" The prisoners having been placed in the middle of the victorious band, bound, in order to secure them the better, we returned to our river of Janeiro, in the neighbourhood of which these savages inhabited. As we had gone twelve or fifteen leagues, ask not, if, in passing through the villages of our allies, they came not out to meet us, dancing, leaping, and clapping their hands, to applaud and caress us. The poor prisoners were obliged, according to their custom, when they were near the houses, to sing and say to the women, ' here is the food which you love so much com ing to you.' To conclude, when we were arrived before our isle, my companion and 1 went into a bark, and the savages went away, each to their residence." In order to guard against the attacks with which they were constantly threatened, the Brasilians were accus tomed to fortify their villages. The interior inctosure was composed of a strong pallisade, before which was thrown up a wall of loose stones. The houses were pierced with holes, through which arrows could pass. A Portuguese force which attacked one of these forts found its reduction extremely difficult. In consequence of the furious sallies of the Indians, they were obliged to entrench themselves, and wait the arrival of succours from the metropolis. Having covered themselves, how ever, with hurdles of canes, which secured them against arrows, they at last forced the walls, and became mas ters of the place.
This desperate ferocity, with which the wars of these savages were conducted, might naturally lead to the expectation, that their domestic intercourse would pre sent a similar scene of violence. Here, however, a remarkable contrast was presented. Although there existed no regulations for securing internal tranquillity ; although the chiefs possess no power, unless in war, and never interfere in private quarrels ; yet no bad con sequences are felt ; the most perfect peace, the most profound harmony, reigns in all their villages. A tra veller, who resided more than a year among one of the fiercest of these tribes, was witness, during that time, only to two quarrels. In their sickness, they received from each other the most tender attention ; and all the offices of friendship were mutually performed with zeal and fidelity. This internal union, so remarkably superior ti what would be found among the most polished nations, it freed from the restraint of law, seems derived, in a great measure, from the fierceness of their animosity against their neighbours and enemies, and the continual danger to which they were exposed from them. A com mon sentiment of fear and hostility, diffused through all the members of the society, proves the most powerful bond of union between them. In these wild and ardent natures, the sentiments of attachment and tenderness are as strong as those of hatred and vengeance ; and all the force of the latter being turned in another direction, the former alone are felt towards their kinsmen and coun trymen. To avenge such of these as had been the
victims of the barbarous ferocity of their enemies, was the motive which, rankling continually in their minds, impelled them to such incessant and dreadful warfare. When the orators wished to animate their valour, it was by reminding them of their relations, who had been slain and devoured by the tribe against whom their arms were directed.
The laws of hospitality have always been held in pecu liar veneration among rude nations. The rare appear ance of travellers, the helplessness of their situation, and the absence of all motives to enmity agairtst them, excited that natural disposition to kindness which exists in these tribes, when not embittered by the belief of real or imagined wrongs. This law of hospitality was established in full force among the Brasilian tribes. The stranger was received, not only with kindness, but with rapture, and was loaded with every distinction which it was in their power to bestow. When a stran ger arrived at a village, lie chose the person with whom he was to lodge, who was called his mousNacat; and, in all future visits, he must choose the same person, by whom his going to any other would be considered as a serious affront. As soon as he entered, the women crowded round bins with the most flattering expressions of kindness and of gratitude for his having taken up his abode in their house. The master of the dwelling then slept forward, and received bins with a graver welcome. Was he hungry or thirsty, the best that the house con tained was prepared and set before him; and his hosts stood round in a circle, to keep off the children, or what ever could occasion disturbance. At night, the best hammock was spread for him ; and, with even superflu ous attention, small fires were kindled near it, and kept up during the night; on the morning, the host was at hand to inquire how he had slept. In short, a traveller declares, that lie felt more secure among the savage Brasilians, than among his countrymen at home, who were then torn with religious dissensions.
In their domestic manners, and the intercourse be tween the sexes, the Brasilians were far from being dis solute. The unmarried females, indeed, were tinder little restraint, though this we suspect to have been chiefly in regard to Europeans, to whom the same rules of morality were not, among the inhabitants of the New World, supposed to apply, as to their own countrymen. After marriage, however, the most rigid propriety of be haviour was observed. A savage custom required of every man, as a necessary preliminary to his entering into that state, to have first taken a captive, and given him to the nation to be devoured. Marriage could be dissolved at pleasure, and polygamy was considered lawful, though it was practised only by a few of the chiefs. Notwithstanding the entire want of covering, the utmost decency was observed in their outward de portment.