Andersen. — Mission of the " Britomart " at Akaroa. 85 



Here followed the Proclamation, whicli was not copied. The diary 

 continued : — 



" We sailed that evening with a fair, strong wind ; a good passage was made, and 

 we anchored in Akaroa Bay on the morning of August 11th. We at once proceeded 

 to make preparations for the formal ceremony. A log of wood, old and dry. was pro- 

 cured from the bush by some of the crew, and was hewn by the carpenter eigh^ inches 

 square. A hole was dug in the ground at the spot selected, the post put in, and the 

 earth well rammed down round it. A spar had been brought from the vessel, rigged 

 with pulley and halyard for hoisting the flag ; this was lashed to the post, and every- 

 thing made ready by 5 p.m. on August 15th. The next morning, at 12 o'clock noon, 

 I Charles Barrington Robinson, deputed by the Acting-Governor, hoisted the Union 

 Jack in the name of Her Majesty the Queen Victoria, and in the jDresence of Captain 

 Stanley, his officers, some of the crew, about a dozen natives (Maoris), and the only 

 Englishman then in the bay; Mr. Cfreen, Avith his family. There was no demonstration 

 other than my reading the proclamation, three cheers for Her Majesty, and the 

 National Anthem. 



The next note made was : " August 18th. The French man-of-war 

 ' Aube,' Captain Lavaud, arrived in the bay." 



Now compare these statements with the log of the " Britomart." The 

 Proclamation signed " William Hobson '" was, it is said, dated 3rd August. 

 On that date the " Britomart " was actually being buffeted at sea, south 

 of East Cape, and somewhat over three hundred miles from Akaroa! 

 Mr. Eobinson says, " We sailed that evening [August 3rd] ... a good 

 passage was made . . . and we anchored on the morning of August 

 11th." The log shows they sailed on the morning of the 22nd July, and 

 made anything but a good passage, anchoring in Akaroa at 4.30 p.m. on 

 the 10th August. Mr. Robinson says he hoisted the flag at noon on the 

 16th, and the " Aube " appeared on the 18tli August ; the log shows that 

 the " Aube " came to anchor on Saturday, 15th August. Again, the report 

 of Captain Stanley shows that the flag was hoisted and a Court held at 

 two places in the bay on the 11th August, and at three other bays where 

 there were whaling-stations during the succeeding days, so that during the 

 time ]\Ir. Robinson says they were busy preparing the pole, &c., the report 

 shows that he and Mr. Murphy were visiting the whaling-stations in a 

 whaleboat. 



These discrepancies are extraordinary, and cannot but give colour to 

 a suggestion already made in the voluminous newspaper correspondence 

 on this subject — that the diary was not begvm until some time after the 

 event, and then written up from memory, or from faulty notes. 



On the late Dr. R. McNab visiting England towards the end of 1909 the 

 writer of this paper wrote to him, in December of that year, urging him 

 to secure, if possible, logs of the " Aube " and " Comte de Paris," also the 

 instructions to Captain Lavaud, and Lavaud's despatches to his Govern- 

 ment. The writer had already sent him a precis of what had been gathered 

 by him up till that date, and Dr. McNab was successful in obtaining copies 

 of a great deal of matter — so much that he intended making it the subject 

 of a book. This his lamented death unfortunately prevented. 



The following are translated extracts from a letter written by Lavaud 

 to the Minister of Marine, at the Bay of Islands, on the 19th June, 1840 : — 



On the 29th of June I sailed round Van Diemen's Land ; at that time there was 

 a S.E. wind shifting to the east, a fine breeze but contrary to the course to be travelled 

 to get to the south of New Zealand : I decided to sail into the Bay of Islands, where 

 I hoped to see the Bishop of Maronae. . . . Your Excellencj^ was kind enough 

 to allow me the latitude to change this part of my course, and I sailed to the north, 

 directing the " Aube " to the Three Kings Islands, the first land I caught sight of 



