GOVERNMENT-CLASSES. 
343 
selves; frequently it has been the reverse, as the 
affair of the Boyd, and the desolation of the island 
of Tipahee, affectingly demonstrate. 
The government of New Zealand is aristocratical 
or feudal, and is oppressive, arbitrary, and cruel* 
Each chief is supreme among his own tribe or 
clan, and independent of every other. In this 
respect their system corresponds with that which 
prevails in the Marquesas and some other islands, 
where right is unknown, and no law acknow¬ 
ledged but that of power. Many of the chiefs 
have probably acquired their ascendancy by skill 
and prowess in war, and maintain their authority 
by their fame, or superiority in strength and cou¬ 
rage. The greater part of the people appear to be 
comprehended under three classes—the chiefs and 
warriors, with their relatives and companions; the 
families of peasantry or agriculturists, and fisher¬ 
men ; and the slaves. The condition of the latter 
is most deplorable and wretched. They are cap¬ 
tives who have been taken in war, or the children 
of such, and are enslaved for life. On them 
devolves the labour of tilling the ground, dressing 
food, and performing all the drudgery for the 
household of their chief or master. Slavery in 
every state of society is inhuman and unjust to 
man, and is criminal before God; but I am dis¬ 
posed to regard it as less intolerable in civilized 
than in savage society. It certainly is so in those 
parts where I have witnessed its operation. I 
never saw it in all the repulsive deformity in which 
it exists in the West Indies, but in South America 
I had frequent opportunities of observing the 
manner in which the unhappy captives were 
treated in that part of the world. The circum¬ 
stances under which I first saw those, whom 
