lo8 Voyage of the Novara. 



and the events which speedily ensued are but a series of acts 

 of violence and humiliations inflicted, so entirely unjustifi- 

 able, that even the French Government found itself in the 

 end compelled to disaj^prove and condemn the acts of its 

 representatives in Oceania. 



In September, 1842, M. Du Petit-Thouars came on a 

 second visit to Tahiti. He had by this time been promoted 

 to his flag, and had been appointed Captain-general of the 

 French stations in the Southern Ocean. He had already 

 taken jiossession of the Marquesas Islands in the name of 

 France, and appeared to have come to Tahiti with similar 

 intentions. This second visit terminated after the Queen 

 and her subjects had been submitted to the most cruel 

 humiliations, in the establishment of a French protectorate, 

 which several chiefs demanded in a document addressed by 

 them to Louis Philippe, and which the Queen was compelled 

 to subscribe. In November, 1843, Du Petit-Thouars came 

 once more to Papeete, and now took possession of the entire 

 island, on the flimsy pretext that an intentional insult had 

 been given to France, in the shape of a flag which he saw 

 waving above the Queen's residence, and which he mistook 

 for that of England ! The Tahitian flag was forcibly struck 

 by the French soldiers, and replaced by that of France, 

 while Tahiti itself was declared a French colony. Queen 

 Pomare protested against this new high-handed insult ; she 

 wrote a letter of complaint to the French monarch, relating 

 the extravagances of his officers, and in a dignified and 



