Akaroa. French settlement on Banks Peninsula.

1850

Hocken Pictorial Collections - 12,899

a3621

On sketchbook mount in ink: Akaroa. French Settlement on Banks Peninsula; label in ink in Dr Hocken's hand: Akaroa. French settlement on Banks Peninsula. Sir Wm Fox. About 1835 a French Mariner, Captain L'anglois visited Akaroa and bought from the natives all that part of the peninsula which lies between Peraki and the Akaroa heads for the purpose of founding a French colony. In 1838 he returned to France and a company was formed and emigrants advertised for. They were offered a free passage, food to last for eighteen months after landing, and five acres of land to become the freehold of the occupier in five years if cultivated, if not cultivated to revert to the Company. In March 1840 the emigrants, sixty-five in number, left for NZ in the Comte de Paris preceded by the armed ship L'Aube, sent to protect the colonists on their arrival. Captain Hobson, however, hearing of their intention, sent Mr Robinson in the Britomart to hoist the Union Jack at Akaroa. The English boat arrived just in time and the flag of England was waving in the breeze when the two French boats entered the harbour. The NZ Co afterwards purchased the claim of the French Co, the emigrants returning their five acres. ; on flypage of sketchbook in ink: Thomas Morland Hocken from Sir William Fox. Sir William Fox who well knew the interest I took in old New Zealand & was a frequent visitor at my house, promised to bequeath me these sketches which he commenced to take from the time of his arrival in New Zealand in 1842.

3 sheets of paper, each ca: 182 x 255 mm; joined to form: 182 x 767 mm

watercolour

Sketchbook bequeathed to Dr T.M. Hocken by Sir William Fox in 1893; Dr T.M. Hocken’s Collection.

Fox sketchbook

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