The History of Louisiana Part 27

{287} "This journey, instead of satisfying, only served to excite my curiosity. Our old men, for several years, had told me that the antient speech informed them that the Red Men of the north came originally much higher and much farther than the source of the river Missouri; and as I had longed to see, with my own eyes, the land from whence our first fathers came, I took my precautions for my journey westwards. Having provided a small quant.i.ty of corn, I proceeded up along the eastern bank of the river Missisippi, till I came to the Ohio. I went up along the bank of this last river about the fourth part of a day's journey, that I might be able to cross it without being carried into the Missisippi. There I formed a Cajeux or raft of canes, by the a.s.sistance of which I pa.s.sed over the river; and next day meeting with a herd of buffaloes in the meadows, I killed a fat one, and took from it the fillets, the bunch, and the tongue. Soon after I arrived among the Tamaroas, a village of the nation of the Illinois, where I rested several days, and then proceeded northwards to the mouth of the Missouri, which, after it enters the great river, runs for a considerable time without intermixing its muddy waters with the clear stream of the other. Having crossed the Missisippi, I went up the Missouri along its northern bank, and after several days journey I arrived at the nation of the Missouris, where I staid a long time to learn the language that is spoken beyond them. In going along the Missouri I pa.s.sed through meadows a whole day's journey in length, which were quite covered with buffaloes.

"When the cold was past, and the snows were melted, I continued my journey up along the Missouri till I came to the nation of the West, or the Canzas. Afterwards, in consequence of directions from them, I proceeded in the same course near thirty days, and at length I met with some of the nation of the Otters, who were hunting in that neighbourhood, and were surprised to see me alone. I continued with the hunters two or three days, and then accompanied one of them and his wife, who was near her time of lying-in, to their village, which lay far off betwixt the north and west. We continued our journey along the Missouri for nine days, and then we marched {288} directly northwards for five days more, when we came to the Fine River, which runs westwards in a direction contrary to that of the Missouri. We proceeded down this river a whole day, and then arrived at the village of the Otters, who received me with as much kindness as if I had been of their own nation. A few days after I joined a party of the Otters, who were going to carry a calumet of peace to a nation beyond them, and we embarked in a pettiaugre, and went down the river for eighteen days, landing now and then to supply ourselves with provisions. When I arrived at the nation who were at peace with the Otters, I staid with them till the cold was pa.s.sed, that I might learn their language, which was common to most of the nations that lived beyond them.

"The cold was hardly gone, when I again embarked on the Fine River, and in my course I met with several nations, with whom I generally staid but one night, till I arrived at the nation that is but one day's journey from the Great Water on the west. This nation live in the woods about the distance of a league from the river, from their apprehension of bearded men, who come upon their coasts in floating villages, and carry off their children to make slaves of them. These men were described to be white, with long black beards that came down to their b.r.e.a.s.t.s; they were thick and short, had large heads, which were covered with cloth; they were always dressed, even in the greatest heats; their cloaths fell down to the middle of their legs, which with their feet were covered with red or yellow stuff. Their arms made a great fire and a great noise; and when they saw themselves outnumbered by Red Men, they retired on board their large pettiaugre, their number sometimes amounting to thirty, but never more.

"Those strangers came from the sun-setting, in search of a yellow stinking wood, which dyes a fine yellow colour; but the people of this nation, that they might not be tempted to visit them, had destroyed all those kind of trees. Two other nations in their neighbourhood however, having no other wood, could not destroy the trees, and were still visited by the strangers; and being greatly incommoded by them, had invited their allies to a.s.sist them in making an attack upon them the next {289} time they should return. The following summer I accordingly joined in this expedition, and after traveling five long days journey, we came to the place where the bearded men usually landed, where we waited seventeen days for their arrival. The Red Men, by my advice, placed themselves in ambuscade to surprize the strangers, and accordingly when they landed to cut the wood, we were so successful as to kill eleven of them, the rest immediately escaping on board two large pettiaugres, and flying westward upon the Great Water.

"Upon examining those whom we had killed, we found them much smaller than ourselves, and very white; they had a large head, and in the middle of the crown the hair was very long; their head was wrapt in a great many folds of stuff, and their cloaths seemed to be made neither of wool nor silk; they were very soft, and of different colours. Two only of the eleven who were slain had fire-arms with powder and ball.

I tried their pieces, and found that they were much heavier than yours, and did not kill at so great a distance.

"After this expedition I thought of nothing but proceeding on my journey, and with that design I let the Red Men return home, and joined myself to those who inhabited more westward on the coast, with whom I travelled along the sh.o.r.e of the Great Water, which bends directly betwixt the north and the sun-setting. When I arrived at the villages of my fellow-travellers, where I found the days very long and the night very short, I was advised by the old men to give over all thoughts of continuing my journey. They told me that the land extended still a long way in a direction between the north and sun-setting, after which it ran directly west, and at length was cut by the Great Water from north to south. One of them added, that when he was young, he knew a very old man who had seen that distant land before it was eat away by the Great Water, and that when the Great Water was low, many rocks still appeared in those parts. Finding it therefore impracticable to proceed much further, on account of the severity of the climate, and the want of game, I returned by the same route by which I had set out; and reducing my whole travels westward to days journeys, I compute that they would have employed {290} me thirty-six moons; but on account of my frequent delays, it was five years before I returned to my relations among the Yazous."

Moncacht-ape, after giving me an account of his travels, spent four or five days visiting among the Natchez, and then returned to take leave of me, when I made him a present of several wares of no great value, among which was a concave mirror about two inches and a half diameter, which had cost me about three halfpence. As this magnified the face to four or five times its natural size, he was wonderfully delighted with it, and would not have exchanged it with the best mirror in France.

After expressing his regret at parting with me, he returned highly satisfied to his own nation.

Moncacht-ape's account of the junction of America with the eastern parts of Asia seems confirmed from the following remarkable fact. Some years ago the skeletons of two large elephants and two small ones were discovered in a marsh near the river Ohio; and as they were not much consumed, it is supposed that the elephants came from Asia not many years before. If we also consider the form of government, and the manner of living among the northern nations of America, there will appear a great resemblance betwixt them and the Tartars in the north-east parts of Asia.

CHAPTER II.

_An Account of the Several Nations of_ Indians _in_ Louisiana.

SECTION I.

_Of the Nations inhabiting on the East of the_ Missisippi.

If to the history of the discoveries and conquests of the Spaniards we join the tradition of all the nations of America, we shall be fully persuaded, that this quarter of the world, before it was discovered by Christopher Columbus, was very populous, not only on the continent but also in the islands.

However, by an incomprehensible fatality, the arrival of the Spaniards in this new world seems to have been the unhappy epoch of the destruction of all the nations of America, {291} not only by war, but by nature itself. As it is but too well known how many millions of natives were destroyed by the Spanish sword, I shall not therefore present my readers with that horrible detail; but perhaps many people do not know that an innumerable mult.i.tude of the natives of Mexico and Peru voluntarily put an end to their own lives, some by sacrificing themselves to the manes of their sovereigns who had been cut off, and whose born victims they, according to their detestable customs, looked upon themselves to be; and others, to avoid falling under the subjection of the Spaniards, thinking death a less evil by far than slavery.

The same effect has been produced among the people of North America by two or three warlike nations of the natives. The Chicasaws have not only cut off a great many nations who were adjoining to them, but have even carried their fury as far as New Mexico, near six hundred miles from the place of their residence, to root out a nation that had removed at that distance from them, in a firm expectation that their enemies would not come so far in search of them. They were however deceived and cut off. The Iroquois have done the same in the east parts of Louisiana; and the Padoucas and others have acted in the same manner to nations in the west of the colony. We may here observe, that those nations could not succeed against their enemies without considerable loss to themselves, and that they have therefore greatly lessened their own numbers by their many warlike expeditions.

I mentioned that nature had contributed no less than war to the destruction of these people. Two distempers, that are not very fatal in other parts of the world, make dreadful ravages among them; I mean the small-pox and a cold, which baffle all the art of their physicians, who in other respects are very skilful. When a nation is attacked by the small-pox, it quickly makes great havock; for as a whole family is crowded into a small hut, which has no communications with the external air, but by a door about two feet wide and four feet high, the distemper, if it seizes one, is quickly communicated to all.

The aged die in consequence of their advanced years and the bad quality of their food; and the young, if they are not {292} strictly watched, destroy themselves, from an abhorrence of the blotches in their skin. If they can but escape from their hut, they run out and bathe themselves in the river, which is certain death in that distemper. The Chatkas, being naturally not very handsome, are not so apt to regret the loss of their beauty; consequently suffer less, and are much more numerous than the other nations.

Colds, which are very common in the winter, likewise destroy great numbers of the natives. In that season they keep fires in their huts day and night; and as there is no other opening but the door, the air within the hut is kept excessive warm without any free circulation; so that when they have occasion to go out, the cold seizes them, and the consequences of it are almost always fatal.

The first nations that the French were acquainted with in this part of North America, were those on the east of the colony; for the first settlement we made there was at Fort Louis on the river Mobile. I shall therefore begin my account of the different nations of Indians on this side of the colony, and proceed westwards in the same order as they are situated.

But however zealous I may be in displaying not only the beauties, but the riches and advantages of Louisiana, yet I am not at all inclined to attribute to it what it does not possess; therefore I warn my reader not to be surprised, if I make mention of a few nations in this colony, in comparison of the great number which he may perhaps have seen in the first maps of this country. Those maps were made from memoirs sent by different travellers, who noted down all the names they heard mentioned, and then fixed upon a spot for their residence; so that a map appeared stiled with the names of nations, many of whom were destroyed, and others were refugees among nations who had adopted them and taken them under their protection. Thus, though the nations on this continent were formerly both numerous and populous, they are now so thinned and diminished, that there does not exist at present a third part of the nations whose names are to be found in the maps.

The most eastern nation of Louisiana is that called the Apalaches, which is a branch of the great nation of the Apalaches, {293} who inhabited near the mountains to which they have given their name. This great nation is divided into several branches, who take different names. The branch in the neighbourhood of the river Mobile is but inconsiderable, and part of it is Roman Catholic.

On the north of the Apalaches are the Alibamous, a pretty considerable nation; they love the French, and receive the English rather out of necessity than friends.h.i.+p. On the first settling of the colony we had some commerce with them; but since the main part of the colony has fixed on the river, we have somewhat neglected them, on account of the great distance.

East from the Alibamous are the Caouitas, whom M. de Biainville, governor of Louisiana, wanted to distinguish above the other nations, by giving the t.i.tle of emperor to their sovereign, who then would have been chief of all the neighbouring nations; but those nations refused to acknowledge him as such, and said that it was enough if each nation obeyed its own chief; that it was improper for the chiefs themselves to be subject to other chiefs, and that such a custom had never prevailed among them, as they chose rather to be destroyed by a great nation than to be subject to them. This nation is one of the most considerable; the English trade with them, and they suffer the traders to come among them from policy.

To, the north of the Alibamous are the Abeikas and Conchacs, who, as far as I can learn, are the same people; yet the name of Conchac seems appropriated to one part more than another. They are situated at a distance from the great rivers and consequently have no large canes in their territory. The canes that grow among them are not thicker than one's finger, and are at the same time so very hard, that when they are split, they cut like knives, which these people call _conchacs_. The language of this nation is almost the same with that of the Chicasaws, in which the word _conchac_ signifies a knife.

The Abeikas, on the east of them, have the Cherokees, divided into several branches, and situated very near the Apalachean mountains. All the nations whom I have mentioned {294} have been united in a general alliance for a long time past, in order to defend themselves against the Iroquois, or Five Nations, who, before this alliance was formed, made continual war upon them; but have ceased to molest them since they have seen them united. All these nations, and some small ones intermixed among them, have always been looked upon as belonging to no colony, excepting the Apalaches; but since the breaking out of the war with the English in 1756, it is said they have voluntarily declared for us.

The nations in the neighbourhood of the Mobile, are first the Chatots, a small nation consisting of about forty huts, adjoining to the river and the sea. They are Roman Catholics, or reputed such; and are friends to the French, whom they are always ready to serve upon being paid for it. North from the Chatots, and very near them, is the French settlement of Fort Louis on the Mobile.

A little north from Fort Louis are situated the Thomez, which are not more numerous than the Chatots, and are said to be Roman Catholics.

They are our friends to to such a degree as even to teaze us with their officiousness.

Further north live the Taensas, who are a branch of the Natchez, of whom I shall have occasion to speak more at large. Both of these nations keep the eternal fire with the utmost care; but they trust the guard of it to men, from a persuasion that none of their daughters would sacrifice their liberty for that office. The whole nation of the Taensas consists only of about one hundred huts.

Proceeding still northwards along the bay, we meet with the nation of the Mobiliens, near the mouth of the river Mobile, in the bay of that name. The true name of this nation is Mouvill, which the French have turned into Mobile, calling the river and the bay from the nation that inhabited near them. All these small nations were living in peace upon the arrival of the French, and still continue so; the nations on the east of the Mobile serving as a barrier to them against the incursions of the Iroquois. Besides, the Chicasaws look upon them as their brethren, as both they, and their neighbours on the east of the {295} Mobile, speak a language which is nearly the same with that of the Chicasaws.

Returning towards the sea, on the west of the Mobile, we find the small nation of the Pacha-Ogoulas, that is, Nation of Bread, situated upon the bay of the same name. This nation consists only of one village of about thirty huts. Some French Canadians have settled in their neighbourhood, and they live together like brethren, as the Canadians, who are naturally of a peaceable disposition, know the character of the natives, and have the art of living with the nations of America. But what chiefly renders the harmony betwixt them durable, is the absence of soldiers, who never appear in this nation.

Further northwards, near the river Pacha-Ogoulas, is situated the great nation of the Chatkas, or Flat-heads. I call them the great nation, for I have not known or heard of any other near so numerous.

They reckon in this nation twenty-five thousand warriors. There may perhaps be such a number of men among them, who take that name; but I am far from thinking that all these have a t.i.tle to the character of warriors.

According to the tradition of the natives, this nation arrived so suddenly, and pa.s.sed so rapidly through the territories of others, that when I asked them, whence came the Chatkas? they answered me, that they sprung out of the ground; by which they meant to express their great surprize at seeing them appear so suddenly. Their great numbers awed the natives near whom they pa.s.sed; their character being but little inclined to war, did not inspire them with the fury of conquest; thus they at length arrived in an uninhabited country which n.o.body disputed with them. They have since lived without any disputes with their neighbours; who on the other hand have never dared to try whether they were brave or not. It is doubtless owing to this that they have increased to their present numbers.

They are called Flat-heads; but I do not know why that name has been given to them more than to others, since all the nations of Louisiana have their heads as flat, or nearly so. They are situated about two hundred and fifty miles north {296} from the sea, and extend more from east to west than from south to north.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Indian Buffalo Hunt on foot_]

Those who travel from the Chatkas to the Chicasaws, seldom go by the shortest road, which extends about one hundred and eighty miles, and is very woody and mountainous. They choose rather to go along the river Mobile, which is both the easiest and most pleasant route. The nation of the Chicasaws is very warlike. The men have very regular features, {297} are large, well-shaped, and neatly dressed; they are fierce, and have a high opinion of themselves. They seem to be the remains of a populous nation, whose warlike disposition had prompted them to invade several nations, whom they have indeed destroyed, but not without diminis.h.i.+ng their own numbers by those expeditions. What induces me to believe that this nation has been formerly very considerable, is that the nations who border upon them, and whom I have just mentioned, speak the Chicasaw language, though somewhat corrupted, and those who speak it best value themselves upon it.

I ought perhaps to except out of this number the Taensas, who being a branch of the Natchez, have still preserved their peculiar language; but even these speak, in general, the corrupted Chicasaw language, which our French settlers call the Mobilian language. As to the Chatkas, I suppose, that being very numerous, they have been able to preserve their own language in a great measure; and have only adopted some words of the Chicasaw language. They always spoke to me in the Chicasaw tongue.

In returning towards the coast next the river Missisippi, we meet with a small nation of about twenty huts, named Aquelou-p.i.s.sas, that is, _Men who understand and see_. This nation formerly lived within three of four miles of the place where New Orleans is built; but they are further north at present, and not far from the lake St. Lewis, or Pontchartrain. They speak a language somewhat approaching to that of the Chicasaws. We have never had great dealings with them.

Being now arrived at the river Missisippi, I shall proceed upwards along its banks as far as to the most distant nations that are known to us.

The first nation that I meet with is the Oumas, which signifies the Red Nation. They are situated about twenty leagues from New Orleans, where I saw some of them upon my arrival in this province. Upon the first establishment of the colony, some French went and settled near them; and they have been very fatal neighbours, by furnis.h.i.+ng them with brandy, which they drink to great excess.

{298} Crossing the Red River, and proceeding still upwards, we find the remains of the nation of the Tonicas, who have always been very much attached to the French, and have even been our auxiliaries in war. The Chief of this nation was our very zealous friend; and as he was full of courage, and always ready to make war on the enemies of the French, the king sent him a brevet of brigadier of the red armies, and a blue ribbon, from whence hung a silver medal, which on one side represented the marriage of the king, and on the reverse had the city of Paris. He likewise sent him a gold-headed cane; and the Indian Chief was not a little proud of wearing those honourable distinctions, which were certainly well bestowed. This nation speaks a language so far different from that of their neighbours, in that they p.r.o.nounce the letter R, which the others have not. They have likewise different customs.

The Natchez in former times appear to have been one of the most respectable nations in the colony, not only from their own tradition, but from that of the other nations, in whom their greatness and civilized customs raised no less jealousy than admiration. I could fill a volume with what relates to this people alone; but as I am now giving a concise account of the people of Louisiana, I shall speak of them as of the rest, only enlarging a little upon some important transactions concerning them.

When I arrived in 1720 among the Natchez, that nation was situated upon a small river of the same name; the chief village where the Great Sun resided was built along the banks of the river, and the other villages were planted round it. They were two leagues above the confluence of the river, which joins the Missisippi at the foot of the great precipices of the Natchez. From thence are four leagues to its source, and as many to Rosalie, and they were situated within a league of the fort.

Two small nations lived as refugees among the Natchez. The most ancient of these adopted nations were the Grigras, who seem to have received that name from the French, because when talking with one another they often p.r.o.nounce those two syllables, which makes them be remarked as strangers among the Natchez, who, as well as the Chicasaws, and all the nations {299} that speak the Chicasaw language, cannot p.r.o.nounce the letter R.

The other small nation adopted by the Natchez, are the Thioux, who have also the letter R in their language. These were the weak remains of the Thioux nation, formerly one of the strongest in the country.

However, according to the account of the other nations, being of a turbulent disposition, they drew upon themselves the resentment of the Chicasaws, which was the occasion of their ruin; for by their many engagements they were at length so weakened that they durst not face their enemy, and consequently were obliged to take refuge among the Natchez.

The Natchez, the Grigras, and the Thioux, may together raise about twelve hundred warriors; which is but a small force in comparison of what the Natchez could formerly have raised alone; for according to their traditions they were the most powerful nation of all North America, and were looked upon by the other nations as their superiors, and on that account respected by them. To give an idea of their power, I shall only mention, that formerly they extended from the river Manchac, or Iberville, which is about fifty leagues from the sea, to the river Wabash, which is distant from the sea about four hundred and sixty leagues; and that they had about five hundred Suns or princes.