( *5° ) 



in going from the village of the Ouyapes to the 

 river of the Yafous, or Yachous, .which I entered 

 on the ninth in the afternoon. There has not fallen 

 any fnow in this place, as amongfl the Illinois, but 

 there has been a hoar froft, which has {nattered the 

 young trees, with which the low points and wet 

 lands are covered, in fuch manner, that it looks as 

 if all their branches had been purpofely broken off 

 by a ftick. 



The entrance into the river of the Yafous lies 

 North-Weft and South-Eaft, and is about an Ar- 

 pent in breadth. Its waters are of a reddifli colour, 

 and are faid to affecl: thofe who drink them with 

 the bloody flux. The air is, befides, extremely 

 unwholefome. I had three leagues to travel before 

 I reached the fort, which 1 found all in mourning, 

 on account of the death of Monf. Bizart, its go- 

 vernor. Wherever I had been in Louifiana, I had 

 heard the higheft character of this officer from all 

 my countrymen. He was a native of Canada, and 

 fon of a Swifs major of Montreal. At the Yafous 

 I was told moft extraordinary things of his religion, 

 piety, and zeal, to which, at laft, he fell a victim. 

 Ihey all regretted him as their father, and a- 

 greed that the colony had fuffered an irreparable 

 lofs. 



He had built the fort in a bad fituation, and, 

 before he died, had thought of removing it a 

 league farther off, to a fine meadow, where the air 

 was more vvhokfome, and where there was a village 

 of the Yafous, mixed with the Couroas and Ofo- 

 gculas, who altogether may fend about two hundred 

 fighting men into the fie d. We live in pretty 

 good correfpondence with them, but, at the fame 

 time repofe no great confidence in them, on ac- 

 count 



