338 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



whom was one of the murderers of St. C'osme. lie was Inade an 

 example of by being beaten to death and lia ving his body thrown into 

 the sea after the scalp had been removed.^ 



According to Penicaut, St. Denis in 1705 made another expedition 

 against the Chitimacha, accompanied by 15 French soldiers and 80 

 Acolapissa and Natchitoches Indians. They ascended Bayou La 

 Fourche, "the river of the Chitimachas," as it was then called, but 

 on the Avay fell in with a party of Chitimacha, of whom they took 

 20 Avomen and children prisoners. The rest escaped, however, and 

 carried the alarm to their village, rendering it necessary for the 

 expedition to return without proceeding farther.^ 



No such expedition is referred to by La Ilarpe at or near the time 

 given by Penicaut. but bearing in mind the complete jumble of 

 Penicaut's chronology the Avriter is inclined to believe that this 

 statement really api)lies to an event which ha})pened much earlier; 

 in fact, five years before the Chitimacha war broke out. La Ilarpe 

 narrates it as follows: 



The 10th of August M. de Bienville learned that M. de Saint-Denis, in con- 

 cert with some Canadians and savages, had made an attack on one of the na- 

 tions allied to us in order to procure slaves. He gave orders for them to be 

 restored, but these orders were badly executed.^ 



This would perhaps explain Penicaut's statement immediately fol- 

 lowing that "some time afterward M. de Saint-Denis, whether he 

 had received some cause for discontent or did not like to be shut up, 

 went with 12 Frenchmen to live at Biloxi." ^ On the other hand, it 

 might have been connected with tlie sudden abandonment by Saint- 

 Denis of his projected expedition against the Koroa and Yazoo, Avhich 

 belongs to the year 1704,'' the year before that in which Penicaut 

 places this retirement of Saint-Denis. 



Although no more French expeditions are recorded against this 

 tribe, it appears that they were continually harried by war jjarties of 

 Indians in alliance with the French, and retired into the most inac- 

 cessible parts of their country near the sea, which is intersected by a 

 netw^ork of bayous. On account of this long-drawn-out war the 

 greater portion of the Indian slaves in Louisiana in early days be- 

 longed to the Chitimacha nation. Finally, in 1718, the annoyances 

 occasioned settlers by Chitimacha war parties determined Bienville 

 to j)ut an end to the disturbance. The manner in which peace Avas 

 effected is told with most detail by l*enicaut, who claims to have 

 performed a principal part in bringing it about. His narrative is 

 as follows: 



"La Uarpo, .lour, ni.st., 102; IXfconvertes. Margry, v. 4:!;}— i.'>5. La Harpe says " they 

 earriod away ten cabins." 



''Margry, D(5coiivor(('s, v, 4U0. 

 '■ La Ilarpp, .Tour. Hisst., 73. 

 " See pp. 010-311. 



