The Missionaries
Missionaries. Through these events and owing to a report from a warship that had stopped at Rapanui just before the raids, a Lay Brother, Eugene Eyraud, who, though of French birth, had been a mechanic in Bolivia, persuaded the Sacred Hearts Mission in Valparaiso to let him lead a mission to Rapanui, which he did after stopping in Papeete, to return with a couple of Rapanui who had been stranded there during the raids. Eyraud, alone, endured nine months before being rescued. He returned with three more in a team that included the easy going Father Gaspar Zumbohm (German) and the emotional Father Hypolite Roussel (French). Eyraud died in 1868, of tuberculosis, but the others, joined by another Lay Brother, Theodule Escolan, continued their work, which included the burning of idols. A Frenchman, Jean Baptiste Onésime Dutrou-Bornier, who subsequently styled himself as "King" of Rapanui,...
