STONE FORT AND OTHER ABORIGINAL REMAINS. 127 



rcn, conquered our ancient enemies, but, attempting afterwards to make slaves of 

 our suns, they, rather than submit to them, left our brethren wlio refused to follow 

 them and came hither, attended only by their slaves." Upon my asking him 

 who these warriors of fire were, he replied that they were bearded white men, 

 somewhat of a brownish color, who carried arms that darted out fire, with a great 

 noise, and killed at a great distance ; that they had likewise heavy arms, which 

 killed a great many men at once, and, like thunder, made the earth to tremble, and 

 that they came from the sun-rising in floating villages. "The ancients of the 

 country," he said, " were very numerous, and inhabited from the western coast of 

 the great water to the northern country, on this side of the sun, and very far 

 upon the same coast beyond the sun. They had a great number of large and small 

 villages, which were all built of stone, and in which there were houses large 

 enough to lodge a wliole tribe. Their temples were built with great labor and 

 art, and they made beautiful works of all kinds of materials."^ 



It would appear, therefore, that in former times the Natchez had multiplied to 

 such a degree as to spread from the Mississippi River, along its branches and 

 head-waters, and finally to reach the Atlantic coast. 



It is a reasonable prcsiunptiou that the Natchez was a colony of the old Toltecan 

 stock. It is well known that, like the Natchez, the Toltccs were governed by 

 despotic rulers, the representatives of the sun, and that they built numerous 

 mounds, and fortified their towns by earthworks. In common with the INIexicons 

 and Peruvians, the Natchez held the tradition that they had received their pe- 

 culiar religion and laws from a man and his wife who had come down from the 

 sun ;^ and they also, in like manner with the Toltecs, preserved accounts of pesti- 

 lence^ which had raged during several years, and had destroyed great numbers of 

 people. 



If the tradition of the Natchez be true, it is most reasonable to refer the 

 mounds, earthworks, and idols of Tennessee to this nation. 



^ History of Louisiana, vol. ii, pp. lOD-11.3. 



^ Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, vol. ii, p. 17.5. 



' Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, vol. ii, p. 180. 



