laval and Caret, which they assessed at
2000 Spanish piastres. At the same time a treaty was concluded between the French Government and Queen Pomáre, by which from that time all subjects of the King of France were to be at liberty to visit and reside in the Society Islands without molestation, and were to enjoy similar privileges with the English.[65]