The politics of the natives of the Columbia are a simple affair:  each village has its chief, but that chief does not seem to exercise a great authority over his fellow-citizens.  Nevertheless, at his death, they pay him great honors:  they use a kind of mourning, which consists in painting the face with black, in lieu of gay colors; they chant his funeral song or oration for a whole month.  The chiefs are considered in proportion to their riches:  such a chief has a great many wives, slaves, and strings of beads—­he is accounted a great chief.  These barbarians approach in that respect to certain civilized nations, among whom the worth of a man is estimated by the quantity of gold he possesses.

As all the villages form so many independent sovereignties, differences sometimes arise, whether between the chiefs or the tribes.  Ordinarily, these terminate by compensations equivalent to the injury.  But when the latter is of a grave character, like a murder (which is rare), or the abduction of a woman (which is very common), the parties, having made sure of a number of young braves to aid them, prepare for war.  Before commencing hostilities, however, they give notice of the day when they will proceed to attack the hostile village; not following in that respect the custom of almost all other American Indians, who are wont to burst upon their enemy unawares, and to massacre or carry off men, women, and children; these people, on the contrary, embark in their canoes, which on these occasions are paddled by the women, repair to the hostile village, enter into parley, and do all they can to terminate the affair amicably:  sometimes a third party becomes mediator between the first two, and of course observes an exact neutrality.  If those who seek justice do not obtain it to their satisfaction, they retire to some distance, and the combat begins, and is continued for some time with fury on both sides; but as soon as one or two men are killed, the party which has lost these, owns itself beaten and the battle ceases.  If it is the people of the village attacked who are worsted, the others do not retire without receiving presents.  When the conflict is postponed till the next day (for they never fight but in open daylight, as if to render nature witness of their exploits), they keep up frightful cries all night long, and, when they are sufficiently near to understand each other, defy one another by menaces, railleries, and sarcasms, like the heroes of Homer and Virgil.  The women and children are always removed from the village before the action.

Their combats are almost all maritime:  for they fight ordinarily in their pirogues, which they take care to careen, so as to present the broadside to the enemy, and half lying down, avoid the greater part of the arrows let fly at them.