 The "Tory" crossed Cook Strait on 20 September and with the aid of whaler and trader Dicky Barrett—who had lived among Māori in Taranaki and the Wellington area since 1828 and also spoke "pidgin-Māori"—Wakefield began to offer guns, utensils and clothing to buy land from the Māori around Petone.Within a week he had secured the entire harbour and all surrounding ranges, and from then until November went on to secure signatures and marks on parchments that supposedly gave the company ownership of 20 million acres (8 million hectares)—about one-third of New Zealand's land surface at a cost of about a halfpenny an acre.On 25 October he persuaded 10 chiefs at Kapiti to add crosses at the foot of an 1180-word document that confirmed they were permanently parting with all "rights, claims, titles and interests" to vast areas of land in both the South and North Islands as far north as present-day New Plymouth.