members permission to stay. For several months, Bachelot and his fellow missionaries lived in three small rented structures, saying their first mass on the island in a grass hut. They later built a chapel on a small plot of land they purchased, where the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace was dedicated in 1843. After settling on the island, the group avoided drawing attention to themselves and studied the Hawaiian language. During their mission's first two years, the group converted 65 Hawaiians and ministered to Hawaiians who had already been converted. They often held surreptitious night-time meetings with converts who feared persecution. The priests' vestments and rituals made their evangelism efforts more effective because they reminded Hawaiians of native religious customs. Bachelot introduced two plant species to Hawaii: Prosopis humilis and Bougainvillea. Prosopis humilis trees later covered thousands of acres there. He had obtained the seeds, which were originally gathered by Catholic missionaries in California, from the Royal Conservatory in Paris. Bachelot translated a prayer book into Hawaiian (O Ke A'o Ana Kristiano, "Christian Doctrine", c. 1831), authored a catechism in Hawaiian (He Ōlelo Ho'ona'auao, "A Word of Instruction", 1831), and wrote an introduction to Hawaiian grammar in French (Notes Grammaticales, "Grammatical Notes", 1834). Persecution By 1827, Protestant Christianity, and in particular Bingham's teachings, had become the de facto state religion of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Queen Kaʻahumanu persecuted Catholics from 1829 until her death in 1832, by, for example, forbidding Hawaiians from attending masses and instructing Bachelot not to proselytize. In December 1831, Bachelot and Short were deported and forced to leave on a ship, the Waverly, bound for North America. Though Queen Kaʻahumanu steadfastly opposed his work, Bachelot viewed her as a good person who had been deceived by Protestant missionaries. The news of Bachelot and Short's expulsion caused controversy in the United States, where it was viewed as a violation of the rights appertaining to foreigners in the 1826 treaty signed by Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones of the United States Navy and King . U.S. Navy Commodore John Downes protested the expulsions while in discussion with chiefs during his 1832 visit to the kingdom. California The Waverly landed at a vacant area near San Pedro, Los Angeles, in January 1832. Bachelot and Short traveled to the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, where they were welcomed by the Franciscans who staffed the mission. Bachelot later became the pastor