AMERICA. 231 



where they suspect an enemy may lie concealed. In this manner 

 they enter unawares the villages of their foes ; and, while the flower 

 of the nation are engaged in hunting, massacre all the children, wo- 

 men, and helpless old men, or make prisoners of as many of them as 

 they can manage, or have strength enough to be useful to their na- 

 tion. But when the enemy is apprised of their design, and coming 

 on in arms against them, they throw themselves fiat on the ground 

 among the withered herbs and leaves, which their faces are painted 

 to resemble. Then they allow a part to pass unmolested; when all 

 at once, with a tremendous shout, rising up from their ambush, they 

 pour a storm of musket-bullets on their foes. The party attacked 

 returns the same cry. Every one shelters himself with a tree, and 

 returns the fire of the adverse party, as soon as they raise themselves 

 from the ground to give a second fire. Thus does the battle conti- 

 nue until the one party is so much weakened as to be incapable of 

 further resistance. But if the force on each side continues nearly 

 equal, the fierce spirit of the savages, inflamed by the loss of their 

 friends, can no longer be restrained. They abandon their distant 

 war, they rush upon one another with clubs and hatchets in their 

 hands, magnifying their own courage, and insulting their enemies 

 with the bitterest reproaches. A cruel combat ensues ; death appears 

 in a thousand hideous forms, which would congeal the blood of civi- 

 lized nations to behold, but which rouse the fury of savages. They 

 trample, they insult over the dead bodies, tearing the scalp from the 

 head, wallowing in their blood like wild beasts, and sometimes de- 

 vouring their flesh. The flame-rages on till it meets with no resis- 

 tance ; then the prisoners are secured, those unhappy men, whose 

 fate is a thousand times more dreadful than theirs who have died in 

 the field. The conquerors set up a hideous howling to lament the 

 friends they have lost. They approach, in a melancholy and severe 

 gloom, to their own village ; a messenger is sent to announce their 

 arrival; and the women, with frightful shrieks, come out to mourn 

 their dead brothers, or their husbands. When they are arrived, the 

 chief relates in a low voice, to the elders, a circumstantial account 

 of every particular of the expedition. The orator proclaims aloud 

 this account to the people ; and, as he mentions the names of those 

 who have fallen, the shrieks of the women are redoubled. The men 

 too join in these cries, according as each is most connected with the 

 deceased by blood or friendship. The last ceremony is the procla- 

 mation of the victory ; each individual then forgets his private mis- 

 fortunes, and joins in the triumph of his nation ; all tears are wiped 

 from their eyes, and by an unaccountable transition, they pass in a 

 moment from the bitterness of sorrow to an extravagance of joy. 

 But the treatment of the prisoners, whose fate all this time remains 

 undecided, is what chiefly characterises the savages. 



We have already mentioned the strength of their affections or re« 

 sentments. United as they are in small societies, connected within 

 themselves by the firmest ties, their friendly affections, which glow 

 with the most intense warmth within the walls of their own village, 

 seldom extend beyond them. They feel nothing for the enemies of 

 their nation ; and their resentment is easily extended from the indi- 

 vidual who has injured them to all others of the same tribe. The 

 prisoners, who have themselves the same feelings, know the inten- 

 tions of their conquerors, and are prepared for them. The person 

 has taken the captive attends him to the cottage, whire ; accord- 



