Chap. VII. COMMITTEE OF COLONISTS. IKfr 
" power ;" and they were therefore prepared to accede 
to this representation, and to place themselves under a 
government of the native chiefs, which would be as 
nominal as their independence and their flag. 
So perfectly fantastic and nugatory had been the recog- 
nition by Great Britain of the independence of New Zea- 
land and its national emblem, that we found the natives 
in Cook's Strait totally unacquainted with the meaning 
of a flag, and unable to distinguish the ensign of New 
Zealand from that of France, England, or America, 
And notwithstanding the letter of the thirteen chiefs 
of the Bay of Islands to William IV., on which the 
declaration of independence was founded, the only 
sovereign of England known by name to those natives 
whom we had met was Kin^i Hori, or " King George," 
whose name was remembered because, nearly twenty 
years before, he had given Hongi the guns by means 
of which that chief originated the most desolating 
wars of the country. 
The colonists were not, therefore, without hope that 
the British Government would determine to extend its 
protecting dominion over them, as soon as they should 
have carried their bold scheme into execution. 
In the meanwhile, it became absolutely necessary 
that some provision should be made for the maintenance 
of law and order among the young comnmnity, on 
their reaching the shores of New Zealand. It was 
well known that the chiefs, however independent, 
would be perfectly incapable of constructing such laws 
as would control and protect a civilized community. It 
seemed, therefore, advisable to form some plan of regu- 
lation and discipline among themselves, to which the 
sanction of the independent chiefs should be afterwards 
invited. A remarkable agreement between all the in- 
tending colonists was_ the instrument for this purpose 
