CHA.P. XIX. CAPTAIN FITZROY AT NELSON. 513 
befriend the natives on a large scale. In short, I am 
compelled by the charge of Captain Fitzroy to boast, 
that to no White man in New Zealand would his 
accusation of animosity towards the natives have been 
less applicable. 
I just managed to tell his Excellency, that I had 
always intended to resign my commission as Magis- 
trate, on account of his conduct to me at the levee ; as 
I felt that, under such marked censure, I could not 
claim in that capacity any respect either from native 
or from White man. 
A deputation of the settlers had waited on his 
Excellency on Monday and Tuesday, with a memorial 
detailing all their political wants. Except as regards 
the TVairau question, which he passed over by re- 
minding his hearers " that our countrymen were the 
" aggressors," his promises gave general satisfaction. 
He especially promised to settle the all-important 
matter of the land-claims with the greatest possible 
despatch. 
On the 3rd of February he sailed for Nelson, after 
a ball to which he and the officers of the North Star 
were invited by the settlers. 
He returned on the 16th. At Nelson he had 
behaved still more violently than here ; so rebuking 
the Magistrates who had signed the warrants against 
Rauperaha and Rangihaeata, that they instantly threw 
up their commissions in a body, except one wl o pre- 
ferred to be turned out in order that he might forward 
his remonstrance to England. Captain Fitzroy had 
made, both at public meetings and at private interviews, 
the same declarations, that he knew his duty, and that 
he came to govern and not to be governed. He had 
branded the whole population, more deeply than at 
Wellington even, with the name of wishing to oppress 
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