Chap. XVI. MR. CLARKE'S OFFICIAL REPORT. 4tS 
the natives ; and our dead fellow-countrymen were 
prejudged to have been the only criminals. 
We were suspected of a wish to revenge ourselves, 
and of blood-thirstiness against the whole native race ; 
therefore, 50 grenadiers were sent only to prevent 
us from overawing the natives by preparing our- 
selves for the worst. 
It was foreseen that the natives, presuming on 
the impunity of their first murderous resistance to 
authority, would bring on a repetition of the "con- 
" flict ;" therefore, the Whites were forbidden from 
seeking to maintain their footing wherever the natives 
should forbid. 
But the whole policy of Mr. Acting Governor 
Shortland is best accounted for by Mr. Clarke's letter 
to him, on the first receipt of the depositions at Auck- 
land. Dating from the Protectors O^ce (for these 
officers had early taken upon themselves to assume the 
sounding title of " Protector " by itself), he thus 
writes, in words that prejudge, that falsify the deposi- 
tions and the effect of the affair on the natives, that 
vilify the memory of the dead, that thirst for revenge 
and for more blood of his own fellow-countrymen. 
" Protector's Office, Auckland, 
"Sir, "8th July, 1843. 
" It is my painful duty to enclose for the informa- 
" tion of his Excellency the Officer administering the 
" Government, a copy of the Protector of the Southern 
" District's report of a serious affray which took place 
" between Her Majesty's European and aboriginal 
" subjects at JVairau, New Munster, occasioned by the 
" New Zealand Company's officers taking forcible pos- 
" session of native lands ; and while I feel the deepest 
" sympathy for the unfortunate sufferers and their sur- 
" viving relations, I cannot help regretting and deprecat- 
