242 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



their French allies themselves put little confidence in them is plainly 

 evident. Says Lc Petit : 



Before the Tcliaclas liad (leterminod to fnll upon tlie Natchez they had gone 

 to them to carry the cahiuiet and were received hi a very novel manner. They 

 found them and their horses adorned with chasuhles and drai)ery of the altars, 

 many wore patens ahont their necks, and drank and gave to drink of brandy in 

 the chalices and the ciboria. And the Tchactas themselves, when they had 

 gained these articles by pillaging our enemies, renewed this profane sacritege 

 by making the same use of our ornaments and sacred vessels in their dances 

 and sports. We were never al)le to recover more than a small portion of them. 

 The greater part of their chiefs have come here [to New Orleans] to receive 

 payment for the scalps they have taken and for the French and negroes whom 

 they have freed. It is necessary for us to buy very dearly their smallest 

 services, and we have scarcely any desire to employ them again, particularly as 

 they have appeared much less bi*ave than the small tribes, who have not made 

 themselves feared by their great number. * * * Since these savages have 

 betrayed their disposition here, we have not been able to endure them longer. 

 They are insolent, ferocious, disgusting, importunate, and insatiable. We com- 

 passionate and at the same time we admire our missionaries that they should 

 renounce all society, to have only that of these barbarians.'' 



The Choctaw^ were not the onh^ participants in the expedition to 

 receive censure, however. 



It is admitted (says Charlevoix) that the soldiers acted very badly at the 

 siege; that 15 negroes, who were put under arms, fought like heroes, and that 

 if all the others could have been armed and put in the place of the soldiers 

 they would have succeeded in storming the besieged works. The settlers, com- 

 manded by d'Arembourg and de Laye, also did very well. They cheerfully 

 undertook all the labors and whatever else was ordered. " These Creoles," says 

 M. Perrier, " will be good soldiers as soon as they are drilled. In fine, the 

 Natchez were reduced to the last extremity ; two days more and we should 

 have seen them with their necks in the halter ; but we were every moment on 

 the point of being abandoned by the Choctaw, who grew very impatient, and 

 their departure would have exposed the French to receive a check, and to 

 behold their women, children, and slaves burned, as their enemies threatened." ^ 



In this same year, and apparently about the same time that De 

 Loubois Avas conducting his campaign against the Natchez, Charle- 

 voix states that the Quapaw fell upon the Yazoo, Koroa, and Tionx, 

 destroying the last to a man and all of the Yazoo and Koroa except 

 15, who hastened to join the Natchez.' No doubt some successful 

 Quapaw raid took place, but, as the Yazoo and Koroa had a fort by 

 themselves during Perrier's Black river campaign the following 

 year,'^ it is evident that there were more than 15 survivors. It may 

 also be doubted whether Charlevoix is correct in bringing the Tioux 

 to such a summary end at this time, since this tribe usually lived Avith 



" Le Petit, .Tes. Rel., lxviii, 195. 

 'Charlevoix, Hist. Louisiana, vi, 100-101. 

 '■ Ibid., 102. 

 <• See p. 240. 



