To give you an idea of their preparatory ceremony for a declaration of war, I shall here select for you a recent example, in the one that broke out not long ago between the Micmaquis, and Maricheets.  These last had put a cruel affront on the former, the nature of which you will see in the course of the following description:  but I shall call the Micmaquis the aggressors, because the first acts of hostility in the field began from them.  Those who mean to begin the war, detach a certain number of men to make incursions on the territories of their enemies, to ravage the country, to destroy the game on it, and ruin all the beaver-huts they can find on their rivers and lakes, whether entirely, or only half-built.  From this expedition they return laden with game and peltry; upon which the whole nation assembles to feast on the meat, in a manner that has more of the carnivorous brute in it than of the human creature.  Whilst they are eating, or rather devouring, all of them, young and old, great and little, engage themselves by the sun, the moon, and the name of their ancestors, to do as much by the enemy-nation.

When they have taken care to bring off with them a live beast, from the quarter in which they have committed their ravage, they cut its throat, drink its blood, and even the boys with their teeth tear the heart and entrails to pieces, which they ravenously devour, giving thereby to understand, that those of the enemies who shall fall into their hands, have no better treatment to expect at them.

After this they bring out Oorakins, (bowls of bark) full of that coarse vermillion which is found along the coast of Chibucto, and on the west-side of Acadia (Nova-Scotia) which they moisten with the blood of the animal if any remains, and add water to compleat the dilution.  Then the old, as well as the young, smear their faces, belly and back with this curious paint; after which they trim their hair shorter, some of one side of the head, some of the other; some leave only a small tuft on the crown of their head; others cut their hair entirely off on the left or right side of it; some again leave nothing on it but a lock, just on the top of their forehead, and of the breadth of it, that falls back on the nape of the neck.  Some of them bore their ears, and pass through the holes thus made in them, the finest fibril-roots of the fir, which they call Toobee, and commonly use for thread; but on this occasion serve to string certain small shells.  This military masquerade, which they use at once for terror and disguise, being compleated, all the peltry of the beasts killed in the enemy’s country, is piled in a heap; the oldest Sagamo, or chieftain of the assembly gets up, and asks, “What weather it is?  Is the sky clear?  Does the sun shine?” On being answered in the affirmative, he orders the young men to carry the pile of peltry to a rising-ground, or eminence, at some little distance from the cabbin, or place of assembly.  As this is instantly done, he follows them, and as he walks along begins, and continues his address to the sun in the following terms: