RENEWED RESISTANCE & THE LAST CIVIL WAR IN TONGA, 1852 (contd) IN 1841, when news reached Pompallier of the murder of Father Chanel at Futuna, he wrote to the captain of the French corvette LAube, M. Lavaud, on Nov. 6 1841, xpressing his indignation at what he believed to be the apathy of Capt. DUrville of the Astrolabe in not visiting the missions at Uvea and Futuna while hes in those waters...but instead taking as a passenger to a neighboring island the intolerant Misa Tomasi...as whose instigation Tupou I had banished him and his missionaries from Vavau 4yrs before. Pompallier complained that he couldnt understand why no ship had visited Uvea and Futuna, despite the letters hed sent to the French stations and consuls at Valpariso, Tahiti and to the ministers of foreign affairs and of the admiralty. Lavaud immediately placed the corevette LAllier and her commander, Capt. du Bouset, at Pompalliers service...with this protection Pompallier fulfilled his promise to return to Vavau and according to his acct: (Pompallier 1888:78) We left Akaroa with the Sancta Maria and the corvette the Allier towards the end of November. The first stoppage we made was at the harbour of refuge in the Island of Vavau. It was Christmas time, and I celebrated the Holy Offices with great solemnity on board the Allier, which was anchored off the shore. The Commander, M. Bouset, rendered the Catholic Bishop military honours off this island, firing a salvo of artillery; then he called together all the chiefs of the tribes to a great meeting on shore, where, with dignity, loyalty, and firmness, he read them a well-deserved lesson on civilisation. He reproached them with the civil intolerance (imposed by the Methodist missionaries) they had shown me nearly four years before, in refusing to allow me to stay on their island. He exacted from them that, for the future, they should not behave in a like manner of any French subject, whosoever he might be. All the chiefs received the advise of the noble commander with docility (Brookes (1941:84) claimed that, The French government and the French commanders consistently confused the issue on Oceania by insisting that the xpulsion of French missionaries was a deliberate insult against their nobility...when the crux of the situations obviously only the question of freedom to proselytize.)
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 21:28:57 +0000
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