164 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 
request was granted; and that because of this action the Mobile 
afterwards joined the French in all the wars which they had with the 
Alabama. 1 In view of the hostilities known to have existed between 
the tribes in question when the French first arrived in the country 
this last statement may well be doubted. According to Penicaut 
the Alabama and their allies marched against the Mobile in 1708 
with more than 4,000 men, but, owing to the forethought of D'Arta- 
guette, who had advised his Indian allies to post sentinels, they 
accomplished no further damage than the burning of some cabins. 2 
This incursion is not mentioned by La Harpe, but, as D'Artaguette 
was actually in command at the time and -La Harpe passes over the 
years 1708 and 1709 in almost complete silence, such a raid is very 
probable. 
From what has been said above it is apparent that the Mobile and 
Tohome tribes were originally distinct, but they must have united in 
rather early French times. The last mention of the latter in the 
narrative of La Harpe is in connection with the murder, in 1715, 
of the Englishman, Hughes, who had come overland to the Mississippi, 
had been captured there and sent as a prisoner to Mobile by the French, 
and had afterwards been liberated by Bienville. He passed on toPen- 
sacola and started inland toward the Alabama when he was killed by a 
Tohome Indian. 3 Bienville, about 1725, speaks of the Little Tohome 
and the Big Tohome, by which he probably means the Naniaba and 
the Tohome respectively. 4 Although none of our authorities mentions 
the fact in specific terms, and indeed the map of De Crenay of 1733 
still places the Tohome in their old position on the Tombigbee, 5 it is 
evident from what Du Pratz says regarding them, that by the third 
decade in the eighteenth century they had moved farther south, 
probably to have the protection of the new Mobile fort and partly to 
be near a trading post. 
A little to the north of Fort Louis is the nation of the Thomez, which is as small and 
as serviceable as that of the Chatots; it is said also that they are Catholics; they are 
friends to the point of importunity. 6 
Keeping toward the north along the bay, one finds the nation of the Mobiliens, near 
the point where the river of Mobile empties into the bay of the same name. The true 
name of this nation is Mowill; from this word the French have made Mobile, and then 
they have named the river and the bay Mobile, and the natives belonging to this 
nation Mobiliens." 
The Mobile church registers do not contain any references to the 
Tohome tribe, but the Mobile, or Mobilians, are mentioned in several 
i Margry, D6c, v, p. 432. 6 Plate 5; Hamilton, Col. Mobile, p. 1%. 
"Ibitl., p. 478. 6 Du Pratz, Hist, de la Louisiane, n, p. 213. 
a La Harpe, Jour. Hist., pp. 118-119. 7 Ibid., pp. 213-214. 
* French transcriptions, Lib. Cong. 
