SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOtlTHEASTEHN UMTED STATES 117 



united with the one under consideration. Henry Woodward, in the 

 account of his visit to the Westo in 1674, mentions this tribe among 

 others, and in 1698 Colonel Welch opened communications with them 

 and was quickly followed by many English traders through whom 

 the tribe was enlisted in the British interest, though at an early 

 period there was a small French faction. Shortly before 1715 this 

 tribe and the Cherokee together drove part of the Shawnee from 

 Cumberland Valley and in 1745 another band of Shawnee was ex- 

 pelled by them. We learn from French writers that the Chickasaw, 

 under inspiration from British slave traders, were responsible for 

 much of the disturbance along the lower Mississippi. They were 

 charged with responsibility for raids on the Acolapissa, Chawasha, 

 and Yazoo, and are hardly to be cleared of part responsibility for 

 the Natchez uprising. In 1732 they cut to pieces an Iroquois war 

 party which had invaded their country. In 1736 the French made 

 a great effort to put an end to their capacity as trouble-makers by 

 a concerted attack from the north and the south, but the French forces 

 — the former consisting of 140 whites and 300 Indians from the 

 Illinois post under Pierre d'Artaguette, and the latter of 500 French 

 and a great number of Choctaw under the immediate command of 

 Bienville — were attacked and defeated separately, the Illinois troops 

 at the town of Hashuk-humma and Bienville himself in a battle be- 

 fore Ackia. In 1740 Bienville prepared a more formidable expedi- 

 tion, which came together on the Mississippi, but, as he was unable 

 to provision it successfully, it soon dispersed. A fragment of this 

 force under the Canadian Celoron did, however, advance into the 

 Chickasaw country and obtain a most advantageous peace treaty 

 from the Indians, then under the impression that it was but an ad- 

 vance guard of the huge force that had been assembling. Never- 

 theless, with the retirement of the French the treaty became prac- 

 tically a dead letter, and the Chickasaw continued their attacks on 

 French voyagers along the Mississippi as before. However, they 

 lost heavily themselves in various contests, 60 men, it is said, in the 

 battle of Ackia alone, and at times talked of moving over into the 

 Creek country. In fact, a Chickasaw town named Ooe-asa (prob- 

 ably Wiha asha, "home of emigrants") was established there on a 

 creek called Caimulga. It was abandoned before 1772, but we learn 

 that during the latter year an attempt was made to reestablish it, 

 with what success is uncertain. Another band of Chickasaw set- 

 tled about 1723 under a chief called the Squirrel King on the South 

 Carolina side of Savannah River near old Fort Moore. In January, 

 1739, the land on which they had settled was deeded to them. In 

 1749 smallpox broke out among them and before 1757 white en- 

 croachments impelled most of them to move across the river to New 



