| 44 such was their harsh and intolerant policy, that two Catholic priests, with a third person, a carpenter, were forcibly deported from Tahiti."
This aggression drew down the vengeance of the French government, and in 1842 (about six months before Bro. Addison Pratt sailed from New Bedford for the South Seas), Admiral Thonars arrived and obliged Queen Pomare to sign a treaty which allowed liberty to all French subjects. After various controversies, backed by the presence of a powerful fleet, Captain Brouat, early in January, 1844, landed a strong force, hauled down Queen Pomare's standard, and hoisted the French flag. Since that time the Society group have been nominally under the French protectorate.
"In the abstract, however, French protection is but a name, for their power is absolute, and in a few years there will be no evidence of the years of labor and expense bestowed in rendering this beautiful island and its people civilized, in an English sense.
"The protectors, with their military system, have proven to be bad colonizers; they have neither developed the few resources of the islands, nor greatly changed the character of the natives.
"It may be reckoned that by far the larger number of the inhabitants of Tahiti and Eimeo profess Protestantism, whereas the number of native Catholics does not exceed one hundred in both islands."
THE MISSION TO THE SOUTH SEAS.
In the spring of 1843, Joseph the Martyr appointed Elders Noah Rogers, Addison Pratt, Benj. F Grouard, and K. Hanks, on a mission to the South Sea Islands. These brethren left Nauvoo on the first of June of that year, and embarked at New Bedford on the 9th of the ensuing October. Bro. Hanks was buried at sea on the 3d of November. On the 30th of April, 1844, they made the island of Touboni (the principal one of the Austral group), and there left Bro. Pratt. They then sailed for Matavia Bay, Tahiti, arriving there on the 14th of the same month. 1 Bro. Pratt had great success at Touboni; and Elders Rogers and Grouard succeeded in building up a branch of the church at Papeete, the capital town of Tahiti.
On the 3d of July, 1845, Elder Roger sailed for America, and some time after that, Bro. Grouard left the Papeete Branch of the church in charge of Bro. Seth Lincoln [father of Elder G. S. Lincoln, now of San Francisco], and went to Anaa (pronounced, Ah-na-ah), or Chain Island. He was there joined by Bro. Pratt. In a short time they baptized nearly all the inhabitants on the island.
The Pacific Directory unwittingly pays these brethren a very handsome compliment, which we here insert: "A great change has been brought about in the character of these islanders within the last forty years, during which the Tahitian Protestant missionaries have been established at Anaa. . . . They have imbibed better tastes, and the Christian influence has made them more peaceful. . . . Since the establishment of the
1 This is evidently an error and should read May 14.
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