swanton] EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK IXM.Ws 1,'JV 
tinet from their own. I)u Prat/., however, in speaking of the small 
tribes of Mobile Bay, says: 
The Chickasaws moreover, regard them us their brothers, because they have almost 
the same language as well as those to the easl of Mobile who are their neighbors. 1 
This matter has already been considered in full. 2 
About the time when the other Mobile tribes left to settle in 
Louisiana the Chatol departed also, as we know by Sibley's entry 
regarding them, though he is wrong in speaking of them as "aborigi- 
nes" of the part of Louisiana thev then inhabited. His statement 
probably means that they had been one of the first tribes to settle 
on Bayou Beauf. The entry is as follows: 
Chactoos live on Bayan Beauf, about ten miles to the southward of Bayau Rapide, 
on Red River, toward Appalousa; a small, honest people; are aborigines of the country 
where they live; of men about thirty; diminishing; have their owu peculiar tongue; 
speak Mobilian. The lands they claim on Bayau Beauf are inferior to no part of 
Louisiana in depth and richness of soil, growth of timber, pleasantness of surface, and 
goodness of water. 3 
Their last appearance in history is in the enumeration of Indian 
tribes contained in Jedidiah Morse's Report to the Secretary of War 
regarding the Indians, where they are referred to as the "Chatteau," 
and are located on Sabine River, 50 miles above its mouth. 4 This 
report was published in 1822, but the information applies to the 
year 1817. What happened to them later we do not know, but it 
is probable that they are represented by or in a Choctaw band in the 
neighborhood of Kinder, Louisiana. 
THE TAW T ASA AND PAWOKTI 
The first reference to the Tawasa is by Ranjel and the Fidalgo of 
Elvas. Tawasa is mentioned as one of the towTis at which the De 
Soto expedition stopped and is placed between ITibahali (Holiwa- 
hali) and Talisi (Tulsa). It is called by Ranjel Tuasi, by Elvas Toasi. 5 
From this location it is evident that the tribe, or part of it, was at 
that time among the Upper Creeks, but from Lamhatty's narratiye 
it appears they had moved southeast before 1706 and settled some- 
where between Apalachicola and Choctawhatchee Rivers. A Spanish 
letter of 1686 refers to the tribe in one place as "Tauasa,'' whose chief 
was " a very great scoundrel," in another as Tabara, the last evidently 
a misprint. 6 It is impossible to tell from this letter whether the 
tribe was where De Soto found it or not. In 1706 and 1707, as 
i Du PratZj Hist, de la Louisiane, n, p. 214. 
= See Bull. 43, Bur. Amer. Ethn.,pp. 27, 33. 
» Sibley in Annals of Congress, 9th Cong., 2d sess. ( 1806-7), 1087. 
• Morse, Rept. to Sec. of War, p. 373. 
& Bourne, Narr. of De Soto, i, p. 85; n, p. 114. On plaies 2 accompanying, Tawasa (1) and Tulsa (1) 
should be transposed. 
• Serrano y Sanz, Doc. Hist., p. 196; also Lowery, MSS. 
