Both were bound for Pape'ete, bearing with them a rolled-up, 16m-long skein of human hair wrapped round a 'piece of board' as a special gift for Bishop Jaussen, a token of the Rapanui people's new-found faith and devotion.

Disembarking at Pape'ete at the end of June 1869, Zumbohm and Hina Pote hastened to present their gift to their formidable Bishop at Ha'apape just outside the village. What happened then is best told in Bishop Jaussen's own words:

'My attention was immediately drawn to this piece of board, where, on both sides, I discovered characters in lines and well drawn. This sight even then did not remind me of the dear Brother's [i.e., Eyraud's] passage [in his publication of 1866], and the astonishment of Father Gaspard [Zumbohm], his friend [i.e., Eyraud's friend], proves that at Easter Island, where he [i.e., Eyraud] had just died on 20 August 1868, Brother Eugène Eyraud had not even shown the missionaries one tablet..."

(Fischer)