PACIFIC CRUISE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4803, 28 June 1939, Page 6

PACIFIC CRUISE

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. FRENCH INTEREST IN SOUTH SEAS. VOYAGE OF THE VENUS. One hundred years ago, on June 24, 1839, the captain of a French frigate, the Venus, reported to his Government on the South Sea whale fisheries, in which many French vessels engaged, and the Pacific interests of France generally, including New Zealand. Captain du PetitThouars was a distinguished naval officer, and one who persistently practised a forward policy for France in the Pacific. This voyage of the Venus, between 1836 and 1839, though it accomplished far less for science than the simultaneous voyage of the great Dumon d’Urville, had very important political results. The Venus began its Pacific cruise on the coast of South America. Du Petit-Thouars had instructions to make as many charts as possible, instructions he conscientiously carried out in his surveys of Honolulu, Kamchatka, Papeete, the Galapagos Islands, the Bay of Islands, Easter Island, Juan Fernandez, the Marquesas Islands and a number of South American ports. In 1937 du Petit-Thouars was able to intervene in favour of two Catholic priests with the King of Hawaii, who had allowed them to be forcibly deported. One of the priests was English and thus the French officer was able to secure the full co-operation of the British Consul and of the commander of a British warship also at anchor at Honolulu.

A Harsh Ultimatum

In 1838, du PetitThouars received a despatch from his home Government which s ent him forthwith to Tahiti to straighten out a very similar gi'ievance. As at Hawaii, a Protestant missionary had captured the good opinions of the ruler, and in 1836 used his influence to have deported another pair of priests, both Frenchmen. Du Petit-Thouars demanded that Queen Pomare should write an apology, pay him an indemnity, and fire a salute to the French flag. After some havering by her “prime minister,” the missionary, the Queen obeyed this peremptory demand made by the commander of a 60-gun ship. Powder and a tricolour were graciously supplied from the stores of the Venus for the humiliating salute. Then the Venus sailed for Sydney, having vindicated the standing of France in the Pacific by size, if by nothing else, for she was the first big French warship to cruise in southern waters.

Sydney Indignation

This French “aggression” at Tahiti excited a good deal of indignation in Sydney. Governor Gipps protested to du Petit-Thouars, and a Presbyterian missionary, John Dunmore Lang, who also took a keen interest in New Zealand affairs, wrote a fiery article in the Colonist denouncing the conduct of the French expedition. He asserted that Canning had guaranteed British protection to the Queen of Tahiti. On this occasion the English were crying out before they were hurt, though worse was to follow a year or two later. Meanwhile, fobbing off abuse and prejudice with equal tact and charm, du Petit-Thouars hied him to New Zealand. The French seem to have taken Busby a little more seriously than his own countrymen. Du Petit-Thouars wrote that he occupied a position .as a sort of bailiff. Though England had no claim to effective occupation of New Zealand, Busby was on the spot to warn off intruders. Busby received du Petit-Thouars affably enough. The French commander was delighted to eat his strawberries and Cape gooseberries—it was October when the Venus reached the bay. Bishop Pompallier came over from Hokianga and stayed on board the Venus. When the ship left for home they “afforded him the only protection in their power,” firing a salute of nine guns.

French Policy in the Pacific

The voyage of the Venus was the turning point in France’s interest in the Pacific. Du Petit-Thouars reported that Tahiti afforded better accommodation for passing ships than Honolulu, where provisions were in short supply. The Bay of Islands was an even better port still, in spite of the riff-raff who battened on Kororareka. So many French whalers were coming to the Pacific that it was essential to have some good port of resort, which should also be near to the whaling grounds. Neither British nor French could foresee that by

1850 there would be very few whales left to catch. After it was known in Europe that France had been thworted at Akaroa, the need to expand was satisfied by taking over Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands. In 1842 du PetitThouars, now an admiral, was back at Tahiti imposing French “protection” on the unlucky Queen Pomare. Though France did not formally declare Tahiti a colony until 1880, it was in fact under French control from the time of these visits of the masterful du Petit-Thouars. He was by far the most effective of the number of French commanders who took their ships into the Pacific. If he had been given wider powers in his instructions, he might easily have established French sovereignty over some part of New Zealand on this voyage.