Sovereign Chief, a Biography of Baron de Thierry

Of French noblity, Baron de Thierry was living in England when "There, he met Hongi Hika, the Ngāpuhi chief who was visiting England, and the missionary Thomas Kendall. De Thierry subsequently arranged a purchase of 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) at Hokianga, in Northland, through Kendall while at Cambridge.[ The land was bought for the price of about 500 muskets plus powder and ball which de Thierry sent to Sydney, Australia. Hongi Hika uplifted the weapons on his return to Sydney. It was this act that ignited the inter-iwi and inter-hapu Musket Wars in New Zealand, which continued until about 1842. ... By 1837, de Thierry had reached Sydney, where he recruited some colonists to join him in his New Zealand possessions. Arriving at Hokianga, the local Maori rangatira (chiefs) Tāmati Wāka Nene and Eruera Maihi Patuone, rejected his claims, but he was allowed to settle. His settlement was a failure. De Thierry continued to agitate for a French colony led by himself, but this activity was curtailed by the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. De Thierry subsequently moved to Auckland."--Wikipedia.