First Arrival of Catholic Missionaries. 203 



far and wide, before the first Catholic priest appeared in 

 Oceania^ 



Etienne Rochouse, a young priest of the so-called associa- 

 tion of Picpus, founded at Paris in 1814, had been named 

 '' Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Oceania," with title of Bishop of 

 Nelopolis in partihus^ and about the close of 1 833 embarked 

 at Bordeaux with four missionaries * 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 intro- 

 duce 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." f 



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 Span- 



* These four missionaries were named Chrysostome Liansu, Franpois d'Assis 

 Caret, Honore Laval, and Columban Murphy, an Irish catechist. 

 f Vide Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, No. xli. p. 31. 



