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25 July 1844 - Father Joseph-François Roulleaux to Father Victor Poupinel, Tonga

Based on the dispatch copy, APM OF 208 (Fiji), Roulleaux.

Sheet of “Bath” paper, measuring 164 × 217 mm when folded and forming four written pages.

Translated by Merv Duffy & ChatGPT, November 2026.

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[p. 1]

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you!

Tonga, 25 July 1844

To the Reverend Father Poupinel, Procurator General of the Missions of Oceania.

Reverend Father,

[1]

Please do not attribute my silence to any improper motive. What reason could I have for not writing to you, after all the consideration you have shown me? If I have not done so, it is because I lacked either time or opportunities. When I left New Zealand to come to these islands, I was given only a few days’ notice. I scarcely had time to pack my trunk and hastily inform our Very Reverend Father that I had had the happiness of taking my vows and that he now had one more child. After we landed at Futuna, I was constantly occupied either in accompanying Bishop Pompallier on his journeys, since Father Servant was unable to walk, or in copying his catechism, his instructions, our faculties, etc. Everything was done in such haste that I left my cloak and the theology of Saint Alphonsus Liguori aboard the ship. Several opportunities did arise during the two years I remained on Futuna, but Father Servant alone was able to take advantage of them. Since I was responsible for exercising the holy ministry in the part of the island where our venerated confrère, the Reverend Father Chanel, was massacred, I learned that a ship had arrived only after it had departed. Providence has at last given me a few moments today in which to make amends for the past.

[2]

I am in Tonga, which Bishop Bataillon is visiting before taking Father Bréhéret and me to the Fiji Islands. You have no doubt learned, from the letters written to France, of the various missions in which I have served. I remained for nearly a year at Okiaga and for two years at Futuna, always under the direction of the Reverend Father Servant. It was only at the latter station that I began to exercise the holy ministry in earnest, amid [p. 2] many hardships and much opposition. If good is accomplished only with difficulty everywhere, this is especially true in the missions; the devil makes his power clearly felt before yielding ground.

[3]

We had been preceded at Futuna by a young chief from the Wallis Islands, a man of unheard-of malice who possessed great talents that he employed only in doing evil. He had brought with him nearly 200 islanders, most of whom had been baptized but were no better for it. During the year they remained on the island, they caused harm that several years will scarcely suffice to repair. They took advantage of our limited knowledge of the language to stir up war, embitter people against one another, prejudice them against us through slander, revive dancing and tattooing, and resurrect the old superstitions that had been abandoned. Twice we saw war on the point of breaking out; an attempt was made to assassinate the king; and every effort was made to prevent the construction of the churches, especially the one erected on the very spot where the first martyr of Oceania shed his blood. The details of this diabolical warfare are quite remarkable, but too lengthy. So that there could be no mistake about their author, the fiercest attacks took place on feast days of the Blessed Virgin. On one of her feasts, the Brother and I were going, after holy Mass, to supervise the work on the first church. Everything had been calm and peaceful the previous day, but we encountered groups of islanders running like madmen, spears in hand, toward the valley where we lived. Astonished, we asked them what was happening, but instead of answering us, they said: “Where is the king? Where is the king?” - “He is attending the rector’s Mass.” - “No, they intend to kill him; we are running to defend him.” We could not restrain them. Farther on, we saw women fleeing toward the mountains to hide the valuables they were carrying, while their children followed them in tears. Yet all this terror was entirely groundless. An hour later, everyone, having discovered the mistake, gathered around us to work. [p. 3]

[4]

We had many other difficulties concerning the church at Poi. For two whole months we were unable to begin it; every day brought new obstacles. At last, after removing them one after another, I went with Brother Marie-Nizier to supervise its construction. People from all the valleys had assembled. The day before, I marked out its dimensions, and that evening, after nightfall, I sprinkled holy water all around it. The following morning, I summoned all the islanders to the foot of the cross erected by Bishop Pompallier on the very spot where Father Chanel’s blood had flowed. I asked them to appoint someone to oversee the work; the votes were united in favor of the son of the king responsible for the murder, who was now king of part of the island. I exhorted them to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the work they were about to undertake. “This is not an ordinary task,” I told them. “It is holy work; it is a house that you are about to raise to God on the very spot where the blood of your first apostle is still steaming,” etc. I then gave the signal to kneel. Together we recited the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Creed aloud; I made the sign of the cross, and they immediately set to work. The four men who had murdered the Father were there. I owe them this testimony: they were the ones who showed the greatest courage and goodwill during the work, especially the man who had struck the first blow. His entire outward appearance indicated repentance; I do not remember seeing him laugh once during all that time. The church is quite satisfactory. It measures seventy-five feet by thirty, and its entrance faces the sea. The sanctuary and its two sides encompass the whole of the Reverend Father Chanel’s house. The right side of the altar covers the place where he was sitting when he received the fatal blow. The place where his head rested when he died and where he shed his blood is on the right side of the sanctuary, near the altar rail. The cross marking it remains where Bishop Pompallier placed it. The place where he was buried is outside, near the enclosure surrounding the church, in the cemetery. It is marked with stones in the islanders’ manner until something better can be done. [p. 4]

[5]

The church was nearing completion when the Blessed Virgin delivered us from the greatest enemy of our mission. Around the middle of May, the chief from Wallis departed for his island with his band. Father Servant and I breathed freely again. We were beginning to make ourselves fairly well understood by the islanders, and we applied ourselves to their instruction with entirely renewed zeal.

[6]

A short time later, the Bishop of Amata arrived and assigned each of us half the island to evangelize. From that moment, everything changed. We soon made the neophytes understand that they had been deceived and had allowed themselves to be led astray. We could not keep up with the confessions; we had to spend part of the nights hearing them. The abuses soon disappeared, and today the mission is on a very sound footing. A good proportion of the islanders have made their First Communion and conduct themselves in the most edifying manner, with as much regularity as the most fervent Christians in France. They lack only more complete instruction. In another year or two, Futuna will, I think, be the finest mission in the vicariate and the one that will provide the greatest consolation. Its isolation, its limited contact with ships, the inhabitants’ love of work, and their strength of character confirm me in this opinion. Moreover, their conversion to the faith is based entirely on conviction and has involved no self-interest. They have not been spoiled by gifts; we have given them nothing since we arrived. As if Providence wished to continue what we had begun, the allotment of supplies that the Bishop intended for them was almost entirely consumed by fire in an unforeseen accident. They have more simplicity than the people of Wallis and more energy than those of Tonga. They are men who reason and reflect. They do not yield easily, but once convinced, they remain firm and do not turn back. The only thing is that they have not yet all renounced that underlying habit of falsehood to which paganism had accustomed them; but instruction will overcome this habit as it has all the others.

[7]

May the Fijians to whom I am being sent resemble them! Yet those whom I have seen here, and everything said about them, do not allow me to believe that they do. They are fierce men [p. 4, in the margin] with a savage look. Be sure, Reverend Father, to obtain for us through your prayers the strength we need in so difficult a mission; and believe in the respectful and grateful sentiments with which I remain your confrère,

Joseph-François Roulleaux,
Apostolic Missionary

[p. 3, in the margin]

[8]

Postscript. You offer me your services; it would be prideful not to take advantage of them. You would greatly oblige me by sending me a complete set of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, a manual of burial rites, a biretta, a pair of razors with a hone for sharpening them, and a penknife. I would like my cassocks to be made without tails, one inch shorter, and with sleeves open at the ends. I have not received the supplies you sent me. They will remain in New Zealand. I have been going barefoot for fifteen months.

[p. 2, in the margin]

[9]

Postscript. Father Chanel’s journal has been returned. The first volume is at the Bay of Islands; I entrusted the second to Bishop Bataillon. It is written up to within six days of his death and contains many edifying things. I have his missionary cross, which the Bishop gave me. His totum is in Bishop Bataillon’s hands. The cassock in which he died is in the Church of Our Lady of the Martyrs at Futuna, together with the fragments and remains of his chapel.

[p. 1, in the margin]

[10]

Postscript. Please commend me to the kind remembrance and prayers of our fathers, especially the Reverend Father Maîtrepierre, the Reverend Father Teraillon, the Reverend Father Girard, the Reverend Father Dusurgeay, the Reverend Father Director, etc., etc.