share the same fate the succeeding days, to expedite their return. If the fear of pursuers impose the necessity of haste, they bind their captives to trees, and set fire to those next them, that they may either be roasted by a slow fire, or if the flame should grow languid, be destroyed by hunger. The other captives, whom they think likely to be useful to them at home, they bind and carry away. At night, that they may not take advantage of the darkness, and flee, they stretch out their legs and arms in the form of the letter X, and bind them with a cord to a stake, to which they fasten two longer ropes one to tie the neck, the other the breast. The extremity of these the savage master holds in his hand, that if the captive endeavours to extricate himself he may be awakened. Painful indeed must the night be to these wretches, for as they are entirely naked, their bodies are bitten by swarms of ants and wasps, from which, being bound hand and foot, they cannot defend themselves. At the end of a miserable journey they are either condemned to wretched slavery, or to the pile. Similar barbarity is practised by the savages of South America towards their captives. The Brazilians fatten them for some time, and then publicly kill them by knocking them on the head with a club. The limbs are dissected and afford a feast to the whole horde; for they are cannibals, and engaged in perpetual wars with their neighbours. I cannot forbear mentioning a strange piece of cruelty practised by the Southern savages towards their captives. If they catch one of the enemy in the plain they do not kill him, but cut off both his feet and leave him there, so that unable to prosecute his journey, he dies a lingering death amidst the bitterest torments. This wicked system of cruelty towards captives and enemies is abhorred by the Abipones, who never torture the dying. After taking a village of Spaniards or Indians, they do not promiscuously slay all the inhabitants. Unless highly irritated by some previous injury, they always spare the women and children. They pull the skins off the heads of the slain, and carry them home as testimonies of their warlike achievements, but never use them to cover themselves or their horses with, as some do. They show the utmost kindness towards their captives, as I have declared in the thirteenth chapter, on the Manners and Customs of the Abipones. According to Lafitau, the Hurons and Iroquois, though very savage in other respects, never ill-treat their captives at home, except they be of the number of those that are condemned to be burnt, by the sentence of the chiefs. CHAPTER XLI. CONCERNING THE ARMS OF THE ABIPONES, AND THEIR BATTLE-ARRAY IN FIGHTING WITH OTHER SAVAGES.