Chapter 278 The First Colony in the Pacific

Chapter 279 The First Colony in the Pacific

After the Maori chief repeatedly confirmed the details of the transaction with Dufresne, and communicated with the high priest Matero to make sure there were no traps, he finally solemnly agreed to France's proposal to purchase the land.

Moreover, the leader of Touré seemed to feel that the French were too sincere and that he was a little "short-handed", so he agreed to sell Dufresne a thousand acres of French land with full property rights, as long as it was a short distance from Tainui. Don’t be too close to the tribe, let him choose the location.

Dufresne was overjoyed and asked for the place where he landed. A port can be built there in the future, and a town can be built further in. It will be very convenient to ship wool from the hinterland of New Zealand to France.

The two parties negotiated the deal and immediately became much closer. Touré then went to order the tribesmen to prepare a ceremony to welcome the French guests. The priests brought by Dufresne had already chatted with the Maori high priest.

"Yes, there is the greatest god in the world, and he dominates everything." Matua raised his hands devoutly and said, "Io Matua Kore, we worship him, revere him, and give everything to him!"

A priest from Reims immediately smiled and nodded: "Dear Father Martro, in fact God's name is Jehovah, and He does dominate everything."

The scheming priest saw that the Crown Prince's "New Zealand Guide" mentioned that Maori people love facial tattoos, so he drew some lines on his face with a pen, although in the eyes of Maori people this " The meaning of "face tattoos" is unclear, but it is indeed much more pleasing to the eye than those with fair faces.

Matruo looked at him and said: "How could this be? This is what our ancestors told us, and our ancestors will not be wrong."

Father Dietrich kept in mind the requirements in the "Guide" and would never refute the Maori beliefs. Instead, he said: "You see, the names are different in different languages."

He picked up the sweet potato on the table: "Like this, you call it..."

The translator on the side immediately said the Maori word for "sweet potato".

“But we call it sweet potato,” Dietrich continued. “And our names for God may have different pronunciations, but they definitely refer to that God.”

He looked at the high priest nervously, until the latter nodded thoughtfully, and his heart suddenly felt relieved - His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was indeed right, it seems that these Maori people are very likely to convert to Catholicism. The church’s huge investment should not be a loss!

This is something Joseph has seen on documentaries before. The Maori believe in a supreme god, and their religious theories are very primitive, so they can easily be fooled by Christianity, which has developed for nearly two thousand years. Historically, the British colonists quickly convinced the Maori people to become Protestants.

Now, the Maori people are bound to be captured by the Catholic Church. In the future, if the British want to seduce Maori, there will be another religious obstacle - although Protestants and Catholics are both branches of Christianity, the hatred between them is much deeper than that between pagans.

Sure enough, by noon the next day, Matero had already been tricked by several church veterans into making the sign of the cross on his chest. But he always believed that he had never changed his religious beliefs, but only learned more about God and God's deeds.

Before the sun went down, the signing ceremony of the "Map Sales and Purchase Agreement" between Dufresne and the Touré chiefs officially began.

The Maori people do not yet have writing, let alone paper. To "sign a contract" between them is usually to hold a ceremony similar to a sacrifice and draw some marks on the animal skin. Their reverence for their ancestors and their devotion to God ensured that they would never violate the contract. In other words, if any Maori violates it, he will be tolerated by all Maori.

Tens of thousands of acres of land of the Tainui tribe were involved, so the ceremony was very grand, and almost all the tribesmen who could come came to watch.

Dufresne also followed the traditions of the indigenous people and worked until about 9 o'clock in the evening, finally getting the purchase agreement for 50,000 acres of pasture and 1,000 acres of "self-use land".

Port Kafia readily handed over dozens of matchlock guns to the Maori as a deposit.

Touré suddenly beamed, and his affection for these French friends increased a little more.

A few days later, the French royal flag was planted at the place where Dufresne had landed, and the port, later known as Port Caffia, was named the "New Port of Marseille".

Dufresne then led the exploration team non-stop to the central part of the North Island of New Zealand. Under the introduction of the Tuai people, he met the leader of the Yatirayi tribe.

When Dufresne was surrounded by people from the Yatirayi tribe a few days later, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart. Fortunately, he had taken over this colonization task and made a lot of money. The task was almost without difficulty. According to the The current progress is that it will take at most two months to finish all the large tribes in the North Island of New Zealand, and then we can just sit back and count the rewards.

At the same time, the construction of simple towns has also begun near the "New Marseille Port".

The employees and priests of the Gemini Company are directing thousands of Maori indigenous people to level the ground after the burning. Not far away, there are a large number of neatly cut timber piled neatly, ready to be turned into houses at any time.

These Maoris were not hired by the Gemini Company, but the tribal leaders were very fond of these French friends and sent their tribesmen to help.

When Dufresne returned to the Port of New Marseilles more than a month later with a contract for nearly 300,000 acres of land, he could already see the bronze bell on the top of the newly built chapel from a distance.

Three flat rammed-earth roads connect the docks. More than a dozen houses have been built on both sides of the road, and a large number of indigenous people and company employees are building new houses.

A satisfied smile appeared on his face, and he began to imagine what kind of prosperity this place would become after the company sent thousands of hard workers in a few months.

And, of course, there were sheep, of which the company's ships would bring plenty. They are the new owners of this island.

…

Southeast France.

Port of Toulon.

As soon as Joseph got off the ship, an officer handed him the documents sent by the General Staff.

After sending away the officials who greeted him at the port, Joseph got on the carriage and opened the documents.

The first item is that after evaluation, the General Staff decided to mobilize 10,000 troops from Montpellier, Provence and other places to Tunisia to cooperate with the Mulan Army to stabilize the situation there.

Nearly half of these 10,000 troops came from the newly reorganized Montcalm Army—now it has been renamed the Montpellier Army—and the rest were from the Provence garrison.

This is the first batch of troops deployed from the two provinces near the port of Toulon based on the principle of proximity. The General Staff plans to send an additional 10,000 troops to Tunisia later.