Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/277

Harbour, and a party went over the hills to Pigeon Bay, led by some Maori guides, to see no landing was effected there, and no French flag hoisted. At noon on the 10th the flag was formally hoisted by Capt. Stanley, who was in command of the Britomart, and a formal proclamation made by Mr. Robinson, the Government agent on board, taking possession of the South Island in the name of Her Majesty the Queen. It was Mr. Robinson who conducted all the subsequent transactions with the French, and Mr. Ryan speaks of him as a most able and kindly man. The guns fired to salute the newly hoisted standard were distinctly heard at Peraki, Oashore and Ikoraki, the wind being light, and the day exceedingly fine. After that season Ryan went to Port Levy, Mr. Waller, having failed. Thence he started a fishery at Motonau on his own account; but that was a failure, and so he came back to Port Levy, where he lived many years, being sawing most of the time with Tom White, who is still alive and hearty. He went two trips to America during this period, and one to Napier as mate of a brig, and in this latter excursion had the misfortune to break his leg. He used to carry the mail to Akaroa through the bush, and says he thought the trees on the way would not be cleared for a hundred years; but they are all gone now. The mail then used to go once every two or three months, when a ship came in. The steamers then began coming about, and the whalers deserted the coast. Besides, whale oil fell in price, and so from all these causes the whale fishery was, in a great measure, discontinued. Ryan remembers Mr. Fleming’s first arrival in Port Levy. He came out in the Sir George Seymour, one of the first four ships, and he and Mr Arthur Waghorn, now of Little Akaloa, walked over the hills. Ryan says they had had good clothes on when they started, but