"But then their wars--cruel and remorseless. Think of Rauparaha and Hongi! Think of the wholesale massacres, the cannibal feasts, the torturings, the burnings!" "No doubt. All these things were done in their unregenerate days, but after the advent of that great and good man, Marsden, in 1830, and the establishment of missionary stations, these horrors gradually lessened and were in process of dying out." "How do you think that can be? Were there not still tribal wars and ruthless massacres?" "A state of conquest, succeeded by retribution, could not be expected to cease suddenly. But you may notice that as the old cannibal chiefs and leaders died out, they in many instances recommended the missionaries to their sons and successors. Then the Christianized chiefs, like Waka Nene and Patuone, never relapsed into heathenism, but fought for us and with us to the end." "Certainly that showed their power to assimilate civilization, when once introduced." "Then, again, one remarkable result of the progress of religious teaching was their abolition of slavery. The Maoris were large slaveholders in proportion to their numbers. They made profitable use of captives in agriculture and the laborious work of the tribe. They pleased themselves also by feeling that they had thus degraded their enemies. In the case of chiefs and high-born women it was held to be an unspeakable degradation, personal and political. When one considers the difficulty of inducing civilized nations to forego such privileges, one is lost in amazement that a people but lately redeemed from barbarism should act so humanely at the bidding of a handful of missionaries. It was to forego an ancient institution which contributed so largely to their pride and profit; for slaves were valuable alike in peace and war." Following up her researches and explorations in Maori lore, Hypatia was daily more excited by the wondrous revelations which the library of fact and fiction furnished. A procession of warriors, orators, poets, priests, and patriots passed before her eager vision. Conquerors who, like Timour and Zenghis Khan, marched from one extremity of the island world to the other, slaying and enslaving, devouring and torturing, extirpating the weaker tribes--a devastating wave of conquest.