^xxii INTRODUCTION. 
and even on the firft report of a cannon, the 
whole corps would have difperfed, like a flock 
of ftarlings, and never v\rould It have been 
poffible to rally them. 
There was one mode, however. In which 
perhaps they might have been rendered ufe- 
fiil : to have ported them in fome fecure place 
of ambufcade, where they could have no- 
thing to apprehend,, and there to have em- 
ployed them In firing as occafion might offer. 
For it Is fcarcely to be expeded that the fa- 
vage, a total ftranger to our prejudices, fhould 
fet much value on the honour to he acquired 
by remaining at one's poft, there to await 
perhaps certain death. The favage prefers 
lying In ambufh for his enemy under the co- 
Ter of darknefs. The art of war is to him 
the art of avoiding danger. If he attack, it 
is only when he thinks himfelf fure of killing, 
without on his fide running any riik ; and to 
afk him to expofe his life to ^procure vidory 
to 
