Note 284 — Chapter II · GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SLAVERY.

Hale states that in the Marquesas Islands there were no slaves284. The same follows from Radiguet’s description. According to this writer, the natives were divided into the nobles and the common people. The latter served the nobles, but were free at any time to leave their employers285. According to Meinicke prisoners were either sacrificed and eaten, or spared and adopted into the conquering tribe286. De Rocquefeuil also states that the prisoners were eaten, unless, by the priests’ intervention, they were buried; at any rate they were killed287. Moerenhout tells us that the sole object of their wars was to obtain a cannibal repast288. From all this we may safely infer that there were no slaves and that Gerland, stating that “slaves were rare; like the foreigners, who were always regarded as enemies, they had no rights, could be quite arbitrarily treated and even killed”289, has mistaken for slaves persons intended to be sacrificed. Letourneau holds the same view of the matter: “Everything seems to indicate, that slavery did not exist in the Marquesas Islands”290.