Lord Palmerston had, in November, 1838, promised them to send a consul to New Zealand to supersede poor Mr.Busby, but the permanent officials thwarted him, and nothing was done for eight months.

At last, in May, 1839, Gibbon Wakefield crossed the Rubicon.

As the Government persisted in treating New Zealand as a foreign country, let the Company do the same, and establish settlements there as in a foreign land! Since repeated efforts to obtain the help and sanction of the English Government had failed, let them go on unauthorized.

Secretly, therefore, the ship _Tory_, bearing Colonel Wakefield, as Agent for the Company, was despatched in May to Cook's Straits to buy tracts of land for the Company.

He was given a free hand as to locality, though Port Nicholson was hinted at as the likeliest port.