MARAUDING PARTIES. 
134 
truukless head of his friend which is placed before 
liim. When this ceremony is concluded, the head 
is rolled again in its grave-clothes, and carefully 
deposited in the burial-place, till required again 
to excite the passions of some other friend. 
A spirit of cupidity, or revenge, or a desire to 
possess a number of the heads of their enemies, for 
sale, or to expose as monuments of their bravery, 
has frequently caused small numbers of natives 
to go out in parties, along the coast, and to make 
predatory excursions among the neighbouring 
tribes, with whom they are not living in the strict- 
est amity. The horrid cruelties which are prac- 
tised, and the murderous exploits of which they 
boast, are far too appalling to relate to civilized 
man : suffice it to say, that when an opportunity 
presents of falling upon a small party, unpre- 
pared to withstand them, or too weak to do so, the 
whole are either murdered or enslaved. The 
assailants, however, sometimes fall into the net 
which they have prepared for others, and become 
themselves the victims of those whom they in- 
tended to destroy. It is seldom that the whole 
pai’ty return scathless ; and I have known in- 
stances in which one only, out of forty or fifty, 
has escaped ; returning home to make known his 
dismal news to the friends of the conquered, and 
to take up the language of the messengers of Job, 
when speaking to the bereaved: I only am 
escaped alone to tell thee.” 
The destruction of these few marauders, how- 
