266 BUREAir OK AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



ainon£>; the Taensn and Tunica, respoctivoly. Soon afterward De 

 Montigiiy was instrumental in making peace betAveen the Taensa and 

 Natchez." 



On his second voyage Iberville visited the Taensa in person and 

 gives the following account : 



The 12Ui [of March], at 6 o"clofk in the mornins. I left in a bark canoe 

 with six men to go to the Taensas, in order to prepare everytliing to go by 

 land to the Cenis, leaving my brother with the rest of his people among the 

 Nadches to prepare corn flour for the .iourney, where it is made more con- 

 veniently than among the Taensas. I now made about 8| leagues and passed 

 two islands about half a league long. The country is like that which I have 

 already passed, quite beautiful, which is flooded almost everywhere, as I saw 

 on the bank of the river in passing. There are fewer canes than among the 

 Oumas and the Nadches. 



The 13th I continued to ascend the river, finding the same country as the 

 day before, the river straighter. At midday [Mar. 1.3, 1700] I reached the 

 landing jilace of the Taensas. six leagues and three-quarters from my sleeping 

 place, where I left my canoe and baggage and two men to guard it, and went 

 on with four to reach a little lake where one takes canoes to go to the village. 

 My guides got lost and we were unable to reach this lake. We were obliged to 

 sleep in the open air without supper, having brought with us nothing but our 

 arms. I found that from the landing place of the Nadches to this of the 

 Taensas, following the river, is about 15^ leagues, and in a straight line from 

 one landing to another, I found the rhumb line east-north, a quarter from the 

 northeast, taking 1° 1.5' from the north, and the distance to be 11^ leagues. I 

 found the landing place of the Taensas to be about 32° 47' north. 



The morning of the 14th we reached the border of the lake, where we 

 found four savages, who brought us canoes, having heard our shots. We 

 made on the lake about 2 leagues, and we arrived at the village at noon, 

 where I found M. de Montigny, missionary, who has two Frenchmen with him. 

 He has had a house built there and is preparing to build a church. There may 

 be in this nation 1.50 cabins in the space of 2 leagues, on the edge of the lake. 

 There is in this place a fairly handsome temple. This nation has been numerous 

 formerly, but at present there are not more than 300 men. They have very 

 large wastes and a very fine country, which is never inundated, on the borders 

 of this lake, which may be a fourtli of a league broad and 4i leagues long, 

 coming from the northeast and making a turn to the west. The main part of 

 this village is about 2 leagues from the end. coming from the Mississippi river 

 and opposite a little [inlet] or stream about a hundred paces wide, on the 

 banks of which are some cabins of the savages. 



The 16th and 17th it rained and thundered much ; the night of the 16th 

 to the 17th a thunderbolt fell on the temple of the Taensas and set fire to it, 

 which burned it entirely. These savages, to appease the Si)irit, who they said 

 was angry, threw five little children in swaddling clothes into the fii'e of the 

 temple. They would have thrown in many others had not three Frenchmen run 

 thither and prevented them. An old ninn of about 6.5 years, who appeared to 

 be tlie principal priest, was near the lire, crying in a loud voice: "Women. 

 ))ring your children to sacrifice them to the Spirit in order to api)ease him." 

 a thing which five of these women did, bringing to him their children, whom he 



"See p. 190; also La Harpe, Jour. in.st., 16, 1S;U ; Saiivolle in Margry, D^couvertes, iv, 

 451, 4.52, 1880. 



