[1] On 3 October 1884 the Missions Catholiques announced that it was proposed to consecrate Charbonnier, former principal of the missionary training college at Algiers, as Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Tanganyika.

[2] Charbonnier was stationed at Karema on the east shore of Lake Tanganyika when the French soldier Captain Léopold Louis Joubert arrived on 22 November 1886, on his way to provide assistance to the station of Mpala on the opposite shore of the lake.

Joubert remained there for some months at the request of Charbonnier to protect the mission against attacks by slavers.

[3] On 14 January 1887 Charbonnier was appointed Titular Bishop of Utica and Vicar Apostolic of Tanganyika[1] (now the Diocese of Sumbawanga).

Charbonnier had given him full authority as civil and military ruler of the Mpala region.