278 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



and which formed a vilhige with the Kaiougoula as the Pioiiaroiia do with 

 the Kaslcaskia. The hlood of so many innocent persons cries vengeance and 

 God l)egins to pnnish them l)y famine and siclcness, and they must be in fear 

 lest the Hounias and Kohipissas avenge the murder of all their allies. I never 

 saw anything so beggarly. I know some words of their language ; but as more 

 than two-thirds were absent from their village, whence they had been driven 

 by hunger, I remained only four days. They promised to rebuild the chapel 

 and do all that I asked, but unless the chief is very far from there, there is 

 not much for a missionai'y to do.** 



About five years afterward (i. e., in 1706)^ the judgment which 

 Gravier believed this tribe deserved fell upon them. This was their 

 massacre by the Taensa, spoken of in treating that tribe (p. 270). 



The Bayogoula remnant fled to the neighborhood of the new 

 French fort below New Orleans and Avere given a place by Bienville 

 within two gunshots, where they made a new settlement.^ The spring 

 following they took part in St. Denis's expedition against the Chiti- 

 macha to avenge the death of St. Cosme, furnishing 20 warriors,*^ 

 but we hear nothing more regarding them for several years. 



Indeed, Charlevoix, who passed the site of their old village in 1721, 

 says: 



The smallpox has destroyed a part of its inhabitants, the rest are gone away 

 and dispersed. They have not so much as even heard any news of them for 

 several years, and it is doubtful whether there is a single family remaining.'' 



As in so many other cases, however, the trouble was that the rever- 

 end father did not look in the right place. 



In 1739 Bienville was assembling all the troops at his disposal for 

 a finishing blow against the Chickasaw, a blow that ended in a fiasco. 

 An officer of the troops under M. de Nouaille which ascended the 

 Mississippi in September to the point of rendezvous has left an inter- 

 esting journal, however, translated in Claiborne's History of jNIis- 

 sissippi, frpm which we cull the following important information : 



On the 5th [of September, 1739], at daybreak, we decamped and dined that 

 day at the Colapissas village [which was then 5 or 6 miles above a settlement 

 of Germans]. We sailed at 1 o'clock and proceeded on our way to stop among 

 the Bayagoulas, distant fi-om the former about 6 miles on the right bank. 



On the 6th instant, we started at sunrise and dined at the first settlements 

 of the Houmas, a distance of 4 leagues from the Bayagoulas. Thence we set 

 out and slept at a small French habitation 1 league distant on the left 

 bank. * * * 



On the 7th of September we decamped at daybreak, and at !) o'clock arrived 

 at the headquarters of the Houmas, where we procured 20 barrels of vege- 

 tables. * * * 



The Hounias, Bayagoulas, and Colapissas are but one and tlu* same nation 

 in different settlements, and may be all classified as Colapissas, the first two 



"Sliea's Early Voy. Miss., 150-151, 1861; Jos. Rel., lxv, 1505-159. 



^ Ponicaut says 1702; as usual, erroneously. 



« I'enicaut in Marjory, I)6couvcrtes, v, 431, 1883. 



"La Ilarpe, .lour. Hist., 102, 1831. 



« French, Illst. Coll. La., 176, 1851. 



