is conflict, disputed his prize with
the wildest ferocity of a savage. The whites, who are ever on the
watch for native quarrels, wisely refrained from partisanship with
either of the combatants, but continued to purchase the prisoners
brought to their factories by both parties. Many a vessel bore across
the Atlantic two inveterate enemies shackled to the same bolt, while
others met on the same deck a long-lost child or brother who had been
captured in the civil war.

I might fill a volume with the narrative of this horrid conflict
before it was terminated by the death of Amarar. For several months
this savage had been blockaded in his stockade by Shiakar's warriors.
At length a sortie became indispensable to obtain provisions, but the
enemy were too numerous to justify the risk. Upon this, Amarar called
his soothsayer, and required him to name a propitious moment for the
sally. The oracle retired to his den, and, after suitable
incantations, declared that the effort should be made as soon as the
hands of Amarar were stained in the blood of his own son. It is said
that the prophet intended the victim to be a youthful son of Amarar,
who had joined his mother's family, and was then distant; but the
impatient and superstitious savage, seeing a child of his own, two
years old, at hand, when the oracle announced the decree, snatched the
infant from his mother's arms, threw it into a rice mortar, and, with
a pestle, mashed it to death!

The sacrifice over, a sortie was ordered. The infuriate and starving
savages, roused by the oracle and inflamed by the bloody scene, rushed
forth tumultuously. Amarar, armed with the pestle, still warm and
reeking with his infant's blood, was foremost in the onset. The
besiegers gave way and fled; the town was re-provisioned; the
fortifications of the enemy demolished, and the soothsayer rewarded
with a slave for his barbarous prediction!

At another time, Amarar was on the point of attacking a strongly
fortified town, when doubts were intimated of success. Again the
wizard was consulted, when the mysterious oracle declared that the
chief "_could not conquer till he returned once more to his mother's
womb_!" That night Amarar committed the blackest of incests; but his
party was repulsed, and the false prophet stoned to death!

These are faint incidents of a savage drama which lasted several
years, until Amarar, in his native town, became the prisoner of
Shiakar's soldiery. Mana, his capto