210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



showed that tlie Natchez were not much better disposed with regard to the 

 nation. The establishments which were made among the savages which bear 

 this name were not formed at all in the same manner as in all the other cantons 

 of tlie proA'ince, where, to have a habitation after having cliosen such land as 

 one wished, it sufficed to present one's request to the council which never failed 

 to sign it after having put in certain clauses; this act took the place of a con- 

 tract of sale and title in order to possess legally the lands which had been 

 ceded. On the contrary, those who had first established themselves among the 

 Natchez, purchased the land they wished to occupy from the savages of the 

 place themselves, who by this traffic were bound to the French, were attached 

 to them, and became their friends. 



Things were in this state when the inconstancy or the malignity of the 

 barbarians gave rise to an event of which the consequences were very dis- 

 astrous. Terhaits, too, the Sieur Guenote brought on himself the misfortune 

 which befell him ; at least it was suspected that he would not have been attacked 

 if lie had not caused some discontent on the part of some of the Natchez savages 

 established at the Apple village. He was one of the directors of the concession 

 of St. Catherine, and had gone to dine with the commandant of Fort Rosalie, 

 when on returning in the evening through the woods, a savage shot at him with 

 a gun, the ball wounding his right arm. Happily the shot did not bring him 

 down. He put spurs to liis horse and arrived safely at the concession, where the 

 Sieur de St. Hilaire, who was its sui'geon, did him the first services. 



The savages on their side, angry at having lost tlieir coup, turned all their 

 fury against another French soldier of the garrison named La liochelle, who lived 

 in a cabin separated a little from the fort, and who, believing he had nothing 

 to fear on their part, had even neglected to close it with a door. They entered 

 his house one night while he M^as asleep, killed him. and carried off his scalp. 



Nothing more was needed to inform the French that the savages had declared 

 war against them. The Sieur Guenote fearing, with reason, to fall into their 

 hands, abandoned the settlement and returned to the capital, as much that 

 he might not draw upon liimself a greater misfortune as to have his wound 

 attended to. It was doing well and gave hopes of a prompt and perfect cure, 

 but not having been willing to follow the advice of the surgeon, who warned 

 him to take care of himself and not drink at all, gangrene set in in his wound, 

 and he died. 



The commandant-general of the country had no sooner been informed of 

 these two acts of hostility committed by the Natchez savages than he resolved 

 to revenge them. For this purpose he had a certain number of troops commanded 

 by the Sieur Payon, who performed the functions of major-general in the colony, 

 embark in four boats. This little army arrived at Natchez and was preparing 

 to fall upon the savages in accordance with tlie orders it had received when the 

 Tattooed-serpent, who was then grand chief of all this nation,'' came to present 

 the calumet of peace to the general, and in the speech which he made him, 

 represented to him that the acts of hostility which were complained of ought 

 not to be attributed to the savages of the grand village, nor to those of the 

 Flour village ; that they could only be imputed to those of the villages of the 

 Apple, of .Jenzeuiique, or of the Gris; that, liesides, the savage who had done 

 the shooting was out of liis mind when he had done it — that is to say. was 

 drunk — and that he was no longer in the village; that, besides, all of his people 

 were friends of the French and carriers for them; that it was then useless to 

 come and declare war against them; that his nation was entirely unwilling to 

 have war witli the I'rciHh. and he asked peace. 



« He was in reality only the head war chief. Cf. p. T4t), note 



