Murphy and Robinson the instructions entrusted to me by Your Excellency to meet such a contingency. Mr. Robinson, finding that he could engage three or four Englishmen as constables, and having been enabled through the kindness of Captain Lavaud to purchase a boat from a French whaler, decided upon remaining. Captain Lavaud expressed much satisfaction when I informed him that Mr. Robinson was to remain, and immediately offered him the use of his cabin and table as long as _L'Aube_ remained at Akaroa. Mr. Robinson accepted Captain Lavaud's offer until he could establish himself on shore. On August 27 I sailed from Akaroa for Pigeon Bay, when finding no inhabitants I merely remained long enough to survey the harbour, which, though narrow and exposed to the northward, is well sheltered from every other wind and is much frequented by whalers, who procure great numbers of pigeons. From Pigeon Bay I went to Port Cooper, where Mr. Murphy held a Court; several chiefs were present, and seemed to understand and appreciate Mr. Murphy's proceedings in one or two cases that came before him. Between Port Cooper and Cloudy Bay I could hear of no anchorage whatever from the whalers who frequent the coast. I arrived at Port Nicholson on September 2, embarked Messrs. Shortland and Stuart, and sailed for the Bay of Islands on September 16. Much has been said and written concerning this incident, and in the discussion it has been invested with an importance which it does not deserve. In no sense can it rightly be elevated into the crisis of a great international dispute, for the simple and sufficient reason that no dispute existed. Whatever Captain Hobson may have understood as the result of his conversation with Captain Lavaud, the amiable manner in which that officer complied with every request made by Captain Stanley, together with his conciliatory despatch to his own immediate Minister in France, indicate that he at least had no views in the direction of taking forcible possession of any territory in New Zealand, since British sovereignty over it had been officially declared. The pleasure he expressed when he learned that the British Magistrate had determined to remain amongst the settlers; the ready hospitality he extended to him; his refusal to allow the master of the _Comte de Paris_ to land the artillery brought in that vessel; and his promise to do even-handed justice to both English and French should disputes arise, were not the acts of a man who felt that he had been forestalled and worsted in a race involving the sacrifice of new territory and the loss of national prestige.