40i ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XIII. 
They were always as well clothed and fed and supplied 
with tobacco as himself. By his own example, and by 
frequently holding them up to the emulation or ridicule 
of the rest, according to their merits, he had succeeded in 
raising them to great perfection in all the parts of a 
native's education, and to a very complete discipline : 
they were confessedly the best paddlers and polers and 
pig-hunters, the most expert house-builders and woods- 
men on the river ; and under so good and noble a master 
they gloried in the title of slave. I have frequently 
been told by some among them that they would far 
rather remain his slaves than return freed to their own 
tribe and country. I have somewhat anticipated my 
impressions on this subject, which were of course not 
fully acquired until I had seen much more of E Kuru 
and his people ; but I should find it difficult to describe, 
as gradually as it was urged on my mind by a hundred 
scattered and trifling circumstances, this trait of my 
friend ; and I feel sure that the reader will pardon an 
anachronism which serves to record this striking cha- 
racteristic of a savage, whose high name rested no less 
on his generous qualities than on his noble pedigree. 
The condition of a New Zealand slave is indeed 
rarely very painful or oppressed. Mokaiy the word for 
*' slave " most used in the native language, is the same 
which they apply to favourite birds, dogs, or pigs, and 
is fairly represented by the English word " pet." * 
To be sure, they hold their life at the mercy of their 
lord, and obey his orders under penalty of death ; but 
they rarely do harder work than the other members of 
* The more offensive and insulting tenn, tau reka reka, is less 
frequently used, and is applied rather to captives newly taken in 
war, and while the passions of the masters are hot. A third word, 
pononga, answers rather to our " servant ;" and the fourth, kuki, is 
probably only a corruption from the " cook " on board ships. 
