Girard0418

18 October 1845. — Letter from Léopold Verguet to Jean-Claude Colin

Translated by Charles Girard SM, March 2010

For our very reverend Father superior Very reverend Father,

[1]

In this letter I am enclosing the natives’ portraits about which I had spoken to you previously, and I want to tell you how much I would like for them to be distributed; but I leave everything to your discretion. I am sending you seven portraits of natives. 1. A man smoking a pipe, and wearing on his shoulders a New Zealand cloak of black ruffled formium tenax; on the same sheet a woman and a small child. I would like for you to keep this sheet. If you see fit to keep these drawings, I ask you to have them framed. You would do well, I think, to divide the sheet and frame the man and the woman separately.

[2]

2. The same ones on two separate sheets with a few slight differences. These are true portraits dawn under a rock with two openings in a native camp. They are quite close resemblances but not dark enough. I ask you to send them to Mr. A. Hugh, president or vice-president of the Oriental Society, 67 Saint Anne Street, Paris, and to enclose with it the letter which accompanies these portraits if you judge it fitting after having seen the same.

[3]

3. A portrait of a native, larger than those which precede. I would like that it be sent to Mr. Verguet, Triviale Street, in Carcassonne. I anticipate the pleasure that this image will bring to my father.

I have the honor of being, very reverend Father, your very humble and very affectionate servant,

Léopold Verguet apostolic missionary Society of Mary Sydney, 18 October 1845