<P> As trade in sandalwood declined, it was replaced by a new business enterprise, "blackbirding", a euphemism for taking Melanesian or Western Pacific Islanders from New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, New Hebrides, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands into indentured or forced labour in the sugar cane plantations in Fiji and Queensland by various methods of trickery and deception . Blackbirding was practiced by both French and British - Australian traders, but in New Caledonia's case, the trade in the early decades of the twentieth century involved relocating children from the Loyalty islands to the Grand Terre for labour in plantation agriculture . New Caledonia's primary experience with black birding revolved around a trade from the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) to the Grand Terre for labour in plantation agriculture, mines, as well as guards over convicts and in some public works . The historian Dorothy Shineberg's milestone study, The People Trade, discusses this' migration' . In the early years of the trade, coercion was used to lure Melanesian islanders onto ships; in later years indenture systems were developed, however, when it came to the French slave trade, which took place between its Melanesian colonies of the New Hebrides and New Caledonia, very few regulations were implemented . This represented a departure from the British experience, since increased regulations were developed to mitigate the abuses of black birding and' recruitment' strategies on the coast lines . </P> <P> The first missionaries from the London Missionary Society and the Marist Brothers arrived in the 1840s . In 1849, the crew of the American ship Cutter was killed and eaten by the Pouma clan . Cannibalism was widespread throughout New Caledonia . </P> <P> On 24 September 1853, under orders from Napoleon III, Admiral Febvrier Despointes took formal possession of New Caledonia and Port - de-France (Nouméa) was founded on 25 June 1854 . A few dozen free settlers settled on the west coast in the following years . New Caledonia became a penal colony, and from the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897, about 22,000 criminals and political prisoners were sent to New Caledonia . The Bulletin de la Société générale des prisons for 1888 indicates that 10,428 convicts, including 2,329 freed ones, were on the island as of 1 May 1888, by far the largest number of convicts detained in overseas penitentiaries . Among the convicts were many Communards arrested after the failed Paris Commune, including Henri de Rochefort and Louise Michel . Between 1873 and 1876, 4,200 political prisoners were "relegated" in New Caledonia . Only 40 of them settled in the colony; the rest returned to France after being granted amnesty in 1879 and 1880 . </P> <P> In 1864, nickel was discovered on the banks of the Diahot River and with the establishment of the Société Le Nickel in 1876, mining began in earnest . The French imported labourers to work in the mines from neighbouring islands and the New Hebrides, and later from Japan, the Dutch East Indies, and French Indochina . The French government also attempted to encourage European immigration, without much success . </P>

How did new caledonia became a french colony
find me the text answering this question