Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/352

 296 GEOSE's TBEATMENT I'^W the people of the Bay of Islands against white men^ and particularly those of the English race. The only way to condUiatinff rcmove that impression, and to obtain the friendship of the the lUttiVQSt r»iT» 1 * It "3 New Zealand natives, was to treat the captives well and to return them to their homes. Although the master of the Britannia, Captain Raven, was a man in whom full confidence could be placed, yet King seems to have been nervously apprehensive that some evil might befall his friends if he did not keep them under his protection to the very last. The natives had been treated by King so well during their enforced residence on the island that he had no difficulty in managing them ; but it was possible that if they were sent on board a vessel among people to whom they were not accustomed, some unpleasantness, if nothing worse, might arise. Besides, in landing the men in New Tribal wan. Zealand, caution was required, for some of the tribes were at war, and if any mistake was made the consequences would have been fatal to the captives. Apart from considerations of this sort. King was intensely anxious to make a favourable impresaion on the natives of New Zealand, a country which he thought would be a valu- able acquisition to the British Crown. Unlike Collins, who The first entertained a poor opinion of the place, based upon the reports on j. x: x ^ ^ x New report made by the master of the Francis,* King was con- fident that New Zealand was a valuable country, and he lost no opportunity of urging the propriety of colonising it. He kept the subject under the notice of the Government in his despatches, which show that he had a strong desire to become the founder of a settlement in New Zealand. But he received no encouragement, and many years elapsed before any steps were taken to add New Zealand to the list of occupied British possessions.t • The Francis was launched in July, 1793, and was sent hy Groee to Dusky Bay soon afterwards to spy out the land. — Collins, toI. i, pp. 807, 821. t In a private letter to Nepean, 19th November, 1793. King says :— "I api confident much publick good would result to the commerce of G-reat Britain and these colonies if a settlement was made at the Bay of Islands on the riyer