72 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



but a few of La Salle's immediate companions pushed on through the 

 Caddo country to the Quapaw towns at the mouth of the Arkansas 

 and finally reached Canada. In 1690 Tonti descended as far as the 

 Taensa villages on Lake St. Joseph and crossed to the Natchitoches 

 town on Red River near the present city of that name. In 1699 the 

 priest missionaries De Montigny, La Source, Davion, and St. Cosme 

 reached the lower course of the Mississippi, where De Montigny 

 established himself among the Taensa and Davion among the Tunica, 

 then on Yazoo River. De Montigny soon moved to the Natchez and 

 not long afterward abandoned that mission also and returned to 

 Europe, his place being taken by St. Cosme, who carried on until his 

 murder by Chitimacha Indians in 1706. The Natchez mission was 

 never resumed, but Davion continued with his chosen tribe with one 

 or two interruptions until 1720 when he seems to have given up his 

 work in despair. 



In 1699 Iberville established the first permanent French settle- 

 ment on Louisiana territory at Old Biloxi in Biloxi Bay and as- 

 cended the Mississippi as far as the mouth of Red River. On his 

 second visit he reached the Taensa towns, and sent his brother Bien- 

 ville overland to the Natchitoches. The same year the Jesuit Fa- 

 ther Gravier descended the great river and his letters contain very 

 interesting and important information regarding the Indian na- 

 tions he visited. In a very short time it became evident that the 

 permanent centers of government must be established on the Mis- 

 sissippi River and Mobile Bay. In consequence a small fort was 

 erected in 1700 not many miles from the mouth of the Mississippi. 

 In 1718 New Orleans was founded and soon became the capital of the 

 entire colony. Four years earlier, however, an establishment had been 

 made at Natchitoches on Red River, where the French officer St. 

 Denis long held the frontier against Spain, enlisting the support of 

 the Indians about him in a manner unequaled by any of the other 

 French commanders of his time. 



The first establishment in Mobile Bay was made at Twenty-seven 

 Mile Bluff early in 1702 and named Fort Louis. Removal to the 

 present site of Mobile was in 1710. In 1713 a trading house was 

 established at Natchez and in 1716, as the outcome of a partial up- 

 rising of the Indians known as the First Natchez War, a fort was 

 built on the lofty bluff by the river and called Fort Rosalie after the 

 Duchess of Pontchartrain. A little later a small post was placed 

 on Yazoo River. In 1717 a fort was built at the junction of the 

 Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers and named Fort Toulouse, but it is 

 more often referred to as "Aux Alibamons," after the name of the 

 tribe near by.* In 1735 a fort was erected on the Tombigbee at what 



* The date of founding has often been given as 1714 on the authority of P6nicaut, who 

 is clearly in error. 



