CHAPTER II.
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CHAPTER II.
Equipment and Departure of the Mission--The King of France grants his Protection--Departure from Havre--Perils of Navigation from the Start--Departure from Teneriffe--Stoppages en route, and Arrival and Stay at Valparaiso.
HAVING been admitted on several occasions to audience with our Holy Father the Pope, and having received special marks of his goodness and his Pontifical blessing, I started on my return to France, in order to commence there active preparations for the departure of the mission, the prompt execution of which was earnestly desired by His Holiness. It was the end of July, 1836, that I left Rome. With the assistance received from the Holy Congregation and the Association for the Propagation of the Faith, I was enabled to attend to all preparations for the voyage of the mission.
I remained at Lyons for a short while to make a retreat with the Marist priests. Then I took with me the four priests whose names had been sent to the Propaganda and which we have already given, and to these were added three lay religious members of the same society to aid us in our labours. We were eight in all, consecrated to the mission at its first beginning. Our embarkation on the ocean was to be made at Havre de Grace, on a French vessel called the Delphine, on board of which I had secured passages from the agent of the shipowner in Paris. This vessel was to take us as far as Valparaiso, where we hoped to meet with another boat to carry us to the South Pacific. Whilst awaiting the time of the ship's departure, I resided for a time at Paris, where I paid my respects to the king, who accorded me his protection with special kindness. We shall see later on that it is to this powerful and efficacious protection that I have reason to attribute my deliverance from civil intolerance and the annoyances of the English Protestant ministers in Oceania.
On the 11th November, 1836, I was at Havre de Grace with my companions to embark on the Delphine, which had been advertised to depart on that date. But the contrary winds which then prevailed compelled us to remain about forty days at this port. Whilst waiting we were hospitably received by Madame Dodard, an old widow lady, who was very rich and very charitable, and who would not allow the missionaries sailing from Havre to have other roof or table than her own.
At length on the 24th December, Christmas Eve, 1836, a favourable breeze, so long waited for by the captain and all the passengers, sprang up and enabled us to set sail. In leaving the harbour at Havre we executed a manoeuvre which did not turn out very well for our ship. Her rudder was damaged near the keel, where the injury was difficult to discover. We cleared the channel in twenty-seven hours, being favoured with a very strong wind. Even when we had arrived in the open sea, in the Atlantic Ocean, no one knew that the rudder had been seriously injured about that part of the iron-work which did not show. When we were in the latitude of Madeira, the captain, warned by the steersman, saw the injury, which had been augmented on our journey. The rudder was scarcely holding on to the vessel; all the irons but one were broken. We thought of nothing then but making for the nearest land, and directed our course to Teneriffe, which we were able to reach safe and sound about the 10th January, 1837, thanks to the protection of God. There, with much difficulty, we had another rudder made, and through various unavoidable delays we made a stay of fifty days at
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EMBARKING AT VALPARAISO.
the town of Santa Cruz. The clergy and the authorities of this city received us well. Their lordships the Bishops of Laguna and of the Canary Islands helped us in our little reverses and favoured us according to their means. The latter sent me some help, and made me a present of a precious Episcopal ring. Some of my companions fell sick during this detention at Teneriffe, but their health was re-established by the time of our departure.
About the beginning of March we were enabled to set sail again for Valparaiso. We had an excellent new rudder, and sailed with favourable wind and sea. But M. Bret was seized with headache, which degenerated into brain fever, and after nineteen days sailing he died just as we were on the point of crossing the line to enter the southern hemisphere. Alas! what an affliction for us all. How impenetrable are the designs of God. We were but four priests and a prelate, and the Lord calls one of us to his reward. His last moments received all the succours of religion at the hands of his Bishop; his body received funeral honours before being cast into the depths, and his soul went to receive that beautiful crown of apostleship which we are forcing ourselves to win in confronting the many perils that await us.
After crossing the line towards the Falkland Islands and Cape Horn, we had head winds and a very heavy sea. This delayed us on our passage to Valparaiso. The water on board became bad and ran short. The captain was obliged to put all his crew and ourselves on short rations. This was the extent of our trials. But we were rewarded for the hardships of our experiences at sea by the consolation we were to render the sailors, the greater part of whom attended their Easter duties on the passage.
We arrived at Valparaiso towards the end of June, 1837. We were hospitably received by the missionaries of Pic-pus. There we waited for the chance of some vessel that would enable us to proceed over the some two thousand leagues yet before us to reach either the Friendly Islands or New Zealand, which are in the southern part of my jurisdiction. It was there that I wished to commence my spiritual work. But two months elapsed without my being able to get a vessel sailing for those parts. Although the roadstead of Valparaiso is frequented by a number of vessels, it was rare in those days to find any sailing for the South Pacific. However, after two months' delay and inquiry, an occasion presented itself to enable us to get somewhat nearer to the region under my jurisdiction. It was that of a three-masted American ship called the Europa, which was bound for the Sandwich Islands, touching at Gambier and Tahiti. Now, from the Sandwich Islands, according to information received at Valparaiso, it would be easy to reach the Island of Pounipet or Ascension Island, which is a rather large island or archipelago under my jurisdiction, about eight or nine hundred leagues from the Sandwich Islands.
