With him went Gibbon Wakefield's son, Jerningham Wakefield, whose book, _Adventures in New Zealand_, is the best account we New Zealanders have of the every-day incidents of the founding of our colony.
Arriving in August among the whalers then settled in Queen Charlotte's Sound, Colonel Wakefield enlisted Dicky Barrett's services, and, passing on to Port Nicholson, entered into a series of negotiations with the Maori chiefs, which led to extensive land purchases.
Ultimately Colonel Wakefield claimed that he had bought twenty millions of acres--nearly the whole of what are now the provincial districts of Wellington and Taranaki, and a large slice of Nelson.
It is quite probable that he believed he had.

It is certain that the Maoris, for their part, never had the least notion of selling the greater portion of this immense area.

It is equally probable that such chiefs as Rauparaha and Rangihaeata, who were parties to the bargain, knew that Wakefield thought he was buying the country.

Fifty-eight chiefs in all signed the deeds of sale.

Even if they understood what they were doing, they had no right, under the Maori law and custom, thus to alienate the heritage of their tribes.