Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/86

68 bitterness, their great disappointment at the effects of the treaty of Waitangi, so that I did not consider it advisable to permit those officers to extend their researches to any considerable distance from the position we had taken up. And although it was necessary to despatch boats several miles up the river, for the purpose of obtaining the spars we required to replace those that had been carried away during our run from Sydney, as well as to increase our store, yet I thought it proper that they should be well armed and prepared to resist any attack which the natives seemed well disposed to make, whenever it could be done with any certainty of success, and also to entrust the conduct of those parties to one of the senior lieutenants: indeed, so strong was the impression upon my mind of the readiness of the natives to seize any favourable opportunity of regaining possession of their lands and driving the Europeans out of the country, that I always felt much anxiety during the absence of our people, although I could fully rely on the prudence and judgment of Lieutenant Bird, by whom they were chiefly conducted. No spars of the size and kind we wanted were to be had near to our anchorage: the demands of the numbers of whalers that in former years used to resort to this port to refit had completely exhausted the forests of the immediate neighbourhood; and Lieutenant Bird found it necessary to proceed to a considerable distance up the river before he could procure any. There he was