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but at other times are hung up at the gates of their 

 cabbins. If on the other hand the number of pri- 

 foners is more than fufficient for thefe purpofes, the 

 overplus is fent to their allies. The place of a chief 

 is never filled up but by a chief, or by two or three 

 flaves, who are always burnt, even though the 

 chief had died a natural death. The Iroquois ne- 

 ver fail to fet apart fome prifoners for the ufe of the 

 publick, in which cafe the council difpofes of them 

 as they think proper ; but the matrons ftill have 

 the power to abrogate their fentence, being abfolute 

 fovereigns of the life and death of thofe who have 

 been condemned or abfolved by the council. 



The warriors, in fome nations, never dive ft them- 

 felves entirely of the right of difpofing of their 

 prifoners, and thofe to whom the council has di- 

 ftributed them, are obliged to make reftitution to 

 them if demanded ; which, however, feldom hap- 

 pens, but when it does, they are alfo obliged to re- 

 ftore the pledges they have received from thofe 

 who had contracted for thefe prifoners. If upon 

 their arrival, the warriors declare their intentions 

 upon this point, they are feldom oppofed. In ge- 

 neral, the greateft number of the prifoners of war 

 are condemned to die, or to a very fevere flavery in 

 which their life is never fecure. Some are adopted, 

 and from that time their condition differs in nothing 

 from that of the children of the nation they af- 

 fume all the rights of thofe whofe place they oc- 

 cupy, and frequently enter into the fpirit of the 

 nation, of which they are become members, in 

 fuch a manner, that they make no difficulty of go- 

 ing to war againft their own countrymen. By this 

 policy, the Iroquoife have hitherto fupported them- 

 felves, for having been conftantly at war from time 

 immemorial, with all the nations round them, they 

 A a 2 muft 



