310 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY Ibull. 43 



Tunica. This, lioAvever, is because the Tunica were then living near 

 the Yazoo on tlie river that was named after them, while the date 

 given for the event is 1703, only a year after that in which he is known 

 to have retired to Mobile. Then, again, Charlevoix appears to be 

 referring to the same circumstance when he says that Davion had 

 been driven aw^ay because in a fit of zeal he had burned down the 

 Tunica temple." The idea that the Tunica temple had been burned 

 was probably founded on the fact that after they had emigrated from 

 the Yazoo to the mouth of lied river, where Charlevoix found them, 

 the tribe had not put up a new sacred edifice. It is possible that 

 Davion made some ovei-t act against the Tunica religion, but the state- 

 ment rests on second-hand information of Penicaut and Charlevoix. 

 In view of these facts it will be wisest to accept La Harpe's account of 

 what took place. He notes: 



On the 1st of October [17021, M. Davion, missionary, and Father Linioge, a 

 Jesuit, arrived from the Mississippi, to give notice that one of tlieir brethren, 

 along Willi Ihree Frenchmen, had been killed 40 leagues u\> the river of the 

 Yasons by two young Courois, who had acted as guides in their pirogue. Dis- 

 pleased at being ill treated they had surprised them asleep and killed them with 

 arrows.^ 



One is led to infer that an act of hostility so near the seat of his 

 mission had determined Davion that his position w^as unsafe, though 

 it is possible that he had also made some attack on the native rites 

 at about the same time. The murder of this missionary, M. Foucault, 

 is placed by Penicaut three years later ,'^ but his chronology is usually * 

 wrong. On the 21st of December, 1704, La Harpe records that^ — 



The chiefs of the Tonica nation came to the fort to solicit the return of M. 

 Davion, the missionary, to their village, which lie abandoned only after M, 

 Foucault, the priest, had been killed by the Courois, in concert with the Yasous 

 among whom there had been .some English trading to Carolina. M. de Bien- 

 ville told them that he could not grant them their request until the French blood 

 was avenged; that as they dwelt in the same village M. Davion would not be 

 at all in safety; that if they wished to have him and remain allies of the French 

 they must strike a blow upon the Courois and Yasous ; and that they should 

 bring him the English that might be found among them after having plun- 

 dered their storehouse; that to facilitate their enterprise he would send a 

 detachment of his warriors with them ; and that he would give them the arms 

 and merchandise of which they had need. The chiefs were delighted with this 

 liro]iosition, and promised to engage their allies in the undertaking. It was 

 agreed to send thither M. de Saint Denis with 12 Canadians, who would Join 

 M. Lambert, company ensign from Canada and brother of M. de Mandeville. 

 offlcier hleii, who was descending to the sea, according to information which 

 had been received, with 40 Canadians coming from the Ouabach, where he had 

 been commanding since the death of M. de Juchereau. The Tonica chiefs, after 

 having received presents, repaired to the lower Mississip]ii. where they agreed 

 upon a rendezvous with M. de Saint Denis at the Natchez. 



« French, Hist. Coll. La., 174, 183L -^ Margry, Decouvertes, \, 457, 458. 



"La Harpe, .Twir. Hist., 7"'., ISIM. 



