"I was not myself required to fight, but I loaded my double-barrelled
gun, and, thus armed, remained at my post, my wife and the two slave
girls having seated themselves at my feet.

"The commander-in-chief of each party now stepped forward a few yards,
and, placing himself in front of his troops, commenced the war-song.
When this was ended both parties danced a war-dance, singing at the
same time as loud as they could, and brandishing their weapons in the
air.

"Having finished their dance, each party formed into a line two-deep,
the women and boys stationing themselves about ten yards to the rear.

"The two bodies then advanced to within about a hundred yards of each
other, when they fired off their muskets. Few of them put the musket to
the shoulder while firing it, but merely held it at the charge. They
only fired once; and then, throwing their muskets behind them, where
they were picked up by the women and boys, drew their merys and
tomahawks out of their belts, when, the war-song being screamed by the
whole of them together in a manner most dismal to be heard, the two
parties rushed into close combat.

"They now took hold of the hair of each other's heads with their left
hands, using the right to cut off the head. Meantime the women and boys
followed close behind them, uttering the most shocking cries I ever
heard. These last received the heads of the slain from those engaged in
the battle as soon as they were cut off, after which the men went in
among the enemy for the dead bodies; but many of them received bodies
that did not belong to the heads they had cut off.

"The engagement had not lasted many minutes, when the enemy began to
retreat, and were pursued by our party through the woods. Some of them,
in their flight, crossed the hill on which I stood; and one threw a
short jagged spear at me as he passed, which stuck in the inside of my
left thigh. It was afterwards cut out by two women with an oyster-shell.
The operation left a wound as large as a common-sized tea-cup; and after
it had been performed I was carried across the river on a woman's back
to my hut, where my wife applied some green herbs to the wound, which
immediately stopped the bleeding, and also made the pain much less
severe.

"In a short time our party returned victorious, bringing along with them
many prisoners. Persons taken in battle, whether chiefs or not, become
slaves to those who take them. One of our chiefs had been shot by
S