690 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



discovered. Yet I know one man who made his escape from them, though 

 they had thus disabled him, as you may see In my journal. 



The Indians ground their wars on enmity, not on interest, as the Europeans 

 generally do ; for the loss of the meanest jDcrson in the nation, they will go to 

 war and lay all at stake, and prosecute their designs to the utmost, till the nation 

 they were injured by, be wholly destroyed, or make them that satisfaction which 

 they demand. They are very politic in waging and carrying on their war: first, 

 by advising with all the ancient men of conduct and reason, that belong to their 

 nation ; such as superannuated war captains, and those that have been counsellors 

 for many years, and whose advice has commonly succeeded very well. They have 

 likewise their field counsellors, who are accustomed to ambuscades and surprises, 

 which methods are constantly used by the savages, for I scarce ever heard of a 

 field battle fought amongst them. (Lawson, 1860, pp. 321-323; copied by Catesby, 

 1731-43, vol. 2, p. XIII. ) 



He then gives an account of a stratagem by means of which a rela- 

 tively weak war party overcame a stronger body, namely, by lighting 

 a great fire and laying logs of wood about it wrapped up in such a 

 way as to resemble men asleep. Thinking to surprise them, the attack- 

 ing party was itself surprised and killed or captured. As the same 

 device is said to have been used by the Creek Indians in overcoming 

 a large Apalachee war party, it is possibly a war legend. Lawson also 

 cites the treacherous manner in which the Machapunga destroyed the 

 Coranine Indians of Point Lookout with whom they had just made 

 peace (Lawson, 1860, p. 325). This seems to have been one of those 

 disturbances in the interest of British slave trade which too often 

 accompanied the advance of white civilization. 



Catesby adds : 



A body of India'iis will travel four or five hundred miles to surprise a town 

 of their enemies, travelling by night only, for some days before they approach the 

 town. Their usual time of attack is at break of day, when, if they are not 

 discovered, they fall on with dreadful slaughter, and scalping, which is to cut 

 off the skins of the crown from the temples, and taking the whole head of hair 

 along with it as if it was a night cap : sometimes they take the top of the scull 

 with it ; all which they preserve, and carefully keep by them for a trophy of 

 their conquest. Their caution and temerity is such, that at the least noise, or 

 suspicion of being discovered, though at the point of execution, they will give 

 over the attack, and retreat back again with precipitation. (Catesby, 1731-43, 

 vol. 2, p. XIII.) 



He illustrates this by referring to a personal experience when a 

 party of 60 Cherokee descended the Savannah River to Augusta to cut 

 off the small Chickasaw settlement there but were moved to turn back 

 by some trifling incident. He continues : 



It is the custom of Indians, when they go on these bloody designs, to colour the 

 paddles of their canoes, and sometimes the canoes, red. No people can set a higher 

 esteem on themselves, than those who excel in martial deeds, yet their principles 

 of honour, and what they deem glorious, would in other parts of the world be 

 esteemed most base and dishonourable : they never face their enemies in open field 

 (which they say is great folly in the English) but skulk from one covert to 



