Having paid his respects to his chief, Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales, Captain Hobson sailed for the Bay of Islands, where he arrived on the 29th of January, 1840. He immediately exhibited three documents, which gave the settlers plenty to think about. The first was his commission as Lieutenant-Governor over _whatever parts of New Zealand might be thereafter added to Queen Victoria's dominions_; the second asserted Her Majesty's authority over all her subjects then resident in New Zealand; the third--note it well--proclaimed that the Queen would acknowledge no titles to land other than those derived from Crown grants, that to purchase land from the natives would after that date be illegal, and that a Commission would investigate all land purchases already made. While Lieutenant-Governor Hobson was familiarising the Kororarekans with this last intimation, the agent of the New Zealand Company at Wellington continued to acquire land from the Maori, irrespective of native right and title; while immigrants as eagerly besieged genial Colonel Wakefield for town lots and country lands, careless of _his_ right and title and, apparently, of their own insecure tenure. So, with Captain Hobson proclaiming himself Governor over territory yet to be acquired; with the Company selling, and the immigrants buying, land to which neither had a proper title, the materials for the production of a very difficult and unpleasant situation were apparent even to inexperienced eyes. They were so apparent to Captain Hobson, that he took with creditable promptitude two decided steps. First, he convened at Waitangi--the lovely "Weeping Water" in the Bay of Islands--a meeting of powerful hereditary chiefs, to whom he proposed an agreement, historically known as the Treaty of Waitangi. The chiefs of the United Tribes of New Zealand by this treaty ceded to Queen Victoria the sovereignty of their territories, and agreed to sell lands to no other purchaser than the Crown. Queen Victoria, in consideration of this cession of sovereignty, agreed to extend her royal protection to the Maori, and to confer upon them all the privileges of British subjects. [Illustration: Signing the Treaty of Waitangi] This important treaty was not carried through off-hand. Shrewd chiefs opposed it, though the greater number present argued in its favour, among them Hongi's veteran lieutenant, Tomati Waka Nene (Thomas Walker), afterwards our strong ally. No conclusion was come to until next day, when forty-six prominent chiefs signed the treaty in presence of a great following.