154 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. VL 
bank below, buried in the midst of flourishing gardens. 
The fig and prickly pear were growing well in the 
open air; and a vineyard, with three hundred and fifty 
vines of different sorts, promised great things. Some 
cattle belonging to Mr. Macdonnell were running on 
the tops of the hills, and one of these, which we bought 
for the ship, was very fair meat. 
De Thierry's wild scheme of assuming the sove- 
reignty of New Zealand was of course opposed by the 
natives and White settlers of the Bay of Islands and 
Hokianga. Mr. Busby printed a circular to the chiefs, 
inviting them to resist his designs ; and the Church 
missionaries took active measures for their overthrow. 
On arriving in New Zealand in 1835, he was much 
disappointed when he found his visionary scheme quite 
unlikely to succeed ; and he was also foiled in the 
more legitimate hope of acquiring an indisputable title 
to a large tract of land, by means of the 700/. which 
he had given to Mr. Kendal for that purpose. 
It appeared that Mr. Kendal had purchased some 
land for thirty-six axes ; and De Thierry had been 
involved in constant disputes with the vendors and 
their sons ever sinces. On one occasion he sent to 
Colonel Wakefield for protection against an aggression 
meditated upon him and his family by a turbulent 
young chief, in consequence of a dispute about the 
ownership of some logs of timber. An armed boat 
from the Tory, sent up to his residence, had the 
effect of maintaining peace, until a chief named Nene 
or Thomas Walker, who was much on board our ship, 
had been persuaded by my uncle to go and pacify the 
aggressor, his own brother. Colonel Wakefield him- 
self paid the Baron a visit, and described his family 
as exceedingly interesting and well-bred, but suffering 
from distress and constant alarm. 
