Pigneau de Behaine was appointed bishop "in partibus infidelium" of Adran in Syria, and Apostolic Vicar of Cochinchina on 24 September 1771. After his ordination on 24 February 1774 in São Tomé near Madras, he went to Macau to gather more staff before returning to resume his work in Ha Tien. In Macau, he was able to publish and print a catechism in Vietnamese (containing an introduction in Chinese, the body of the text in the Vietnamese alphabet, and a translation in Latin), and despatched a copy to Rome. He left Macau on 1 March 1775, and reached Ha Tien later in the month, where he again re-established missionary operations.