swANTONl IXI)IAX TKIBKS OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 221 



thr()ii<ili wliom |)i';icc' \v;is ^raiilod lo the iiadon after every disturlj- 

 ance. On the death of the <i;reat Sim, however, the power and oflice 

 passed to a yoiin^ man unused to ruk', while the chief of White Apple 

 seems to have been a man of experience and one enjoying the confi- 

 dence of the nation in a high degree. The chief of the Flour village, 

 which had been friendly to the French, was an old man at the time 

 of the Tattooed-serpent's death, and probably did not survive the 

 great Sun, while his successor Avas evidently the same whom the great 

 Sun, after his capture by Perrier, designated as a usurper." Since 

 he figures in the later Natchez war as one of the principal hostiles, it 

 seems possible that he had obtained his position through the backing 

 of the anti-French element. In fact the only prominent person in 

 the French interest with any strength of character at the time of the 

 outbreak appears to have been the great chief's mother, Tattooed- 

 arm, of whom we shall hear more later. All things would therefoi'c 

 seem to ha\e been ripe for an upheaval; yet there is no certainty that 

 it would have taken place, and such was the belief of most of the 

 French in a position to know the events of that time, had it not been 

 for the appointment at tliat critical juncture of a connnaudant at 

 Fori Rosalie utterly unworthy of occupying a position of such im- 

 portance. History often misjudges, but in this case such is the unani- 

 mous verdict regarding the Sieur Chepart or Chopart of all ac- 

 quainted with him. 

 Says Dumont : 



He was no sooner established in this post than, instead of trying to obtain 

 the friendship of the people whom he came to govern, he only thought of mnlving 

 himself a tyrant over them, ill-treating ail those whom he snsi)eeted of not being 

 his friends, trampling on justice and equity, and always malving the balance 

 incline toward those whom he wisheil to gratify, despising even the royal 

 ordinances, and neglecting the service so far as to let it be executed by mere 

 sergeants, who, not seeing themselves restrained by their otficers, abused this 

 license with impunity.^ 



Dumont proceeds with the relation of his misdemeanors as follows: 

 There was then, as I have said, at the concession of White Earth which be- 

 longed then to M. le Marechal Due de Belle-Isle, a company of soldiers which 

 were kept for the preservation of the property of this concession and for the 

 defense of the workmen who were employed there. The Sieur Chopart under- 

 took to drag them away by his authority, and left there but 8 soldiers com- 

 manded by a corporal. The Sieur Desnoyers, who was then manager of this 

 concession, opposed these pretensions at first; but the Sieur Chopart having 

 told him in a positive tone that he wished it, and this manager, who was an 

 officer of the company, being in that capacity subordinate to this conunandant, 

 he was obliged to submit. 



It was not the same with a lieutenant of the garrison of the fort ^ who had 

 commandetl in this post under the eyes of the Sieur Brontin, and who. a witness 



" She.i's Charlevoix, Hist. Louisiana, vi, 113. 



^ Dumont. Mem. Hist, sur La Louisiane, ii. 12.')— 126. 



"^ It was the author himself to whom this adventure happened. — [Dumont.] 



