I have the honour to acquaint you that His Majesty's ship "Rattlesnake" in her late cruise page 11visited the Bay of Islands and several other ports on the eastern coast of. New Zealand, and in Cook Straits.

It affords me great satisfaction to assure your Excellency that the European settlersat the Bay of Islands repose the most entire confidence in the friendly disposition of the Natives, notwithstanding the existence of war between the two tribes settled in their immediate neighbourhood. I am aware that the British Resident is not free from apprehension; but from the intercourse I maintained with the Missionaries, and all other classes of British subjects, I am free to assert that he stands alone in the opinion he has formed.