In this manner came the first Pakeha to the country of the Maori, and fled in fear, learning nought of the land or of its people. The Children of Maui watched for the return of the men with the strange white faces; but they came not, neither Tasman nor any other. So the visit of the Pakeha became a memory ever growing fainter, until at last it died, not even tradition keeping it alive.
Then, one hundred and twenty-seven years after Abel Tasman had found and seen and gone away, there came a greater than he, one not so easily turned back—the captain of the Endeavour, James Cook of undying memory.
FOOTNOTES:
[51] Captain Cook's ship was thus characterised by the Maori who first caught sight of it.
[52] Window.
[53] This, at least, is the writer's view.
[54] Now Massacre Bay.