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land, raise plenty of corn, beans, pumpkins, tobacco, &c. have horses, cattle, hogs and poultry.

NANDAKOES, live on the Sabine river, 60 or 70 miles to the westward of the Yattassees, near where the French formerly had a station and fac. tory. Their language is Caddo: about forty men only of them remaining. A few years ago they suffered very much by the small pox. They consider themselves the same as Caddos, with whom they intermarry, and are, occasionally, visiting one another in the greatest harmony: have the same manners, customs and attachments.

ADAIZE, live about 40 miles from Natchitoches, below the Yattassees, on a lake called Lac Macdon, which communicates with the division of Red river that passes by Bayau Pierre. They live at or near where their ancestors have lived from time immemorial. They being the nearest nation to the old Spanish fort, or Mission of Adaize, that place was named after them, being about 20 miles from them, to the south. There are now about 20 men of them remaining, but more women. Their language differs from all other, and is so difficult to speak or understand, that no nation can speak ten words of it; but they all speak Caddo, and most of them French,s to whom they were always attached, and joined them against the Natchez Indians. After the massacre of Natchez, in 1798, while the Spaniards occupied the post of Adaize, their priests took much pains to proselyte these Indians to the Roman Catholic religion, but, I am informed, were totally unsuccessfu!

ALICHE (commonly pronounced Eyeish) live near Nacogdoches, but are almost extinct, as a nation, not being more than 25 souls of them remaining: four years ago the small pox destroyed the greater part of them. They were, some years ago, a considerable nation, and lived on a bayau which bears their name, which the road from Natchitoch to Nacogdoches crosses, about 12 miles west of Sabine river, on which a few French and American families are settled. Their native language is spoken by no other nation, but they speak and understand Caddo, with whom they are in amity, often visiting one another.

KEYES, or KEYCHIES, live on the east bank of Trinity river, a small distance above where the road from Natchitoches to St. Antoine crosses it. There are of them 60 men: have their peculiar native language, but mostly now speak Caddo; intermarry with them, and live together in much harmony, for merly having lived near them, on the head waters of the Sabine. They plant corn and some other vegetables.

INIES, or TACHIES (called indifferently by both names.) From the lat. ter name the name of the province of Tachus or Taxus is derived. The Inies live about 25 miles west of Natchitoches, on a small river a branch of Sabine, called the Naches. They are, like all their neighbors, diminishing; but have now 80 men. Their ancestors, for a long time, lived where they now do. Their language the same as that of the Caddos, with whom they are in great amity. These Indians have a good character, live on excellent land, and raise corn to sell.

NABEDACHES, live on the west side of the same river, about fifteen miles above them; have about the same number of men; speak the same language, live on the best of land; raise corn in plenty; have the same manners, customs and attachments,

BEDIES, are on the Trinity river, about 60 miles to the southward of Nacogdoches; have 100 men; are good hunters for deer, which are very large and plenty about them; plant, and make good crops of corn; language differs from all other, but speak Caddo; are a peaceable, quiet people, and have an excellent character for their honesty and punctuality.

ACCOKESAWS. Their ancient town and principal place of residence is on the west side of Colerado or Rio Rouge, about 200 miles south west of Nacogdoches, but often change their place of residence for a season; being near the bay make great use of fish, oysters, &c. kill a great many deer, which are the largest and fattest in the province; and their country is univer. sally said to be inferior to no part of the province in soil, growth of timber, goodness of water, and beauty of surface; have a language peculiar to them, Belves, but have a mode of communication by dumb signs, which they all un

derstand ; number about 80 men. 30 of 40 years ago the Spaniards had a mission here, but broke it up, or moved it to Nacogdoches. They talk of resettling it, and speak in the highest terms of the country.

MAYES, live on a large creek called St. Gabriel, on the bay of St. Bernard, near the mouth of Gaudaloupe river: are estimated at 200 men; never at peace with the Spaniards, towards whom they are said to possess a fixed hatred, but protess great friendship for the French, to whoin they have been strongly attacked since Mons. de Salle landed in their neighborhood. The place where there is a talk of the Spaniards opening a new port, and making a settlement, is near them ; where the party, with the governor of St. Antoine, who were there last fall to examine it, say they found the remains of a French block house ; some of the cannon now at Labahie are said to have been brought from that place, and known by the engravings now to be seen on them.

The French speak highly of these Indians for their extreme kindness and hospitality to all Frenchinen who have been amongst them : have a language of their own, but speak Attakapa, which is the language of their neighbors the Carankouas ; they have likewise a way of conversing by signs.

CARANKOUAS, live on an island, or peninsula, in the bay of St. Bernard, in length about ten miles, and five in breadth; the soil is extremely rich and pleasant; on one side of which there is a high bluff, or mountain of coal, which has been on fire for many years, affording always a light at night, and a strong, thick smoke by day, by which vessels are sometimes deceived and lost on the shoaly coast, which shoals are said to extend nearly out of sight of land. From this burning coal there is emitted a gummy substance the Spainards call cheta, which is thrown on the shore by the surf, and collect. by them in considerable quantities, which they are fond of chewing; it has the appearance and consistence of pitch, of a strong, aromatic, and not disa. greeable smell

. These Indians are irreconcileable enemies to the Spaniards, always at war with them, and kill them whenever they can. The Spaniards call them cannibals, but the French give them a different character, who have always been treated kindly by them since Mons de. Salle and his party were in their neighborhood. They are said to be 500 men strong, but I have not been able to estimate their numbers from any very accurate information ; in a short time expect to be well informed. They speak the Attakapa language : are friendly and kind to all other Indians, and, 'I presume, are much like all others, notwithstanding what the Spaniards say of them, for nature is every where the same.

Last summer an old Spaniard came to me from Labahie, a journey of a. bout 500 miles, to have a barbed arrow taken out of his shoulder, that one of these Indians had shot in it. I found it under his shoulder-blade, near nine inches, and had to cut a new place to get at the point of it, in order to get it out the contrary way from that in which it had entered : it was made of a piece of an iron hoop, with wings like a fluke and an inche.

CANCES, are a very numerous nation, consisting of a great many different tribes, occupying different parts of the country, from the bay of St. Bernard, cross river Grand, towards La Vera Cruz. They are not friendly to the Spaniards, and generally kill them when they have an opportunity. They are attached to the French ; are good hunters, principally using the bow. They are very particular in their dress, which is made of neatly dressed leather; the women wear a long loose robe, resembling that of a Franciscan friar ; nothing but their heads and feet are to be seen. The dress of the men is straight leather leggings, resembling pantaloons, and a leather hunting shirt or frock. No estimate can be made of their number.

Thirty or forty years ago the Spaniards used to make slaves of them when they could take them; a considerable number of them were brought to Nat. chitoches and sold to the French inhabitants at 40 or 50 dollars a head, and a number of them are still living here, but are now free. About 20 years ago an order came from the king of Spain that no more Indians should be made slaves, and those that were enslaved should be emancipated ; after which some of the women who had been servants in good families, and taught spin

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ning, sewing, &c. as well as managing household affairs, married maitiffs of the country, and became respectable, well behaved women, and have now growing up decent families of children have a language peculiar to them. selves, and are understood by signs, by all others. They are in amity with all other Indians except the Hietans.

TANKAWAYS (or TANKS, as the French call them) have no land, nor claim the exclusive right to any, nor have any particular place of abode, but are always moving, alternately occupying the country watered by the Trinity, Braces, and Colerado, towards St. a Fé. Resemble, in their dress, the Cances and Hietans, but all in one horde or tribe. Their number of men is estimated at about 200; are good hunters; kill buffaloe and deer with the bow; have the best breed of horses; are alternately friends and enemies of the Spaniards. An old trader lately informed me that he had received 5000 deer skins from them in one year, exclusive of tallow, rugs and tongues. They plant nothing, but live upon wild fruits and flesh: are strong, athletic people, and excellent horsemen.

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TAWAKENOES, or THREE CANES. They are called by both names indifferently live on the west side of the Braces, but are often, for some months at a time, lower down than their usual place of residence, in the great prairie at the Tortuga, or Turtle, called so from its being a hill in the prairie, which at a distance appears in the form of a turtle, upon which there are some remarkable springs of water. Their usual residence is about 200 miles to the westward of Nacogdoches, towards St. a Fè. They are estimated at 200 men : are good hunters; have guns, but hunt principally with the bow: are supplied with goods from Nacogdoches, and pay for them in rugs, tongues, tallow and skins. They speak the same language of the Panis, or Towiaches, and pretend to have descended from the same ancestors.

PANIS, or TOWIACHES. The French call them Panis, and the Span. iards Towiaches; the latter is the proper Indian name. They live on the south bank of Red River; by the course of the river upwards of 800 miles above Natchitoches, and by land, by the nearest path, is estimated at about 340. They have two towns near together; the lower town, where the chief lives, is called Niteheta, and the other is called Towaahach. They call their present chief the Great Bear. They are at war with the Spaniards, but friendly to those French and American hunters who have lately been among them. They are likewise at war with the Osages, as are every other nation. For many hundreds of miles round them, the country is rich prairie, covered with luxuriant grass, which is green summer and winter, with skirts of wood on the river bank, by the springs and creeks.

They have many horses and mules. They raise more corn, pumpkins, beans, and tobacco, than they want for their own consumption; the surplusage they exchange with the Hietans for buffaloe rugs, horses and mules: the pump. kins they cut round in their shreads, and when it is in a state of dryness that it is so tough it will not break, but bend, they plait and work it into large mats, in which state they sell it to the Hietans, who, as they travel, cut off and eat it as Their tobacco they manufacture and cut as fine as tea, which is they want it. put into leather bags of a certain size, and is likewise an article of trade. They have but few guns, and very little ammunition; what they have they keep for war, and hunt with the bow. Their meat is principally buffaloe ; seldom kill a deer, though they are so plenty they come into their villages, and about their houses, like a domestic animal: elk, bear, wolves, antelope and wild hogs are likewise plenty in their country, and white rabbits, or hares, as well as the common rabbit: white bears sometimes come down amongst them, and The men generally go entirely naked, and the wolves of all colours. women nearly so, only wearing a small flap of a piece of a skin.They have a number of Spaniards amongst them, of fair complexion, taken from the settlement of St. à Fé when they were children, who live as they do, and have no knowledge of where they came from. Their language differs from that of any other nation, the Tawakenoes excepted. Their present number of men is estimated at about 400. A great number of them, four years ago, were swept off by the small pox.

HIETANS, or Comanches, who are likewise called by both names, have no fixed place of residence; have neither towns nor villages; divided into so ma ny hordes or tribes, that they have scarcely any knowledge of one another. No estimate of their numbers can well be made. They never remain in the same place more than a few days, but follow the buffaloe, the flesh of which is their principal food. Some of them occasionally purchase of the Panis, corn, beans and pumpkins; but they are so numerous, any quantity of these articles the Panis are able to supply them with, must make but a small proportion of their food. They have tents made of neatly dressed skins, fashioned in form of a cone, sufficiently roomy for a family of ten or twelve persons; those of the chiefs will contain occasionally 50 or 60 persons. When they stop, their tents are pitched in very exact order, soas to form regular streets and squares, which in a few minutes has the appearance of a town, raised, as it were, by inchantment; and they are equally dexterous in striking their tents and preparing for a march when the signal is given; to every tent two horses or mules are allotted, one to carry the tent, and another the poles or sticks, which are neatly made of red cedar; they all travel on horseback. Their horses they never turn loose to graze, but always keep them tied with a long cabras or halter; and every two or three days they are obliged to move on account of all the grass near them being eaten up, they have such numbers of horses. They are good horsemen and have good horses, most of which are bred by themselves, and being accustomed from when very young to be handled, they are remarkably docile and gentle. They sometimes catch wild horses, which are every where amongst them in immense droves. They hunt down the buffaloe on horseback, and kill them either with the bow or a sharp stick like a spear, which they carry in their hands. They are generally at war with the Spaniards, of ten committing depredations upon the inhabitants of St. a Fé and St. Antoine; but have always been friendly and civil to any French or Americans who have been amongst them. They are strong and athletic, and the elderly men as fat as though they had lived upon English beef and porter.

It is said the man who kills a buffaloe, catches the blood and drinks it while warm; they likewise eat the liver raw, before it is cold, and use the gaul by way of sauce. They are, for savages, uncommonly cleanly in their persons: the dress of the women is a long, loose robe, that reaches from their chin to the ground, tied round with a fancy sash, or girdle, all made of neatly dressed leather, on which they paint figures of different colours and significations: the dress of the men is, close leather pantaloons, and a hunting shirt or frock of the same. They never remain long enough in the same place to plant any thing the small Cayenne pepper grows spontaneously in the country, with which, and some wild herbs and fruits, particularly a bean that grows in great plenty on a small tree resembling a willow, called masketo, the women cook their buffaloe beef in a manner that would be grateful to an English squire. They alternately occupy the immense space of country from the Trinity and Braces, crossing the Red river, to the heads of Arkansa and Missouri, to river Grand, and beyond it, about St. a Fé, and over the dividing ridge on the waters of the Western ocean, where they say they have seen large peroques, with masts to them; in describing which, they make a drawing of a ship, with all its sails and rigging; and they describe a place where they have seen vessels ascending a river, over which was a draw bridge that opened to give them a passage. Their native language of sounds differs from the language of any other nation, and none can either speak or understand it; but they have a language by signs that all Indians understand, and by which they converse much among themselves. They have a number of Spanish men and women among them, who are slaves, and who they made prisoners when young.

An elderly gentleman now living at Natchitoches, who, some years ago, earried on a trade with the Hietans, a few days ago related to me the following story:

About 20 years ago a party of these Indians passed over the river Grand to Chewawa, the residence of the governor-general of what is called the five internal provinces ; lay in ambush for an opportunity, and made prisoner the gov

ernor's daughter, a young lady, going in her coach, to mass, and brought her off. The governor sent a message to him (my informant) with a thousand dollars, for the purpose of recovering his daughter: he immediately dispatched a confidential trader, then in his employ, with the amount of the 1000 dollars in merchandize, who repaired to the nation, found her, and purchased her ransom; but to his great surprise, she refused to return with him to her father, and sent by him the following message: that the Indians had disfigured her face by tattooing it according to their fancy and ideas of beauty, and a young man of them had taken her for his wife, by whom she believed herself pregnant: that she had become reconciled to their mode of life, and was well treated by her husband; and that she should be more unhappy by returning to her father, under these circumstances, than by remaining where she was. Which mes

sage was conveyed to her father, who rewarded the trader by a present of 300 dollars more for his trouble and fidelity; and his daughter is now living with her Indian husband in the nation, by whom she has three children.

NATCHITOCHES, formerly lived where the town of Natchitoches is now situated, took its name from them. An elderly French gentleman, lately informed me, he remembered when they were 600 men strong. I believe it is now 98 years since the French first established themselves at Natchitoch; ever since, these Indians have been their steady and faithful friends. After the massacre of the French inhabitants of Natchez, by the Natchez Indians, in 1728, those Indians fled from the French, after being reinforced, and came up Red River, and camped about six miles below the town of Natchitoches, near the river, by the side of a small lake of clear water, and erected a mound of considerable size, where it now remains. Monsieur St. Dennie, a French Ca. nadian, was then commandant at Natchitoches; the Indians called him the Big Foot, were fond of him, for he was a brave man. St. Dennie, with a few French soldiers, and what militia he could muster, joined by the Natchitoches Indians, attacked the Natchez in their camp, early in the morning; they defended themselves desperately for six hours, but were at length totally defeated by St. Dennie, and what of them that were not killed in battle, were drove into the lake, where the last of them perished, and the Natchez, as a nation became extinct. The lake is now called by no other name than the Natchez lake. There are now remaining of the Natchitoches, but 12 men and 19 women, who live in a village about 25 miles by land above the town which bears their name, near a lake, called by the French Lac de Muire. Their original language is the same as the Yattassee, but speak Caddo, and most of them French. The French inhabitants have great respect for this nation, and a number of very decent families have a mixture of their blood in them. They claim but a small tract of land, on which they live, and I am informed, have the same rights to it from government, that other inhabitants in their neighborhood have. They are gradually wasting away; the small pox has been their great destroyer. They still preserve their Indian dress and habits; raise corn and those vegetables common in their neighborhood.

BOLUXAS, are emigrants from near Pensacola. They came to Red River about 42 years ago, with some French families, who left that country about the time Pensacola was taken possession of by the English. They were then a considerable numerous tribe, and have generally embraced the Roman Catholic religion, and were ever highly esteemed by the French. They settled first at Avoyall, then moved higher up to Rapide Bayau, and from thence to the mouth of Rigula de Bondieu, a division of Red River, about 40 miles below Natchitoch, where they now live, and are reduced to about 30 in number. Their na tive language is peculiar to themselves, but speak Mobilian, which is spoken by all the Indians from the east side of the Mississippi. They are honest, harmless and friendly people.

APPALACHES, are likewise emigrants from West-Florida, from off the river whose name they bear; came over to Red river about the same time the Boluxas did, and have, ever since, lived on the river, above Bayau Rapide. No nation have been more highly esteemed by the French inhabitants; no complaints against them are ever heard; there are only 14 men remaining ; have their own language, but speak French and Mobilian...

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