The  Government  now,  at  length,  saw  themselves  obliged  to
take  action,  and  consequently  the  French  Governor  of  the
Antilles  received  an  order,  at  the  end  of  the  year  1753,  to  send
Father  La  Vallette  to  Paris  for  the  vindication  of  his  pro-
ceedings. The  Father  took  his  departure ;  not,  however,  before
causing  the  favourable  evidence  of  the  Governor,  and  those  high
in  office  whose  confidence  he  fully  possessed,  to  be  adduced ;
and  when  he  arrived  in  Havre,  in  January  1754,  he  was  received
in  triumph  by  his  fellow  brethren,  especially  by  the  Fathers
Sacy  and  Forestier,  his  chief  correspondents  in  France.  Still
more  gratifying  was  his  reception  at  the  College  in  Paris,  and
the  Jesuits  sang  his  praises  everywhere,  more  especially  among
the  influential  at  Court.  His  vindication  became,  then,  an  easy
matter ;  or,  rather,  it  was  made  easy  for  him,  and  people  lent
belief  at  once  to  his  assurances,  that  he  carried  on  nothing  but
a  "  legitimate  "  trade.  And  how  could  it  be  otherwise,  seeing
that  he  brought  with  him  such  excellent  certificates  in  con-
nection with  his  recall?  He  possessed,  indeed,  credentials
from  M.  Bompas,  Governor  of  Martinique,  who  was  bound  to
know  what  was  going  on  in  the  island !  Thus,  certainly,  the
good  Father  La  Vallette  was  a  perfectly  innoc^ent  man,  who
busied  himself  entirely  with  the  extension  of  the  mission  and  the
conversion  of  the  savages ;  and  if,  when  there,  he  sent  over  at
times  sugar  and  coffee,  he  did  so  merely  to  be  enabled  to  meet
the  exigences  of  the  Mission.  He  also  exported  nothing  but
the  sugar  and  coffee  which  the  profess-house  had  produced  on
Its  own  estates,  and  this  could  not  be  called  trading,  more  than
that  of  a  peasant  who  brings  his  com  to  market.
