swANTONl TXDTAX TRIBES OF TTl K T,OWF,|{ MISSISSIPPI VAIJ.EV 31 



CliilinKicliM \\.\v I)i'(»k(' out. in IToT. tlicv iiiul the Bayogoula fiiriii>lic(l 

 three- fourths ol" the native contingent in the lirst Chitiniachti ex- 

 pedition, and the former acted as guides for the party." In 1718 

 they came to the ^lississippi to live, and subsequently remained on 

 or near it, instead of retiring westward among the Chitimacha or 

 the Atakai)a.'' Finally, there is reason to believe that they united 

 with the other small ]\Iuskhogean tribes of the lower Mississippi, the 

 Ilouma, Acolapissa, and Bayogoula, and accompanied them to the 

 seacoast of the present Terre Bonne and La Fourche parishes. There 

 a lake still bears their name on the atlases, although it appears to 

 be unknown by that term in the immediate locality. When we add 

 to these facts Iberville's statement, above quoted, that there was little 

 diilerence between the languages spoken by the Bayogoula, Ilouma, 

 Chickasaw, Acolapissa, and that of these three tribes "" there appears 

 to be very good circumstantial grounds for considering them ^lus- 

 khogean. If not, they would form the only excejDtion to the correct- 

 ness of Iberville's statement ; at the same time it must not be for- 

 gotten that Bienville, from whom the information came, had spent 

 but a few hours among the Washa, Avho received him in an unfriendly 

 manner, and that he had not apparently met any representatives of 

 the other two tribes. 



On I'ascagoula river, above the Biloxi, lived the tribe from which 

 this stream received its name, and the Moctobi. The Moctobi are 

 referred to only in tlie earliest documents, and probably formed a 

 subdivision of the Biloxi, or Pascagoula, unless, indeed, it was a 

 synonym for the name of one of those tribes. Although the Pas- 

 cagoula are frequently mentioned, not the slightest hint is given 

 regarding their language, and since the Biloxi have been discovered 

 to be Sionan it is now commonly thought that the intimate associa- 

 tion of the Pascagoula Avith them argued for a similar origin. Xo 

 living Pascagoula are known to the I)iloxi still in Bapides parish, 

 but a considerable number of them moved to Angelina county, Tex., 

 before the year 1817," and settled not far from the Alibamu. Hoping 

 that a few of these might still be found, the writer, in Xovember, 

 1908, stopped at Livingston, Tex., to look for them. By the merest 

 accident he had the good fortune to meet near that place two Indians 

 of Pascagoula descent, who. although brothers, are called by different 

 names — Tom Johnson and Sam Lockhart. The father of these men 

 was a Biloxi. pronounced by them Atabalo'ktci ; their mother, a Pas- 

 cagoula, and they asserted that there were no other descendants of the 

 latter tribe among the Indians of Polk county. The rest they declared 



<• La Ilarpe, Jour. Hist., 102. 



"" Mar^iry, D^coiivortcs, v, 5.57. 



<■ Spc p. '27. 



" Morse, Report to the Sec. of War, ."JTS, 1822. 



