86 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOOY [Bull. 137 



homes by land. A part probably succeeded, because the French learned 

 from other Indians to the westward of New Orleans that such a body 

 of Indians had passed through their territories. As early as 1747 the 

 establishment of a mission among the Akokisa was suggested by a 

 Spanish officer, and in 1748-49 the Mission of San Ildefonso was 

 founded 9 miles northwest of the present Rockdale, Milam County, 

 Tex., on the San Gabriel River, to include this tribe, the Bidai, the 

 Deadose, and the Patiri. In 1751, after an epidemic, the Indians de- 

 serted to join the Nabedache in an expedition against the Apache. On 

 their return, 66 families encamped near San Xavier Mission, from 

 which they were served for some time. In 1756, in consequence of the 

 arrest of a French trader among the Akokisa 2 years before, a presidio 

 was established 2 leagues from the mouth of the Trinity, 50 Tlascaltec 

 families being settled about it, and it was named San Agustin de 

 Ahumada. About the same time the Mission of Nuestra Senora de la 

 Luz was begun some distance south of the present Liberty. In 1764 

 the presidio burned down and was abandoned and the mission with it. 

 In 1805 Sibley reported that the chief town of the Akokisa was on 

 the west side of Colorado River, which means that a removal had 

 taken place. It is not known whether these people finally joined 

 their relatives in Louisiana, or united with the Bidai or Karankawa, 

 or whether they died out in their old country, but they now disappear 

 from the records. 



Akokisa population. — In 1719-21 Belle-Isle estimated a total popu- 

 lation of 250 and La Harpe 200, figures which seem small for a people 

 spread over so much territory. The Spanish officer Capt. Orobio y 

 Basterra in 1747 reported that they lived in 5 villages, and he estimated 

 that there were 300 families, but Sibley claimed that, about 1760-70, 

 they had in the neighborhood of 80 men, a rather close agreement with 

 the figure given by Belle-Isle. 



ALABAMA 



The first encounter between these Indians and the whites was at 

 some point in the northern part of what is now Mississippi, west or 

 northwest of the Chickasaw, but the references are a little confusing 

 since Biedma and Garcilaso give the name to a ''province," i. e., tribe, 

 including the occupants of a barricade — thrown across the Spaniards' 

 way, according to Biedma, simply to try their strength — while Ranjel 

 and Elvas bestow it upon a small village where they passed the first 

 night after leaving the Chickasaw. They do not so designate the bar- 

 ricade which both, none the less, mention. At any rate, there can be 

 little doubt that at least part of the Alabama tribe were in the region 

 in question, and that some of them were concerned in the defense of 

 the stockade. When next we hear of them, at the end of the seven- 



