> 
North America* 465 
s a moderate computation, would give eleven 
thoufand inhabitants. 
It appears to me pretty clearly, from divers 
circumftances, that this powerful empire or con- 
federacy of the Creeks or Mufcogulges, arofe 
from, and eftablifhed itfelf upon, the ruins of 
that of the Natches, agreeably to monfieur Du- 
prat. According to the Mufcogulges account 
of themfelves, they arrived from the South-W eft, 
beyond the Miffiilipi, fome time before the En- 
gl i ill fettled the colony of Carolina, and built 
Charlefton ; and their ftory concerning their 
country and people, from whence they fprang, 
the caufe of leaving their native land, the pro- 
grefs of their migration, &c., is very fimilar to 
that celebrated hiftorian’s account of the Natches, 
They might have been included as allies and 
confederates in that vaft and powerful empire of 
red men. The Mufcogulges gradually pufhing 
and extending; their fettlements on their North- 
Eaft border, until the diffolution of the Natches 
empire ; being then the mod numerous, warlike 
and powerful tribe, they began to fubjiigate the 
various tribes or bands which formerly confti- 
tuted the Natches, and uniting them with them- 
felves, formed a new confederacy under the name 
of the Mufcogulges. 
The Mufcogulge tongue is now the national 
or fove reign language ; thofe of the Chicafaws, 
Chaclaws, and even the remains of the Natches, 
if we are to credit the Creeks and traders, being- 
dialects of the Mufcogulge: and probably, when 
the Natches were fovereigns, they called their own 
the national tongue, and the Creeks, Chicafaws, 
Sec., only dialedts of theirs. It is uncertain which 
is really the mother tongue. 
