228 BTTREAIT OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



other Frenchmen swam across the river, and having reached a cypress swamp 

 where a master carpenter named Couillard was worlving on wood for buildings, 

 they informed him what had passed, and warned him to save himself." 



Couillard profited by this advice, killed two Natchez hunters that 

 were with him, and descended to New Orleans in a large pirogue, 

 although greeted with shots from the captured batteaux on the way. 



The adventure of still another, a soldier named Navarre, is thus 

 related by Du Pratz : 



Navarre told them [the French soldiers at the Tonicas] that a girl with whom 

 he was very much in love came to him early in the morning and warned him 

 that the French were going to be killed by the Natchez; that he should escape 

 promptly and that he had no time to lose; that she brought him a pistol, pow- 

 der, and balls, so that if he was attacked in escaping he might defend himself 

 and die like a warrior if he had to die. He mounted on horseback to inform 

 his commandant, but he met another Frenchman escaping, who told him that 

 the Natchez bad struck the blow. Navarre concealed himself in the woods 

 until evening, and at night went to the French establishment to find some way 

 to embark. Seeing a light in a French house he went there, but perceiving that 

 it was full of natives he fled, and seeing plainly that it was not possible for 

 him to escape on that side he went that night to the house of his mistress, who 

 concealed him in the depths of the wood, where she and her companions nour- 

 ished him for eight to ten days, and then brought him provisions for his jour- 

 jiey, showed him the road to take to the Tonicas, and she said to him : " We pre- 

 sume that the French will exact vengeance for the death of their bi'others, but 

 if you return with them try to have me to live with you." ^ 



The actions of the Indians during and after the massacre are best 

 related by Charlevoix and Le Petit, whose testimony in substance is 

 as follows: 



During the massacre the head chief of the Natchez, the great Sun, 

 was seated calmly under the tobacco shed of the India Company. 

 There his warriors brought to him the head of the commandant, 

 about which they ranged those of the principal Frenchmen of the 

 post, leaving their bodies a prey to the dogs, the buzzards, and other 

 carnivorous birds. They did not illtreat the negro and Indian slaves 

 that surrendered to them. In fact, before executing their plot they 

 had made sure of several negroes, among whom were two com- 

 manders. These had persuaded the rest that under the Indians they 

 Avould be free; that our women and children would become their 

 slaves, and that there was nothing to fear from the French of the 

 other posts, as the massacre would be carried out simultaneously 

 everywhere. It seems, however, that the secret had been confided to 

 only a small number for fear of its taking wind. Their real reason 

 for the good treatment accorded to the negroes, men as well as women, 

 was their desire to sell them to the English in Carolina. The white 

 women, however, were treated with the utmost indignity during the 

 two or three montlis of their captivity ,« the least miserable being 

 those who knew how to sew, who were kept busy making shirts, 



« Dumont, M6m. Hist, sur La Louislane, ii, 150-15.3. 

 "Du Pratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, tii, 206, 267. 



"Those assigned to the White Woman, however, wore troat(>(l with groat kindnc^ss, both 

 by her and the wife of the great Sun ; cf. Charlevoix, Hist. Louisiana, vi, 113, 



