726 | KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
It was the evening before their departure upon their concerted expedition, and 
the Spaniards had retired to their camps as usual when the great chief of the 
Missouris, having assembled his warriors, declared to them his intentions and ex- 
horted them to deal treacherously with these strangers, who were come to their 
home only with the design of destroying them. At daybreak the savages divided 
into several bands, fell on the Spaniards, who expected nothing of the kind, and 
in less than a quarter of an hour all the caravan were murdered. No one es- 
caped from the massacre except the chaplain, whom the barbarians saved because 
of his dress: at the same time they took possession of all the merchandise and 
other effects which they found in their camp. The Spaniards had brought with 
them as I have said a certain number of horses, and as the savages were ignorant 
of the use made of these animals, they took pleasure in making the Jacobin 
whom they had saved and who had become their slave, mount them. The priest 
gave them this amusement almost every day for the five or six months that he 
remained in their village, without any of them daring to imitatehim. Tired at 
last of his slavery and regarding the lack of daring in these barbarians as a means 
that Providence had offered him to regain his liberty, he made secret all the 
provisions possible for him to make and which he believed necessary to his plan- 
At last having chosen the best horse and having mounted him, after having per- 
formed several of his exploits before the savages, while they were all occupied 
with his maneuvers, he spurred up and disappeared from their sight, taking the 
road to Mexico, where doubtless he arrived. Sometime after a party of these 
same Missouris went to the Illinois with the intention of presenting the calumet 
to the French general who was in command at that place ” 
‘It was the Sieur de Boisbriant* who in the visit these savages made him, 
was not a little surprised to see some of them covered with sarcerdotal vestments, 
others wearing stoles and some others wearing a chalice cover hanging on their 
neck, ora chalice in their hands. After informing himself on the subject of this 
masquerade he ransomed from the savages the sarcerdotal habiliments, profaned 
by these barbarians. It was from them that he had the map of which I have 
spoken, which they found among the possessions of the Spaniards. He gave it 
immediately to the general in command of the country, with all the details of 
this adventure, and it was from the latter that we learn the particulars which I 
have just related.” 
It is difficult to say how much of the foregoing is truth and how much ro- 
mance; nearly every writer of French annals of Louisiana gave credence to the 
story in almost the precise form given by Dumont. Several English compilers. 
also adopted it and it seems to have been generally received as the truth. M. 
Bossu + in his book on Louisiana follows the story about as we have given it, 
* Pierce Duque Boisbriant, a cousin of Bienville, who arrived in the colony in 1699, was amajor and 
knight of the Blue Ribbon. Was for along period in command at Biloxi and led several expeditions against the 
neighboring Indian tribes. Left Mobile in October 1718 for the Illinois country where he had been appointed 
as commandant of the post In172l he received the cross of St. Louis, and in 1724 was appointed governor 
ad interim, Bienville being suspended. In 1726, on the downfall of the Bienville regime, he sailed for France. 
} Travels through that part of North America called Louisiana, by M. Bossu, captain in the French Ma- 
rine. 2 Vols., London 1771. 
