Chapter 278 The First Colony in the Pacific

Chapter 279 The First Colony in the Pacific

After the Maori chief confirmed the details of the transaction with Dufresne again and again, and communicated with the high priest Matero to make sure that there was no trap, he finally solemnly agreed to France's proposal to buy land.

Moreover, Chief Touré seemed to think that the French were too sincere, so he was a little "short of money", so he agreed to sell Dufresne a thousand acres of land with full French ownership, as long as it was not too close to the Tainui tribe, and he could choose the location.

Dufresne was overjoyed and directly asked for the place where he landed. There can be built into a port in the future, and a town can be built further in, which is very convenient for shipping wool from the hinterland of New Zealand to France.

The two sides negotiated the deal and became much closer. Touré went to instruct the tribesmen to arrange a ceremony to welcome the French guests. The priests brought by Dufresne had already talked to the Maori high priest.

"Yes, there is a greatest god in the world, he dominates everything." Matero raised his hands devoutly and said, "Io Matua Kore, we worship him, respect him, and offer him everything!"

A priest in the Reims district immediately smiled and nodded: "Respected Father Matero, in fact, the name of God is Jehovah, and he does dominate everything."

This scheming priest saw that the Crown Prince's "New Zealand Guide" mentioned that Maori people love face tattoos, so he drew some lines on his face with a pen. Although the meaning of this "face tattoo" is unclear to the Maori people, it is indeed more pleasing to the eye than those with white faces.

Matero looked at him and said, "How could this be? This is what our ancestors told us, and our ancestors would not make mistakes."

Father Dietri kept in mind the requirements of the "Guide" and never refuted the Maori people's 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," Dietri continued, "and our names for God may not be pronounced the same, but they definitely refer to that God."

He looked at the high priest nervously until the latter nodded thoughtfully, and he felt relieved immediately - His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was right, and it seemed that these Maori people were likely to convert to Catholicism. The huge investment of the church should not be a loss!

This is what Joseph had seen in a documentary before. The Maori people believe in a supreme god, and their own religious theories are very primitive, so they are easily fooled by Christianity, which has developed for nearly two thousand years. Historically, the British colonists also quickly persuaded the Maori people to become Protestants.

And now, the Maori people are bound to be taken down by Catholicism. In the future, if the British want to hook up with the Maori people, there will be another religious obstacle - although Protestantism and Catholicism 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 been fooled by several old church veterans to start making the sign of the cross on his chest. But he always believed that he had never changed his religious beliefs, but he had a better understanding of God and God's deeds.

Before the sun went down, the signing ceremony of the "map purchase and sale agreement" between Dufresne and the Touré chief officially began.

The Maori people did not have writing, let alone paper. They usually "signed contracts" by holding a ceremony similar to sacrifice and drawing some marks on animal skins. Their reverence for their ancestors and their piety to God made them never violate the content of the contract. In other words, if a Maori violated it, he would be unacceptable to all Maori.

The matter involved tens of thousands of acres of land of the Tainui tribe, 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 after 9 o'clock in the evening. He finally settled the purchase agreement for 50,000 acres of pasture and 1,000 acres of "self-use land".

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

Touré smiled and his good impression of these French friends increased again.

A few days later, the French flag was raised at the place where Dufresne had landed before, and the port, which was later called Kaphia Port, was named "New Marseille Port".

Dufresne led the exploration team to the central part of New Zealand's North Island without stopping. With the introduction of the Touré people, he met the leader of the Yatilayi tribe.

When Dufresne was surrounded by the Yatilayi tribe a few days later, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart that it was fortunate that he had accepted this colonization task at the beginning, and he made a lot of money - the task was almost not difficult. According to the current progress, all the large tribes in New Zealand's North Island can be dealt with in two months at most, and then he can sit and count the rewards.

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

The employees and priests of the twin companies are directing thousands of Maori natives to level the ground after the fire. Not far away, a large amount of neatly cut wood was piled up and could be turned into houses at any time.

These Maori people were not hired by the Twin Companies, but the leaders of each tribe were very fond of these French friends and sent their tribesmen to help.

More than a month later, when Dufresne returned to the new port of Marseille 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 afar.

Three flat rammed earth roads connected the docks, with more than a dozen houses built on both sides of the road, and a large number of natives and company employees were building new houses.

He had a satisfied smile on his face, and he began to imagine what kind of prosperous scene this place would become after the company sent thousands of hard laborers in a few months.

Of course, there are also sheep. The company's ships will bring a large number of sheep. They are the new owners of this island.

...

Southeast France.

Toulon Port.

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 was that after the evaluation, the General Staff decided to mobilize 10,000 troops from Montpellier, Provence and other places to Tunisia to cooperate with the Moulin Corps to stabilize the situation there.

And among these 10,000 troops, nearly half came from the newly reorganized Montcalm Corps - now it has been renamed the Montpellier Corps - and the rest were the Provence garrison.

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