ar
system of government. There are only two classes of people--chiefs and
slaves; and, as consanguinity constitutes a high claim, the eldest son of
a large family, who can bring the greatest number of warriors of his own
name into the field, is considered the chief of that district or tribe;
and as he, by reason of his followers, can take possession of the
greatest number of prisoners or slaves, he becomes the ruling man. Every
other man of his tribe considers himself on an equality with him in
everything, except that he shows him obedience, and follows him to
battle.

Each is independent in his own family, and holds uncontrolled power of
life and death over every individual it contains. They seem not to
exercise any coercion over the younger branches of a family, who are
allowed unbounded liberty till the girls have sweethearts and the boys
are strong enough to go to war. They are kind and hospitable to
strangers, and are excessively fond of their children. On a journey, it
is more usual to see the father carrying his infant than the mother; and
all the little offices of a nurse are performed by him with the tenderest
care and good humour. In many instances (wherein they differ from most
savage tribes) I have seen the wife treated as an equal and companion. In
fact, when not engaged in war, the New Zealander is quite a domestic,
cheerful, harmless character; but once rouse his anger, or turn him into
ridicule, and his disposition is instantly changed. A being, whose
passions have never been curbed from infancy, and whose only notion of
what he conceives to be his right is to retaliate for an offence with
blood, must naturally form a cruel and vindictive character. Such these
islanders seemed to us on our first visiting them. The sight of beings so
extraordinary (for thus we Europeans must have appeared to them) excited
in their savage minds the greatest wonder; and they thought we were sent
as a scourge and an enemy; and though Cook, one of their earliest
visitors, adopted every method his ingenuity could devise to conciliate
them, yet, as they never could thoroughly understand his intentions, they
were always on the alert to attack him. Hence arose the horror and
disgust expressed formerly at the mere mention of the name of "a New
Zealander."

I have often tried, in vain, to account for there being such a decided
dissimilarity between the natives of New Holland and New Zealand. So
trifling is the difference in their