1712, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull:

Thoſe Chriſtian Captiues, which you keepe as ſlaues, […] when they chance to reſt or breath a ſpace, Are puniſht with Baſtones so grieuouſly, That they lie panting on the Gallies ſide.

In Homo sapiens we find two types of polygamous mateships, polygyny and polyandry, and social structures based on these are ordinarily called “families.” Relatively rare in man in an institutionalized form, polyandrous mateships appear to be absent in infrahuman primates.

We are spending a lot of money trying to put this mine in shape; we are anxious to comply with the wishes of your office in every regard […]