262 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY tBCLL. 43 



serve us as guides and interpreters. They spolve a little Illinois and under- 

 stood Taensa among these nations, where we were received and treated the 

 same as among the others, because these two nations are united together and 

 make war against more than twenty other sorts of people. I would not know 

 now how to describe to you the dignity, the form, and the beauty of their faces. 

 nor their manners and polish, only being able to tell you that from here to the 

 sea the savages are very different, as much as to their clothing as to the form of 

 their heads, which are flat, and their liouses and public squares. They have 

 temples where they preserve the bones of their dead chiefs, and what is note- 

 worthy is that the chiefs have much more power and authority than among all 

 our savages. They command and are obeyed. A person does not pass between 

 them and the reed torch which burns in their houses, but makes a circuit with 

 some ceremony. Tliey have their servants (valets), who wait upon them at 

 table. People bring them food from outside. They serve them drink in tlieir 

 cup after having rinsed it, and no one drinks before they [do]. Their wives 

 and children are treated in the same manner. They distribute presents accord- 

 ing to their will, to wlioever among them it seems good. It is sufficient to tell 

 you that the chief of the Taeiisa coming to see M. de la Salle," a master of 

 ceremonies came two hours before with five or six flunkeys whom lie made 

 sweep with their hands the road over which he must pass, prepare a place for 

 him, and spread out a rug, which consisted of a cane mat very delicately and 

 artistically made. The chief wlio was coming was clothed in a very beautiful 

 white cloth. Two men preceded him, in state, with fans of white feathers, as 

 if to chase away the evil spirits; a third was loaded with a sheet of copper 

 and a circular plaque of the same material. Never did a man comport himself 

 so gravely as this chief on this visit, which was full of confidence and demon- 

 strations of friendship. I can assure your reverence that these people may be 

 called men in comparison with all that we have seen of barbarians.'' 



All manuscripts except those of Tonti and Nicolas de la Salle in 

 Margry have little to say regarding the return journey of this expe- 

 dition, although Tonti's memoir and Membre, in his story of the 

 descent, speak of events which happened then. The two narratives 

 excepted run as follows: 



After having made about 3 leagues we discovered a Tahensa on a raft, who 

 had escaped from the hands of the Coroa. M. de la Salle took him into his 

 canoe. And the 30th of April, having arrived at the portage of the Tahensa, 

 I conducted him into his village, where we renewed our friendship, and the 

 chief knew by that that we were true friends. I admired for the second time 

 their manner of proceeding. For this man did not speak of any news while 

 there were people in the chief's cabin ; and. after we had supped and everyone had 

 retired, he had the door closed and, having made me apjiroach him. he called 

 the Taensa whom I had bi'ought. who recounted to him the news and then 

 went to bed. 



The next day a chief of the Mosopellea, who after the defeat of his village 

 had asked the chief of the Tahensa to dwell with him, and dwelt thei-e with 



" This happened on their return. 



''Margry, D6couvprtps, ii, 209-210, 1878. He states that lh(\v found the Koroa a day's 

 journey below, showing that the Natchez section has been dropped out liy careless copy- 

 ing or printing or that he had himself omitted it, or liad confused (he Taensa and Natchez, 

 though the last supposition seems unlilvoly. The same fate has overtalten the manu- 

 script publislied by French under the title, "Account of (he Taldng Possession of 

 Louisiana, by M. de la Salle" (I<'rench, lUst. Coll. La., 47, 184(1). The Koroa are there 

 said to be " two leagues " from the Natchez, but there Is no reference to any visit among 

 the latter people. 



