342 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
hue Raatira, the landed proprietors, or gentry and far¬ 
mers—and 4he manahune, or common people. These 
three ranks were subdivided into a number of distinct 
classes; the lowest class included the titi and the teuteu, 
the slaves and servants ; the former were those who had 
lost their liberty in battle, or who, in consequence of the 
defeat of the chieftains to whom they were attached, had 
become the property of the conquerors. This kind of 
slavery appears to have existed among them from time 
immemorial. Individuals captured in actual combat, or 
who fled to the chief for protection when disarmed or 
disabled in the field, were considered the slaves of the 
captor or chief by whom they were protected. The 
women, children, and others, who remained in the dis¬ 
tricts of the vanquished, were also regarded as belonging 
to them; and the lands they occupied, together with 
their fields and plantations, were distributed among the 
victors. 
We do not know that they ever carried on a trafiic in 
slaves, or sold those whom they had conquered, though a 
chief might give a captive for a servant to a friend. This 
is the only kind of slavery that has ever obtained among 
them, and corresponds with that which has prevailed in 
most of the nations of the earth in their rude state, or 
during the earlier periods of their history. This state of 
slavery among them was in general mild, compared with 
the affecting cruelty by which it has been distinguished 
in modern times, among those who support the inhuman 
system of trafficking in these unhappy beings. If peace 
continued, the captive frequently regained his liberty 
after a limited servitude, and was permitted to return to 
his own land, or remain in voluntary service with his 
master. 
