93 
The provincial are those which are excited by 
private grievances, in which the public interests of the 
island, or any large portion of it, are not concerned; 
and they are generally occasioned, either by some new 
insult, or old private quarrels between individual 
chiefs.—As the mode of attack is similar to that of 
the others, we shall presently describe it. 
Their general wars are those in which the public 
interests of the island are involved, or in which the 
original parties possess sufficient influence to engage 
the neighbouring chiefs in the struggle. The first 
step is to sound the disposition or intentions of the 
adjacent states; and this is done by means of emis¬ 
saries, who make a regular canvass ; taking down the 
numbers each ally engages to furnish, by means of 
knots on a thong of leather or cord : when once a 
chief has made an engagement for a certain number 
of men, and that number is registered on the cord, it 
is considered an obligation of the most indissoluble 
kind ; nor has it ever occurred, that a party has failed 
of his engagement, after this public recognition has 
taken place. 
In some of these wars, the numbers engaged are 
very great—from thirty thousand to one hundred thou¬ 
sand and upwards. Benyowsky calculates that he had 
at command one hundred and twenty-three thousand 
native warriors; and on one occasion there appeared 
before him upwards of forty thousand collected to¬ 
gether in time of peace. 
Their warlike weapons differ in the different pro- 
