t be bewitched in some dark corner, and so might never be able
to go away and get home again. But their sharp brown eyes noted
everything. They easily made out the leader of the goblins. He was a
_tino tangata_ (a very man--emphatically a man). Grave and dignified,
he walked about saying few words, while the other goblins chatted
freely. Presently the goblin-captain came up to the boys and, after
patting their heads and stroking their cloaks, produced a large nail
and held it up before them temptingly. The other youngsters sat
motionless, awe-struck. But the bolder Taniwha laughed cheerfully and
was at once presented with the prize. The children forthwith agreed
amongst themselves that Cook was not only a _tino tangata_, but
a _tino rangatira_--a combination of a great chief and a perfect
gentleman. How otherwise could he be so kind to them, and so fond of
children, argued these youthful sages?

Then they saw the captain draw black marks on the quarter-deck and
make a speech to the natives, pointing towards the coast. "The goblins
want to know the shape of the country," said a quick-witted old chief,
and, rising up, he drew with charcoal a map of The Fish of Maui, from
the Glittering Lake at the extreme south to Land's End in the far
north. Then, seeing that the goblins did not understand that the
Land's End was the spot from which the spirits of the dead slid down
to the shades below, the old chief laid himself down stiffly on the
deck and closed his eyes. But still the goblins did not comprehend;
they only looked at each other and spoke in their hard, hissing
speech. After this little Taniwha went on shore, bearing with him his
precious nail. He kept it for years, using it in turns as a spear-head
and an auger, or carrying it slung round his neck as a sacred
charm.[1] But one day, when out in a canoe, he was capsized in the
breakers off a certain islet and, to use his own words, "my god was
lost to me, though I dived for it."

[Footnote 1: _Heitiki_.]

Taniwha describes how a thief was shot by Lieutenant Gore for stealing
a piece of calico. The thief offered to sell a dog-skin cloak, but
when the calico was handed down over the bulwarks into his canoe which
was alongside the _Endeavour_, he simply took it, gave nothing in
return, and told his comrades to paddle to land.

"They paddled away. The goblin went down into the hold of
the ship, but soon came up with a walking-stick in his hand, and
pointed it at t