202 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



nations which wore their enemies join him and would so to destroy them en- 

 tirely; that nevertheless they would force him to do this if they ventured to 

 amuse him yet longer. These chiefs, after having admitted all the treason 

 and all the deception of their nation, assured him that they had never appeared 

 in the councils which were held to invite the English to come to establish 

 themselves among them ; that the French who were at that time in the village 

 of the Natchez could render them that justice; that regarding the assassination 

 of the Frenchmen they had only known of it eight days afterward, and that 

 they had regretted them and wept. At that moment they gave forth great sighs 

 and shed some tears. M. de Bienville asked them what they regretted. They 

 replied that it was time to confess such things as were past ; that three war 

 chiefs of the villages of the Walnuts [Hickories], of White Earth, and the 

 Grigras were the sole authors of the disorders which had taken place in their 

 nation ; that it was these three chiefs that had bi'ought the English into their 

 village; that it was at their orders that the Frenchmen had been killetl; that 

 there were two of them in irons in our prison ; that one was called The Bearded 

 Chief, who was their mother's brother, and the other Alalioflechia ; " that the 

 third had not descended with them and was called the Chief of White Earth; 

 that these three chiefs for a year back had assumed so much authority in their 

 nation that they were more feared and obeyed than themselves. The chief 

 Tattooed-serpent also made knt)wn the fact that there were in our prison two 

 other warriors who had killed the last Canadian in the month of March, and 

 affirmed that he was entirely unacquainted with the others. 



M. de Bienville said to these three chiefs that he had always doubted that 

 they had had part in the unfortunate events which had taken place, and that 

 henceforth he did not wish they should go into prison. 



The 25th of May the two war chiefs who had been sent to their village to 

 get the head of the chief of White Earth returned without bringing it and 

 saying that he had fled.'' They brought many slaves who belonged to the 

 Frenchmen who had been killed. They also brought along many of their 

 effects. The number of sick, which increased every day in our little camp, 

 determined M. de Bienville to terminate this little war. 



The 1st day of June he had all of the chiefs and the others who had been 

 there for a month, except the four criminals, go out of the fort. He made them 

 come to his house, whei-e were the three other chiefs, and said to them that he 

 was very willing to give them their lives and accord them peace on condition 

 that they would give him their word that they would kill the chief of White 

 Earth as soon as they should meet him and would send the head to the French 

 officer who was among them; that for the present they should consent that the 

 two war chiefs and the two warriors who were then in irons in our prison 

 should be put to death in reparation for the murder whicli they had committed ; 

 that they should have restored all that had been pillaged, and for that which 

 was found to be lost that they would make their people pay the value of it in 

 pelts and provisions; that they would oblige their nation to cut 2,500 posts of 

 acacia wood. 3 feet long and 10 inches in diameter, and to carry all to a place 

 near the river Mississi])pi which would be indicated to them by us in order to 

 build us a fort; that they would furthermore place themselves under obliga- 

 tions to furnish us ;},000 pieces of bark from cy])ress trees to cover our lodgings, 

 and this before the end of July. 



All these chiefs thanked M. de Bienville; each one of them made him a speech 

 in which they protested their devotion to the French, saying that in the future 



"The writer's Natchoz informnnt bolievod this to bo Vla-homc'cia or Vla-Jio'be'ca, " Shod 

 snake-skin." 



*La Ilarpo speaks of him as havinj; bocm killed at this time, but ho is evidently wrons 

 (see p. :j()7». It will bo noticed that this chronicler's estimate of the great Sun is difl'oront 

 from Penicaut's. 



