They thought the sailors gods, and the discharge of their muskets divine thunderbolts.

Yet, when Cook and a boat's crew landed, a defiant war-chief at once threatened the boat, and persisted until he was shot dead.

Almost all Cook's attempts to trade and converse with the Maoris ended in the same way--a scuffle and a musket-shot.

Yet the savages were never cowed, and came again.

They were shot for the smallest thefts.