Ch. iv. among the American Indians. 49 



'S 



as they have seldom any portable stores, they are 

 generally reduced to extreme want. All the peo- 

 ple of the district invaded, are frequently forced 

 to take refuge in woods or mountains, which 

 can afford them no subsistence, and where manv 

 of them perish.* In such a flight each consults 

 alone his individual safety. Children desert their 

 parents, and parents consider their children as 

 strangers. The ties of nature are no longer bind- 

 ing. A father will sell his son for a knife or a 

 hatchet.f Famine and distresses of every kind 

 complete the destruction of those whom the sword 

 had spared ; and in this manner whole tribes are 

 frequently extinguished.^ 



Such a state of things has powerfully contri- 

 buted to generate that ferocious spirit of warfare 

 observable among savages in general, and most 

 particularly among the Americans. Their object in 

 battle is not conquest, but destruction.^ The life 

 of the victor depends on the death of his enemy; 

 and, in the rancour and fell spirit of revenge with 

 which he pursues him, he seems constantly to bear 

 in mind the distresses that would be consequent 

 on defeat. Among the Iroquois, the phrase by 

 which they express their resolution of making war 

 against an enemy, is, " Let us go and eat that 



* Robertson, b. iv. p. 172. Cbarlevoix, Nouv. France, torn. iii. 

 p. 203. 



t Lettres Edif. torn. viii. p. 346. 



X Robertson, b. iv. p. 1/2. Account of North America, by 

 Major Rogers, p. 250. 

 . § Robertson, b. iv. p. 150. 



VOL. I. E 



