88 Transactions. 



that I was going there to protect them when they would take possession of their lands. 

 , His letter of the 23rd will perhaps lead me, if I find difficulties in Akaroa, to return to 

 Sydney, when I have settled Monsieur Langlois, for I see that Mr. Hobson can or will 

 not settle the question. In this state of affairs, if the Britannic Government has not 

 got the signatures of the chiefs of Banks Peninsula — that is to say, their consent to 

 recognize its sovereignty — I will make every possible effort to convince the chiefs 

 that they must not abandon their land to any nation, but preserve it for themselves 

 and their descendants by accepting the patronage of France and its Government. 

 It is also in the direction of independence, I believe, that we ought to act with 

 Britain. 



But, sir, there is no time to be lost to enter into an explanation with the Britannic 

 Cabinet : everything goes very quickly in this colony, and the powers given by Lord 

 Normanby to the Government of Sydney give him all the more latitude, because what 

 he will decide to do concerning these islands has been applauded in advance. . . . 



A later letter is dated Akaroa, 19tli August, 1840. In it lie informs 

 his Minister what he found at Akaroa : — 



I have the honour to announce to you the arrival of the " Aube " in the Bay of 

 Akaroa on the loth instant. 



I found several British established there, and the Proclamation placarded by the 

 corvette " Herald " last May posted on the house of an Englishmah placed in charge 

 of these Proclamations. . . . 



The brig " Britomart " is sailing along the coast and visiting the different ports 

 with two Magistrates, having to go everywhere where any offence has to be investigated 

 and punished. I suj^jpose that my presence is somewhat the reason of these cruises. 

 A boat from this brig, which was lying outside the bay on the 17th instant, came 

 alongside the " Comte de Paris," which, on entering, had fired guns ; in this boat were 

 officers and the two Magistrates I just mentioned. Believing that this gun-fire was to 

 call their boat, these gentlemen came on board. They noticed carriages for coast-guns 

 which were on deck ; they seemed astonished, but, however, did not say anything 

 about it. Various remarks thoughtlessly made by Captain Langlois also made them 

 feel uneasy, and have been the subject of an explanation between the British captain 

 and myself. I promised to follow the line of conduct that I had traced for myself in 

 the Bay of Islands, and to maintain what I had written, until the British and French 

 Cabinets had decided the question of occupancy in one way or another. 



As I have had the honour of informing Your Excellency, I had officially announced 

 to Captain Hobson that I was returning to Akaroa, where the surrounding land, as well 

 as the whole of Banks Peninsula, belonged to French jiroprietors, who had sent out 

 cultivators from France to clear the land and make it productive. . . . My sur- 

 prise was great when, on the arrival of the " Comte de Paris," I heard, in the most 

 l^ositive way, that Monsieur Langlois had never negotiated with the chiefs of this part, 

 that he possessed nothing there, and that we had, in fact, no right of ownership we 

 could put forward. The chiefs gathered around me declared to me, through the voice 

 of M. Comte, a missionary jiriest of Monseignor Pompallier, who sjieaks the language 

 of the natives, that Monsieur Langlois had negotiated for a part of the land of Port 

 Cooper, Tokolabo Bay, for which he had paid one part, but that there never had been 

 any question of the port of Akaroa, in which they had sold to a Mr. Rhodes a certain 

 part for grazing or cultivating, and that in the same way they had sold the bay of 

 Pyreka and other bays forming the southern part of the peninsula ; and, finally, that 

 that they had never signed a contract of sale, drawn up between Monsieur Langlois and 

 the tribes, of the north-west and west of the peninsula. 



In such a state of things, how am I to execute the orders of the King ? How to 

 take possession . . . even tacitly, in case of an arrangement between the Govern- 

 ments of France and of Britain, of a land that does not belong to the company ? In 

 one word, how to execute the treaty of the 11th October, 1839, made in Paris between 

 the Government and the Nanto-Bordelaise Company ? Realty, sir, I am travelling 

 on such a winding and dark road that I only walk by groping my way. ... If 

 Monsieur Langlois had not heard of my presence he would have treated the acts and 

 the official doings of Britain as a joke ; he would have hoisted the tricolour flag, would 

 have saluted it with 101 guns, and he would have taken possession in the name of 

 the King of the French ; while I, for my part, have tried every day in my conduct 

 to avoid binding my Government, and esjiecially not to compromise the dignity of 

 Royalty. Fortunately, the whaler " Pauline," which I met at sea, by making my 

 presence here known at Port Cooper, prevented a demonstration of this kind, for the 

 ceremony of which several officers and masters of whalers had already been convoked. 



