234 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY tBOLL. 43 



Choctaw the general conspiracy would have taken effect. He accordingly did 

 not hesitate to employ them to obtain redress of the Natchez, cost what it 

 might." 



Those desirous to defend the good name of the Indian and who 

 wish to believe him deserving of the title " noble red man " certainly 

 have a hard problem before them in finding nobility in the attitude 

 and actions of the Choctaw throughout this war. As the Natchez 

 accused them to their faces of having entered the conspiracy against 

 the French without having the accusation denied, and the fact was 

 commonly reported by everyone at the time, there can be little doubt 

 that they were parties to it. Disgruntled by the premature attack 

 of the Natchez and the failure of their own part of the program, 

 they sent an embassy to the Natchez to present the calumet with the 

 evident hope and expectation that they would receive a very large 

 slice of French plunder. The result of this embassy, and of a second, 

 sent with the same object in view, is thus given by Dumont: 



A short time afterward these same savages sent to the Natchez a consider- 

 able party from their nation to present the calumet to the great chief and 

 dance the stalie dance; the presents which were made them did not appear 

 to them sufficient, only consisting in some rather rough shirts, kettles, looking- 

 glasses, vermilion, etc., without guns, powder, or balls; these deputies, who 

 had been informed of what was past, complained loudly that the Natchez had 

 anticipated by two days that which had been agreed upon for the general 

 massacre of the French, telling them that they were dogs who preferred to 

 keep all for themselves rather than share with those who had promised to 

 help them, a thing which, without doubt, had prevented the great chief of the 

 French from permitting them to pass to his capital, and threatening to make 

 them repent of it. 



After this first party a second came also from the Choctaw Nation, who were 

 no more satisfied with the presents they had received than the others had 

 been. These, having learned that on the occasion of the death of one of their 

 children the Natchez had slaughtered a young French boy, and that they had 

 also deliberated whether they should not kill all their slaves, because they 

 feared they would have war on their account with the ('hoctaw; these sav- 

 ages, I say, striking the post, forbade them in future to kill any of their slaves, 

 women, girls, or boys, declaring that if they acted otherwise they would have 

 them to deal with. These threats arrested the fury and the cruelties of the 

 Natchez ; from that time they were disquieted, holding frequent councils, with- 

 out knowing what to determine or what measures they ought to take.'' 



If, as Charlevoix says, these Choctaw had been playing double with 

 the Natchez also, having entered the conspiracy only to involve them 

 in war with the French, their case becomes still blacker, for they are 

 placed in the light of traitors even from the Indian point of view, 

 they having entered into a solemn compact, and then endeavored to 

 obtain as many gifts as possible from their reputed allies with the 

 ultimate intention of turning upon them and helping to destroy them. 



" Slio^a's CIiarI(>voix, Hist. Louisiana, vi, 89-92. 



* Dumont, M6m. Hist, sur La Louislane, il, 168-169. 



