Then they landed; eight rose to leave the canoe, but the thief sat still with his dog-skin mat and the goblin's garment under his feet.

His companions called him, but he did not answer.

One of them shook him and the thief fell back into the hold of the canoe, and blood was seen on his clothing and a hole in his back." What followed was a capital example of the Maori doctrine of _utu_, or compensation, the cause of so many wars and vendettas.

The tribe decided that as the thief had stolen the calico, his death ought not to be avenged, but that as he had paid for it with his life _he_ should keep it.

So it was buried with him.
The French were but a few months behind the English in the discovery of New Zealand.