the Crown. The Taranaki ruling led to Spain's downfall. Spain had made the decision based on information from William Wakefield that much of the Taranaki region had been sparsely populated by Māori at the time of the purchase. The cause of the depopulation was that most of the local Te Āti Awa population had either migrated to Ōtaki or the Cook Strait region after defeat by raiding Waikato war parties in the 1820s, or been enslaved by the Waikato, but many were now returning. Spain ruled that regardless of the reason for their departure, Te Āti Awa had forfeited the land and that the company purchase from the few remaining residents was valid. With tensions between settlers and Māori in Taranaki at an all-time high, and alerted by Protector of Aborigines George Clarke of problems with Spain's Taranaki ruling, FitzRoy sailed in August 1844 for New Plymouth, where he was briefed by Bishop George Selwyn and then announced he would reverse Spain's decision. Instead of the 60,000 acres in Taranaki, the company would be awarded just 3800 acres, where settlers were already located. The decision outraged settlers, who were aware of friction with returning Māori, but had been hoping the Governor would station a body of troops at New Plymouth or sanction the formation of a militia to protect their land. FitzRoy later wrote: "It appeared so clear ... that the view taken by the land commissioner could not be adopted by the government without causing bloodshed, and the probable ruin of the settlement; because the injustice of awarding land to the New Zealand Company, which was well known not to have been purchased by them, was apparent to every native." FitzRoy's decision infuriated Spain, whose resignation was then demanded by the Governor. Spain's award in Wanganui also failed to be delivered in full: some chiefs refused to sell regardless of the amount of compensation offered. Spain offered to return to Māori four sections of land along with £1000, which Wakefield attempted to distribute with the money in gold and silver, but when they continued to refuse Spain informed them their refusal would not prevent the land from going to the settlers. Further settlements The New Zealand Company also established a settlement at Wanganui in 1840, chiefly as a spillover settlement, the site of the rural land promised to Wellington purchasers. A traveller in the colony at the time described