Having executed this commission to the satisfaction of the commander in chief, I remained some time with my old friends, till I received a message from Sir Guy Carleton to attend him; when he ordered me to join brigadier general Nesbit, with the twenty-ninth and forty-seventh regiments; in the latter of which I served as a volunteer a considerable time; but finding no vacancy, and having no allowance for my services, to enable me to live and appear as I wished, I quitted the regiment to enjoy my favourite Indian life; and as I knew their manner of living, and could accommodate myself to their diet, I thought I might probably continue serviceable to my country in scouting parties, and accordingly accompanied a party of Savages to the Lake of the two Mountains, fifteen leagues above Montreal, a village belonging to the Connecedagas, carrying a scalp as a trophy of my services.[38] Scalping is a mode of torture peculiar to the Indians. If a blow is given with the tomahawk previous to the scalp being taken off, it is followed by instant death; but where scalping only is inflicted, it puts the person to excruciating pain, though death does not always ensue. There are instances of persons of both sexes, now living in America, and no doubt in other countries, who, after having been scalped, by wearing a plate of silver or tin on the crown of the head, to keep it from cold, enjoy a good state of health, and are seldom afflicted with pains. When an Indian strikes a person on the temple with a tomahawk, the victim instantly drops; he then seizes his hair with one hand, {23} twisting it very tight together, to separate the skin from the head, and placing his knee on the breast, with the other he draws the scalping knife from the sheath, and cuts the skin round the forehead, pulling it off with his teeth. As he is very dexterous, the operation is generally performed in two minutes. The scalp is then extended on three hoops, dried in the sun, and rubbed over with vermilion. Some of the Indians in time of war, when scalps are well paid for, divide one into five or six parts, and carry them to the nearest post, in hopes of receiving a reward proportionate to the number. When the scalp is taken from the head of one of their own people, they frequently make the dead body of advantage to them, by dressing it up and painting it with vermilion; they then place it against a tree, with weapons in its hand, to induce the Indians to suppose it an enemy on the watch; and round the body they set spears in the ground, so as scarcely to be discernible. The Indians, on seeing the person against the tree, and anxious to make him a prisoner, in the eagerness of running fall on the points of the spears, and being disabled from proceeding, are easily made prisoners. Before I close this subject I shall relate an anecdote of two Savages of different nations, in the time of Sir William Johnson.