g6 T R A V E L S I N 
When they are attacked by an enemy fu- 
perlor in number, and when they are inca- 
pable of repelhng force by force, they dif- 
perfe and conceal themfelves in the beft 
manner poffible ; and this is the only ra- 
tional method that they can purfue. When 
furprifed by the enemy, they are compelled, 
much againft their inclination, to leave be- 
hind them their old people, their fick, and 
fuch ftragglers and others as cannot follow 
them. Wliat man then is there fo little ac- 
quainted with the difaftrous confequences of 
war, as to make it criminal in a Hottentot 
to yield to a neceflity, under which an Eu- 
ropean even would be forced to bend ? 
I will go ftill farther, and 'I am not afraid 
of faying all that I know. The favages do 
not hefitate to have recourfe to the fame ex- 
pedient in the time of a famine — a misfor- 
tune no lefs formidable than the fmall pox 
and war, when they are attacked by it. In 
fuch a cafe, deferting a few individuals, 
whom indeed they could not fave, becomes 
a facrifice neceflkry for the prefervation of 
the whole : even thofe who fly are not cer- 
tain of efcaping the general fcourge. More 
than three fourths periih by the way, in the 
midft 
