1 Buskins: strong coverings for the feet coming some distance up the legs. 2 Targest: small shields used as defensive weapons in war.
This they were wont1 to use for hatchets also, but now by trading they have plenty of iron.
In their hunting and fishing they take the greatest pains; and as it is their ordinary exercise from infancy, they esteem it a pleasure, and are very proud to be expert in it. By their continual ranging and travel they know all the advantages and places most frequented with deer, beasts, fish, fowl, roots, and berries. In their hunts they leave their habitations, and forming themselves into companies, go with their families to the most desert places, where they spend their time in hunting and fowling up the mountains, or by the heads of the rivers, where there is plenty of game. For betwixt the rivers the ground is so narrow that little game comes there which they do not devour. It is a marvel that they can so accurately pass three or four days" journey through these deserts without habitation.
In their hunts in the desert they commonly go two or three hundred together. Having found the deer, they surround them with many fires, and betwixt the fires they place themselves. Some take their stand in the midst. They chase the deer, thus frightened by the fires and the voices, so long within the circle that they often kill six, eight, ten, or fifteen at a hunting. They also drive them on to some narrow point of land and force them into the river, where with their boats they have ambuscades to kill them. When they have shot a deer by land, they track it like bloodhounds by the blood, and so overtake1 Wont: accustomed; used.
it. Hares, partridges, turkeys, fat or lean, young or old, they devour all they can catch.
One savage hunting alone uses the skin of a deer slit on one side, and so put on his arm that his hand comes to the head, which is stuffed; and the horns, head, eyes, ears, and every part are artificially counterfeited as perfectly as he can devise. Thus shrouding his body in the skin, by stalking1 he approaches the deer, creeping on the ground from one tree to another. If the deer chances to suspect danger, or stands to gaze, he turns the head with his hand to appear like a deer, also gazing and licking himself. So, watching his best advantage to approach, he shoots it, and chases it by the marks of its blood till he gets it.
When they intend any wars the chiefs usually have the advice of their priests and conjurers, and their allies and ancient friends; but the priests chiefly determine their resolution. They appoint some muscular fellow captain over each nation. They seldom make war for land or goods, but for women and children and especially for revenge. They have many enemies in all the western countries beyond the mountains and the heads of the rivers.
The Powhatans are constrained sometimes to fight against all their enemies. Their chief attempts are to capture by stratagem, treachery, or surprises. They do not put women and children captives to death, but keep them.
1 Stalking: moving forward stealthily under cover of a screen for the purpose of attack.
They have a method in war, and for our pleasure they showed it to us. Having painted and disguised themselves in the fiercest manner they could devise, they divided themselves into two companies, with nearly a hundred in a company--the one company called Monacans, the other Powhatans.
Each army had its captain. These as enemies took their stand a musket shot from one another, ranged themselves fifteen abreast, and in ranks four or five yards apart; not in file, but with openings between their files, so that the rear could shoot as conveniently as the front. Having thus pitched the fields, a messenger from each part went with these conditions: that the fugitives of the vanquished, upon their submission in two days after, should live, but their wives and children should be prize for the conquerors.
The messengers no sooner returned than the companies approached in order, on each rank a sergeant, and in the rear an officer for lieutenant, all duly keeping their orders, yet leaping and singing after their accustomed manner in wars. Upon the first flight of arrows they gave most horrible shouts and screeches.
When they had spent their arrows, they came together, charging and retiring, every rank following the other. As they got a chance, they caught their enemy by the hair of the head and down he came. The victor with his wooden sword seemed to beat out his enemy"s brains, and yet the moment it was possible he crept to the rear to maintain the skirmish.
The Monacans decreasing, the Powhatans charged upon them in the form of a half-moon; they, unwilling to be enclosed, fled all in a troop to their ambuscades, on which they very cunningly led the Powhatans. The Monacans dispersed themselves among the fresh men hidden in ambush, whereupon the Powhatans retired with all speed. The Monacans seeing this, took advantage to retire again, and so each company returned to its own quarters. All their actions, voices, and gestures, both in charging and retreating, were so strained to the height of their quality and nature, that the strangeness of the scene made it seem very delightful.
