C ) 



cold blood in the midft of action ; yet they never 

 engage in an open country when they can avoid it ; 

 their reafon for it being, fay they, that a victory 

 bought with blood is no victory, and that the glory 

 of a chief confifts above all things in bringing back 

 all his people fafe and found, or in whole fkins. I 

 have heard fay, that when two enemies who are ac- 

 quaintances meet in battle, they hold dialogues to- 

 gether like the fpeeches of former heroes. I do 

 not believe this happens in the heat of the action, 

 but it may very well happen in fmali rencounters, 

 or before parting fome rivulet, or facing an entrench- 

 ment, in which cafe they bid one another defiance, 

 or recall to memory what may have palled in fome 

 former action. 



War is almoft always made by furprize, which 

 generally fucceeds well enough. For if the Indians 

 are negligent in guarding againfl furprizes, they are 

 equally alert and dextrous in furprifing their ene- 

 mies. Be fides, thefe people have a natural and a 

 mod admirable talent, or I might call it an infiinct, 

 to know whether they have paifed any particular 

 way. On the fmoothefc grafs, or the harder! earth, 

 even on the very {tones, they will difcover the tra- 

 ces of an enemy, and by their fhape and figure of 

 the footfteps, and the diftance between their prints, 

 they will, it is faid, diftinguifh not only different 

 nations, but alfo tell whether they were men or 

 women who have gone that way. I was long of 

 opinion that what I had been told of them was much 

 exaggerated, but the uniform voices of all who have 

 lived and converted much with Indians, leave me 

 no room to queftipn the truth of them. If there 

 are any of the prifoners wounded in fuch manner 

 as that they cannot be tranfported, they immediate- 



