230 AMERICA. 



along and drink the blood of their enemies ; for with the Americans, 

 as with the Greeks of old, 



iC A generous friendship no cold medium knows, 

 " Burns with one love, with one resentment glows." 



They think that those in their alliance must not onlyadopt their en- 

 mities, but have their resentment wound up to the same pitch with 

 themselves. And, indeed, no people carry their friendships or their 

 resentments so far as they do : and this is what should be expected 

 from their peculiar circumstances ; that principle in human nature, 

 ■which is the spring of the social affections, acts with so much the 

 greater force the more it is restrained. The Americans, who live in 

 small societies, who see few objects and few persons, become won- 

 derfully attached to these objects and persons, and cannot be deprived 

 of them without feeling themselves miserable. Their ideas are too 

 confined, their breasts are too narrow to entertain the sentiment of 

 general benevolence, or even of ordinary humanity. But this very 

 circumstance, while it makes them cruel to an incredible degree to- 

 wards those with whom they are at war, adds a new force to their 

 particular friendships, and to the common tie which unites the mem- 

 bers of the same tribe, or those different tribes which are in alliance 

 with one another. Without attending to this reflection, some facts 

 we are going to relate would excite our wonder, without informing 

 our reason, and we should be bewildered in a number of particulars 

 seemingly opposite to one another, without being sensible of the ge- 

 neral cause from which they proceed. 



Having finished all the ceremonies previous to the war, they issue 

 forth, with their faces blackened with charcoal, intermixed with 

 streaks of vermilion, which gives them a most horrid appearance. 

 Then they exchange their clothes with their friends, and dispose of 

 all their finery to the women, who accompany them a considerable 

 distance, to receive those last tokens of eternal friendship. 



The great qualities in an Indian warrior are vigilance and atten- 

 tion, to give and to avoid a surprise ; and indeed in these they are 

 superior to all nations in the world. Accustomed to continual wander- 

 ing in the forests, having their perceptions sharpened by keen neces- 

 sity, and living in every respect according to nature, their external 

 senses have a degree of acuteness which at first appears incredible. 

 They can trace out their enemies, at an immense distance, by the 

 smoke of their fires, which they smell, and by the tracts of their feet 

 on the ground, imperceptible to an European eye, but which they 

 can count and^distinguish with the utmost facility. They even dis- 

 tinguish the different nations with whom they are acquainted, and 

 can determine the precise time when they passed, where an Europe- 

 an could not, with all his glasses, distinguish footsteps at all. These 

 circumstances, however, give them no superiority, because their ene- 

 mies are equally skilful. When they go out, therefore, they take care 

 to avoid making use of any thing by which they might run the dan- 

 ger of a discovery. They light no fire to warm themselves, or to pre- 

 pare their victuals ; they lie close to the ground all day, and travel only 

 in the night ; and marching along in files, he that closes the rear 

 diligently covers with leaves the tracks of his own feet, and of theirs 

 who preceded him. When they halt to refresh themselves, scouts 

 are sent out to reconnoitre the country, and beat up every place 



