84 . Notes. 



the Black River, and from thence up the Bayouc d' Argent, which 

 communicates with a small lake at no great distance from the 

 fort which the Natchez had built." 



Now, Mr. Dunbar, in his account of an exploration of Black 

 River and its confluents, communicated by President Jefferson to 

 Congress, along with the report of Lewis and Clark's expedition, 

 says the Tensas, one of the confluents of the Black, " communi- 

 cates with the Mississippi lowlands by the intervention of other 

 creeks and lakes, and by one in particular, called Bayou d' Argent, 

 which empties into the Mississippi about fourteen miles above 

 Natchez A large lake, called St. John's Lake, occu- 

 pies a considerable part of the passage between the Mississippi 

 and the Tensas, and has at some former period been the bed of the 

 Mississippi." 



This bayou and lake can be seen on the maps of Louisiana, 

 between the parishes of Concordia and Tensas, and agree with 

 the locality inscribed " Natchez destroyed " on Du Pratz's map. 



The fort constructed here by the Natchez was undoubtedly a 

 palisade. Charlevoix simply says they fortified themselves. Du 

 Pratz says they built a fort. Dumont says, '"they built a fort 

 upon the model of the one from which they had been driven" — 

 and that was a palisade. Dumont further says, " the troops pil- 

 laged the fort and set fire to it." 



The Natchez were not actually exterminated. A band of them, 

 escaping, crossed the country to the Red River and attacked the 

 French fort at Natchitoches. Charlevoix says that here " they in- 

 trenched themselves." Dumont says they threw up an intrench- 

 ment — " crenscrent dans la plaine line cspcce dc retranchemcnt 

 oil its sefortifierent." So far for contemporary authority. But 

 Mr. John .Sibley, in a letter concerning the Southern Indians, dated 

 Natchitoches, April 5, 1S05, and which letter was annexed to 

 Jefferson's message already mentioned, says : 'After the massa- 

 cre of the French inhabitants of Natchez, by the Natchez Indians, 



