584 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
and around this the principal men of the village build their cabins. The 
common people are housed in the Same manner, and thus they surround 
the dwelling of their chief.” To ascend this elevation they have a 
graded way from top to bottom, in which the slope is so gradual that a 
horseman can ride up without any difficulty. Excepting at this one 
place, all the other sides are made so steep as to be difficult of ascent. 
Elsewhere, in the town of Guachoule, on the head waters of the Coosa 
River,* and near the country of the “ Achalaqué,” the dwelling of the 
chief is said to stand on a ‘mound, with a terrace around it wide 
enough for six men to walk abreast.”+ West of the Mississippi, among 
the Capahas and their neighbors, it was the custom of the Caciques 
to raise “near their dwellings very high hills, on which they some- 
times build their huts;”t¢ and the Gentleman of Elvas tells us that in 
the town of Ucita, near which De Soto landed, and which is supposed 
to have been situated on the west coast of Florida, ‘the lord’s house 
stood upon a very high mount, made by hand for strength.”§ <A few 
years later, in Laudonniere’s account of the ill-fated attempt of the 
Huguenots to plant a colony on the northeastern coast of this same 
Floridian peninsula, we have repeated allusions to “alleys,”|| which 
are none other than the “ grand avenues” or Indian highways, men- 
tioned by Bartram as leading in a straight line from “ a pompous Indian 
mount, or conical pyramid of earth, that stood on the site of an ancient 
town, through a magnificent grove of magnolias, live oaks, palms, and 
orange trees, to the verge of a large green level savanna.” §] 
Passing over an interval of one hundred and fifty years, we find that, 
among many of these same tribes, the custom still existed of erecting 
mounds as sites for their habitations. The cabins of the Yazous, 
Courois, Ossagoulas, and Ouspie tribes, living on the lower Mississippi, 
are said to have been ‘ dispersed over the country upon mounds of 
earth made with their own hands, from which it is inferred that these 
nations are very ancient, and were formerly very numerous, although 
at the present time they hardly number 250 persons.” ** According to 
Du Pratz, the temple of the Natchez was about 50 feet square, and 
was situated by the side of a small river, on an artificial mound, which 
was about 8 feet high, and sloped insensibly from the main front on 
the north, but was somewhat steeper on the other sides.” The same 
author also tells us that the cabin of their chief, or Great Sun, as he 
was called, was placed upon a mound of about the same height, though | 
it was somewhat larger, ‘‘ being 60 feet over on the surface.” t+ When 
* Picket, History of Alabama, vol. 1, p, 8: Charleston, 1851. 
t La Vega, seconde partie, p. 2. 
} Biedma, Hist. Coll. Louisiana, part 11, p. 105. 
\ Gentleman of Elwas, l. ¢., p. 123. 
|| Hakluyt, vol. 111, pp. 407 and 415. 
q Travels through Florida, pp. 103 and 521. 
*“*La Harpe, in Hist. Coll. Louisiana, part 111, p. 106. 
tt History of Louisiana, vol. 11,pp, 211 and 188. 
