134 Voyage of the Novara. 



property by the Colonial Government, and therefore that the 

 conduct of the recusant chief, so far from being a rebellion, 

 was a bare vindication of right ! Nay, it has even been openly 

 stated (and it throws an interesting light upon certain politi- 

 cal complications in Europe) that the Protestant missionaries 

 and certain former proteges of the Government are chiefly to 

 blame for the difficulties now existing between the English 

 and the natives. Amongst these adversaries a certain Mr. 

 Davis, formerly official translator and interpreter, a highly- 

 educated but calculating man, who once sung the praises of 

 Sir George Grey, and among other works has published the 

 Maori Mementos,* so interesting in a historical point of view, 

 hit upon the clever notion, in company with a Maori named 

 AVilliam Thompson, or '' The King-maker," of instigating the 

 natives to rebellion. With this object in view, they organized 

 far in the interior, among the tribes hitherto but little civil- 

 ized, immense popular gatherings, at which in long speeches 

 they always contrived to come back to the assertion that the 

 Maories and not the English were the real lords of the 

 soil, and that they therefore were entitled to be governed 

 by a king selected from among themselves. Thompson, 

 thoroughly versant in the foibles and vanities of his 



* Maori Mementos, being a series of Addresses presented by the Native People to 

 H.E. Sir George Grey, Governor and High Commissioner of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and late Governor of New Zealand, with introductory remarks and explanatory notes ; 

 to which is added a small Collection of Laments, &c., by Charles Olivier B. Davis, 

 translator and interpreter to the General Government. Auckland, 1855. Also, "The 

 New Zealand chief Kawiti, and other New Zealand warriors." Auckland, 1855, 



