TAHITI
430
TAIGI
with several other small tribes, again moved over
into Louisiana, settling on Red River, where they
still resided in 1805, reduced then to 25 men or
perhaps 100 souls. Some years later they removed
south to Bayou Boeuf and thence to Grand Lake,
after which the remnant disappears from history.
In 1880-2 considerable interest was aroused among philologists by the publication in Paris of what purported to be important material of the Taensa language, including papers, songs, a grammar and vocabulary, but which proved to be the fraudu- lent invention of a young clerical student named Parisot, or of some one else from whom the manu- scripts had originally come. The deception was exposed by Brinton in 1885 and has been more recently pointed out by Swanton.
Brinton, Essays of an Americanist (Philadelphia, 1890); French. Hist. Colls, of Louisinnn, I (New York, 1846); Ham- ilton. Colonial Mobile (Boston and New York, 1897); Le Page Du Pkatz, Hist, de la, Louisane (3 vols., Paris, 1758, tr. London, 1703, 17741; ^l. kugry, Decouvertes et etablissements des FranQais (f> \oIs., Paris, 1S79, 1886): Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the .l/i>s!.sM,i;ji VaUey (New York, 1852; Albany, 1903); Idem, Hist. Colli, 'tic Ind. Missions (New York, 1855 and 1870); Swanton, /u(/. Tribes of the Lower Miss, ia Bulletin 43 of Bur. Am. Elhiwlni/y (Washington, 1911). JamES MooNEY.
Tahiti, Vicariate Apostolic of. — Taliiti, the most important of the Society Islands, has an area of 600 square miles and a population of 11,691 inhabitants, and lies between 17° 29' 30" and 17° 47' S. lat. and 151° 29' 53" and 151° 56' W. long. It was discovered by Wallis in 1757. This honour is also claimed for Fernandez Quiros, the pilot of the Mendana expedition from Peru to the Philippines, about 1600. Bougainville, Cook, and other ex- plorers made Tahiti famous in Paris as "La Nouvelle Cythere", and in London aroused an enthusiasm for "the lovely isle", which led to the formation, by Dr. Haweis and others, of the London Missionary Society in 1794-95, and the despatch of the "Duff" in 1796 with some 60 persons, missionaries and teachers of trades and crafts, for the conversion of the island and its neighbours. The representatives of the society made little progress until Pomar6 II, King of Tahiti, accepted Protestantism in 1815. Under his successors they gained great influence in the island government. In 1836 two priests of the Congrega- tion of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary of Picpus arrived in Tahiti from the Gambler Islands, where Catholicism had gained a foothold. They were twice expelled by Queen Pomare IV, with the support and approbation of the English Protestant missionaries, and took their cause to Paris. In 1838 a French naval expedition exacted from Queen Pomar6 an indemnity and guarantees for the future for French residents in the island. In 1841 a mission was established by the Congregation of Picpus. In 1842 Pomare IV signed a convention with Admiral Dupetit-Thouars, establishing a French protectorate an(l guaranteeing full religious liberty in Tahiti, which was ratified by Louis-Philippe in 1843. An uprising of the natives against the protectorate re- sulted in a punitive expedition by the French ad- miral, the flight of Queen Pomar6, and the forcible expulsion from the island of Rev. W. T. Pritchard of the London Missionary Society, whom the admiral held responsible for the revolt. This act was dis- avowed by the French Government and an indemnity paid to Great Britain based upon the claim that Pritrli;u-(1. at tlu^ time of his exjiulsion, had been ap- point oil Hritisli constil.
In ISIS Taliiti with its dependent islands was de- taclieil from the Vicariiite of the Marquesas, and lilaccii under the able and scholarly Mgr .laussen. In l.SSO King Pomare, with tlu- ciinsenl of the French < 'li:iiiil,|.rs, iiroclaimed Tahiti an integral l)art of the Kiencli Kciiiiblic. In 1SS7 the French Gi)vcrmneiit secularized IIk- scliools. V\nm the death of Mgr Jausscn in 1S91 Mgr \'erdier, his assistant since 1884,
succeeded to his labours, made doubly difficult by
the sectarian missions and the attitude of French
officials. Since 1903 the various groups of French
islands in Oceania, exclusive of New Caledonia and
its dependencies, have been united in one homo-
geneous colonial establishment, administered from
Tahiti by a governor and pri\-y council, with an
administrative council. The present Vicariate of
Tahiti covers the Society group, the Leeward and
Gambler Islands, the Tuamotu group, Tubuai and
Rapa, all belonging to France; the Cook and Penrhyn
Islands, annexed to New Zealand in 1902; Pitcairn
(unatt.aelied) and Easter Island, belonging to Chile.
"The Mission consists of: 1 bishop (Mgr Hermel,
whose residence is at Papeete, the chief town of
Tahiti), 1 coadjutor with right of succession, 30
priests and several brothers of the Congregation of
Picpus; 6 brothers of Ploermel; 12 churches with resi-
dent pastors; 50 other churches and chapels; 24 Sisters
of St. Joseph of Cluny; 1 boys' school; 1 girls' school;
20 parochial schools; 2 hospitals. The total popula-
tion of the vicariate is estimated at 31,000 inhabitants,
with 7700 Catholics.
Rambaud, La France coloniale (Paris, 1895); Gaffarel, Les colonies fraw^aises (Paris, 1893); de La.nessan, L'expansion coloniale de la France (Paris, 1SS6) ; Leroy-Beaulieu, Colonisa- tion chez les peuples modenies (Paris, 1908) : Piglet, Les missions catkoliques fran^aises au XIX' si^cle (Paris, 1902); Battandier, Annuaire pontifical catholique (Rome, 1911); Vieillemard, Missions catkoliques de la Melanesie, Micronesie et Polynesie (Paris, 1896); 1/issionfs ca(fto(tOT (Rome, 1907); Haweis, Trarei and Talk. 18SS-9S-96 (London and New York, 1896); Lovett, Hist, of the London Missionary Society 1796-1896 (London, 1899); WiLKS, Tahiti, a Review of the Origin, Character and Progress of French RomanCatholic Efforts for the Destruction of English ProteS' tant Missions in the So'ith Sea (London, 1844) ; Pritchard, Polynesian Reminiscences (London, 1866) ; Norman, Colonial France (London, 1886).
W. F. Sands.
Taigl, Anna Maria Gesualda Antonia (maiden name Giannetti), Venerable Servant of God, b. at Siena, Italy, 29 May, 1769; d. at Rome, 9 June, 1837. Her parents, Luigi Giannetti and Maria Masi,kept an apothecary shop at Siena, but lost all their fortune and were obliged to go to Rome in search of a liveli- hood. Anna Maria was then five years old. Having been educated in all the domest ic virtues, she was mar- ried in course of time, 7 Jan., 1789, to Dominico Taigi, a retainer of the noble family of Chigi, with whom she lived ha|)i)ily for forty-eight years. Hitherto nothing extriKirilinary had hiqipened in her life. But one day while she knelt with her husband at the Coiifessio in St. IVter's she felt a strong inspiration to renounce such little vanities of the world as she had allowed herself. She began to pay little attention to dress and to listen to the inner voice of grace. Soon after- wards she was received publicly in the Third Order of Trinitarians in the Church of S. Carlo alle Quatro Fontane, and having found holy spiritual directors, she made rapid progress in the way of jierfoction. All the money she could spare she devoted to the poor and miserable, and though not rich she was very charitable. Of the hospitals she regularly visited, the preferred one was S. Giacomo of the Incurables. Despite her love for the poor, she never neglected her own family. Of her children two died young, the others grew up in piety under the surveillance of the mother. But she ne\-er availed herself of her con- nexions with persons of good position to take her chil- dren out of their humble social environment. The whole family were wont to assemble for prayers in a small private chapel, and here, later on. Mass was celebrated by a priest who dwelt, with the family. The great virtues of Anna Maria were re- warded by extraordinary gifts of God's grace. Dur- ing many years, when praxing in her chapel she had ecstasies and frequent visions, in which she foresaw the future. She exercised a peciili;ir influence over indivi(lu:vls and convert("d many ;i sinner to God. During her life she suff'ered much both corporally
