knowledge, however, we do not possess in any
authentic degree, for the peculiar circumstances
under which we are placed, with relation to the
least improved portion of the inhabitants of the
Indian islands, deny us the means. They are
driven to a distance from us, by the persecution of
their more powerful and civilized countrymen,
and the peculiar ferocity of the manners of most
of them is calculated to discourage all peaceable
intercourse with them. Tor these reasons, my
account of the art of war among the Indian
islanders will refer chiefly to the .more civilized
nations, and I shall only make occasional reference,
for illustration, to the art as it is managed by the
savage tribes. This subject may be arranged under
the six following heads,—an account of their
weapons,—of their mode of levying troops,—of
the provisioning and internal management and
discipline of the army,—of their mode of fighting,
—of their treatment of the dead, wounded, and
prisoners,—and, lastly, of their use of the right of '
conquest.
1 There is no tribe or nation of the Indian islands
that has made such advance in social order, and is
possessed of a government of such vigour and intelligence,
as to afford such protection to the lives
and properties of its subjects, as to exonerate them
from the necessity of bearing arms in their own defence.
From the age of puberty to death, every