NORTH AMERICA* 463 
is 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 cr Mufcogulges, aroie 
from, and eftablifhed itfelf upon, the ruins of 
that of the Hatches, agreeably to monfieur Du- 
prat. According to the Mufcogulges account of 
themfelves, they arrived from the South-Weft, 
beyond the Miiilffippi, feme time before the En- 
gl ifh fettled the colony of Carolina, and built 
Charlefton ; and their ft'ory concerning their coun- 
try and people, from whence they fprang, the 
caufe of leaving their native land, the progrefs 
of their migration, &c. is very fimilar to that 
celebrated hiftoriarfs account of the Natch es. 
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 diflblution of the Natches 
empire ; being then the moft numerous, warlike 
and powerful tribe, they began to fub jugate the 
various tribes or bands which formerly conftituted 
the Natches, and uniting them with themfelves, 
formed a new confederacy under the name of the 
Mufcogulges. 
The Mufcogulge tongue is now the national 
or fovereign language ; thofe of the Chicafaws, 
Chadtaws, and even the remains of the Natches, 
if we are to credit the Creeks and traders, being 
dialedls of the Mufcogulge : and probably, when 
the Natches were fovereigns, they called their own 
the national tongue, and the Creeks, Chicaiaws, 
&c. only dialedls of theirs. It is uncertain which 
is really the mother tongue. 
2 
As 
