swanton] INDIAN TKIBES OF THH LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 281 



not li;i\(' iiiiiiiltcrc'd iiciirly '200. lie (liat ;is il may. \V(' never lieai' 

 llieiii iiieiitioned ii<:"aiii. and it is |)r()l»al)le lliat (lie few faiiiilies lliat 

 may liave eseai)ed to ihe \V()()d> iiiiiti'd with the Iloiiina. or e\»'ii ulli- 

 iiiately witli their coi)(|uerur.s. 



Tin; Acoi.APissA 



The name of this tribe has been derivetl from Itoklo-jrim^ '* tliose Avho 

 listen and see," or from okht plxn^ " those Avho look out ioY peo[)le."' 

 AMien first visited \)\ white men the Acolapissa were livinu^ on Pearl 

 river, about -i leagues from its mouth. Iberville was told that 

 there were six villa<»es and that the 'I'angipahoa had constituted a 

 seventh, but the six were evidently only parts of one great settlement. 

 The same explorer confused them for a time with the Quinipissa and 

 gave tiiem the name of that tribe, somewhat to the annoyance of the 

 historian." They are not mentioned among the tribes which came to 

 make an alliance with Iberville when he first reached Louisiana, 

 but after his de])arture Bienville visited them and was well received, 

 although at first they were terrified, since two days before they had 

 been attacked by some English in (piest of slaves at the head of -JOG 

 Chickasaw." The chief also sent Iavo ])(>ace calumets to Sauvolle, who 

 was in command at Biloxi. 



Sau\olle states that they did not number more than 150 men,'" but 

 in his estimate of 170:2 Iberville places the number of their families 

 at 250."^ Some pearls were discovered on the river of the Acolapissa, 

 which attracted Iberville's attention temi)()raiily, but there seems to 

 have been no great effort made to set up fisheries, though the river 

 was afterward known as Pearl river from this circumstance. A few 

 years later, in 1705 according to Penicaut, who alone mentions the 

 event, but from other facts recorded for that year perhaps in 

 reality 1702, the Acolapissa moved from Pearl river — called in the 

 native language Tah<itch(u ' rock river '-^and settled on a bayou on 

 the north side of Lake Pontchartrain called Castemhayouque. Six 

 months afterward the Natchitoches, wdiose crops had been ruined, 

 came to St. Denis, at the French fort on the Mississippi, asking as- 

 sistance and a new place in Avhich to settle. St. Denis sent them 

 under charge of Penicaut to the Acolapissa, Avho welcomed them and 

 assigned them a place close to their own village.'' In 1706 (?) Peni- 

 caut and several conii^anions passed the greater part of one winter 

 with the Acolapissa and Natchitoches, and besides an amusing account 



"Margry, D^couvertes, iv, 167, 168, 174, 1880. 



"■La Ilarpe, Jour. Hist., 14-15, 1831. 



<■ Margry, D<5couvertes, iv, 449, 1880. 



" n)id., 602. 



e Ibid., w 459. C£. Bulletin 48, P.. A. E., p. 2. 



