USA > Alabama > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period, v. 1 > Part 19
USA > Georgia > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period, v. 1 > Part 19
USA > Mississippi > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period, v. 1 > Part 19
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CHAPTER village alone, they ought to consider of the surest means to
VII. take a just and bloody vengeance. That this enterprise being of the utmost importance, it called for much secreey, for solid measures, and for much policy. That it was proper to cajole the French chief more than ever, and that the affair required reflection before it was proposed to the GRAND SUN.
" In the meantime, the old men had come to the determi- nation, not only to revenge themselves, but to engage in the entire destruction of all the French in the province. When. therefore, the council again met, the most venerable man rose and delivered the following speech :
"' We have a long time been sensible that the neighborhood of the French is a greater prejudice than a benefit to us. We. who are old, see this-the young see it not. The wares of the French yield pleasure to the youth, but to what purpose is it, except to debauch the young women, and taint the blood of the nation, and make them vain and idle ? The young men are in the same condition -- they must work themselves to death to maintain their families and please their children. Before the French came among us, WE WERE MEN, content with what we had, and walked with boldness every path. Now we go groping about, afraid of inceting briars. We walk like slaves, which we shall soon be, since the French al- ready treat us as if we were such. When they are sufficiently strong, they will no longer dissemble. For the least fault of our young people, they will then tie them to a post and whip them. Have they not already done so to one of our young men, and is not death preferable to slavery ? What wait
Summer of 17:29
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we for ? Shall we suffer the French to multiply till we are no CHAPTER longer in a condition to oppose them ? What will the other VII. nations say of the Natchez, who are admitted to be the great- est of all the Red men ? Let us set ourselves at liberty. %
From this very day let our women get provisions ready, without telling them the reason. Go and carry the pipe of peace to all the nations of this country. Tell them that the French, being stronger here than elsewhere, enslave us the more ; but when they spread out, they will treat all nations in like manner. That it is their interest to join us to prevent so great a misfortune. That they have only to join us, to cut off the French to a man, in one day and in one hour !"
Here the speaker continued his address, and exhorted them to be prepared to fall upon the French at nine o'clock, on the morning of the day when they were to deliver to the com- mandant the corn and chickens, and that the warriors were to carry with them their arms, as if going to hunt. They unani- mously approved of his views, and pledged themselves to carry them out. DuPratz continues :- " Notwithstanding the pro- found secrecy observed by the Natchez, the council held by the Suns and aged nobles gave the people great uneasiness, unable, as they were, to penetrate into the matter. The fe- male Suns had alone, in this nation, the right to demand why they were kept in the dark in this affair. The young grand female Sun was a princess scarce eighteen. None but the Stung Arm, a woman of great wit, and no less sensible of it, could be offended that nothing was disclosed to her. In effect,
Fall of 17.2
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CHAPTER she made known to her son her displeasure at this reserve VII. with respect to herself. He replied that the several deputa- tions were made in order to renew their good intelligence with the other nations, to whom they had not, in a long time, sent an embassy, and who might imagine themselves slighted by such a neglect. This feigned excuse seemed to appease the princess, but not quite to rid her of all her uneasiness, which, on the contrary, was heightened, upon the return of the em- bassies, when she saw the Suns assemble in secret council to- gether. She was filled with rage, which would have broken out, if her prudence had not set bounds to it. Happy it is for the French that she imagined herself neglected. I am per- suaded that the colony owes its preservation to the vexation of this woman, rather than to any affection she entertained for the French, as she was now far advanced in years, and her French gallant long since dead. In order to get to the bottom of the secret, she prevailed on her son to accompany her on a visit to a relation that lay sick at the village of the Meal, and leading lim the most distant and retired route, took occasion to reproach him with the secrecy he and the other Suns oh- served with regard to her. She insisted on her right, as a mother, and her privilege as a princess, adding, that although the world and herself, too, had told him he was the son of a Frenchman, yet her own blood was much dearer to her than that of strangers; that he need not apprehend she would evet betray him to the French, against whom, she said, you are plotting.
Fall of 1729 "The son, stung with these reproaches, told her it was
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unusual to reveal what the old men of the council bad once CHAPTER resolved upon, and as he was Grand Sun, he ought to set a VII. good example in this respect; but seeing you have guessed the whole affair, I need not inform you further. You know as much as I do, myself, only hold your tongue."
"She replied that she was in no pain to know against whom he had taken his precautions, but as it was against the French, this was the very thing that made her apprehensive he had not taken his measures aright, in order to surprise them, as they were a people of great penetration, although their commandant had none. Her son told her that she had nothing to apprehend as to the measures taken ; that all the nations had heard and approved their project, and promised to fall upon the French in their neighborhood, on the same day with the Natchez; that the Choctaws had resolved to destroy all the French lower down and along the Mississippi, up as far as the Tonicas, to which last people, he said, we did not send, as they and the Oamas are too much wedded to the French. He, at last, told her that the bundle of rods*
* By all ancient and modern Indians, rods or sticks were used to assemble the nation together. A Chief was accustomed to send forth a warrior, with a bundle of sticks, and as he journeyed towards the towns to which he was despatched, he would throw away one of these sticks, at the close of each day. When be gave them to the party to whom he was bearing them, the latter also continued, at the close of every day, to throw away a stick. The Chiefs, who sent these sticks, also kept a duplicate number, and each day threw away one, so that those at a distance, and those at the council house, would meet
16
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CHAPTER lay in the temple, on the flat timber. The Stung AArm.
VII. being informed of the whole design, pretended to approve it. and leaving her son at ease, henceforward was only solicitoa- how she might defeat this barbarous design. The time w :- pressing, and the term fixed for the execution was aliliost expired. . Unwilling to see the French cut off to a man in Fall of 1729 one day, she resolved to apprise them of the conspiracy through some young women who loved them, enjoining them never to tell from whom they had their information." She desired a soldier, whom she met, to tell the command ..: that the Natchez had lost their senses, and to desire him t. be upon his guard. The soldier faithfully performed hi- commission, but the commandant treated him as a cowar.l
together on the same day, when the last stick had been thrown away In modern times, sending sticks was called " sending out the broken. days."
* " The Sieur de Mace, ensign of the garrison of the fort a' Natchez, received advice by a young Indian girl who loved him. S. told him, crying, that her nation was to massacre all the French. !!. De Maeé, amazed at this discourse, questioned his mistress. H : simple answers and her tender tears, left him no room to doubt of the plot. He went immediately to give Chopart intelligence of it, who put him under arrest for giving false alarm."-Bossu's Travels through Louisiana, letter 3, addressed to the Marquis de L'Estrade, vol. 1, p. 62 London, 1771.
Bossu also states that Chopart, becoming enraged at Dumont, t !. e second in command, for temonstrating with him against his tyrin towards the Natchez, in the commencement of the spring, placed that excellent officer and faithful historian in irons .- Vol. 1, p. 48.
0
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and a visionary,-caused him to be placed in irons, and de- CHAPTER clared he would never take any steps towards repairing the VII. fort, as the Natchez would then imagine he was a man of no resolution. The Stung Arm fearing a discovery, notwith- standing her precaution and the secrecy she enjoined, repaired to the temple and pulled some rods out of the fatal bundle. Her design was to hasten the time fixed, to the end that such Frenchmen as escaped the massacre might apprise their coun- trymen, many of whom had informed the commandant, who placed seven of them in irons. The female Sun, seeing the time approaching, and many of those punished whom she had charged to acquaint the governor, resolved to speak to the - under-lieutenant,-but to no better purpose. Notwithstand- ing all these warnings, the commandant went out the night before on a party of pleasure, with some other Frenchmen, to the grand village of the Natchez, without returning to the fort till break of day, where he had no sooner arrived than he was admonished to be upon his guard. Still stimulated with his last night's debauch, he added imprudence to neglect, and despatched his interpreter to demand of the Grand Sun whether he intended to kill the French. The Grand Sun, though but a young man, knew how to dissemble, and spoke in such a manner to the interpreter as to allay his suspicions and fears .*
* DuPratz' Louisiana, pp. 79-90. In copying this author's state- ment, I have occasionally omitted some redundancies and uninterest- ing detail.
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CHAPTER VII. We propose now to introduce the statement of Father Le Petit, who at the time of its occurrence was residing in Now- Orleans, respecting the massacre itself. He was a learned and pious Jesuit priest. The following is his letter to Father D'Avaugour, procurator of the missions in North America. " AT NEW-ORLEANS, 12th July, 1730. My Reverend Father,-the Peace of our Lord be with you : After having given you an imperfect idea of the character and customs of the Natchez Indians, I proceed, my reverend father, as I have promised you, to enter upon : detailed account of their perfidy and treason. It was on the second of December of the year 1729, that we learned they had surprised the French, and had massacred almost all of them. This sad news was first brought to us by one of the planters, who had escaped their fury. It was confirmed to li- on the following day by other French fugitives, and finally. some French women, whom they had made slaves, and were forced afterwards to restore, brought us all the particular>.
1729 October 28
" At the first rumor of an event so sad, the alarm and con- sternation was general in New-Orleans. Although the inas-3- cre had taken place more than a hundred leagues from here. you would have supposed that it had happened under on? own eyes. Each one was mourning the loss of a relative-a friend-or some property; all were alarmed for their own lives, for there was reason to fear that the conspiracy of the Indians had been general. This unlooked for massacre began on Monday, the 28th of October, about nine o'clock in the morning. Some cause of dissatisfaction which the Natchez
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thought they had with the commander, and the arrival of a CHAPTER number of richly laden boats for the garrison and the colo- VII. nists, determined them to harten their enterprise, and to strike their blow sooner than they had agreed with the other con- federate tribes .* First they divided themselves, and sent into the fort, into the village, and into the two grants, as many Indians as there were French in each of these places. Then they feigned that they were going out for a grand hunt, and undertook to trade with the French for guns, powder and ball,-offering to pay them as much, and even more, than was customary; and, in truth, as there was no reason to sus- pect their fidelity, they made, at the time, an exchange of their poultry and corn for some arms and ammunition, which they used advantageously against us. It is true that some expressed their distrust, but this was thought to have so little foundation that they were treated as cowards, who were fright- ened at their own shadows. They had been on their guard against the Choctaws; but, as for the Natchez, they had never distrusted them, and they were so persuaded of their good faith, that it increased their hardihood. Having thus posted themselves in different houses, provided with the arms obtain- ed from us, they attacked, at the same time, each his man; and in less than two hours they massacred more than two
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* Father Le Petit is mistaken as to the causes which hastened the massacre. It will be recollected that DuPratz told us that Stung Ann "pulled out several sticks from the bundle, and it was this which brought on the time sooner.
R
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CHAPTER hundred of the French. The best known are M. De Chopart. VII. commander of the post; M. Du Codere, commander among the Yazoos ; M. Des Ursins ; Messieurs De Kolly, father and son ; Messieurs De Longrays, Des Noyers, Bailly, &e.
"The Father Du Poisson had just performed the funeral rites of his associate, the brother Crucy, who had died very suddenly, of a sun stroke; he was on his way to consult Governor Perrier, and to adopt with him proper measures to enable the Arkansas to descend the banks of the Mississippi. for the accommodation of the voyagers. He arrived among the Natchez on the 26th of November, that is, two days before the massacre. The next day, which was the first Sunday of Advent, he said mass in the parish, and preached in the absence of the cure. He was to have returned in the afternoon, to his mission among the Arkansas, but he was detained by some sick persons, to whom it was necessary to administer the sacraments. On Monday, he was about to say mass, and to carry the holy sacrament to one of those sick persons whom he had confessed, the evening before. when the massacre begun. A gigantic Chief, six feet in height, seized him, and having thrown him to the ground, cut off his head with blows of a hatchet; the father, in falling, only uttered these words: "Ah my God! ah my God!" M. Du Codere drew his sword to defend him, when he was himself killed by a musket ball from another Indian, whom he did not perceive.
1729
October 28
"These barbarians spared but two of the French, a tailor and a carpenter, who were able to serve their wants. They
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did not treat badly, either the negro slaves or the Indians CHAPTER who were willing to give themselves up; but they ripped up VII. the abdomen of every pregnant woman, and killed almost all those who were nursing their children, because they were disturbed by their cries and tears. They did not kill the other women, but made them their slaves, and treated them with every indignity during the two or three months that they were their masters. The least miserable were those who knew how to sew, because they kept them busy in making shirts, dresses, &e. The others were employed in cutting and carrying wood for cooking, and in pounding the corn of which they made their sagamite. But two things, above all, aggravated the grief and hardness of their slavery; it was, in the first place, to have for masters, those same persons whom they had seen dipping their cruel hands in the blood of their husbands; and, in the second place, to hear them, continually, saying that the French had been treated in the same manner at all the other posts, and that 17:9 October 28 the country was now entirely freed from them.
"During the massacre, the Sun, or the Great Chief of the Natchez, was seated quietly under the tobacco shed of the company. ITis warriors brought to his feet the head of the commander, about which they ranged those of the principal French of the post, leaving their bodies a prey to the dogs, the buzzards, and other carnivorous birds.# When they
: * Dumont, in his " Memoires Historiques sur la Louisiane," tome 2, pp. 145-146, thus speaks of Chopart :
" In the midst of this general massacre of all the French, Chopart 16*
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CHAPTER were assured that no other Frenchmen remained at the post, VII. they applied themselves to plunder the houses, the magazines of the Indian company, and all the boats which were still loaded by the banks of the river. They employed the negroes to transport the merchandize, which they divided among themselves, with the exception of the munitions of war, which they placed, for security, in a separate cabin. While the brandy lasted, of which they found a good supply, they passed their days and nights in drinking, singing. dancing, and insulting, in the most barbarous manner, thie dead bodies and the memory of the French. The Choctaws and the other Indians being engaged in the plot with them, they felt at their ease, and did not at all fear that they would draw on themselves the vengeance which was merited by their cruelty aud perfidy. One night, when they were
revived, as if Providence had wished to reserve him as a witness of the destruction of so many inhabitants who would not have perished but for his folly. He recognized it, at last, but too late, and raising himself from his seat, instead of taking his gun and placing himself on the defence, he fled to his garden, where he gave a whistle, in order to call the soldiers of the garrison. But they were no more. He could see all around him, by the sides of the palisades, which enclosed his garden, the earth strewn with their careasses: At the same time he was surrounded by the savages, who breathed nothing more than his death, while none of them wished to lay hands upon hint. They considered him as a "dog," unworthy of being killed by a brave man, and the made the chief stinking-man come, who killed him with the strike of a club."
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plunged in drunkenness and sleep, Madame Des Noyers wished to make use of the negroes to revenge the death of her husband and the French, but she was betrayed by the person to whom she confided her design, and came very near being burned alive.
"Some of the French escaped the fury of the Indians by taking refuge in the woods, where they suffered extremely from hunger and the effects of the weather .* One of them, on arriving here, relieved us of a little disquietude we felt in regard to the post we occupy among the Yazoos, which is not more than forty or fifty leagues above the Natchez by water and only from fifteen to twenty by land. Not being able to endure the extreme cold from which he suffered, he left the woods under cover of the night, to go and warm himself in the house of a Frenchman. When he was near it he heard the voices of Indians, and deliberated whether he should enter.
* In a despatch made by Governor Perrier to the Minister in France, dated the 18th March, 1730, he says :-- " A general assassina- tion of the French ensued, which occupied but little time ; one single attack terminated it with the exception of the house of. M. la Loire des Ursius, in which there were eight men, six of whom were killed, and the remaining two escaped during the night-the Indians having been unable to seize them daring the day. M. la Loire des Ursins was mounted on a horse when the attack commenced, and being unable to regain his house, he defended hunself until he fell, having killed four -. Indians. Thus it has cost the Natchez only twelve men to destroy two hundred and fifty of our people."-Gayarre's Histoire de la Louisiane, vol. 1, pp. 242-243.
CHAPTER VII.
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CHAPTER He determined, however, to do so, preferring rather to perish VII. by the hands of these barbarians than to die of famine and cold. He was agreeably surprised when he found these savages ready to render him a service, to heap kindness upon him, to commisserate him, to console him, to furnish him with provisions, clothes and a boat to make his escape to New-Orleans. These were the Yazoos, who were return- ing from chanting the calumet, at Oumas. The Chief charged him to say to M. Perrier, that he had nothing to fear on the part of the Yazoos, that 'they would not lose their spirit,'-that is, that they would always remain attached to the French, and that he would be constantly on the watch with his tribe, to warn the French boats that were descending the river, to be on their guard against the Natchez.
"We believed, for a long time, that the promises of this Chief were very sincere, and feared no more Indian perfidy for our post among the Yazoos. But learn, my reverend father, the disposition of these Indians, and how little one is able to trust their words, even when accompanied by the greatest demonstrations of friendship. "Scarcely had they re- turned to their own village, when loaded with presents they received from the Natchez, they followed their example and imitated their treachery. Uniting with the Corroys, they agreed together to exterminate the French. They began with Father Sonel, the missionary of both tribes, who was then living in the midst of them, in their own village. On the 11th of December, Father Souel was returning in the evening from visiting the Chief, and while in a ravine, received many
December 11 1730
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musket balls, and fell dead on the spot. The Indians imme- CHAPTER diately rushed to his cabin to plunder it. His negro, who VII. composed all his family and all his defence, armed himself with a wood-cutter's knife to prevent the pillage, and even wounded one of the savages. This zealous action cost him his life, but happily less than a month before he had received baptism, and was living in a most Christian manner.
"These Indians, who even to that time seemed sensible of the affection which their missionary .bore them, reproached themselves for his death, as soon as they were capable of reflection : but returning again to their natural ferocity, they adopted the resolution of putting a finishing stroke to their crime, by the destruction of the whole French post. 'Since the Black Chief is dead,' said they, 'it is the same as if all the French were dead; let us not spare any.' The next day they executed their barbarous plan. They repaired, early in the morning, to the fort, which was not more than a league distant, and whose occupants supposed, on their arrival, that the Indians wished to chant the calumet to the Chevalier des Roches, who commanded that post, in the absence of M. de Codere. He had but seventeen men with him, who had no suspicion of any evil design on the part of the savages, and were, therefore, all massacred, not one escaping their fury. They, however, spared the lives of four women and five children, whom they found there, and whom they made slaves. One of the Yazoos having stripped the missionary, clothed himself in his garments, and shortly after announced to the Natchez that his nation had redeemed their pledge,
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CHAPTER and that the French, settled among them, were all massacred. VII. In this eity, there was no longer any doubt on that point, as soon as they learned what came near being the fate of Father Doutreleau. This missionary had availed himself of the time when the Indians were engaged in their winter occupations, to come and see us, for the purpose of regulating some matters relating to his mission. He set out on the first of this year, 1730, and not expecting to arrive at the residence of Father Souel, of whose fate he was ignorant, in time to say mass, he determined to say it at the mouth of the Little Yazoo river, where his party had cabined.
1730 January 1
" As he was preparing for the sacred office, he saw a boat full of Indians landing ; they demanded from them of what nation they were. 'Yazoos, comrades of the French,' they replied, making a thousand friendly demonstrations to the voyagers, who accompanied the missionary, and presenting them with provisions. While the father was preparing his altar, a flock of bustards passed, and the voyagers fired at them the only two guns they had, without thinking of re-loading, as mass had already commenced. The Indians noted this, and placed themselves behind the voyagers, as if it was their intention to hear mass, although they were not Christians. At the time the father was saving the Kurie Eleison, the Indians made their discharge; the missionary. seeing himself wounded in his right arm, and seeing one of the voyagers killed at his feet, and the four others fled, threw himself on his knees to receive the last fatal blow, which he regarded as inevitable. In this posture he received two or
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