SWANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OF TTTK LOWKU MISSISSIPPI VALLFA' 193 



established its post, Peniciiut states that hv found tliicc in tlic Natchez 

 vilhi<j:es. On them he hiys the blame for a rcctMit attack on the 

 Cdiaoiiaehas by " a stion*; l)aity of Chicachas, "^'asous, and Natchez."' 

 This band went to the Chaonacha vina<;e under pretense of smoking 

 the peace cahnnet, treacherously attacked their hosts, killed the <;i('at 

 chief of the Chaouachas and several of his family, and ensla\ed 

 eleven persons, including; the great chief's wife." An English trader 

 named Hughes visited the Natchez at about the same time and sub- 

 sequently descended the Mississippi, where he was apprehended and 

 sent as a prisoner to Mobile, but afterward liberated. On his way 

 back to Carolina, however, he was Ivilled by a Tohome Indian.'' The 

 Chickasaw are known to have been in the English interest from the 

 beginning, and the English had a sufficient hold over part of the Choc- 

 taw towns to bring on a fierce civil war, while the French themselves 

 admitted their influence among the Yazoo and Koroa.'' In fact, the 

 only tribes that the Louisiana settlers could count upon with any 

 certainty were the western Choctaw, the Tunica, and the small tribes 

 gathered near Natchitoches, Mobile, and New Orleans. When we 

 add to these circumstances the fact that the disturbances hostile to 

 the French which soon broke out among the Natchez came from 

 those villages which had had most to do with English traders, it 

 seems probable that the English were at least indirectly and in some 

 measure responsible for them. In justice to both Natchez and P]ng- 

 lish, however, it should be stated that M. de Kicheboiirg declares the 

 hostile acts of the former were due to the refusal of (jrovei-nor Lamothe 

 to smoke the calumet with them and the consequent belief on their 

 l)art that he intended to make war on them.'' Of the first of these 

 disturbances, resulting in what is called "the first Natchez war,"' 

 Penicaut claims to have had very intimate knowledge, and he de- 

 scribes it as follows: 



M. de la Loire the elder descended [early iu the year 1714 1*^ from the 

 Natchez to Mobile. On the way he met a canoe in which were four French- 

 men who were jioinj; up to the Illinois to trade with the articles of merchandise 

 which they had in their canoe. These 4 Frenchmen, having arrived anion?; the 

 Natchez, hired 4 Natchez savages to aid them in taking their canoe up to the 

 Illinois, because the current of the Mississipiii was at that time very rapid. 

 They went together as far as the Little Gulf, where, in tlie evening, the Natchez, 

 seeing the 4 Frenchmen asleej), murdered tliem, and after having stripped tlieir 

 bodies threw them into the river. Tlien they redescended, during the night, to 

 the Natchez, where they divided the goods which were in the canoe, and carried 

 them into their cabins. 



" Margrj-, Ddcouvertes, v, ."jOG-fjOT. 



^Ibid., .lOT-noO ; French, Hist. Coll. La., 4:?-44, 1S.51 : La Flarpo, .Tour. Hist., llS-119. 

 The French relations call him You, Youx, or Huvhi. 

 <' French, Hist. Coll. La., 1.S9-140. IS.Jl. 

 " Ibid., 241-242. 

 « So Penicaut ; the true date was 1715, as stated by La Harpe and De Uichebourg. 



83220— Bull. 43—10 13 



