MISSION OF POLYNESIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 211, 20 April 1877, Page 15

MISSION OF POLYNESIA.

The following extract is portion of a letter written by the "Vicar Apostolic of New Caledonia to M. Louis Veuillot, and translated for ' the .New York Freeman's Journal : — j The Marist Fathers wure, indeed, called upon to become the heroic fore<unners of Christ to unknown seas, now renowned for their rocks and the shipwreck* they have occasioned s among islands the soil, the climate and the resources of which were unknown to them ; among inhabitants of whose language, manners and customs they knew still less. They set out, nevertheless, and in this vast extent of land and water, whe c the incense of prayer never ascended to heaven, may now be seen three dioceses (in New Zealand), three Vicariates, one Prefecture Apostolic, and at least fifty thousand Catholics, and I knoj^lot how munj Catechumens. We must confess that the humble litt^. penny of the Propagation of the Faith has not been last in these regions. Tho Now Hebrides have not been forgotten by these Missionaries. Twice have they gone into them to carry the glad tidings. The first time they established themselves for even more thm a year at Annatotn, the island nearest to the Friendly ; but whether from the condition of the soil on which they pitched their tents, whether . through ignorance of the hygienic precautions taken by the Europeans of to-day j all were stricken by a certain miasmatic fer-r which quickly undermined their health, and compelled them to seek the more salubrious climate of New Caledonia. A few years later three courageous missionaries, natives of Arvernes, undertook to renew the contest, and set out under the direction of Rev. Father Rondaire. What became of them God only knows. The eea has kept it secret and our necrology simply says that

hey are supposed to be dead. I, however, who, in spite of unworthiness. am entrusted with ihe heritag- of these heroes, my ear ever on the alert to catch whatever whi-per the ocean may <-arry upon irs breath, I have heard a vague rumor. It is s lid th >t a certain English preacher having landed at Atalicolo, one of the Hordes, a baud ->f the chief men on the island met him with these words : •' We want uot thy word ; we await the religion of the black gowns we hare eaten." Our poor brethren, whose object was to go a little farther up. to Tiropia, mutt then h-ive been cast by the te npesb or some other acci lent upon the inhospi'able shores of Maliculo, and been devoured by its ferocious inhabitants. Be it as it in iy, Mr. Editor, all my missionaries yearned most ardently to undertake the dangerous expediiion, and a few months a^o, upon the mere hypothesis of possibility, requests for penma^i in to set out re iched me in great numbers. Unhappily lam sti 1 sadly in nee lof men and resources I cannot disor^ani-te what is now in opera ion, to run the risk of founding a mission which it w >uld be impos ible for me to keep up. It is, indeed, painful for a Bishop to abandon a Und already dyed with the blood andsweatof his brethren ; but he must not expose hi "self to the evangelical condemnation :: — ■ '" This man commenced to build and could not finish his work."