I arrived at the Bishop's only in the afternoon, so long is the passage from Russell-town to Kororareka against contrary winds and tide. I was curious and impatient to hear what he might have to communicate to me. Still I was reassured as to the situation in which he found himself placed with regard to the authorities, by the very pleasing manner in which Mr. Hobson[117] had just spoken of him to me: the feelings of esteem and consideration which he expressed; the respect his name evoked from all those present, and the well-deserved praise they gave to his character and his tolerance. Compared with the Anglican Missionaries he was the real good man, the friend of the poor and of the savages, having no other ambition than to call to the Catholic faith and to civilisation the natives, to whose happiness he consecrates his existence, hoping to receive in the other world a reward which his adversaries prefer to taste in this one. Their evangelic labours are thus always accompanied by schemes of aggrandisement of luxury, and of riches, things in which they have until now made considerable progress. To stop them nothing less was necessary than the prohibition of the Queen (of England) forbidding them henceforth to acquire land from the natives, and limiting the holdings to 2500 acres. These gentlemen were indeed not slow to notice that though they were occult instruments of British power in New Zealand, they were its first victims. One must not, however, believe that the Anglican, Wesleyan, Methodist, and other Missionaries occupy themselves exclusively, and all of them, with speculations and means of making their fortunes; they also occupy themselves with the instruction of the people, but I shall have opportunity later on of returning to this subject. On my arrival at Bishop Pompallier's I received the marks of kindness which that excellent pastor lavishes on all his fellow-countrymen. He thanked me more than it was necessary for him to do for all my care and attention towards the priests during the voyage, and he did not conceal from me that this little increase of subjects sent out to him by the Marist community had been so necessary for so long a time that it was no longer by twos, but by tens and even twenties that priests ought to be sent out to him to help him to save the people of New Zealand, of whom 25,000 were already on the way to Catholicism. He also told me how grateful he was to the French Government for the protection it granted him, as well as to his mission in these seas. He spoke to me of the acts of kindness of the King, of the Queen and the Royal family, and principally of the interest H.R.H. Madam Adelaide was taking in the success of his labours. I took great pleasure in listening to Monsignor Pompallier on this subject, but I had not lost sight of the fact that he must have other things whereof to inform me. I, too, since I had seen Captain Hobson, was rather