swANTOxl INDIAN TH1I5KS ()!•' TlIK LOWKK MISSISSIPPI VALLKV 249 



foniiirisiMl '20 hkmi, ."tO wmiuMi, niid luaiiy ciiildrcii ; tliMl sctiiic 20 warriurs were 

 |)r(t\vliii;; iirouiiil tlii'ir old villiif.'*' to cut olT Ihi^ Frcncbincii ; tluU the Vazoos 

 and Corrois wore in aiiollRT fort thrt'c days' march from this; that ail the 

 rest had died of hardshii) or dysentery. We were iiiially informed that the 

 Flour chief mifiht have assembled <J0 or TO men. a hundred women, and a preat 

 number of children. 



I.e Sueur having acquiretl all this information, proceeded to report it to 

 the seneral, and told him that if he would allow him to take all the well- 

 disposed men, he believed he could guarantee to master all these separate 

 cori)s: hut he was refused. Perrier had not. perhaps, all the confidence in the 

 Canadians that most of them deserved, and brought up in a service where 

 discipline and subordination are at the highest point, he could not conceive 

 that anything of importance can be effected with militia, who acknowledged 

 no law but great bravery and invincible patience in the severest marches and 

 most laborious works. He would doubtless have thought otherwise had be 

 reflected that rules must be adapted according to the enemy's manner of fighting. 



However, we were not slow in perceiving that the Natchez could still render 

 themselves formid.ible. and that the step of sending the Sun and all who had 

 been taken with him to be sold as slaves in St. Domingo had rather exasperated 

 than intimidated the remnant of that nation. In whom hatred and despair had 

 transformed their natural pride and ferocity into a valor of which they were 

 never deemed capable. In the mouth of April the head chief of the Tonica 

 descended to New Orleans and told Terrier that while ho was hunting 4 Natchez 

 had come to him to beg him to make terms for them with the French, adding 

 that all, including those wlio had taken refuge among the Chickasaw, asked 

 to be received and pardoned ; that they would reside wherever it was wished, 

 but that they should be glad to be near the Tonica. and that he came to ascer- 

 tain his intentions. 



Perrier replied that he consentetl to their settling 2 leagues from his village, 

 but not nearer, to avoid all occasion of quarrel between the two nations; but 

 that, above all things, he exacted that they should come unarmed. The Tonica 

 promised to conform to this order; yet as soon as he reached home he received 

 30 Natchez into his village, after taking the precaution to disarm them. At 

 the same time 15 other Natchez and 20 women came to the Baron de Cresnay, 

 whom they found in the fort which had been built on their old grounds. A few 

 days after the Flour chief arrived among the Tonica with a hundred men, their 

 w^omen and children, having concealed 50 Chickasaw and Corrois in the cane- 

 brake around the village. 



The head chief informed them that he was forbidden to receive them unless 

 they gave up their arms. They replied tliat this was indeed their intention, 

 but they begged him to consent to let them keep them some time longer, lest 

 their women, seeing them disarmed, should think themselves prisoners con- 

 denmed to death. lie consented; then food was distributed to tlieir new 

 guests and they danced till after midnight, after which the Tonica retired to 

 their cabins, thinking that of course the Natchez would also go to rest. But 

 soon after — that is to say, one hour before day, for it was the 14th day of 

 June — the Natchez and apparently the Chicaksaw and Corrois, although Ter- 

 rier's letter says nothing on the point, fell upon all the cabins and slaughtered 

 all whom they surprisetl asleep. The head chief ran up at the noise and fii'st 

 killed 4 Natchez; but, overborne by numbers, he was slain watb some 12 of his 

 warriors. His war chief, undismayed by this loss or the flight of most of his 

 braves, rallied a dozen, with whom he regained the head chief's cabin ; he even 

 succeeded in recalling the rest, and after fighting for five days and nights almost 

 without intermission remained master of his village. The Tonica on this 



