6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS \"0L. 94 



lands on Red River. But they reckoned without the assent of their 

 hosts, the Acolapissa. These Indians were loath to see them go, 

 especially as the Natchitoches wished to take with them their women- 

 folk, many of whom had intermarried with the Acolapissa, and a 

 massacre took place in which a great many of the Natchitoches were 

 killed or captured. The survivors, however, escaped into the woods, 

 and later joined St. Denis' party .° 



Red River at that time formed many large swampy lakes, no longer 

 in existence,' and St. Denis and his party, after traversing some of 

 these lakes, came to high land, which he calls " the Blufif of the Cross." 

 This must have been in the neighborhood of the present town of 

 Colfax, since a league higher up the river they came to a branch 

 coming in from the left, which corresponds to the location of the 

 lower end of Cane River. At this point they were met by a party of 

 the Natchitoches, who had traveled overland and with whom was a 

 friendly tribe called by Penicaut the Doustiany. This tribe had for- 

 merly lived near the Natchitoches, but instead of moving with them 

 to the Acolapissa, had remained in the same region, wandering up 

 and down first one side of the river, then the other, living on the 

 products of the chase, fruit, and potatoes.' 



St. Denis describes the old village of the Natchitoches as being on an 

 island, formed by the separation of the river into two branches, which 

 reunited farther downstream. He assembled the chiefs of the two 

 tribes and distributed grain to them in order that they might replant 

 their devastated fields. He also gave them axes and mattocks, which 

 they used to cut the timber to build two houses for the French in the 

 midst of the Indian village. This was the beginning of Natchitoches 

 Post in 1714, to which in 1717 a fort and garrison were added, under 

 command of M. de Tissenet, and thus the foundations were laid 

 for the oldest permanent settlement in Louisiana, the present town of 

 Natchitoches." 



* Margry, P., Ibid., pt. 5, pp. 459, 496, 1883. 

 ' Margry, P., Ibid., p. 498, 1883. 



* Swanton considers Penicaut's narratives as given by Margry and French to 

 be inaccurate in regard to the chronological order of events, being 2 years too 

 early in the description of St. Denis' trip which resulted in the founding of 

 Natchitoches. The dates here given are those of the historian La Harpe (fitab- 

 lissement des Fran^ais a Louisiane, pp. 116, 129, 131, edited by A. L. Boimare ; 

 New Orleans and Paris, 1831). According to this account St. Denis left Mobile 

 with a party of 30 Canadians on August 23, 1714, for the trip to the Spanish 

 settlements. After stopping long enough to rehabilitate the Indians in their old 

 location on the island of the Natchitoches, as has been recounted, he pushed on 

 into Texas, visited the Hasinai tribes, was carried to Mexico City to appear 



