Otherwise they might lead easy lives.

Each had his hut and his Maori wife, to whom he was sometimes legally married.

Many had gardens, and families of half-caste children, whose strength and beauty were noted by all who saw them.

The whaler's helpmate had to keep herself and children clean, and the home tidy.

Cleanliness and neatness were insisted on by her master, partly through the seaman's instinct for tidiness and partly out of a pride and desire to show a contrast to the reeking hovels of the Maori.