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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
fleet was^ perhaps, lashed or fastened in the same way ; 
and thus the two fleets, presenting one continued line of 
canoes, with the revas or streamers flying, were paddled 
out to sea, the warriors occupying the platform raised for 
their defence, and enabling them to command each part 
of the canoe. 
At a distance, stones were slung; on a nearer approach, 
light spears or javelins were hurled, until they came close 
alongside of each other, when, under the influence of 
rage, infatuation, ambition, or despair, they fought with 
the most obstinate and desperate fury. 
It is not easy to imagine a conflict more sanguinary 
and horrid than theirs must have been. Although the 
victors, when faatini'd or supplicated, sometimes spared 
the fallen, it was rarely they gave any quarter. Retreat 
there was none—and, knowing that death or conquest 
must end the fray, they fought under the power of des¬ 
peration. 
At times, both fleets retired, as was the case atHooroto; 
but when victory was evidently in favour of one, the war¬ 
riors in that fleet sometimes swept through the other, 
slaughtering all who did not leap into the sea, and swim 
toward the canoe of some friend in the opposing fleet. 
I have been informed by some of the chiefs of Huahine, 
who have been in their battles, that they have seen a fleet 
towed to the shore by the victors, filled with the wounded 
and the dead—the few that survived being inadequate to 
its management. 
When the canoes of a fleet were not fastened together, 
as soon as the combatants perceived they were over¬ 
powered, they sought safety in flight, and, if pursued, 
abandoned their canoes on reaching the shore, and hast ■ 
ened to their fortress in the mountains. 
