LOUISIANA. 45 



brother, upon whom he was ufed to lay the 

 weight of government, he being great chief of 

 war of the Natches. /. e. GeneralilTimo of their 

 armies -, that prince grew furious by the fefift- 

 ance he met with ; he held his gun by the bar- 

 rel, and the Sun^ his prefumptive heir, held it 

 by the lock, and caufed the powder to fall out of 

 the pan ; the hut was full of Suns^ Nobles^ and 

 Honour ahles *, who were all trembling : but the 

 French raifed their fpirits again, by hiding all the 

 arms belonging to the fovereign, and filling the 

 barrel of his gun with water, that it might be 

 unfit for ufe for fome time. 



As foon as the Suns faw their fovereign's Iif« 

 in fafety, they thanked the French, by fqueez- 

 ing their hands, but without fpeaking ; a moft 

 profound iilence reigned throughout, for grief 

 and awe kept in bounds the multitude that were 

 prefent. 



I 



The wife of the great Sun was feized with 

 fear during this tranfadion. She was afked 



whether 



* The eftabliftied diflinftions among thefe Indians were 

 as follows : The Sunsy relations of the great Sun, held the 

 higheflrank; next came the AW^x; after them the Hono- 

 rabies ; and lafl: of all, the Common people, who were very 

 much defpifed. As the nobility was propagated by the wo- 

 men, tliis contributed much to multiply it. 



