They always pitch their tents long before sun-set; and being naturally presumptuous take very little care to guard against a surprize. They place great confidence in their Manitous, or houshold gods, which they always carry with them; and being persuaded that they take upon them the office of centinels, they sleep very securely under their protection.
These Manitous, as they are called by some nations, but which are termed Wakons, that is, spirits, by the Naudowessies, are nothing more than the otter and martins skins I have already described, for which, however, they have a great veneration.
After they have entered the enemies country, no people can be more cautious and circumspect; fires are no longer lighted, no more shouting is heard, nor the game any longer pursued. They are not even permitted to speak; but must convey whatever they have to impart to each other by signs and motions.
They now proceed wholly by stratagem and ambuscade. Having discovered their enemies, they send to reconnoitre them; and a council is immediately held, during which they speak only in whispers, to consider of the intelligence imparted by those who were sent out.
The attack is generally made just before day-break, at which period they suppose their foes to be in the soundest sleep. Throughout the whole of the preceding night they will lie flat upon their faces, without stirring; and make their approaches in the same posture, creeping upon their hands and feet till they are got within bow-shot of those they have destined to destruction. On a signal given by the chief warrior, to which the whole body makes answer by the most hideous yells, they all start up, and discharging their arrows in the same instant, without giving their adversaries time to recover from the confusion into which they are thrown, pour in upon them with their war-clubs or tomahawks.
The Indians think there is little glory to be acquired from attacking their enemies openly in the field; their greatest pride is to surprize and destroy. They seldom engage without a manifest appearance of advantage. If they find the enemy on their guard, too strongly entrenched, or superior in numbers, they retire, provided there is an opportunity of doing so. And they esteem it the greatest qualification of a chief warrior, to be able to manage an attack, so as to destroy as many of the enemy as possible, at the expence of a few men.
Sometimes they secure themselves behind trees, hillocks, or stones, and having given one or two rounds retire before they are discovered. Europeans, who are unacquainted with this method of fighting too often find to their cost the destructive efficacy of it.
General Braddock was one of this unhappy number. Marching in the year 1755, to attack Fort Du Quesne, he was intercepted by a party of French and confederate Indians in their interest, who by this insidious method of engaging found means to defeat his army, which consisted of about two thousand brave and well-disciplined troops. So securely were the Indians posted, that the English scarcely knew from whence or by whom they were thus annoyed. During the whole of the engagement the latter had scarcely a sight of an enemy; and were obliged to retreat without the satisfaction of being able to take the least degree of revenge for the havock made among them. The General paid for his temerity with his life, and was accompanied in his fall by a great number of brave fellows; whilst his invisible enemies had only two or three of their number wounded.
When the Indians succeed in their silent approaches, and are able to force the camp which they attack, a scene of horror, that exceeds description, ensues. The savage fierceness of the conquerors, and the desperation of the conquered, who well know what they have to expect should they fall alive into the hands of their assailants, occasion the most extraordinary exertions on both sides. The figure of the combatants all besmeared with black and red paint, and covered with the blood of the slain, their horrid yells, and ungovernable fury, are not to be conceived by those who have never crossed the Atlantic.
I have frequently been a spectator of them, and once bore a part in a similar scene. But what added to the horror of it was, that I had not the consolation of being able to oppose their savage attacks. Every circumstance of the adventure still dwells on my remembrance, and enables me to describe with greater perspicuity the brutal fierceness of the Indians when they have surprized or overpowered an enemy.