Returning to the Decurions, we have to record that, in addition to their two duties of catering and acting as crown officers, they had to report to their superiors the number of births and deaths of both sexes, in each month; and at the end of the year a report was made to the king of the births and deaths, and of the number of persons who had gone to the wars and been killed. The same rule was observed in war by the heads of squadrons, ensigns, captains, and camp masters, up to the general. These officers acted as accusers and protectors of their soldiers; and thus there was as much order in the heat of a battle, as in peace, and in the midst of the court. They never allowed the towns they captured to be pillaged, even when they were taken by force of arms. The Indians said that, through their great care in punishing a man's first delinquency, they avoided the effects of his second and third, and of the host of others that are committed in every commonwealth where no diligence is observed to root up the evil plant at the commencement. They considered that it was not a sign of good government, nor of a desire to uproot evil, to wait for an accuser before punishing a malefactor; for that many injured persons dislike the office of accusers, and prefer revenging themselves with their own hands. Hence grave scandals arise in a commonwealth, which are avoided by punishing offenders without waiting for an accusation against them.