Girard0293

3 December 1843 — Father Pierre Rougeyron to Father Claude-Joseph Favier, Wallis.

From the copy, APM OG 031, 8th departure.

Sheet and leaf forming six written pages, the fourth also bearing the address. The author of this letter is undoubtedly Pierre Rougeyron, since it is written in his hand; the recipient, Claude-Joseph Favier, was novice master at La Favorite from 1843 to 1845.

[p. 4]

[Address:] To the Reverend Father Favier, novice master, at La Favorite, House of the Reverend Marist Fathers, Lyon, Rue Saint-Irénée, no. — France

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[p. 1]

Wallis, 3 December 1843

My very Reverend Father,

[1]

In the kind letter that I received from you at Toulon, you seemed to express the wish to receive a letter from one who had the honour of being counted among your dear children of the novitiate. Well then, today I find myself only too happy to be able to satisfy you by giving you a rapid itinerary of our long voyage.

[2]

To finish at the end, one must begin at the beginning, as they say in my country. That is what you will permit your servant to do. On the third of May we left Toulon, with joy and sadness in our hearts at the same time: joy, as you understand, because we wanted to see that promised land, our adopted homeland; sorrow, for how could one not feel it when seeing plunged into grief persons who love you? Perhaps three thousand people were on the quays waiting for His Lordship. His Grace arrived, escorted by all the clergy of the city. At the moment when we stepped into the boat, everyone fell to their knees to ask for the episcopal blessing. It was given to that good people and to that good clergy, who were melting into tears. We too could not hold back our tears. In short, sail was set, and we greeted for the last time that beautiful land of France. I say nothing to you of the Balearic Islands, Cartagena, Gibraltar, Malaga, Algeciras, Tarifa, etc., because we saw all these places only in passing.

[3]

A few days later, we saw land: it was Santa Cruz in the Canary Islands. There we had the happiness of meeting the bishop, who had come to visit that city. When we told him that we were Marists, he wished to embrace us, because he knew Bishop Pompallier particularly well. He offered us breakfast; that was really all he could do, for he had been stripped of all his possessions by the Spanish government. Having refused to swear allegiance to Espartero, he expected from day to day to be sent into exile. But this did not frighten him. On seeing him, one guessed that he was a saint. We did not make a long stay in that city. The next day we had to leave.

[4]

We were soon consoled for this prompt departure, for before long we were to anchor again at Gorée, in Senegambia. Indeed we did anchor there, and on a very remarkable day, Ascension Day. We had the consolation of all saying Mass there. His Lordship officiated pontifically. We were agreeably surprised to find as parish priest a priest extremely distinguished both by his talents and by his piety. He is a mulatto. Although native-born, he had lived for a long time in Paris, where he had gone to study. Helped by some good religious sisters, he is doing great good among these inhabitants, who are partly Mohammedans. A league from there is the little kingdom of Dakar. Curious to know a little of this African land, I went there. The first thing to do was to see the king. We therefore paid him our visit. Imbued with our European ideas, I trembled as I approached the palace. Great God, is it possible? Instead of a palace, I saw a miserable hut like those our shepherds have in France. Instead of a brilliant throne, I saw there a kind of trestle on which the monarch was crouched; and the monarch was a handsome man, but a majesty without breeches. Some belt around his body and a turban were his adornment. Judge how simple I had been to be so apprehensive. We had a long and interesting conversation with him. Among other things, we asked him whether he liked the French. He told us yes, because the king of France gave him twelve hundred francs every year so that he would allow the French to come and fetch water in his kingdom. We then asked him whether he thought our religion was good. “Yes,” he said, “but less so than mine,” that is, Mohammedan. Without demonstrating to him the falsity of his religion, we urged him to join ours, which we presented to him as very good. He replied to this that he could not, because he would have to leave his wives. On that subject we asked him a question about the number of his wives. He answered us naively that he had only six, and that as for children it would be impossible for him to count their number, so numerous were they; and this is understandable, for besides his six wives, he may take those of others. Finally we asked him whether, knowing that the Catholic religion is the true one, he would wish to embrace it. “Yes,” he replied. Thereupon we gave him a medal of the Blessed Virgin, which he immediately hung around his neck. The Blessed Virgin now has an interest in saving that soul. On leaving the king’s hut, we witnessed an imposing spectacle. Thirty to forty marabouts, or priests of the country, were seated before the mosque. They were deliberating on the fate of a woman who had stolen. I do not know to what she was condemned, for during the judgment we entered the mosque, and secretly, fortunately, because those rash enough to cross that sacred threshold are stabbed. To sanctify that place by our passage, we sang a few verses of a hymn to the Blessed Virgin, which these marabouts found very beautiful. Then we withdrew. Ah! I forgot to tell you something that will show you the ignorance of this country. At almost every hour of the day we saw men and women making prostrations in the streets, then getting up, then throwing themselves forcefully to the ground while saying prayers and striking their breasts. It was at Gorée, on the eve of our departure, that for the first time since Toulon we saw Fathers Calinon, Favier, and Bréhéret, as well as the two Brothers, Raynaut and Annet. They had all been fairly well, except Brother Raynaut, who had had dysentery from drinking a quantity of seawater under the pretext of purging himself. He was purged indeed, and in fine fashion.

[5]

From our departure until Rio, there is nothing important to tell you, except perhaps that on the day when we crossed the Line, we were all baptized. But our baptism consisted in receiving a little rose water on the head, thanks to His Lordship’s generosity, while the officers themselves were plunged into a great basin of water and all powdered with flour. The baptism was worded thus: “In the name of the father of the Line, of his son the Tropic, and of the holy Sun that unites them.” We attended the sermon, but we were exempt from confession, which is rare on such occasions. To our satisfaction, there was nothing improper. It is useless to speak to you of the heat. For my part, I had become as black as the Blacks of Gorée.

[6]

Having arrived at Rio de Janeiro, we recovered a little from our fatigue. The sight of that great and beautiful city made us believe that we were still in one of our beautiful cities of France, and the delightful pleasure outings that we made there revived our exhausted strength. We were very well received: first, by the Pope’s internuncio, who invited us all to dinner; second, by a Picpus Father who is founding an establishment there; third, by the Comte de Sez, who also invited us to dinner at his country house - this Comte de Sez is an émigré; fourth and finally, by Mr André, an English convert. In this city, as in all the others, Bishop of Amatha knew so well how to please that he received several gifts there. I have spoken of our joy, but not of our sorrow: all the clergy, with the exception of two or three at most, are bad in the highest degree. I say no more; pray for their conversion. We were preparing to leave Rio de Janeiro in three days when a French ship was seen arriving. It was the Faéton. We therefore had the consolation of embracing our dear confreres, whom we found in good health. We were far from Rio when suddenly a dreadful storm arose, which brought us within two fingers’ breadth of our ruin. One would have had to see the crew during those two days that the storm lasted; consternation reigned everywhere. At the height of the storm, that is, on the second day, the idea came to us to throw a medal into the sea. We did so, and two hours later the sails were torn into a thousand pieces and the frigate was saved, for either the sails had to be carried away or the ship had to be wrecked. Thanks to Mary, the choice was good.

[p. 4]

[7]

As I have kept silent about the heat of the torrid zone, I shall likewise keep silent about the cold of Cape Horn. I shall tell you only that at the end of July it was snowing and freezing there so hard that several sailors had frozen feet. A month after leaving Cape Horn, we found ourselves opposite Valparaiso, where we stayed three weeks with the good Picpus Fathers. His Lordship confirmed almost the whole city, which has 30,000 to 40,000 souls. There likewise he received precious gifts.

[8]

I have not yet told you anything of our crossing. The voyage is beautiful, but it is very painful. Besides seasickness, which causes horrible suffering and which everyone had, more or less, with the exception perhaps of His Lordship and Mr Mathieu, there is the suffering caused by the monotony of the voyage and by boredom. In addition, we suffered greatly from the heat of the tropics and from thirst, for once our water ration was exhausted, we had to go without. I do not speak of the food, for as long as one has bread one is not hungry. It happened to us that we drank water as thick as that of a muddy pool because of the vermin in it. It smells of manure when it rots, but afterward it becomes good again. We suffered a little from the cold at Cape Horn; the thermometer went down to 7 degrees below zero. But our greatest hardship came from the quarters we occupied. In a cabin 12 feet long by about 6 wide, there were 12 of us. There was also a cannon and all our trunks and our beds. Thus we were piled on top of one another. That is not all. At night, and often during the day, the hatch was closed. We had no breathable air left. We swallowed whole mouthfuls of pure nitrogen, and more than once we slept on deck under the stars. But from Valparaiso onward, we did not have a lodging, even on deck. There were animals of every kind, even “academicians of Arcadia.” It was a true Noah’s ark.

[p. 5]

[9]

A month after leaving Valparaiso, we sighted the Marquesas Islands, where the Uranie was going to found a colony in the name of France. These islands are the least fertile of all those I have seen, but in compensation there is a very good harbor. We had scarcely spent ten days there when the governor informed us that we would have to disembark, because the frigate was going to Tahiti. We did not know where to find lodging while waiting for the arrival of the Faéton. But Providence, which had always served us until that day, served us still better on this occasion: a little warship was waiting for us in the harbor. The admiral told us that this ship was at our orders to transport us to our islands. We were delighted by this news, we who until then had not known how we would be transported from Nuhiva to our islands. Another difficulty arose: whether we should wait for the missionary Fathers of the Faéton or not. To wait for them was to expose the mission, for the admiral had received a letter in which he was asked to have the missions of Wallis and Tonga, tormented by the Protestants, visited as soon as possible. So we decided to leave at once, but only after a promise had been made to His Lordship that the other missionaries would be brought.

[10]

After a month’s crossing, we arrived at Tongatapu, where we found Fathers Chevron and Grange and Brother Athale. Our arrival was a true act of Providence for them. They were in the greatest destitution. There is no poor person in France who would be in greater need. They lacked everything, even - shall I say it - the food necessary to sustain their existence. They ate only when the natives brought them something to eat, and more than once they had not a mouthful of anything whatsoever to put between their teeth. I was told that Father Chevron had gone a day and a half without taking anything; finally, pressed by hunger, he went more than two leagues to seek a few poor roots to appease his devouring hunger. Father Grange is exhausted by these long fasts. His health suffers greatly from them. In his frankness he admitted to me more than once that he had desired death to put an end to so much misery. Bishop of Amatha left them a good portion of what he had, but he had too little in goods such as tools, linens, etc. He had only money, and money in these countries is a very small resource. The inhabitants do not want money, but objects. If only Bishop Pompallier had sent them what had been addressed to them from Lyon; but no, they have received nothing. They were as if abandoned. It is therefore not astonishing that the Protestants spread the rumor that they had been cast there by the waves. It appears that New Zealand has until now been an immense gulf that has swallowed everything. I keep silent about so many miseries, for there would be too much to say. I think that His Lordship and the other missionaries who witnessed them have informed the Reverend Father Superior. At the sight of so many evils, none of us could hold back his tears. Saint Paul says that the merit of the apostolic man is to be content with what is necessary for food and clothing, but certainly these poor Fathers do not even have that. Their merits are great before God and before men. Thus they are succeeding marvelously in this mission. In a few years we would not be astonished if this great island of Tongatapu were entirely Catholic, despite the efforts of the Protestants. The commander of our ship, together with His Lordship, visited all the chiefs and gave them presents, which disposed them very well toward the Catholic mission and dispelled the natives’ prejudices, for they saw with their own eyes that our missionaries were not men cast upon their land by the waves, and that France was not a little speck in relation to England, but that it was powerful. The admiral promised to have us visited every year. This will be a great happiness.

[11]

Since we were not at the end of our course, we made our way toward Wallis. We were soon able to greet that land of desire. The next day, to our great astonishment, we embraced Bishop Bataillon and Father Viard, superior of the mission. Bishop Bataillon was as if stunned by the news of his appointment, but the natives felt the greatest joy. The consecration took place on Sunday, 3 December, the feast of Saint Francis Xavier. That day was also very memorable: it was on such a day that he had said Mass for the first time when he entered the island. The ceremony went very well. After the consecration, the officers of the ship, together with the king and the principal chiefs, were invited to dinner, and after dinner to drink the kava. I cannot tell you any more, for I am running out of paper.

[12]

I beg you to present my respects to the Reverend Father Superior, to the Father Provincial, to Father Cholleton, and to all the other good Fathers, not forgetting Father Girard, to whom I propose to write. Please also offer my affectionate greetings to the confreres of the novitiate and share with them, if possible, this rough letter. Above all do not forget Mr Charre and Mr Choisin and all those who made their novitiate at the same time as I did. Farewell, my dear Father; pray for me. I pray for you. Remember me to the prayers of your excellent father. Send me news of yourself from time to time.

[p. 5, in the margin and crosswise]

[13]

Our apostolic college has greatly diminished. Fathers Calinon, Favier, and Bréhéret are on the way aboard the Faéton; Fathers Mathieu and Roudaire are at Wallis, as is Mr Grézel. I find myself alone with Bishop of Amatha and the two Brothers Jean and Blaise to go to New Caledonia. On our passage we visited Futuna, where we found Fathers Servant and Roulleaux and Brother Nizier. All the missions that we visited satisfied us greatly. Father Viard, who was superior at Wallis, is returning to New Zealand.

[p. 3, in the margin and crosswise]

[14]

My Reverend Father, I still remember the class on rubrics that you gave us, and to prove it to you, I shall tell you that I had a little discussion with His Lordship about the rubrics. Here it is, without giving you the reasons that argued on either side: should one celebrate the feasts translationis domus lautretanæ and expectationis beatæ Mariæ Virginis partus, which fall in Advent, despite the decree of the Sacred Congregation found at the beginning of the breviary, which forbids celebrating them? Please tell me your opinion.

Textual Notes

• §2: The edition notes a correction involving “n’avons” and “ne les avons.”
• §4: The edition notes insertions and corrections around “lui,” “mais qu’il,” “et en secret,” “Toulon,” and “assez.”
• §7-§9: The edition notes corrections involving “Je vous,” “le monde a eu,” “Horn,” “nos,” “missionnaires,” “les,” and “de Wallis et de Tonga.”
• §10-§13: The edition notes several words inserted above the line, including “car,” “mais qu’elle était puissante,” “au p. Cholleton,” and “pour aller à la Nelle Calédonie.”
• §14: The edition notes a correction involving “dirai.”