11 
I must confess, it was no easy matter for me to make up my 
mind. It had, indeed, never been my intention to put, while 
separated from the expedition and from my fellow-travellers, those 
plans into execution, which had engaged my thoughts ever since 
our stay at the Cape of Good Hope, and but too well do I re- 
member the pain the decision cost me. It was on the 5 th of January. 
Accompanied by my friend, the Rev. Mr. A. G. Purchas, with 
whom I afterwards became so intimate, I entered the Council- 
Chamber of the Colonial Government-Office, resolved to state to 
the assembled ministry my special reasons for declining the honour- 
able proposition made me by the New Zealand Government, and 
preferring to continue my travels on board the Novara, My ig- 
norance of the language of the natives , the extraordinary territorial 
difficulties which the country, at no great distance from the capital, 
with its gloomy, pathless forests seemed to present, the want of 
any sort of topographical map of the interior, without which I 
deemed a geological exploration useless if not impracticable — 
these and various other circumstances made me doubt a successful 
solution of the grand problem before me. 
HoAvever, the eloquence and amiability of my friends, the Rev. 
Mr. Purchas and Dr. C. Fischer, as well as the obliging disposition of 
the ministers present overcame my scruples, and in cheerful anticipa- 
tion of an interesting, time of travel, and of happy results, I finally 
assented. The ministry, consisting of Attorney-General F. Wliitacker, 
Colonial-Treasurer C. W Richmond, and Postmaster-General II. T. 
Tancred, as also Superintendent John Williamson, the head of the 
Provincial -Government , promised me the most vigorous assistance 
and the supply of every means within their power. 
Consequently, in an agreement between the Commander of the 
Novara Expedition, B. von W idler storf-Urbair and His Excellency, 
the Governor of New Zealand, Colonel Gore Brown, the con- 
ditions were laid down under which I was to perform my new and 
honourable task. 1 
1 See the official documents in the Appendix to Ch. I. 
