Girard0046

7 January 1840 — Bishop Jean-Baptiste-François Pompallier to Father Jean-Claude Colin, Bay of Islands

Translated by Fr Brian Quin SM, March 2010

[Address]

To Father Colin, Superior-General of the priests of the Society of Mary, Lyon, 4 St Barthelemy Rise, Lyon, France.

J(esus) M(ary) J(oseph)

St Mary’s Mission, New Zealand, Bay of Islands

7 January 1840

Reverend Father

[1]

The last letter I sent you was dated 7th December 1839. It should have borne the number 17, but I forgot to write it. This one is to refer you to and recommend to you another ship’s captain whom I esteem and like, just as I do M. Lateste, about whom I spoke in the preceding letter. So if the first one, for whatever reason, was not able to carry out the responsibility he had offered himself for, this latter one, named M. Pelletier, and captain of the whaling ship La Meuse, could very well perform the role I have suggested. He has offered me his services with dedication, and I can provide all the good references about him as I gave about M. Lateste. I will not repeat to you the things that I told you in that letter of which he was the bearer, just as M. Pelletier is of this one, because I am short of time and I think that the earlier letter, No 17, will have got to you even if M. Lateste has encountered circumstances which have prevented him from carrying out his plans and mine. Anyway, as there are [in it] some very important things concerning the purchase and the use of a ship for our mission, I beg you to look for that letter if it has not already got to you: to do that you will only have to write to M. Emile Franque at Le Havre, the home port of the ship La Nevée which M. Lateste commanded in 1839 and 1840. On the basis of this information alone, M. Franque will soon find out where M. Lateste is living and will request him either by a visit or a letter to give you the one I sent him and which contains things which concern not only him alone but the mission as well.

Yours affectionately in J(esus) and M(ary)

+ J(ean) B(aptiste) François; Bishop of Mar(onea), Vic(ar) Ap(ostolic)

Notes

Previous Letter

List of 1840 Letters

Next letter