40 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. II. 
It began to be thought that he was expecting to be 
recalled for the absurdities and follies already committed 
during his maladministration, and that he had there- 
fore postponed his visit indefinitely. 
The settlers did not know then, that in May 1840, his 
Excellency had been writing despatches to the Govern- 
ment in England, calling the loyal settlers " dema- 
gogues" and men " guilty of high treason ;" that in 
October and November 1840, he had been depreciating 
the location and capabilities of Port Nicholson, only on 
the unfounded evidence of Lieutenant Shortland, in 
order to excuse his selection of a desert site, before he 
had compared it with that already colonized. They were 
not aware that Captain Hobson flattered himself for 
more than a year, that he should be able to stop all the 
complaints of those distressed, all the bitter feelings of 
those injured, all the resentment of those neglected, all 
the indignation of those defamed, by coming to " meet 
** these people, clothed with that power and dignity 
" which became his station," as he wrote to Lord John 
Russell. No rumour had yet reached Wellington of the 
long chain of concocted evidence by which his Excel- 
lency had secretly supported his hasty decision before 
the tribunal of the Colonial Office ; of his unfounded 
abuse of the harbour and climate which he had not 
seen ; or of his suggestions that the Company should 
no longer " be allowed to locate emigrants wherever 
" their personal interests might dictate, or where, from 
" the difficulty of communication with other parts of 
" the colony, they would be placed solely at the mercy 
" of the more wealthy settlers." 
Thus the Governor depreciated the older settlement 
as under the disadvantage of distance from that which 
he had so capriciously founded many months after- 
wards, though he alone had j)roduced the disadvan- 
tageous circumstance. So a man should knock another 
