Chapter XIX: Section I (2)

It is not a little singular, that to all inquiries of ultimate residence which have ever been made among the American natives, they should so uniformly refer back apparently almost to the same period and the same country. The occasion of this simultaneous migration, however urgent and important, is now perpetually locked in mystery. It was, undoubtedly, instigated by some important human revolution, which appears to have set in motion a vast hive of the human race in search of some more commodious state of subsistence. They were too barbarous to have adventured in quest of pecuniary wealth, and could have had naturally no other object for separation greater than that which slowly dispersed the first patriarchs of the world. Their migrations, as described by the Mexicans, probably took up a period of ages, and the vicissitudes of fortune which attended their progress, unrecorded by the circumstantial pen of history, and limited by chronology, may, probably, contribute to that extraordinary appearance of simultaneous and uninterrupted movement, which was rather carried on through an extended cycle of time, than in the short space requisite to the completion of an expedition. There is one thing, however, certain in regard to the Chicasaws and their collateral bands, that they have for at least the three last centuries occupied the countries in which we still find them. For it was here that they were discovered by De Soto, and where they had not then apparently by any means recently established themselves. On what footing they had resided as near {285} neighbours to the Natchez, I am unable to ascertain; they appear from the first to have been a jealous and hostile nation, and became the bold, cunning, and successful enemies of the whites from their first interview with the Spaniards, who certainly, as wanton invaders, did not act in a way to conciliate the esteem of the natives. The Natchez asserted that they could once number no less than 500 Suns (or chiefs who pretended to derive their origin from that luminary which they adored), and that their possessions extended in a continual line from Natchez to the mouth of the Ohio. Whether they had been dispossessed and reduced to the feeble state in which they were discovered by the French, through the enmity of the Chicasaws, Iroquois, or the Illinois, we cannot now determine, though, from the contiguity of the latter, and their former strength, we should rather conclude them, or the northern confederates, to have been the destroyers of the Natchez, than the Chicasaws, as we find them and the Choctaws to have been the abettors of the Natchez, in their unfortunate contest with the French, yet of a character extremely versatile and revengeful, insomuch that the Choctaws, who had at one time proffered their assistance, withdrew it in favour of their enemies, in consequence of the unforeseen circumstance which to the Natchez prematurely hastened the secret attack they had concerted against their enemies, and which was to have been regulated by the consummation of a period of time, designated by a bundle of rods deposited in the temple, each of which counted for a day. The completion of this fatal period was, however, secretly hastened, to destroy the concert with the Choctaws, by the revengeful sister of the Great Sun, who, resenting the secrecy her brother had observed towards her, withdrew a number of {286} the tallies, and though by this means the main object was not defeated, yet it excited the fatal jealousy and enmity of the Choctaws, who were consequently disconcerted in completing the intended measure of vengeance.

From the high tone in which the chief of Quigalta answered the requisitions of Soto, (and who, occupying the identical spot where Natchez now stands, could, by the concurrence of their traditions, scarcely have been any other than the same people), we perceive their power and independence, although concentrated within narrower limits, still highly respectable.

In the time of Charlevoix, an active war was carried on betwixt the ever restless and rapacious Chicasaws and the Illinois, who, by them and the Iroquois, in the end appear to have been exterminated as a nation.

From the situation which the Chicasaws and their branches occupied on this continent, from the earliest period of history, we may, I think, consider them as among the most ancient of the existing aborigines. To give a more correct idea of their former extent and influence, considered in the most general point of view, I shall bring together their scattered branches, so as to afford a retrospect of the whole. Although we have chosen to speak of the Chicasaw as the principal band, which it now is, in consequence of the reduction or extinction of most of the rest; yet, in point of numbers, the Mobilians, now, I believe, extinct, must have far exceeded the Chicasaws. They were discovered by De Soto, dwelling in the vicinity of the present bay and river of Mobile. Their name, by De Soto, is Mouvill. Unwilling to acknowledge the arbitrary usurpation of their Spanish discoverers, a battle ensued, which, in consequence probably of the inequality of arms and skill, proved very destructive {287} to the Mouvillians, who lost 2500 men. From so considerable a loss at the first outset, and that without a surprise, it is evident that their numbers must have been considerable. They were nearly extinct in the time of Charlevoix, who, concerning their religious rite of preserving an eternal fire in a temple, remarks, that it appeared probable, the Mobilians had, over all the people of Florida, a kind of primacy of religion, for it was at their sacred fire that the others were obliged to kindle _that_, which, by accident or neglect, had been suffered to go out.[277] In the vicinity of the Mobilians lived also the Chatots, in the time of Du Pratz, occupying a village of about 40 huts. A little north of Fort Louis, on the Mobille, according to the same author, lived the Thomez, who were not more numerous than the Chatots.

To the north of the Apalaches, who gave name to the mountains so called, lived the Alibamas, and to the north of the Alibamas, were the Abeikas and Conchacs, apparently the same people. Their language was scarcely at all different from that of the Chicasaws, and their name of _conchac_ is the Chicasaw word for the knives which they formerly made of sharpened splits of cane.

The Aquelou Pissas, formerly living within three or four miles of the site of New Orleans, had removed, in the time of Du Pratz, to the borders of lake Ponchartrain.

Upon the Yazoo river, lived the Chacchi-oumas (or Red Cray-fish), consisting of about 50 huts. Not far from them, also dwelt the Oufe-Ogoulas (or the Nation of the Dog), occupying about 60 huts. The Tapoussas likewise lived upon the banks of this river, and had not more than 25 cabins. These, as well as the Oumas of the {288} Mississippi, who still lived on the present site of the great plantation of General Wade Hampton, in the time of the author already mentioned, did not use the letter r in their language, and, as well as all the above named natives, appeared to be branches of the Chicasaws, as they spoke either that language or its dialects.

Most part of these small nations, after joining the Natchez in their unsuccessful plot against the French, retired among the Chicasaws, and were finally incorporated with them.

The language of the Chicasaws, it appears, was not unknown on the western side of the Mississippi: the Caddoes or Cadoda-quioux, divided into several extensive branches, as well as the Natchitoches, although possessed of a peculiar language, as well as all the Indians of Louisiana generally, were more or less acquainted with the Chicasaw or Mobilian.[278] And it was, no doubt, from this circumstance that John Ortiz, who had escaped the fate of the adventurers of Pamphilo de Narvaez, and who was discovered by De Soto living among the Indians of East Florida, rendered himself so easily understood throughout the whole of that extensive route which was pursued by Soto.

From the earliest settlement of the French on the borders of the Mississippi, the Chicasaws evinced a hostile disposition, which, indeed, they had probably cherished from their ancestors, who had severely punished the little army of De Soto. Their hostility is attributed by Charlevoix to the friendship which subsisted between the French and the Illinois, their enemies. They appear, however, afterwards to have remained neutral, and would have {289} continued so, had not the tyrannical Biainville commenced hostilities against them, for the customary hospitality which they had shewn to the unfortunate remains of the Natchez, whom they had received and adopted. To the requisitions of Biainville to give up the Natchez, whom he was bent on exterminating, the Chicasaws answered, that the Natchez having sought their protection, had been received and adopted by them, so that they now constituted but one people. If Biainville, said they, had received our enemies, should we demand them? or, if we did, would they be given up?

Without listening to reason, Biainville commenced warlike preparations against the Chicasaws. Supplies of ammunition were sent up the Mississippi to the post of Illinois, desiring the commandant to equip as many of the Indians, inhabitants, and troops, as possible, to join him at the Chicasaws, by the 10th of the following May. The Indians attempted in vain to surprise the convoy, which, proceeding in safety to the fort at the mouth of the Arkansa, left the gunpowder there without any manifest reason, which Artaguette, the commandant at Illinois, understanding, from those who had neglected to convey it, immediately sent down a boat for the purpose of obtaining it, which was taken by a party of the Chicasaws, after killing all the crew except two individuals, whom they made slaves.

In the mean time, Biainville proceeding to fort Mobile, engaged the Choctaws to join him as mercenaries.

On the 10th of March, 1736, the troops being assembled, began their march the 2d of April, and arrived at Tombecbee on the 20th, where they fortified their camp, and remained till the 4th of May, detained by a conspiracy among themselves to destroy the commandant and garrison. {290} The Choctaws, who joined them, were about 1200 in number, and commanded by their principal chief.

On the 26th of May, they marched to the fort of the Chicasaws, crossing an adjoining rivulet of considerable depth; the fort defended the village, which was situated upon an agreeable plain. This defensive position was thrown up on an eminence with an easy ascent, around it stood several huts, and others at a greater distance, which appeared to have been put in a state of defence; and close to the fort ran a little brook, which watered a part of the plain.

On approaching the fort they observed four Englishmen enter it, and that the British flag was flying. The attack was made, and obstinately maintained for a considerable time on both sides, but greatly to the disadvantage of the French. The Indians, protected by a strong stockade, were under cover from every attack, and could have defended themselves by their loop-holes. In addition to which, they formed a gallery of flat pallisadoes quite round, covered with earth, which screened it from the effects of grenadoes. Thus the troops, after lavishing their ammunition against the wooden posts of the Indian fort, were obliged to retreat, with the loss of 32 men killed, and almost 70 wounded; and, abandoning the country, retired to fort Mobile, from whence the militia and Indians were disbanded.

Mr. Artaguette, with his Illinois troops and Indian allies, arriving in the Chicasaw country on the 9th of May, waited the arrival of the French until the 21st, when, hearing nothing of them, and fearful of the impatience of the Indians, made the attack with success, at first, having forced the Chicasaws to quit their village and fort. They also attacked another village with the same success, but {291} hurried away in the pursuit, M. d’Artaguette received two wounds, which caused him and a small body of his men, 46 soldiers and two sergeants, to be abandoned by the Indians, and, after defending their commander all that day, they were at last obliged to surrender. The troops under Biainville having retired, and the Indians consequently finding no opportunity of gaining a ransom for their prisoners, put them all to death by slow fire, except a sergeant, who, meeting with an indulgent master, found means to make his escape.

Biainville, desirous to take vengeance upon the Chicasaws, wrote both to France and Canada, requesting succours.

The reinforcements having arrived from France, proceeded up the Mississippi to the Cliffs of Prud’homme, now called the Chicasaw Bluffs, where they landed, and fortified their encampment, which was situated on a fine plain, and called fort Assumption, in commemoration of the day on which they landed.

They made wagons and sledges, and cleared out roads for the conveyance of cannon, ammunition, and every thing necessary for forming a regular siege. They were also immediately reinforced by the forces which they had requested from Canada, consisting of a mixed multitude of French, Iroquois, Hurons, Episingles, Algonquins, and other nations, led by the commandant of the Illinois, with the garrison inhabitants and neighbouring Indians, as many as could be brought together, and furnished with a considerable number of horses.

This formidable army, the greatest that had ever been seen in the interior of America, remained in camp without undertaking any thing, from the month of August, 1739, to the succeeding month of March. Provisions, which {292} were at first in plenty, became at last so scarce, that they were obliged to eat up the horses, which were intended to draw the artillery, ammunition, and provisions. They were also seriously attacked by sickness, which at length inclined M. Biainville to have recourse to mild methods. He therefore detached a small body of troops and Canadian Indians against the Chicasaws, with orders to make offers of peace to them in his name, if they were inclined to sue for it.

What the general had foreseen did indeed happen. For no sooner had the Chicasaws seen the French, followed by the Indians of Canada, then they apprehended the approach of the rest of the numerous army, and making signals of peace, came out of their fort in the most humble manner, hazarding all the consequences of such an exposure, in the hope of obtaining peace. They solemnly protested an inviolable friendship to the French, and avowed that they had been instigated by the English to take up arms against them, and seeing their error they had already separated from them, and had, at that very time, two of that nation whom they had made slaves, and of the truth of which assertion, they might, if they pleased, now satisfy themselves.

Lieutenant de St. Laurent, accompanied by a young slave, therefore, went in order to ascertain the truth of their professions; as he passed through the village, the women were heard to demand him as a sacrifice to their hatred, but were prevented by the men from offering him any injury. Peace was now instantly concluded, and a few days after, they accompanied the commander of the detachment in a considerable body, to carry the pipe of peace to the French governor, and to deliver up the two Englishmen. They behaved before M. Biainville with {293} the utmost submission, and offered, if necessary, to attest their friendship by making war upon the English. Thus concluded the war of the French with the Chicasaws, about the beginning of April, 1740.

In the revolutionary war with Great Britain, they appear to have sided with the republicans; and displayed considerable fidelity and courage in the late war against the Creeks, under the command of general Jackson.

After the Iroquois, we are not acquainted with any nation of the aborigines of North America, who have been so restless and enterprising as the Chicasaws, and who have better maintained their ground against every species of hostility. They have not only, says Du Pratz, cut off a great many nations who were adjoining them, but have even carried their love of war and vengeance as far as New Mexico, near 600 miles from the place of their residence, to exterminate a nation that had removed to that distance from them. In this enterprise they were, however, deceived and cut off.

The Choctaws, still equally numerous, reckoned, in the time of Du Pratz, 25,000 warriors. We know but little of them more than a few detached customs, and the tradition, that they had made a sudden arrival in the country which they now occupy. There is a small village of them in the vicinity of the town of Arkansas, but made up principally of those, who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the rest of the nation, who, probably, as well as the Cherokees and Creeks, have found the necessity of introducing corporeal and general punishments, for the benefit and security of society.

As we cannot discover any mention of them by the historian of De Soto, they were perhaps, at that period, included amongst the Chicasaws. And, from the extinction {294} of the Mobilians and other nations, met with by that adventurer, we are inclined to believe them the modern usurpers of the country which they now possess. Many of them live on the borders of the Yazoo, and other parts of the Mississippi and Louisiana territories. It is certain, as we have had already occasion to notice, that they made war against the Chicasaws, in aid of the French, and that, though they professed to aid the cause of the Natchez, yet that afterwards, through mere jealousy, they had joined with the French against them.

The Choctaws, till very late years, had a practice, not indeed peculiar, of exposing their dead upon scaffolds till such time as the flesh decayed, which was then separated from the bones by a set of old men, who devoted themselves to this custom, and were called “bone-pickers,” after which, the bones were interred in some place set apart for the purpose.

This custom unquestionably arose out of a veneration for the deceased, and an attachment to their remains, which, among a wandering and unsettled people, were thus conveniently removed. A circumstance of this kind is related by Charlevoix,[279] where the Indians on removing their village, carried with them also the bones of their dead.

{295} SECTION IV

THERMOMETRICAL OBSERVATIONS IN THE ARKANSA
TERRITORY, DURING THE YEAR 1819

================================
A.M. deg.

January 20 12 67
21 12 67

March 9 12 50
10 12 50 P.M. deg.
12 8 66 3 76
13 48 3 60
14 48 3 56
15 56 3 73
16 8 28 5 34
17 8 34 3 48
18 8 42 3 50
19 8 38 2 50
20 8 48 3 58
21 6 22 5 48
22 8 48 3 66
23 7 60 3 72
24 6 60 2 70
25 7 54 4 78
26 7 42 5 64
27 8 46 1 66
28 7 52 3 54
29 6 60 2 54
30 7 40 3 44
31 6½ 32 12 58

April 1 7 48 2 68
2 6½ 58 3 60
3 7 52 2 64
4 7½ 44 2 60
5 7 40 2 70
6 7 50 1 70
7 6½ 60 2 76
at 7 76
8 7 64 2 74
9 7 56 2 66
10 7 60 1 64
11 7 52 3 76
12 7 54 2 74
13 7 62 3 76
14 7 64 2 74
15 7 64 3 78
16 7 64 3 66
17 7 54 3 70
18 10 56 4 65
19 8 54 2 70
20 6 60 1 74
21 6 62 3 76
22 66 6 70
23 6 56 1 76
24 6 62 3 72
25 6 56 2 78
26 7 63 3 70
27 6 56 3 77
28 6 66 9 75
29 7 69 1 80
5 80
30 6 66 12 75

May 1 8 68
2 7 60 4 80
3 7 68 12 82
7 82
4 7 68 3 78
5 7 68 3 76
6 7 68 3 68
7 7 68 3 78
8 7 60 3 66
9 8 68 3 70
10 8 70 3 86
11 6 77 4 86
12 8 76 2 86
13 7 78 4 68
14 7 62 4 66
15 7 54

{296} June 23 4 80
24 6 68 3 82
25 7 74 3 80
26 6 72 3 76
27 7 74 3 76
28 7 68 3 80
29 7 70 4 84
30 7 73 3 88

July 1 7 76 3–5 86
2 7 72 3–5 84
3 7 73 3 88
4 8 72 3 74
5 7 68 3 74
6 7 68 3 78
7 7 69 3 90
8 7 74 3 88
9 7 78 3 90
10 7 80 3 90
11 7 73 3 86
12 7 72 3 92
13 6 78 3 90
14 7 78 3 90
15 7 80 3 91
16 7 76 3 86
17 6 70 3 84
18 6 60 3 88
19 6 64 3 86
21 7 70 3 76
22 7 72 3 82
23 7 72 3 88
24 7 78 3 86
25 7 72 3 85
26 7 72 3 90
27 7 70 3 88
28 7 73 3 90
29 7 76 3 90
30 7 76 3 90
31 7 76 3 90

August 1 8 76 3 90
2 8 72 3 90
3 8 72 3 82
4 8 72 3 76
5 8 72 3 84
6 8 76 3 84
7 7 76 3 84
8 7 76 3 84
9 7 76 3 84
10 7 78 3 86
11 8 76 3 86
12 76 3 86
13 7 76 3 86
14 7 76 3 86
15 7 76 3 86
16 76 3 86
17 76 3 86
18 76 3 86
19 76 3 86
20 76 3 86
21 76 3 86
22 74 3 82
23 70 3 78
24 70 3 78
25 70 3 78
26 70 3 78
27 70 3 78
28 70 3 78
29 70 3 78
30 70 3 78
31 70 3 78

Sept. 1 72 3 82
2 72 3 82
3 74 3 86
4 74 3 86
5 76 3 86
6 76 3 86
7 76 3 86
8 76 3 86
9 76 3 86
10 76 3 86
11 74
12 76 3 86
13 70 3 86
14 52
17 62 3 88
18 64 3 86
19 72 3 86
20 74 3 89
21 68 3 84
22 62 3 82
23 60 3 80
24 58 3 88
25 49 3 70
26 51 3 80
27 54 3 84
28 64 3 88

FOOTNOTES:

[248] Purchas’s Pilgrims, vol. IV. p. 1546.--NUTTALL.

[249] This Peruvian title for chieftain is employed throughout the narrative, by Garcilasso de la Vega, the author of the history, and himself a descendant of the Incas, who chose to follow the fortunes of Soto, one of the conquerors of his country.--NUTTALL.

[250] Called Prunes by the Spaniards.--NUTTALL.

[251] The same apparently with Kaskaskia, spelled Kaskasquia by Father Charlevoix, and Caskaquia by Du Pratz. This band, as well as the Kahoquias, Tamaroas, Peorias, and Pimeteois, formed part of the Illinois nation, now nearly all extinct, though they could once enumerate as many as twenty thousand souls. They were found inhabiting the rivers which still retain their name, and have fallen before the Iroquois, and the Chicasa nations, with whom they waged war. Their name of Illinois, or Illinese of La Hontan, so much like Leni-Lenape, or that of the Delawares, and signifying, in common with that appellation, the _original_ or _genuine men_, besides the tradition of their having come in company with the Miamies from the borders of Hudson’s bay or the North Pacific, and their speaking nearly the same language, as related by Charlevoix,[A] appear as so many proofs of the common origin of these two people. It is also related by the same author (before their arrival in the country, which they so extensively occupied in the time of Soto’s incursion, and in which they lived till the period of their approaching extinction), they had settled along the borders of the river des Moins, or Moingona, of the Mississippi, which gave name to one of their tribes. The friendship which they cultivated, about a century ago, with the Osages, and the Arkansas, who are the same people, and some incidental resemblances between them, lead us to believe them also commonly related by language and descent.--NUTTALL.

[A] Fifty years ago (1720) the Miamis were settled at Chicago, and were, at this time, “divided into three villages, one at the river St. Joseph, a second on Miami of Lake Erie, and the third called the Watanons of the Wabash.” “There is scarcely a doubt,” adds Charlevoix, “but that this nation and the Illinois were not long since one people, considering the affinity of their languages.” _Charlevoix, Hist. Journ._ p. 114.

[252] These “mantels,” as they are called by Purchas, were fabricated
from coarse threads of the bark of trees and nettles.--NUTTALL.

[253] Probably Pecans (_Carya olivœformis_).--NUTTALL.

[254] _Prunus chicasa?_--NUTTALL.

[254A] _P. hiemalis._--NUTTALL.

[255] Of this singular fish, I received circumstantial accounts at the Post of Arkansa. It also exists in the Ohio, and is the _Platyrostra edentula_ of Lesueur, described in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. i. part 2, pp. 227, 228, and 229, and allied to the _Polyodon_ of Lacepède. The plain description of this very local and curious animal, affords additional evidence, if it were necessary, of the truth of the relations of Garcilassa de la Vega, notwithstanding the scepticism of some of the later French writers.--NUTTALL.

[256] This inundated country appears to be the Great Swamp, which
commences below Cape Girardeau, said to be 60 miles long.--NUTTALL.

[257] Called ox-hides--NUTTALL.

[258] This mountainous country and province of Coligoa, was, in all probability, situated towards the sources of the St. Francis, or the hills of White river.--NUTTALL.

[259] The same people with the Tunicas, called also Tonicas, by
Charlevoix and Du Pratz.--NUTTALL.

[260] These are evidently the salt waters of the Washita.--NUTTALL.

[261] Probably the same as the Quapaws.--NUTTALL.

[262] From the geographical situation, this aboriginal province must
have been that of the Natchez.--NUTTALL.

[263] The Hurons also, according to the same author, pretended that their hereditary chiefs were descended from the sun, and continued the descent by the females in the same manner.--NUTTALL.

[264] In a speech made to governor Clinton, in 1788, by Domine Peter, a native orator, on the part of the Senecas and Cayugas, the authority of the female chieftains is acknowledged, by the speaker, and thus apologized. “Our ancestors considered it a great offence to reject the counsels of their women, particularly (that) of the female governesses (or chieftains). They were esteemed the mistresses of the soil (as they solely attended to the labours of agriculture). Who, said they, bring us into being? Who cultivate our lands, kindle our fires (or administer food to the calls of hunger), but our women? &c.” _Governor Clinton’s Discourse, December, 1811, App. p. 80._

As the mothers of the slain in battle, the women had the controul of prisoners, either to adopt or destroy them at will, and their interposition to procure peace, and stay hostilities, was universally acknowledged. We have a remarkable example of this in the history of the Delawares, who, at the instigation of the Iroquois, became a nation of mediators, and were thus said to have assumed one of the distinguishing functions of the female sex, and were, consequently, debarred from active war and masculine distinction. _See Heckewelder’s History of the Delawares, in the report of the Historical Committee of the American Philosophical Society._--NUTTALL.

[265] This, which Sir William Jones considered as the ritual of the Tartars, is also employed by the Sioux or Naudowessies, as I have repeatedly witnessed.

According to the observations of Mr. Wm. Bartram, the Creeks
likewise practised the same ceremony.

An invocation not very dissimilar to this sacred ceremony, is that
of Agamemnon in the Iliad; thus translated by Pope:

Then loudly thus before th’ attentive bands
He calls the gods, and spreads his lifted hands:
O first and greatest power! whom all obey,
Who high on Ida’s holy mountain sway,
Eternal Jove! and yon _bright orb_ that rolls
From east to west, and views from pole to pole!
Thou mother _Earth_! and all ye living _Floods_;
Infernal Furies! and Tartarian Gods;
----Hear and be witness.
_Pope’s Iliad_, Book III. lines 344–354.

According to Humboldt, in his Monumens de l’Amérique, vol. ii. pp. 54 and 55, the Mexican cycle of 52 years was divided into four indictions of 13 years, in reference to the _four seasons_ of the year, the _four elements_, and the _cardinal points_. The most ancient division of the zodiac, according to Albategnius,[B] is that into four parts. “These four signs,” he adds, “of the equinoxes and the solstices, chosen from a series of 20 signs” (the number of days in the Mexican month), “recall to mind the four _royal stars_, Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares, and Fomahault, celebrated in all Asia, and presiding over the seasons.[C] In the new continent, the indictions of the cycle of 52 years, formed, as we would say, the four seasons of the _grand year_, and the Mexican astrologers were pleased to see presiding over each period of 13 years one of the four equinoctial or solstitial signs.”--NUTTALL.

[B] De Scientia Stellarum, cap. 2 (ed. Bolon. 1645) p. 3.

[C] Firmicus, lib. vi. c. 1.

[266] The following example of the noble and common language of the Natchez, is given by Du Pratz.[D] In calling one of the common people he would say, _aquenan_, that is, “hark ye;” if to a sun or one of the nobles, the address would be _magani_, which also signifies the same. To one of the common people, calling at his house, he would say, _tachte-cabanacte_, “are you there,” or “I am glad to see you.” To a sun the same thing is expressed by the word _apapegouaiché_. Again, according to their custom, I say to one of the common people, _petchi_, “sit you down;” but to a sun, _caham_. In other respects the language is the same; as the difference of expression seems only to take place in matters relating to the persons of the suns and nobles, to distinguish them from the people.--NUTTALL.

[D] Hist. Louisian. p. 328.

[267] Among the Mexicans, prisoners, rather than domestics and attendants, were devoted to death at the obsequies of the great, as victims to that spirit of revenge so deeply cherished by savage or barbarous nations. So even Achilles, lamenting over the body of Patroclus, says,

Ere thy dear relics in the grave are laid,
Shall Hector’s head be offer’d to thy shade;
That, with his arms, shall hang before thy shrine;
And twelve the noblest of the Trojan line,
Sacred to vengeance, by this hand expire:
Their lives effus’d around thy flaming pyre.
_Pope’s Iliad_, Book XVIII. lines 391–396.--NUTTALL.

[268] Du Pratz Hist. Louisian. p. 313 (_Ed. Lond._).--NUTTALL.

[269] The great Deity of the savages of the river Bourbon, and the river St. Therese, Hudson’s Bay, is the sun. When they deliberate on any important affair, they make him, as it were, smoke. They assemble at day-break in a cabin of one of their chiefs, who, after having lighted his pipe, presents it three times to the rising sun; then he guides it with both hands from the east to the west, praying the sun to favour the nation. This being done, all the assembly smoke in the same pipe. _Charlevoix, Hist. Journ. p. 108_ (Ed. Lond.). The Sioux also practise the same rites.

Gookin, in 1674, says, “Some, for their God, adore the sun; others the moon; some the earth, others the fire, and like vanities. Yet, generally, they acknowledge one great supreme doer of good; and him they call Woonand or Mannitt; another, that is, the great doer of evil or mischief; and him they call Mattand, which is the Devil, &c.” Compare this relation with the invocation of Agamemnon, already quoted, from which it scarcely differs in any particular.

Traces of the adoration of the sun are discoverable also in Colden’s History of the Five Nations, not only among the Iroquois, but also with the neighbouring nations: thus among the attestations to a treaty of peace made with the Iroquois, by a band of the Utawas, we find the following. “Let the sun, as long as he shall endure, always shine upon us in friendship.” With which apostrophe was delivered a figure of the sun, sculptured of red marble.[E] A similar figure was again presented to the Five Nations by the Utawas and a branch of the Hurons (called Dionondadies) jointly, in another treaty concluded between them.[F]

At a treaty in which general Harrison assisted, towards the commencement of the last war, the council-house being crowded, a chief arriving late was suffered to stand some time unheeded, until the general sent him a chair, as from his father. He refused the offer, saying, probably in allusion to their ancient belief, “The sun is my father, the earth my mother, and my seat is the ground.”

The sacred, or eternal, fire is also described in the following incidental remark, made by a chief speaker of the Five Nations: “Before the Christians arrived amongst us, the general council of the Five Nations was held at Onondago, where there has, from the beginning (or from the remotest time) been kept a fire continually burning, made of two great logs whose flame was never extinguished.”[G]--NUTTALL.

[E] Colden’s Hist. Five Nations, third edition, i. p. 115.

[F] Ibid. i. p. 185.

[G] Ibid. vol. i. p. 176.

[270] Charlevoix, Hist. Journ. p. 249. (_Ed. Lond._).--NUTTALL.

[271] In ancient times, before the moon accompanied the earth (says the mythology of the Muyscas or Mozcas Indians), the inhabitants of the plain of Bogota lived like barbarians, naked, without agriculture, without laws, and without worship. Suddenly there appeared among them an aged man, who came from the plains east of the Cordillera of Chingasa: he seemed to be of a different race from that of the indigenes, for he had a long and tufted beard. He was known by three different names; under that of _Bochica_, _Nemquetheba_, and _Zuhè_. This aged person, after the manner of Manco-Capac, taught men to clothe themselves, to construct dwellings, to cultivate the earth, and to unite in society. He brought with him a woman, to whom tradition gave also the three names of _Chia_, _Yubecayguaya_, and _Haythaca_. This female was of an uncommon beauty, but exceedingly wicked, counteracting her husband in every thing which he undertook for the good of men. By her magic art she swelled the river Funzha to such a degree, that the water inundated the whole valley of Bogota. This deluge destroyed the greatest part of the inhabitants, a few only escaping upon the summits of the neighbouring mountains. The old man, irritated, drove the beautiful Haythaca from the earth; she then became the moon, which, from that period, commenced to enlighten our planet during the night. Afterwards Bochica, son of the sun, taking pity on the men who were dispersed upon the mountains, broke, with his powerful hand, the rocks which close the valley on the side of Canaos and Tequendama. By this opening he carried off the water of the lake of Funzha, reunited again the people of the valley of Bogota, constructed towns, introduced the _worship of the sun_, nominated two chiefs, between whom he divided the ecclesiastic and secular power, and then retired, under the name of _Idacanzas_, into the sacred valley of Iraca, near to Tanja, where he devoted himself to exercises of the most austere penance, for the space of two thousand years. _Humboldt’s Vues des Cordillères, et Monumens des Peuples indigènes de l’Amérique._ Vol. I. pp. 87, 88. (Ed. Octavo.).

The Jouskeka, who destroyed his brother, and the Atahentsic of the Hurons, also, in some measure, resemble the Cihuacohuatl or woman of the serpent, adored by the Mexicans, and figured in their hieroglyphic paintings. This goddess was regarded as the mother of the human race, and in the painting alluded to, published by Humboldt, she is accompanied familiarly by a serpent, and in the same symbolical sketch there are two smaller figures engaged in combat, as if to designate the Cain and Abel of the Hebrews, and which were considered in Mexico as the children of the female deess. _Humboldt_, vol I. pp. 235, 236.--NUTTALL.

[272] Charlevoix, p. 133.--NUTTALL.

[273] They present robes of the bison painted with the rays of the
sun, exposing them upon poles, set up in the prairies.--NUTTALL.

[274] When La Salle was among the Natchez, in 1683, he saw a party of that people, who had been on an expedition against the Iroquois. Tonti’s account of La Salle’s Expedition (Ed. Lond.), p. 112.--NUTTALL.

[275] This method of recording the lapse of time was also practised by the Chicasas and Muskogolgees, according to the relation of Adair.--NUTTALL.

[276] Mr. Brackenridge adds, that, after the defeat by Perire, about 200 of the Natchez fortified themselves some distance up Red river, but were attacked and destroyed by St. Dennis. _Hist. Louisiana_, p. 44.--NUTTALL.

[277] Charlevoix’s Hist. Journ. p. 323.--NUTTALL.

[278] Du Pratz’s Hist. Louisiana, p. 318.--NUTTALL.

[279] Historical Journal, p. 334. (_Ed. Lond._).--NUTTALL.

Transcriber’s Note:

Numbers within braces are page references to the original manuscript. Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These were left unchanged. Seven misspelled words were corrected.

Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Superscript is contained within braces and preceded by a carat, e.g. THO^{S}. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the end of the chapter. Footnotes to footnotes were alphabetized sequentially. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters, were corrected. Missing punctuation and diacriticals were added.

The following items were changed:

Math in Footnote [243] was corrected.
Capitalized one instance each of Fort Smith and Fort Massac.
Changed one instance Port Smith to Fort Smith.