WAR BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND THE NATCHEZ. 247

sun. There, too, were gathered the bones of the dead; there an undying fire was kept burning by appointed guardians, as if to warm, and light, and cheer, the departed. On the palisades around this edifice, which has been called a temple, the ghastly trophies of victories were arranged. Once, when, during a storm, such as in those regions sometimes blends the elements, rocks the forest, and bows the hearts of the bravest, the sacred edifice caught fire from the lightning, seven or eight mothers won the applause of the terror-stricken tribes by casting their babes into the flames to appease the unknown power of evil.

The grand chief of the tribe was revered as of the family of the sun, and he could trace his descent with certainty from the nobles; for the inheritance of power - was transmitted exclusively by the female line.

Hard

by the temple, on an artificial mound of earth, stood the hut of the Great Sun: around it were grouped the cabins of the tribe. There, for untold years, the savage had freely whispered his tale of love; had won his bride by a purchase from the father; had placed his trust in manitous; had turned, at daybreak, towards the east, to hail and worship the beams of morning; had listened to the revelations of dreams; had invoked the aid of the medicine men to dance the medicine dance; had achieved titles of honor by prowess in war; had tortured and burned his prisoners. There were the fields where, in spring, the whole tribe had gone forth to cultivate the maize and vines; there the scenes of the glad festivals at the gathering of the harvest; there the natural amphitheatres, where councils were convened, and embassies received, and the calumet of reconciliation passed in solemn ceremony from lip to lip. There the dead had been arrayed in their proudest apparel; the little baskets of food for the first month after death set apart for their nurture; the requiem chanted by the women in mournful strains over their bones; and there, when a great chief died, persons of the same age were strangled,

that they might constitute his escort into the realm of shades.

Nowhere was the power of the grand chieftain so nearly despotic. The race of nobles was so distinct, that usage had moulded language into forms of reverence. In other respects, there was among the Natchez no greater culture than among the Choctas; and their manners hardly differed from those of northern tribes, except as they were modified by climate.

The French, who were cantoned among the Natchez, coveted their soil; the commander, Chopart, swayed by a brutal avarice, demanded as a plantation the very site of their principal village. They listened to the counsels of the Chickasas; they prevailed in part with the Choctas; and a general massacre of the intruders was concerted. The arrival of boats from New Orleans with merchandise hastened the rising of the Natchez. On the morning of the twenty-eighth of November, 1729, the work of blood began; and before noon nearly every Frenchman in the colony was murdered.

The Great Sun, taking his seat under the storehouse of the company, smoked the calumet in complacency, while the head of Chopart was laid at his feet. One after another, the heads of the principal officers at the post were ranged in order around it, while their bodies were left abroad to be a prey to dogs and buzzards. At that time, the Jesuit Du Poisson was the appointed missionary among the Arkansas. Two years before, he had made his way up the Mississippi from New Orleans, till he reached the prairies that had been selected for the plantations of Law, and smoked the calumet with the southernmost tribes of the Dahcotas. Desiring to plan a settlement near the margin of the Mississippi, he had touched at Natchez in search of counsel, had preached on the first Sunday in advent, had visited the sick, and was returning with the host from the cabin of a dying man, when he, too, was struck to the ground, and be headed. The Arkansas, hearing of his end, vowed that

WAR BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND THE NATCHEZ. 249

they would avenge him with a vengeance that should never be appeased. Du Codère, the commander of the post among the Yazoos, who had drawn his sword to defend the missionary, was himself killed by a musket ball, and scalped because his hair was long and beautiful. The planter De Koli, a Swiss by birth, one of the most worthy men, zealous for the colony, had come with his son to take possession of a tract of land on St. Catharine's Creek; and both were shot. The Capuchin missionary among the Natchez chanced to be absent when the massacre began; returning, he was shot near his cabin, and a negro slave by his side. Two white men, both mechanics, and two only, were saved. The number of victims was reckoned at two hundred. Women were spared for menial services; children, also, were detained as captives. When the work of death was finished, pillage and carousals began.

The news spread dismay in New Orleans. Messengers were sent with the tidings to the Illinois, by way of the Red River, and to the Choctas and Cherokees. Each house was supplied with arms; the city fortified by a ditch. Danger appeared on every side. The negroes, of whom the number was about two thousand, half as large as the number of the French, showed symptoms of revolt. But the brave, enterprising Le Sueur, repairing to the Choctas, ever ready to engage in excursions, won them to his aid, and was followed across the country by seven hundred of their warriors. On the river the forces of the French were assembled, and placed under the command of Loubois.

Le Sueur was the first to arrive in the vicinity of the Natchez. Not expecting an attack, they were celebrating festivities, which were gladdened by the spoils of the French. Mad with triumph, and exulting in their success, on the evening of the twenty-eighth of January, 1730, they gave themselves up to sleep, after the careless manner of the wilderness. On the following morning, at daybreak, the Choctas broke upon their villages, liberated their captives, and, losing but two of their

own men, brought off sixty scalps, with eighteen pris

oners.

On the eighth of February, Loubois arrived, and completed the victory. Of the Natchez, some fled to neighboring tribes for shelter; the remainder of the nation crossed the Mississippi to the vicinity of Natchitoches. They were pursued, and, in 1731, partly by stratagem, partly by force, their place of refuge was taken. Some fled still farther to the west. Of the scattered remnants, some remained with the Chickasas, others found a shelter among the Muskhogees. In 1732, the Great Sun and more than four hundred other prisoners were shipped to Hispaniola, and sold as slaves.

--

Thus perished the nation of the Natchez. Their peculiar language, which has been still preserved by the descendants of the fugitives, and is, perhaps, now on the point of expiring, their worship, their division into nobles and plebeians, their bloody funereal rites, — invite conjecture, and yet so nearly resemble in character the distinctions of other tribes, that they do but irritate, without satisfying, curiosity.

The cost of defending Louisiana exceeding the returns from its commerce and from grants of land, the company of the Indies, seeking wealth by conquests or traffic on the coast of Guinea and Hindostan, solicited leave to surrender the Mississippi wilderness; and, on the tenth of April, 1732, the jurisdiction and control over its commerce reverted to the crown of France. The company had held possession of Louisiana for fourteen years, which were its only years of comparative prosperity. The early extravagant hopes had not subsided till emigrants had reached its soil; and the emigrants, being once established, took care of themselves. In 1735, the Canadian Bienville reappeared to assume the command for the king.

It was the first object of the crown to establish its supremacy throughout the borders of Louisiana. The Chickasas were the dreaded enemies of France; it was they who had hurried the Natchez to bloodshed and de

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251

struction; it was they whose cedar barks, shooting boldly into the Mississippi, interrupted the connection between Kaskaskia and New Orleans. Thus they maintained their savage independence, and weakened by dividing the French empire. No settlements on the eastern bank of the Mississippi were safe; and from Natchez, or even from the vicinity of New Orleans, to Kaskaskia, none existed. The English traders from Carolina were, moreover, welcomed to their villages. Nay, more resolute in their hatred, they had even endeavored to debauch the affections of the Illinois, and to extirpate French dominion from the west. But the tawny envoys from the north descended to New Orleans, and presented the pipe of friendship. "This," said Chicago to Perrier, as he conIcluded an offensive and defensive alliance "this is the pipe of peace or war. You have but to speak, and our braves will strike the nations that are your foes."

To secure the eastern valley of the Mississippi, it was necessary to reduce the Chickasas; and nearly two years were devoted to preparations for the enterprise. At last, in 1736, the whole force of the colony at the south, with D'Artaguette and troops from his command in Illinois, and probably from the Wabash, was directed to meet, on the tenth of May, in the land of the ChickaThe government of France had itself given directions for the invasion, and its eye was turned anxiously to watch the issue of the strife.

sas.

From New Orleans the little fleet of thirty boats and as many pirogues departed for Fort Condé at Mobile, which it did not leave till the fourth of April. In sixteen days, it ascended the river to Tombecbee, a fort which an advance party had constructed on the west bank of the river, two hundred and fifty miles above the bay. Of the men employed in its construction, some had attempted to escape, and enjoy the liberty of the wilderness: in the wilds of Alabama, a court martial sentenced them to death, and they were shot.

The Choctas, lured by gifts of merchandise, and high rewards for every scalp, gathered at Fort Tombecbee to