ct to have prisoners brought to them, to do
what they will with them.

The next thing they agree on is to send a couple of messengers, in the
nature of heralds at arms, with their hatchets, quivers, bows, and
arrows, to declare war against the nation by whom they conceive
themselves aggrieved. These go directly to the village where the bulk of
the nation resides, observing a sullen silence by the way, without
speaking to any that may meet them. When they draw near the village,
they give the earth several strokes with their hatchets, as a signal of
commencing hostilities in form; and to confirm it the more, they shoot
two of their best arrows at the village, and retire with the utmost
expedition. The war is now kindled in good earnest, and it behoves each
party to stand well on its guard. The heralds, after this, return to
make a report of what they have done; and to prove their having been at
the place appointed, they do not fail of bringing away with them some
particular marks of that spot of the country. Then it is, that the
inhabitants of each nation begin to think seriously, whether they shall
maintain their ground by staying in their village, and fortifying it in
their manner, or look out for a place of greater safety, or go directly
in quest of the enemy. Upon these questions they assemble, deliberate,
and hold endless consultations, though withal not uncurious ones: for it
is on these occasions, that those of the greatest sagacity and eloquence
display all their talents, and make themselves distinguished. One of
their most common stratagems, when there were reasons for not attacking
one another, or coming to a battle directly, was for one side to make as
if they had renounced all thoughts of acting offensively. A party of
those who made this feint of renunciation, would disperse itself in a
wood, observing to keep near the borders of it; when, if any stragglers
of the enemy's appeared, some one would counterfeit to the life the
particular cry of that animal, in the imitation of which he most
excelled; and this childish decoy would, however, often succeed, in
drawing in the young men of the opposite party into their ambushes.

Sometimes the scheme was to examine what particular spot lay so, that
the enemies must, in all necessity, pass through it, to hunt, or provide
bark for making their canoes. It was commonly in these passes, or
defiles, that the bloodiest encounters or engagements happened, when
whole nations