The “Sancta Maria.”

The Bishop was now enabled to extend the scope of his mission considerably, and one of his first acts was to purchase a suitable vessel. He bought an American craft which happened, to be at the Bay of Islands, a topsail schooner called the “Atlas.” She cost him about 35,000 francs. He christened the schooner “Sancta Maria” and presently was off on the sea again, this time a voyage to the far south of the colony. Fathers Comte and Pesant had been given a passage to the south in “L'Aube.” The Bishop landed Father Tripe at Akaroa to minister to the French settlers there, and left Father Comte there also to attend to the Maori converts. The schooner went as far as Otago Harbour, and returning anchored at Moeraki, and spent several days with the people there. Pompallier by this time was able to speak Maori freely. Port Nicholson was the next place of call; there he spoke in English and Maori, and was well received by the citizens of infant Wellington. Colonel Wakefield, the chief agent of the New Zealand Company, gave him “a handsome subscription and made a gift of a piece of land for the establishment of the Catholic Mission.” After leaving at Port Nicholson a catechist, Dr. Fitzgerald, the Bishop set sail for Akaroa again, and visited the principal Maori villages in the bays of Banks Peninsula. Resting awhile in pleasant Akaroa, he employed himself in writing a Maori catechism for the use of the missionaries and natives.

Up anchor once more, and cruising northward to headquarters at the Bay of Islands, the Bishop visited some of the people in the East Cape district. It was March of 1841 before he finally stepped ashore at Kororareka after his voyagings; he had been away six months. Several more assistants arrived from France, and Pompallier was able presently to station priests and catechists at various large settlements of the tribes along the coast.