In the absence of any legal authority to advise him he rather absurdly interpreted the proceedings of the New Zealand Company as acts of high treason, and within an hour had ordered the officer commanding the troops to detach thirty men of the 80th Regiment for duty at Port Nicholson. He also, two days later, dictated a Proclamation in which he denounced the attempt to supersede the authority of the Queen, and called upon all loyal subjects to resume their allegiance to their lawful sovereign. PROCLAMATION WHEREAS certain persons residing at Port Nicholson, New Zealand, part of the Dominions of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, have formed themselves into an illegal Association, under the title of a Council, and in contempt of Her Majesty's authority, have assumed and attempted to usurp the powers vested in me by Her Majesty's Letters Patent, for the Government of the said Colony, to the manifest injury and detriment of all Her Majesty's liege subjects in New Zealand. NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM HOBSON, Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, command all persons connected with such illegal Association immediately to withdraw therefrom, and I call upon all persons resident at Port Nicholson, or elsewhere, within the limits of this Government, upon the allegiance they owe to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, to submit to the proper authorities in New Zealand, legally appointed, and to aid and assist them in the discharge of their respective duties. GIVEN under my hand at Government House, Russell, Bay of Islands, this 23rd day of May in the year of our Lord 1840. WILLIAM HOBSON, Lieutenant-Governor. By command of His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, WILLOUGHBY SHORTLAND, Colonial Secretary. The exigencies of the circumstances were such as seemed to warrant the taking of even a more decisive step than the despatching of troops to Wellington, and without waiting for a report from Major Bunbury as to the success or failure of his mission, two other proclamations were hastily formulated and published, the one taking possession of the North Island by virtue of its cession by the native chiefs; the other declaring the South Island to be part of the Queen's Dominions by right of discovery.[148]