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145
T.H. Tredgold Esqr
Secretary to the Aborignes Protection Society
My Dear Sir
Ebenezer, Lake Macquarie, New South Wales.
December 10th, 1838.
The following extract of a letter from Tahiti to me will explain the occasion of the warlike interference of the French nation towards Tahiti, and my addressing the King of France, in the accompanying letter, forwarded through the Captain f the French frigate now here, on the subject "The Commandments of the Lord", stating that "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine (the doctrine of Christ), receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is a partaker of his evil deeds;" and the doctrines of the Pope not being the doctrines of Christ, evince that the Queen of Tahiti is perfectly justified on Christian principles in the course she has taken; and the Missionary who could advise other than not to receive any such would be acting the part of a traitor to the country in which he is proclaiming the glorious liberty of the gospel of Christ, and become, however far such a motive might be from his mind, a transgressor of the law of Christ.
I remain, my dear Sir
Yours truly, in the name of Christ,
L. E. THRELKELD
(EXTRACT.)
"Dated Tahiti, Sept. 6th, 1838.
"The Roman Catholics have ben trying to get a footing at Tahiti. Two priests came in a small vessel from Gambier's Island, in 1836. They came on shore and wished to remain. The Queen and Chiefs ordered them to leave Tahiti. They would not, and took shelter in a house belonging to the American consul, not considered as belonging to the consulate. The Tahitians took them out of the house by force, and carried them to a canoe, and put them again on board the little vessel in which they came. For this crime the French Government has sent the present ship of war, called Venus, with a Commodore on board. As soon as he arrived he sent a letter to the Queen, stating three things without any explanation -
"First - To pay 2,00 dollars in twenty-four hours!
"Secondly - To hoist the French flag on shore, and the natives to fire twenty-one guns inder it. The Tahitian flag to be hoisted on board, and the French to fire under it.
"Thirdly - The Queen to write a letter to the French King, confessing that she had done wrong in sending away the two Frenchmen in the manner she did.
"If these three things were not complied with in twenty-four hours they were to make war upon the natives!
"The French Catholic priests seem at present to be making a bold push to get possession of all the islands in this sea where Christianity has been introduced. We have heard that two priests have been left at the Marquesas, where Mr. Stallworthy, our missionary, is labouring. They have made several attempts at the Sandwich Islands; and we hear that two French ships of war are gone to call the Sandwich Islanders to an account for heir conduct to Frenchmen, something in the same way they have done here."
(COPY TO THE KING OF THE FRENCH.)
To His Most Christian Majesty Louis Philip,
King of the French, &c., &c., &c.
EBENEZER, LAKE MACQUARIE, NEW SOUTH WALES,
December 8th, 1838.
SIRE,
The recent visit of your Majesty's frigate the Venus, threatening war against the Queen of Tahiti, is the occasion of my respectfully addressing your Majesty on the subject.
The best years of my life have been spent in those islands, and these parts, far from my native land, "Testifying repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." The Holy Spirit of God blessed our labours, and changed the hearts of the Tahitians: they cast their idols to the flames, and became followers of the lamb.
Such being the relationship in which I stand towards the Queen of Tahiti, it becomes my duty to state on her behalf the character of that war which the French nation threatened to declare against Tahiti.
Your Majesty's flag received no insult; your Majesty's civil or military subjects had received no personal injury, sustained no spoliation of property; and, to evince that national predjudice did not exist aagainst the French as a nation, a Frenchman, Mr. Tessler, a missionary, lived for many years without molestation, and died at Tahiti!
The Roman Catholic priests, on whose account the hostilities were threatened, came to Tahiti not as civil subjects of your Majesty the King of the French, or as representatives of your Majesty; they came as priests of the Pope of Rome, subject to him alone as e,,issaries of the Romish Pontiff; no to promulgate your Majesty's commands, but those of the Pope; not to subjugate the Queen of Tahiti, and her subjects, to the throne of France, but to that of a foreign despotic Prince of the Court of Rome! This insidious attempt at subjugation the Queen rejected, and in commanding the