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tending against the Roman Catholics other than those of reason and truth. The rigid ecclesiastical discipline, the uncompromising opposition to intoxicating liquors, the exposing of the vice and evils of licentiousness, and the marked preference given to the Protestant faith, were really the head and front of the missionaries' offending. The mission had no doubt represented the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church to be hostile to the religious and political welfare of a nation, and, whether this were true or untrue, the missionaries were justified in a free expression of opinion on the subject.

Fifty copies of these papers were privately struck off; but it appeared that an imprudent gentleman had walked into the office and taken away one of the copies, and it was soon noised abroad that the officers of the United States squadron had published a severe and abusive letter in the interest of the mission against the French government. The excitement at Honolulu was very great. The French consul applied to the commodore for a copy of the offensive letter, that he might forward it to his government.

On Lieutenant Foote's meeting with the commodore, the latter refused to read the letter or to sanction its publication. He was, however, finally convinced by the firm arguments of Foote that he had misconstrued entirely the character of the letter; that it contained no offensive assault upon the French government, but that it was a calm statement of opinion absolutely required by the circumstances. In a conversation which followed with the French consul himself, he was led to admit frankly that the letter was unobjectionable in substance and tone. The English consul concurred in this; and a paper was drawn up and signed to that effect.

By these conversations and explanations the excitement was allayed, and at the same time the desired immediate publicity was given to the dignified statement of the American officers in support of the mission, and all ground of renewing the op

Prompt Action of Lieutenant Foote.

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position to the mission in future was taken away. Real service was done to the mission, and at the same time no offense was given to the French government, while its agents received a salutary check.

Lieutenant Foote's spirited conduct received the formal as well as hearty thanks of the missionaries. It was all that he, a subordinate officer in the squadron, could do; but it was done-promptly, thoroughly, and at the personal risk of official disgrace, and perhaps of summary dismissal from the Navy. It may by some be thought to have been an irregular proceeding and an unjustifiable interference, but the risk was foreseen and deliberately assumed. It was the act of a man who placed duty before every thing else. The action which was taken maintained the important principle, now so well recognized, that American missionaries are American citizens, and that wherever they are, they are under the full and complete protection of their country's flag.

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FROM the Sandwich Islands the John Adams sailed to the Society Islands, and as there are some things of interest in Lieutenant Foote's journal of the voyage, the account will be continued in his own words:

TAHITI, December 18, 1839.

"We arrived at these islands after a long passage of thirty-one days, running a distance of twenty-five hundred miles, and found the frigate Columbia, bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Read, which came in the day preceding. These islanders have made less advance in civilization than the people of the Sandwich Islands; for although churches are large and Christianity is the religion of the land, still it is a sad fact that licentiousness to a frightful degree prevails, and scenes of the most revolting kind occur.

"The men are larger and better proportioned than in the Sandwich Islands, and the women are beautiful. Nature has been so bountiful that labor is not necessary to support life. All vegetable production is of spontaneous growth. Cattle roam in the mountains. Streams gush from the hills. The climate is healthful during the year. So seductive are these islands that one almost ceases to wonder at the mutiny of the Bounty.

"L'Artemise had also visited these islands, and imposed restrictions scarcely less intolerable than at the Sandwich Islands. Captain Laplace had not only demanded the free introduction of Romanism, but had imposed on the queen the tax of building Catholic churches.

"As the mission here is English, and no tangible act of which we could complain had been committed, of course we had nothing to do. "The object of our visit is to investigate a supposed outrage on the American flag. The former American consul had protected, against the laws of the country, some French Catholic priests, who were forcibly expelled from the country, wherein he transcended his powers, and an

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attack was made upon him, in which he received a severe wound, and his wife met her death.

"I can imagine no greater obstacle to the progress of religion than is to be found in those persons who, coming from different parts of Christendom, pass for Christians, and yet behave so badly. There are some creditable exceptions among the residents, and far be it from me to say that the guilty are found among them alone. No; transient visitors are in the condemnation, and, until quite recently, even vessels of war of all nations were the scenes of nocturnal orgies too bad to relate. This explains the cause why there is so little reciprocity of feeling among missionaries and their countrymen and foreign visitors; and this shows also that little weight should be attached to the opinions and censures of men whose real motive in decrying attempts to diffuse the blessings of Christianity is to be judged of by their own manner of life.

"As to the Catholic question, this is briefly the history of it: At the Society Islands, where the London Missionary Society has for forty years been successfully employed in teaching the Christian faith, frequent arrivals of Catholic priests, and French men-of-war to enforce their claims, have disturbed the mission and held the native government in constant terror. Several years since two French priests came to Tahiti to propagate Roman Catholicism. Queen Pomare and her chiefs peremptorily ordered them to leave the islands, assigning as a reason that it was contrary to her laws and desires that any other religion than the Protestant should be taught in her kingdom. They persisted in remaining until it was perfectly convenient for them to leave, the American consul sustaining them in this. He placed them in a house just beyond the precincts of the consulate. They were frequently warned to re-embark in the same vessel which brought them, and, still refusing to do so, the queen's order to put them on board was executed, and the ship proceeded to her destination, Botany Bay. Some weeks after they returned in an American vessel, and made attempts to land, which were resisted by the natives. The French frigate Venus, Captain Petit Thouars, arrived at Tahiti soon after, and exacted two thousand dollars from the London mission, probably to reimburse the captain of the American vessel for his detention, and for the necessity of his going to Valparaiso in consequence of the priests not being permitted to land. It was demanded also that the French Catholics should be put on the same footing with the Protestants. The Venus was followed by L'Artemise, Captain Laplace, who left the islands but a few months since. This frigate having run on a coral reef,

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was with difficulty, by the assistance of the natives, got into port, when she underwent extensive repairs, having timber and all necessaries gratuitously furnished by the queen. At the expiration of six weeks she was drawn up and presented her broadside toward the town, and a message was sent to Pomare that a Catholic church must be built at her expense wherever there was a Protestant church, and that the same facilities must be extended to Catholic priests as to Protestant clergymen. Fear for the destruction of life and property prevailed, and the terms were submitted to. How this will be viewed in England, time will disclose. It is to be hoped that the English and our own government will take measures to prevent such outrages in the future.

"A scene took place in the wardroom of the ship which bears on this subject. While at Tahiti, on remarking to our new consul that I could not see the object of the squadron's being detained for the arrival of the queen, he said: 'Oh, it is exceedingly important; the queen has been duped by the English, and regards us as a feeble nation. British influence will try to prevent her coming. I wish her to see the ships. Their order and beauty will make a good impression. I have serious fault to find with the English consul, and also with Commodore Wilkes and the exploring expedition, who were, however, also deceived by the English, and made presents to the children of the English mission, totally disregarding the insult to our flag.' After running on in a rapid manner, I told him I was willing to read any documents he might bring forward, and if Commodore Wilkes had acted improperly, it was his duty to prove it. No man should shrink from doing his duty, cut where it may. As for the missionaries, if they had been guilty of the charges brought against them, of all persons they were the last who should escape with impunity. The next day the consul produced his documents. They consisted of three short letters between Queen Pomare and Commodore Wilkes.

"The letter of Commodore Wilkes contained his directions from the President of the United States to touch at Tahiti, and assure the queen of the good feeling toward her on the part of our government, and to distribute presents among her subjects; and that the President expected the queen to treat our consul kindly, to give him a lot for his consulate, and to regard him as the supervisor of our commercial interests; and that the present consul had been sent to supersede the one of whom she had complained as protecting French priests against her laws. The reply of the queen was short and in a conciliatory tone, she evidently wishing to be on good terms with our government, and stated that the

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