SWANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 333 



was still young, the Tunica abandoned this river and settled lower 

 down, rendering inappropriate the term " river of the Tunica," 

 which had actually been applied to it by La Source and Gravier." 

 By Iberville it was at first called '' river of the Chicachas," because 

 it was supposed to rise in the Chickasaw country.'^ 



The Yazoo are not mentioned by De Montigny and La Source 

 (1698), but Gravier, in 1700, speaks of the " Jakou " as one of the 

 three languages in Father Davion\s mission, and states that the tribe 

 consisted of 30 cabins/' In 1702 they were accessory to the murder 

 of M. Foucault,*^ and throughout all of this early period they were, 

 like the Koroa. in the interest of the Chickasaw and English. 



Shortly after the first Natchez war, according to Penicaut in 1718, 

 a small post was established near the Yazoo, Penicaut says: 



At this same time M. de Bienville sent M. de la Boulaye, lieutenant, with 

 thirty men, many munitions, and much merchandise to establish a fort near 

 the village of the Yasoux. When he arrived there he selected one of the 

 most elevated situations which he could find on the borders of their river, four 

 leagues from its mouth on the right, two gunshots distant from their village 

 where he had his fort built/- 



This is called Fort St. Peter by all the authorities consulted 

 except Dumont, who refers to it as Fort St. Claude. In 1722, if we 

 are to trust the same author, M. de la Tour, on behalf of M. Le Blanc, 

 French minister of state, established a plantation close to this fort, 

 taking with him GO men for that purpose (pi. 7, h)J This plantation 

 was soon abandoned, however ; at least it Avas given over by Le Blanc, 

 who purchased the concession of White Earth near Natchez instead 

 and transferred his efforts to that locality.^ 



About 1730, according to Du Pratz, the Yazoo numbered 100 

 cabins,'' but this is probably a considerable exaggeration. On the 

 outbreak of the great Natchez Avar they assisted in murdering the 

 Jesuit Father Seuel, who had settled among them in 1727, though he 

 was much beloved, and in massacring the French garrison at Fort St. 

 Peter.* They also attacked the party of Father Doutreleau, mis- 

 sionary to the Arkansas, who had landed to perform mass at the 

 mouth of their river on his way to New Orleans, but all of the 

 Frenchmen except one effected their escape.^' The subsequent fate 

 of this tribe was the same as that of the Koroa, and it is probable 

 that they also were absorbed into the Choctaw. 



Dumont, the author of the Memoires Historiques, appears to 

 have had considerable knowledge of this tribe and records some 

 ethnological features of interest. He gives the following informa- 



« Shea, Early Voy. Miss., 83, 132. f Ibid, 576. 



* Margry, Decouvertes, iv, 180. ' See p. 205. 



'^ Shea, Early Voy. Miss., 133. '^ Du Pratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, ii, 226. 



<« See p. 330. ' See pp. 229-230. 



s Margry, Decouvertes, v, 554. i See pp. 230-231. 



