Such were the sea-routes of that day that it took him some twelve months voyaging amid every kind of hardship and discomfort to reach his journey's end.

In New Zealand the fact that he showed Thierry some consideration, and that he and his Catholic workers in the mission-field were not always on the best of terms with their Protestant competitors, aroused well-founded suspicions that the French had their eye upon New Zealand.

The English missionaries were now on the horns of a dilemma.

They did not want a colony, but if there was to be annexation, the English flag would, of course, be far preferable.
Moreover, a fresh influence had caused the plot to thicken, and was also making for annexation.

This was the appearance on the scene of the "land-sharks"-- shrewd adventurers, from Sydney and elsewhere, who had come to the conclusion that the colonization of New Zealand was near at hand, and were buying up preposterously large tracts of land on all sides.