On Sunday, 8 October, 1769, the ship was at anchor in Poverty Bay, off the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand; and Captain Cook, accompanied by (Sir Joseph) Banks and Dr. Solander, and a party of marines, landed--the first amongst Europeans--on the shores of New Zealand. Their reception from the natives was not a friendly one. When they had got some distance from the boat, four men armed with long wooden lances rushed out of the woods and attempted to attack the seamen who were left in the boat. The coxswain of the small pinnace was obliged to fire in the air to scare them. This, however, did not deter the Maoris, who renewed their attack, and at last one of them was shot dead. At this the other three stood motionless, as if petrified with astonishment; but as soon as they recovered their senses they seized the body of their dead companion to drag it after them, but abandoned it at last in a panic flight. Cook and his party returned to the ship, and heard the natives on shore discussing in loud voices what had happened. The next morning Cook, accompanied by Banks, Solander, and the interpreter, Tupia, landed and advanced slowly and quietly towards a party of fifty natives who were seated on the ground, every man of whom at their approach produced either a long wooden pike or a small axe of green jade, about a foot long and thick enough to weigh 4 or 5 pounds. The interpreter, Tupia, called to them aloud in the language of Tahiti, but they only answered by flourishing their weapons. Then a musket was fired wide, so as to scare them whilst the party retreated. A body of marines was landed, and marched with a union jack carried before them to a little bank. The officers once more approached the Maoris, and it was with great pleasure they perceived that their Tahiti interpreter was actually understood when he spoke, he and the Maoris only speaking different dialects of the same language. (This was a very remarkable fact, that the Maoris could understand the speech of other Polynesian natives from 1000 to 2000 miles distant, for the two peoples must have been separated in time by about six or seven hundred years.) [Illustration: THE ISLAND OF TAHITI AND ITS EXTRAORDINARY DOUBLE CANOES: AS SEEN BY CAPTAIN COOK]