212 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



soldiers of the concession of Wliite Earth, many citizens, Canadians, and volnn- 

 teers from the capital, and some inhabitants of the Natchez post. The first 

 column followed the high road which leads from Fort Rosalie to St. Catherine ; 

 the other took a little trail running across the prairies and the valleys. The 

 whole army being assembled at the rendezvous they passed the night there 

 sleeping under the open sky, their weapons under their arms, awaiting the 

 general, who slept at the fort. There the Tattooed-serpent did not fail to 

 present himself to ask pardon for his nation. He avowed that the Inhabitants 

 of the Apple, of Jenzenaque, and of the Gris were really mutinous and that 

 he himself had not been able to restrain them, but all that he was able to 

 obtain of the commandant was that his vengeance would extend only to these 

 three villages, he being promised that out of consideration for him he would 

 spare his Grand village and that of the Flour, which he knew besides not to 

 have been at all imbrued in the hostilities committed by the three others. 



The following day,- the commandant having arrived, the army began to march 

 in the direction of the village of the Apple, defiling through the forest on little 

 trails where the soldiers were able to pass only one at a time. It was All 

 Saints' Day. All the troops marched in silence in order to. surprise their 

 enemies. On the way they came to a cabin where there were three savage 

 women at the door occupied in pounding maize to make hominy. As soon as 

 they perceived the French armed and in such great numbers, accompanied by 

 savages painted for wai% they abandoned their work in the quickest possible 

 manner in order to enter their cabin, the door of which they closed. 



There was in that cabin made of mud -three savages, who seeing through the 

 loopholes left in the waalls that the Frenchmen were directing themselves 

 against them, armed themselves with their guns and began to shoot through 

 the openings; but as there were but three the army disposed itself in such a 

 fashion that no one was wounded. An inhabitant newly established at Fort 

 Rosalie, however, wishing to profit by the promise which the commandant had 

 made, that he who took a woman or girl of the savages should have her as a 

 slave, and hoping to carry off one of the savage women whom they had seen, 

 without i)aying any attention to the danger to which he was going to expose him- 

 self, detached himself from the body of the army, and directing his course thither 

 arrived at the door of the cabin. He seized the upper pai't of it with one hand 

 intending to pull it down, but as this door was made only of dry canes tied 

 and interlaced with two other canes placed crosswise, one of the three savages 

 who was within aimed at him through these canes and with one shot pierced 

 his heart. The Frenchman fell dead, dragging the door with him, and thus 

 leaving a free access to wiioever might wish to avenge him. A settler, a 

 good gentleman of Beam, named the Sieur Mesplet, undertook to do it; he 

 entered the cabin at the moment when the savage was about to shoot, and 

 instead of killing him with a shot from his gun, as he might have done, he 

 advanced to seize him in hopes of having him for a slave if he could take him 

 alive. The savage, who had not had time to rrload, seeing the Frenchman 

 approach, leveled a blow against him with the butt of his gun. but he missed 

 him and the Sieur Mesplet, having seized him in a moment about the body, 

 lifted him and carried him out of the cabin. As soon as he had done so the 

 commandant ordered one of our savages to kill him and take his scalp, having 

 resolved to give no quarter to males; at the same time he promised this 

 settler to give him the first female slave which should be taken by our sav- 

 ages. As to the two other savages they were killed by some Frenchmen, who, 

 while this was going on, had entered the cabin. One of them, named the Sieur 

 Tisserand, possessed himself of. two of the female savages who had concealed 

 themselves under a bed ; the other was taken by another settler. 



