I40 CAPTAIN COOK 



in 1770. He also received a visit from Telratu, 

 the chief who had asked him for news of Tupia 

 on his last visit to the Sound. 



The honesty of the Maoris was on a par with 

 that of the other Pacific Islanders. When the 

 New Zealanders sold fish to the Englishmen, 

 they were in the habit of taking back with one 

 hand what they gave with the other. One of 

 them had the audacity to pick Captain Cook's 

 pocket and appropriate his handkerchief. 



Several of the officers of the Resolution wit- 

 nessed the cannibalism of the natives, who ate in 

 their presence part of the head of a young man 

 of twenty. Oedidea, the islander whom Cook 

 had brought with him from Ulietea, was 

 "changed into a statue of horror" at this spec- 

 tacle. When he recovered from his waking 

 nightmare he burst into tears, and overwhelmed 

 the New Zealanders with violent reproaches, 

 swearing that he would never be their friend 

 and would never allow himself to be touched by 

 them. The barbarity of these Indians, their 

 dirty habits, their brutality to their women, re- 

 volted this young savage whose civilisation was 

 on a far higher plane. 



Cook, anxious to improve the conditions of 

 these people, took care to learn what had become 

 of the animals which he left In New Zealand In 

 May. He saw the youngest of the sows which 



