ions were full of Indians. It enabled them to fight in detail,--to
assail different settlements at the same time, and to fill the whole
country with consternation.

Their mode of besieging these places, though not at all conformable to
the notions of a siege derived from the tactics of a civilized people,
was dictated by the most profound practical observation, operating upon
existing circumstances. Without cannon or scaling ladders, their hope of
carrying a station, or fortified place, was founded upon starving the
inmates, cutting off their supplies of water, killing them, as they
exposed themselves, in detail, or getting possession of the station by
some of the arts of dissimulation. Caution in their tactics is still
more strongly inculcated than bravery. Their first object is to secure
themselves; their next, to kill their enemy. This is the universal
Indian maxim from Nova Zembla to Cape Horn. In besieging a place, they
are seldom seen in force upon any particular quarter. Acting in small
parties, they disperse themselves, and lie concealed among bushes or
weeds, behind trees or stumps. They ambush the paths to the barn,
spring, or field. They discharge their rifle or let fly their arrow, and
glide away without being seen, content that their revenge should issue
from an invisible source. They kill the cattle, watch the watering
places, and cut off all supplies. During the night, they creep, with the
inaudible and stealthy step dictated by the animal instinct, to a
concealed position near one of the gates, and patiently pass many
sleepless nights, so that they may finally cut off some ill-fated
person, who incautiously comes forth in the morning. During the day, if
there be near the station grass, weeds, bushes, or any distinct
elevation of the soil, however small, they crawl, as prone as reptiles,
to the place of concealment, and whoever exposes the smallest part of
his body through any part or chasm, receives their shot, behind the
smoke of which they instantly cower back to their retreat. When they
find their foe abroad, they boldly rush upon him, and make him prisoner,
or take his scalp. At times they approach the walls or palisades with
the most audacious daring, and attempt to fire them, or beat down the
gate. They practice, with the utmost adroitness, the stratagem of a
false alarm on one side when the real assault is intended for the other.
With untiring perseverance, when their stock of provisions is exhaust