swANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OK TlIK LcnVKIi MISSISSII'lM VALLFA' 213 



Aftor this Mrs! oxikmUI inn (lie Mriiiy i-csiimcil its nnilc fdf Hit- villa;;*' of the 

 Api)le, but till' shots which had bi-ru exchaiij;i'tl on hotli sides had served as 

 a vvaniiii^' 1o the savages to escape, and they were all disjiersed ni the WHjods 

 or in the iieiuhhoriii^' villa.^es so that when it arrived at their settlement 

 the ,11 111 V rmiiKl nothing hul tiio eahins. It eanie to a halt in the prand square 

 (if the villau'c and the eonmiandaut, thinking Huit the savages nii;iht perhaps 

 }H> to the caliin they had Just left to take the scalp of the Frenchman who had 

 Iieeii killed there, sent thither a detachment with orders to Iturn the cabin and 

 tile body of tlie Frenchman. At the same time he had all (he cabins in the 

 village set on lirt', and as tlii' day liepaii to decline the army took up its route 

 aKiiiii foi" St. Catherine. 



They reached there at uiphtfall and passed four hours in repose, without 

 anythiniLj new happening. The Hftli. the commandant divided the army into 

 two coriis and pave the leadership of one to the .Sieur I'ayon. with orders to take 

 the same route they had formerly taken. For himself, having placed himself 

 at the head of the second corps, he set out for the village of th«; Uris, where 

 he arrivi'd over trails still worse and more difttcuit than those of which I have 

 already spoken. They found no savage there, but only a temple and some 

 cabins scattered about, which the commandant had reduced to ashes. The trooi)S, 

 however, were dying of thirst, aud while everyone was searching where he 

 might quench it, a settler met by chance an old savage woman who was per- 

 haps more than 100 years old, since her hair was entirely white, a very rare 

 thing among these savages. He led her to the general, who, aftor having ques- 

 tioned her and having learned from her where water might be found, abandoned 

 her on the siK)t as a useless incumbrance to the discretion of a little slave he 

 had, who took her scalp and killed her. Then tlie army c<nitinued its march, 

 always having to undergo the same fatigues and the same inconveniences; they 

 were obliged to cry at each instant, '* Halt the van," and a moment after- 

 ward " Close the rear." It is certain that if the savages had had the spirit 

 or the courage to assemble and make an ambush in some ravines it would 

 have been easy for them to have destroyed the whole army. 



Finally they got out of the woods and defiles, and the troops having entered 

 a large and vast plain from which the grasses had been burned, they discov- 

 ered at a distance one of the hostile savages armed with a gun who, without 

 doubt, was reconnoitering and examining our line of march. As soon as he h;td 

 perceived him, a Frenchman named Marechal instantly begged the commandant 

 to permit him to run upon this savage, which the latter refused at first, but 

 finally, overcome by his importunities, he permitted him. Then Marechal 

 parted like a flash of lightning, without taking his gun, and armed only with 

 a woodcutter's knife. The whole army, uncertain what was going to happen, 

 stopped to witness this combat. The savage, seeing come against him but one 

 single man without arms, thought himself strong and skillful enough to cou- 

 (pier him; he waited for him with firm foot, and when he saw him within range, 

 he shot at him, but missed him. Immediately he took to flight across the 

 prairie, pursued by his enemj% who finally reached him aud buried his knife in 

 his back. The savage fell from the blow aud the Frenchman above, but at once 

 the latter rose again, uttered the death cry, took the scalp from his enemy, and 

 came in triumph to present it to the general, who by way of recompense had 

 some goods delivered to him. 



A short time afterward Red Shoe, chief of the little party of Choctaws which 

 had followed the army, having perceived 4 fleeing female savages, ran after 

 them, seized them, and brought them to the general. They were questioned, 

 aud by their replies it was learned that half a league from there there were, 

 at the village of Jeuzeuaque, 50 savages who were awaiting us firmly resolved 



