308 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



less we have the consolation of havmg baptized several dying children and a 

 very distingnished chief of the Tonieas, whom we instructed by interpreters. 

 We were surprised to see such judgment in an Indian and dispositions as 

 Christian as he had. As he was in extremis we baptized him and gave him the 

 name of Paul. He died the next day, after performing acts of religion that 

 greatly edified us.c 



On the 31th we arrived at the Tonieas, about GO leagues below the Akanseas. 

 The first village is 4 leagues from the Mississippi inland, on the bank of a 

 quite pretty river; they are dispersed in little villages; they cover in all 4 

 leagues of country. * * * The village of the great chief is in a beautiful 

 prairie. Sickness was among them when we arri\ed there. One of their chiefs 

 being about to die, M. de Montigny asked him through an interpreter whether 

 he wished to be baptized, to which he replied that he desired to be. Having 

 given also some tokens of his desire, he was baptized, and died the same day. 

 They were dying in great numbers.'' 



In 1G09 Iberville was informed by a Taensa that the " Tonieas " 

 occupied the first village which one encountered in ascending " the 

 river of the Chickasaw" (i. e., the Yazoo), and that the Yazoo and 

 Koroa occupied a village by themselves on the other side of the 

 Mississippi.^ But neither in this year nor on his expedition the year 

 following did he ascend as far as the Yazoo, and it is evident that his 

 informant was somewhat mistaken regarding the position of these 

 peoples unless Iberville misunderstood him or a considerable change 

 took place between March, 1699, and April, 1700. Under date of 

 April 14, 1700, Le Sueur, in recording his ascent of the Mississippi 

 river, says: 



I sent to beg M. Davion, a missionary priest at the Tonieas, 7 leagues up the 

 river, to come and say mass for us. The first settlements of the savages are 4 

 leagues up the river, and M. Davion is established 3 leagues higher up, on the 

 branches (bras) of the same river.*^ 



Penicaut, who accompanied him, mentions six nations living on 

 the right in ascending, 4 leagues from its mouth. These he gives as 

 " the Yasoux, the Offogoulas, the Tonieas, the Coroas, the Ouitoupas, 

 and the Oussipes."^ 



Father Gravier, the first Jesuit to descend the Mississippi to its 

 mouth, left the Arkansas tribe November 1, and reached Yazoo river, 

 which he calls " the river of the Tounika," on the 14th. He speaks of 

 his experiences as follows: 



I left the five canoes of French at the mouth [of the Yazoo] ; it is on the 

 south of the Mississippi. I embarked in my canoe to go and visit Mr. Davion, 

 missionary priest, who was sick; I left my canoe 4 leagues from the river, at 

 the foot of a hill, where there are five or six cabins. The road, which is 2 



" Letter of De Montigny in Shea's Early Voy. Miss., 75-78. 



" La Source, Ibid., 80-81. 



<■ Margry, Dficouvortes, iv, 170, 180. 



" Riid., V, 401. 



« Ibid. I'enicaut appears to havo confused Ushpl. a Tunica name for tlio Ofn. with 

 the Taposa of other writers who lived on tlie upper Yazoo not far from tlu' Ihitoupa 

 (Ouitoupas ). 



