After the Maori Chief had repeatedly confirmed the details of the transaction with Dufresne and consulted with High Priest Matua, making sure there were no traps involved, he finally solemnly agreed to the French proposal to purchase land.
Moreover, Chief Tuae seemed to think that the French were so sincere that he felt somewhat “indebted”, so he agreed to sell Dufresne one thousand acres of land with full French ownership rights, as long as it wasn’t too close to the Tainui Tribe, and he could choose the location freely.
Dufresne was overjoyed and immediately asked for the area where he had landed. There, a port could be constructed later on, and a little further inland, a town could be built, making it very convenient to ship wool from the interior of New Zealand to France.
Once the trade was agreed upon, the two parties became much closer. Tuae went to instruct his people to prepare a ceremony to welcome the French guests. Meanwhile, the priests that Dufresne brought had already started conversing with the Maori High Priest.
“Indeed, there is a most great God who rules over everything,” said Matua, devoutly raising his hands, “Io Matua Kore, we worship him, revere him, and offer everything to him!”
A priest from the Reims district immediately nodded with a smile, “Respectful High Priest Matua, in fact, the name of God is Yahweh, and He indeed rules over everything.”
This shrewd priest, having seen in the “Guide to New Zealand” provided by the Crown Prince that Maori loved facial tattoos, drew some lines on his face with a pen. Though the Maori found this “tattoo” unclear in meaning, it was certainly more pleasing to the eye than those with plain faces.
Matua looked at him and said, “How can this be? This is what our ancestors have told us, and they would not make a mistake.”
Priest Dietrich, remembering the instruction from the “Guide” not to contradict Maori beliefs, replied instead, “You see, the names differ between languages.”
He picked up a sweet potato from the table, “Like this, you call it…”
The translator immediately provided the Maori word for “sweet potato”.
“While we call it a sweet potato,” Dietrich continued, “And our name for God might sound different, but we are absolutely referring to the same deity.”
He looked at the High Priest nervously until the latter pondered and nodded, feeling a sudden relief in his heart—His Highness the Crown Prince was right, it seemed very likely that these Maori were about to convert to Catholicism. The Church’s great investment shouldn’t result in a loss!
Joseph had previously seen this in a documentary. The Maori believed in a supreme god, and their religious theory was very primitive, so they were easily convinced by Christianity, which had nearly two thousand years of development. In history, British colonizers also quickly persuaded the Maori, turning them into Protestant followers.
Now, it was inevitable that the Maori would be taken by Catholicism. In the future, when the British wanted to curry favor with the Maori, they would face an additional obstacle of religion—though Protestantism and Catholicism are both branches of Christianity, their enmity was much deeper than that between different religions.
Indeed, by the next day’s noon, Matua had already been coaxed by some seasoned priests of the Church to start making the sign of the cross on his chest. Yet he firmly believed that he had not changed his religious faith, but had simply gained a deeper understanding of God and His deeds.
Before the sun went down, the signing ceremony for the “Land Purchase Agreement” between Dufresne and Chief Tuae officially began.
The Maori had neither a written language nor anything like paper; their way of “signing a contract” usually involved a ritual similar to a sacrifice, and making some marks on animal skin sufficed. Their reverence for ancestors and devotion to God ensured they would never breach the agreement. Or to put it another way, any Maori who broke an agreement would be rejected by all Maori people.
Because the ceremony involved tens of thousands of acres of Tainui tribal land, it was held with great solemnity, and almost all the villagers who could come came to watch.
Dufresne also fully engaged with indigenous traditions, busying himself until after 9 p.m., finally settling the purchase agreement for fifty thousand acres of pasture and one thousand acres of “private land”.
Kaffia Port readily gave dozens of matchlock guns to the Maori as a deposit.
Tuae immediately beamed with joy, and his affection for these French friends increased even more.
A few days later, the land where Dufresne had originally landed was marked with the flag of France, and the port, later known as Kaffia Port, was named “New Marseille Port.”
Dufresne then hurried with the exploration team to the central North Island of New Zealand, and with Tuae’s introduction, met the chief of the Yatila Yi Tribe.
When Dufresne emerged surrounded by the people of the Yatila Yi Tribe a few days later, he couldn’t help but marvel at how glad he was to have taken on this colonial task—it was simply a windfall.
The mission was almost effortless, and at the current pace, he could have all the major tribes of the North Island of New Zealand under control within two months at most and then sit back and count his reward.
Meanwhile, near “New Marseille Port,” the construction of a temporary town had already begun.
Employees of the Gemini Company and priests were directing thousands of Maori to level the land after slash-and-burn. Not far away, a large quantity of neatly felled timber was stacked, ready to be transformed into houses.
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These Maori were not hired by the Gemini Company but were sent by the tribe chiefs who were full of affection for these French friends to offer assistance.
When, more than a month later, Dufresne returned to New Marseille Port with a contract for nearly 300,000 acres of land, he could already see the copper bell atop the newly-built small church from afar.
Three smooth, compacted dirt roads connected to the dock, and more than a dozen houses had been erected along the roads, with numerous natives and company clerks busy constructing new dwellings.
His face showed a satisfied smile, and he began to look forward to the bustling scene that would emerge in a few months when the company sent thousands of laborers here.
Of course, there would also be sheep—the company’s ships would bring a large number of sheep. They would become the new masters of this island.
…
In the southeast of France.
Port of Toulon.
As soon as Joseph got off the ship, an officer handed him the documents from the General Staff.
Dismissing the officials who had come to greet him at the port, Joseph sat in the carriage and opened the documents.
The first item was the decision by the General Staff, after assessment, to dispatch 10,000 troops from Montpellier, Provence, and other places to Tunisia to support Murat’s Corps in stabilizing the situation there.
Nearly half of these 10,000 troops came from the newly reorganized Moncalm Legion—now renamed the Montpellier Legion—with the rest being the garrison of Provence.
This was based on the proximity principle, with the first batch of troops being transferred from two provinces close to the Port of Toulon, and the General Staff planned to send an additional 10,000 people to Tunisia afterwards.