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gather a quantity of the grains in a feafon, fuf- 

 fkient to yield a quantity of wax, enough to load 



a veffeL 



Thirteen or fourteen leagues from Biloxi, to- 

 wards the eaft, you find the river^ Mobile, which 

 runs from north to fouth, and the mouth of which 

 is oppofite to the ifland Dauphine. It takes its 

 rife in the country of the Chicachas, its courfe 

 being about an hundred and thirty leagues. Its 

 channel is very narrow and extremely winding, 

 which, however, does not prevent its being very 

 rapid : but no veffels, excepting fmall pirogues, 

 can get up it, when the waters are low. We have 

 a fort upon this river, which has been a long time 

 the principal poll: of the colony the foil, however, 

 is not good, but there is an opportunity of carry- 

 ing on a trade with the Spaniards, which was then 

 our only object in view. 



It is affirmed, that fome leagues beyond this fort, 

 a quarry has been difcovered : if this difcovery 

 is real, and the quarry is large, it may prevent the 

 entire defertion of this poh% which feveral inha- 

 bitants had begun to leave, not caring to cultivate 

 a foil, which would not anfwer the expences they 

 were at. I do not, however, believe that we (hall 

 ever evacuate the fort of Mobile, were it only to 

 preferve Our alliance with the Tchadlas, a nume- 

 rous nation which forms a necefTary barrier againft 

 the Chicachas and the other Indians bordering on 

 Carolina. Garcilaflb de la Vega, in his hiftory of 

 Florida, makes mention of a village called Ma- 

 villa, which has without doubt given its name to 

 the river and the nation fettled upon its banks. 

 The Manvilians were then very powerful, but 

 there are hardly any traces of them now remaining. 



