“I was not myself required to fight, but I loaded my double-barrelled gun, and, thus armed, remained at my post, my wife and the two slave girls having seated themselves at my feet.

“The commander-in-chief of each party now stepped forward a few yards, and, placing himself in front of his troops, commenced the war-song.  When this was ended both parties danced a war-dance, singing at the same time as loud as they could, and brandishing their weapons in the air.

“Having finished their dance, each party formed into a line two-deep, the women and boys stationing themselves about ten yards to the rear.

“The two bodies then advanced to within about a hundred yards of each other, when they fired off their muskets.  Few of them put the musket to the shoulder while firing it, but merely held it at the charge.  They only fired once; and then, throwing their muskets behind them, where they were picked up by the women and boys, drew their merys and tomahawks out of their belts, when, the war-song being screamed by the whole of them together in a manner most dismal to be heard, the two parties rushed into close combat.

“They now took hold of the hair of each other’s heads with their left hands, using the right to cut off the head.  Meantime the women and boys followed close behind them, uttering the most shocking cries I ever heard.  These last received the heads of the slain from those engaged in the battle as soon as they were cut off, after which the men went in among the enemy for the dead bodies; but many of them received bodies that did not belong to the heads they had cut off.

“The engagement had not lasted many minutes, when the enemy began to retreat, and were pursued by our party through the woods.  Some of them, in their flight, crossed the hill on which I stood; and one threw a short jagged spear at me as he passed, which stuck in the inside of my left thigh.  It was afterwards cut out by two women with an oyster-shell.  The operation left a wound as large as a common-sized tea-cup; and after it had been performed I was carried across the river on a woman’s back to my hut, where my wife applied some green herbs to the wound, which immediately stopped the bleeding, and also made the pain much less severe.

“In a short time our party returned victorious, bringing along with them many prisoners.  Persons taken in battle, whether chiefs or not, become slaves to those who take them.  One of our chiefs had been shot by Shungie, and the body was brought back, and laid upon some mats before the huts.  Twenty heads, also, were placed upon long spears, which were stuck up around our huts; and nearly twice as many bodies were put to the fires, to be cooked in the accustomed way.