1873.] 4-o£) jBrlnton. 



1728. Fathers Poison and Le Petit undertake to convert them, but 

 with indifferent success. A long descriptive letter of the latter in the 

 Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, Vol. IV. 



1729. November 28th. — The Nache attack and massacre the French 

 residents, incited thereto by the demand of the commandant of Fort 

 Rosalie, that they should forthwith vacate the village of the Apple, as 

 he wanted the ground for his own purposes. 



1730. January 27th. — They are attacked by the Choctaws, allies of the 

 ' French. 



February. — They are attacked by the French, their villages destroyer], 

 and more than half their number either killed or taken prisoner. The 

 captives were taken to New Orleans, where the women were put to work 

 on the Government plantations. The men, including the Great Sun, were 

 sold into slavery and shipped to St. Domingo to work in the mines, where 

 they soon perished. 



The remainder of the nation escaped across the Mississippi and fled 

 up the Red River to a spot about six miles below the Nachitoche town, 

 "near the river, by the side of a lake of clear water, still known as the 

 Natchez lake, where they erected a mound of considerable size, which 

 still remains."* Here they were attacked shortly afterwards by the 

 French and the Nachitoches, under the command of M. de St. Denis. 

 Many wei'e killed, a number were driven into the lake and di owned, while 

 the wretched remnant fled to the Chicasa and Creek towns. Although 

 they have continued to speak their own tongue, they have never since 

 attempted any separate organization. 



The Nache language was described by the Le Page du Pratz as " easy 

 in pronunciation and expressive iu terms." He pretended to consider- 

 able familiarity with it, remarking in his chapter on the subject, " I 

 readily learned the peculiar language of the natives." This we must 

 accept with a very large allowance. The Nache, like most Indian 

 tongues, is enormously difficult to a European, and all that M. du Pratz 

 knew of it was probably little more than the current trader's jargon. 



He is, I believe, the only author, however, who notes the different 

 modes of speech in use in addressing persons of rank, and those of in- 

 ferior position. His words in reference to it have been construed to mean 

 that two languages were in vogue. This is not his statement. Indeed 

 he is careful to guard against such an impression. He says, speaking of 

 the dialectical differences between the Suns and the Commoners : "The 

 two language are nearly the same ; the difference of expression seems 

 only to take place in matters relating to the persons of the Suns and 

 Nobles, iu distinction from those of the people." 



The examples he gives, explain this at first sight singular anomaly. 

 They are imperative or salutatory verbal forms. Now there are two 



* Dr. John Sibley, in the American Htate Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I., p. 724. 

 Dumcmt, Menus. Hist, sur la Louisiane, Tome. II., pp. 192. 193, 295. 



