bwawton] EARLY EISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 417 
luii fell this so keenly that according to Andrews, a Cherokee trader, 
they "had quitted their lands and were drawn near to the Creeks, 
who received them kindly." This, however, may refer to the 
Xa tche/, because the hulk of the Chickasaw certainly remained in 
the -a me situation. Under date of June 15, 1738, the above trader 
informed William Stephens thai the Choctaw and French had fallen 
out, and this news determined some Chickasaw who had come to 
Carolina to return.' 
To retrieve the disaster he had suffered, Bienville, in 1740, collected a 
huge army on the Mississippi with which he hoped to deal his enemy a 
crushing blow, but, being unable adequately to provision such a 
force, the greater part was soon obliged to disband. A small expe- 
dition, under the Canadian Celoron, moved on toward the Chickasaw, 
who, believing it to be the advance guard of that huge host they 
had seen assembling against them, entered into a peace agreement, 
the terms of which on the surface were decidedly favorable to the 
French. Nevertheless, the Chickasaw recovered their courage as 
soon as the expedition had dissolved, the treaty became a dead 
letter, and the Indians w T ere soon raiding French posts and inter- 
cepting canoes on the Mississippi as formerly. These wars were not 
undertaken without great losses on their part. Adair, who was 
with them in the forties, thus describes the manner in which their 
numbers had become reduced: 
The Chikkasah in the year 1720, had four large contiguous settlements, which lay 
Dearly in the form of three parts of a square, only that the eastern side was five miles 
-holier than the western with the open part toward the Choktah. One was called 
Yaneka, about a mile wide and six miles long, at the distance of twelve miles from 
their present towns. Another was ten computed miles long, at the like distance 
from their present settlements, and from one to two miles broad. The towns were 
.all I'd Shatara, Chookheereso, Hykehah, Tuskaivillao, and Phalacheho. The other 
square was Bingle, began three miles from their present place of residence, and ran 
four miles in length, and one mile in breadth. This was called Chookka Pharaoh, 
or 'the long house." It was more populous than their whole nation contains at 
present. The remains of thi^ once formidable people make up the northern angle 
of that broken square. They now scarcely consist of four hundred and fifty warriors, 
and are settled three miles westward from the deep creek, in a clear tract of rich 
land, about three miles square, running afterwards about five miles towards the N.W. 
where the old fields are usually a mile broad. The superior number of their enemies 
forced them to take into this narrow circle, for social defence; and to build their 
towns on conunanding ground, at such a convenient distance from one another as 
to have their enemies, when attacked, between two fires. 2 
From the estimates of Chickasaw population given in even very 
early times it would seem that this decrease was not as great as 
Adair supposes; the matter will be taken up in another place. 
Besides the towns above enumerated one or two additional Chicka- 
saw settlements are to be mentioned. Adair speaks of a town occu- 
' Ga. Col. Docs., iv, pp. 134, 156. * Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., pp. 352, 353. 
148061°— 22 27 
