526 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XIX. 
using compulsion to enforce obedience to British law 
by rebellious British subjects. 
My uncle and Captain Fitzroy had been friends : for 
they were midshipmen in the same ship ; and not only 
had they kept up the intimacy so occasioned, but in 
1837, Captain Fitzroy had joined his old shipmate in 
so cordially approving of the views of the New Zealand 
Association as to write a strong opinion in its favour, 
and to be a member of it for some days. It is true, 
that after those few days he changed his mind, and 
wrote another letter to my uncle expressing the oppo- 
site views of Mr. Dandeson Coates. Their personal 
friendship, however, was not interrupted ; and when, 
in 1841, Captain Wakefield was about to sail from 
England in command of the preliminary expedition 
for founding Nelson, they held frequent and friendly 
comnmnications on the subject of that undertaking. 
The Committee of the House of Commons of last year 
has spoken of my uncle's " long and distinguished 
" services in the British Navy." These, with the 
exception of nearly four years when he commanded the 
Rhadamanthus on the Mediterranean station, are re- 
lated in a document which the Directors of the New 
Zealand Company printed, in order to inform their 
constituents " what sort of a man Captain Wakefield 
'* was," and which appears in the Appendix to this 
book. I hope the reader will excuse me for praying 
of him to read it. The writer of that document first 
went to sea at ten years of age, with a pay of less 
than 20/. a year, and never afterwards occasioned his 
family the expense of a shilling. He made some prize- 
money, and presented the bulk of it to poor relations. 
He never owed anybody a farthing; and yet always 
seemed to have money in his pocket for a generous 
purpose. In his management of the Nelson settle- 
