Puurs.. Civilization of the Pacific. 67 
France. 
In 1842 France obtained the sovereignty of the Marquesas by treaty, and 
: established a military colony upon Nukuhiva. In 1859 that experiment 
was abandoned. A few officials, and a couple of Roman Catholic mis- 
sionaries, who have given up all hope of converting the natives and taken 
to planting, alone remain on the group. In 1844 the French Government 
established a protectorate over Tahiti, or the Society Islands, and conse- 
quently over the Paumotas (Low Archipelago), as there has always existed a 
close connection between the two groups. 
In 1854 France took official possession of New Caledonis. With the 
exception of soiling a fair island with the refuse of her population, France 
has not made any colonising efforts. The natives are not benefited by the 
contact, and the resources of the islands are not developed. No matter how 
anxious the authorities at home may be for the progress of the colonies, 
French officials abroad alone represent their country—the nation does not 
appear to follow Government action. French occupation in the Pacific 
deteriorates but does not improve the native islanders, who are first awed 
into submission and then demoralised. Religious instruction is supplied by 
the Roman Catholic missionaries, who can always rely upon the bayonets 
of the gens-d'armes for assistance. France has found it impossible to do 
anything with the Marquesas, although a finer or more intelligent race of 
natives does not exist. The immorality of the Tahitians is a standing dis- 
grace to French occupation. The natives of the Loyalty Islands, over 
whom France, I suppose, claims sovereignty (I have not seen any official 
notification of the fact), would much prefer our English missionaries to the 
Roman Catholic missionaries and French bayonets. If the English mis- 
sionaries would but speak out, what a charge-sheet could they bring against 
France and the French in the Pacific! Oppression of white industry, 
bribery, forcible conversion of the natives, kidnapping, etc., etc., would be 
but a few of the charges. * 
* While entertaining every respect for the Roman Catholic religion—for every religion, 
in my opinion, is entitled to respect—I cannot help stating that in the Pacific its members 
have been too anxious to extend their particular creed. Surely, when other Catholic 
missionaries had been striving for years to Christianize the inhabitants of any particular 
group of islands, Roman Catholic missionaries might well have refrained from interfering. 
** Go thou to the right, and I will go to the left," might have been a good maxim for their 
guidance. With the hundreds of millions of Chinese and Japanese almost entirely in 
their hands, the few thousands of Polynesians might have been left to the Protestant 
missionaries, especially as they were first in the field. I feel certain that neither 
Christianity nor civilization has benefited by this interference, for the natives now hardly 
know which particular creed to respect. It is true that Protestant missionaries sometimes 
acted antagonistically to Roman Catholic clergymen, but the question is, whether the 
latter should have given cause for such antagonism. 
