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ALLIBAMIS, are likewise from West-Florida, off the Allibami river, and came to Red river about the same time of the Boluxas and Appalaches. Part of them have lived on Red river, about 16 miles above the Bayau Rapide, till last year, when most of this party, of about 30 men, went up Red river, and have settled themselves near the Caddoques, where, I am informed, they last year made a good crop of corn. The Caddos are friendly to them, and have no objection to their settling there. They speak the Creek and Chactaw languages, and Mobilian; most of them French, and some of them English.

There is another party of them, whose village is on a small creek, in Appelousa district, about 30 miles north west from the church of Appelousa. They consist of about 40 men. They have lived at the same place ever since they came from Florida; are said to be increasing a little in numbers, for a few years past. They raise corn, have horses, hogs and cattle, and are harmless, quiet people.

CONCHATTAS, are almost the same people as the Allibamis, but came over only ten years ago; first lived on Bayau Chico, in Appelousa district, but, four years ago, moved to the river Sabine, settled themselves on the east bank, where they now live, in nearly a south direction from Natchitoch, and distant about 80 miles. They call their number of men 160, but say, if they were all together, they would amount to 200. Several families of them live in detached settlements. They are good hunters, and game is plenty about where they are. A few days ago, a small party of them were here, consisting of 15 persons, men, women and children, who were on their return from a bear hunt up the Sabine. They told me they had killed 118; but this year an uncommon number of bears have come down. One man alone, on Sabine, during the summer and fall, hunting, killed 400 deer, sold his skins at 40 dollars a hundred. The bears this year are not so fat as common; they usually yield from eight to twelve gallons of oil, each of which never sells for less than a dollar a gallon, and the skin a dollar more; no great quantity of the meat is saved; what the hunters don't use when out, they generally give to their dogs. The Conchettas are friendly with all other Indians, and speak well of their neighbours the Carankouas, who, they say, live about 80 miles south of them, on the bay, which, I believe, is the nearest point to the sea from Natchitoches. A few families of Chactaws have lately settled near them from Bayau Beuf. The Conchattas speak Creek, which is their native language, and Chactaw, and some of them English, and one or two of them can read it a little.

PACANAS, are a small tribe of about 30 men, who live on the Quelqueshoe river, which falls into the bay between Attakapa and Sabine, which heads in a prairie called Cooko prairie, about 40 miles south west of Natchitoches. These people are likewise emigrants from West-Florida, about 40 years ago. Their village is about 50 miles south east of the Conchattas ; are said to be increasing a little in number; quiet, peaceable and friendly people. Their own language differs from any other, but speak Mobilian.

ATTAKAPAS. This word, I am informed, when translated into English, means man-eater, but is no more applicable to them than any other Indians. The district they live in is called after them. Their village is about 20 miles to the westward of the Attakapa church, towards Quelqueshoe. Their number of men is about 50, but some Tunicas and Humnas, who have married in their nation and live with them, makes them altogether about 80. They are peaceable and friendly to every body; labour, occasionally, for the white inhabitants; raise their own corn; have cattle and hors. Their Las guage and the Carankouas is the same. They were, or near, where they now live, when that part of the country was first discovered by the French.

Vol. III. Appendix. G

APPALOUSAS. It is said the word Appalousa, in the Indian language, means black head, or black skull. They are aborigines of the district called by their name. Their village is about 15 miles west from the Appelousa cintech; have about 40 men. Their native language differs from all other ; understand Attakap... and speak French; plant corn; have cattle and hogs.

TUNICAS. These people lived formerly on the Bayau Tunica, above Point Coapee, on the Mississippi, east side; live now at Avoyall; do not at present exceed 25 men. Their native language is peculiar to themselves, but speak Mobilian; are employed, occasionally, by the inhabitants as boatuven, &c. in amity with all other people, and gradually diminishing in numbers.

PASCAGOLAS, live in a small village on Red river, about 60 miles below, Natchitoches; are emigrants from Pascagola river, in West-Florida; 25 men only of them remaining; speak Mobilian, but have a language peculiar to themselves; most of them speak and understand French. They raise good crops of corn, and garden vegetables; have cattle, horses, and poultry plenty. Their horses are much like the poorer kind of French inhabitants on the river, and appear to live about as well.

TENISAWS, are likewise emigrants from the Tenesau river, that falls into the bay of Mobile; have been on Red river about 40 years; are reduced to about 25 men. Their village is within one mile of the Pascagolas, on the opposite side, but have lately sold their land, and have, or are about moving, to B yau Beauf, about 25 miles south from where they lately lived: all speak French and Mobilian, and live much like their neighbours the Pascagolas.

CHACTOOS, live on Bayau Beauf, about 10 miles to the southward of Bayau Rapide, on Red river, towards Appalousa; a small, honest people; are aborigines of the country where they live; of men about 30; diminishing: have their own peculiar tongue; speak Mobilian. The lands they claim on Bayan Beauf are inferiour to no part of Louisiana in depth and richness of soil, growth of timber, pleasantness of surface and goodness of water. The Bayan Beauf falls into the Chaffeli, and discharges, through Appelousa and Attakapa, into Vermilion Bay.

WASHAS. When the French first came into the Mississippi, this nation lived on an island to the south west of New-Orleans, called Barritaria, and were the first tribe of Indians they became acquainted with, and were al ways friends. They afterwards lived on Bayau La Fosh; and, from being a considerable nation, are now reduced to five persons only, two men and three women, who are scattered in French families; have been many years extinct, as a nation, and their native language is lost.

CHACTAWS. There are a considerable number of this nation on the west side of the Mississippi, who have not been home for several years. About 12 miles above the post on Oacheta, on that river, there is a small village of them of about 30 men, who have lived there for several years, and made corn; and likewise on Bayau Chico, in the northern part of the district of Appalousa, there is another village of them of about 50 men, who have been there for about 9 years, and say they have the governour of Louisiana's permission to settle there. Besides these, there are rambling hunting parties of them to be met with all over Lower Louisiana. They are at war with the Caddoques, and liked by neither red nor white people.

ARKENSAS, live on the Arkansa river, south side, in three villages, about 12 miles above the post, or station. The name of the first village is Tuwanima, second Ouftu, and the third Ocapa; in all, it is believed, they

do not at present exceed 100 men, and diminishing. They are at war with the Osages, but friendly with all other people, white and red; are the origi nal proprietors of the country on the river, to all which they lay claim, for about 300 miles above them, to the junction of the river Cadwa with Arkensa; above this fork the Osages claim. Their language is Osage. They generally raise corn to sell; are called honest and friendly people.

The forementioned are all the Indian tribes that I have any knowledge of, or can obtain an account of, in Louisiana, south of the river Arkensa, between the Mississippi and the river Grand. At Avoyall there did live a considerable tribe of that name, but, as far as I can learn, have been extinct for many years, two or three women excepted, who did lately live among the French inhabitants on Washita.

There are a few of the Humas still living on the east side of the Mississippi, in Ixsusees parish, below Manchack, but scarcely exist, as a nation.

!

That there are errours in these sketches is not to be doubted, but in all cases out of my own personal knowledge I have endeavoured to procure the best information, which I have faithfully related; and I am confident any errours that do exist are too unimportant to affect the object for which they are intended. I am, sir, &c. (Signed)

General H. DEARBORN.

Natchitoches, April 5, 1805.

JOHN SIBLEY,

SIR,

TO GENERAL HENRY DEARBORN,

SECRETARY OF WAR.

YOU request me to give you some account of Red river, and the country adjacent I will endeavour to comply with your request, to the best of my knowledge and capacity. My personal knowledge of it is only from its mouth, to about 70 or 80 miles above Natchitoches, being, by the course of the river, near 400 miles. After that, what I can say of it is derived from information from others, on whose veracity I have great reliance; principally from Mr. Francis Grappe, who is my assistant and interpreter of Indian languages; whose father was a French officer, and superintendant of Indian affairs, at a post, or station, occupied by France, where they kept some soldiers, and had a factory, previous to the cession of Louisiana to Spain, situate nearly 500 miles, by the course of the river, above Natchitoches, where he, my informant, was born, and lived upwards of 30 years; his time, during which, being occupied alternately as an assistant to his father, an Indian trader and hunter, with the advantage of some learning, and a very retentive memory, acquired an accurate knowledge of the river, as well as the languages of all the different Indian tribes of Louisiana, which, with his having been Indian interpreter for the Spanish government for many years past, and (I be lieve) deservedly esteemed by the Indians, and all others, a man of strict integrity, has, for many years, and does now possess their entire confidence, and a very extensive influence over them; and I have invariably found, that, whatever information I have received from him, has been confirmed by every other intelligent person, having a knowledge of the same, with whom I have conversed.

NOTE. Contrary to geographical rules, as I ascended the river, I called the right bank the northern one, and the left the southern.

THE confluence of Red river with the Mississippi is, by the course of the latter, estimated about 220 miles from New-Orleans. Descending the Mississippi, after passing the Spanish line at the 31st degree of north latitude, it makes a remarkable turn to the westward, or nearly north west, for some distance before you arrive at the mouth of Red river, as though, not, withstanding the immense quantity of its waters already, from its almost numberless tributary streams, it was still desirous of a farther augmentation, by hastening its union with Red river (which, perhaps, is second only in dignity to it) that they might, from thence, flow on and join the ocean to. gether, which, for many leagues, is forced to give place to its mighty cur rent. But there are reasons for believing the Red river did not always unite with the Mississippi, as it does at present; and that no very great length of time has elapsed since the Mississippi left its ancient bed, some miles to the eastward, and took its course westwardly for the purpose of intermarry. ing with Red river. The mouth of the Chaffeli, which is now, properly speaking, one of the outlets of the river Mississippi to the ocean, is just below, in sight of the junction of Red river with the Mississippi; and from its resemblance to Red river in size, growth on its banks, appearance and texture of soil, and differing from that of the Mississippi, induces strongly the belief that the Chaffeli was once but the continuation of Red river to the ocean, and that it had, in its bed, no connection with the Mississippi. There is no doubt but the Mississippi has alternately occupied different places in the low grounds through which it meanders, almost from the high lands of one side to those of the other, for the average space of near 30 miles. These two great rivers happening to flow, for a distance, through the same mass of swamp, that annually is almost all inundated, it is not extraordinary that their channels should find their way together; the remarkable bend of the Mississippi, at this place, to the westward, seems to have been for the express purpose of forming this union; after which it returns to its for

mer course.

In the month of March, 1803, I ascended Red river, from its mouth to Natchitoches, in an open boat, unless when I chose to land and walk across a point, or by the beauty of the river bank, the pleasantness of its groves, or the variety of its shrubs and flowers, I was invited ashore to gratify or please my curiosity. On entering the mouth of the river I found its waters turgid, of a red colour, and of a brackish taste; and as the Mississippi was then falling, and Red river rising, found a current, from its mouth upwards, vary. ing considerably in places, but averaging about two miles an hour, for the first hundred miles, which, at that time, I found to be about the same in the Mississippi; but, when that river is high, and Red river low, there is very little current in the latter, for sixty or seventy miles: the river, for that dis. tance, is very crooked, increasing the distance, by it, from a straight line, more than two thirds; the general course of it nearly west: that I was able to ascertain, from hearing the morning gun at Fort Adams, for three or four mornings after entering the river, which was not at the greatest height by about fourteen feet; and all the low grounds, for near seventy miles, entirely overflowed like those of the Mississippi, which, in fact, is but a continuation of the same. Some places appeared, by the high water mark on the trees, to overflow not more than two or three feet, particularly the right bank, below the mouth of Black river, and the left bank above it; the growth, on the lowest places, willow and cotton wood, but on the highest, handsome oaks, swamp hickory, ash, grape vines, &c.

I made my calculation of our rate of ascent and distances up the river, by my watch, noting carefully with my pencil the minute of our stops and settings off; the inlets and outlets, remarkable bends in the river, and whatever I observed any way remarkable. About six miles from the mouth of the river, left side, there is a bayau, as it is called, comes in, that communicates

with a lake called lake Long, which, by another bayau, communicates again with the river, through which, when there is a swell in the river, boats can pass, and cut off about 30 miles, being only 14 or 15 through it, and about 45 by the course of the river; and through the lake there is very little or no current; but the passage is intricate and difficult to find; a stranger should not attempt it without a pilot; people have been lost in it for several days; but not difficult for one acquainted; we, having no pilot on board to be de pended on, kept the river.

From the mouth of Red river to the mouth of Black river, I made it 31 miles the water of Black river is clear, and when contrasted with the water of Red river, has a black appearance. From the mouth of Black

river, Red river makes a regular twining to the left, for about 18 miles, called the Grand Bend, forming a segment of nearly three fourths of a circle; when you arrive at the bayau that leads into lake Long, which, perhaps, is in a right line, not exceeding 15 miles from the mouth of the river. From Bayau Lake Long, to Avoyall landing, called Baker's landing, I made 33 miles, and the river is remarkably crooked. At this place the guns at Fort Adams are distinctly heard, and the sound appears to be but little south of east. We came through a bayau called Silver Bayau, that cut off, we un derstand, six miles; it was through the bayau about four miles. Until we arrived at Baker's landing, saw no spot of ground that did not overflow; the high water mark generally from 3 to 15 feet above its banks. After passing Black river, the edge of the banks near the river are highest; the land falls, from the river back. At Baker's landing I went ashore; I understood, from Baker's landing, cross the point, to Le Glass' landing, was only 3 or 4 miles, and by water 15; but I found it 6 at least, and met with some difficulty in getting from where I landed to the high land at Baker's house, for water, though at low water it is a dry cart road, and less than a mile. I found Baker and his family very hospitable and kind; Mr. Baker told me he was a native of Virginia, and had lived there upwards of 30 years. He was living on a tolerable good high piece of land, not prairie, but joining it. After leaving Baker's house, was soon in sight of the prairie, which, I understand, is about 40 miles in circumference, longer than it is wide, very level, only a few clumps of trees to be seen, all covered with good grass. The inhabitants are settled all around the out edge of it, by the woods, their houses facing inwards, and cultivate the prairie land. Though the soil, when turned up by the plough, has a good appearance, what I could discover by the old corn and cotton stalks, they made but indifferent crops; the timber land that I saw cleared and planted, produced the best; the prairie is better for grass than for planting. The inhabitants have considerable stocks of cattle, which appears to be their principal dependence, and I was informed their beef is of a superiour quality: they have likewise good pork; hogs live very well; the timbered country all round the prairie is principally oak, that produces good mast for hogs. Corn is generally scarce; they raise no wheat, for they have no mills. I was informed that the lower end of the prairie, that I did not see, was much the richest land, and the inhabitants lived better; and were more wealthy; they are a mixture of French, Irish and Americans, generally poor and ignorant. Avoyall, at high water, is an island, elevated 30 or 40 feet above high water mark; the quantity of timbered land exceeds that of the prairie, which is likewise pretty level, but scarcely a second quality of soil. La Glass' landing, as it is called, I found about a mile and a half from the upper end of the prairie; the high lands bluff to the river. After leaving this place found the banks rise higher and higher on each side, and fit for settlements; on the right side pine woods sometimes in sight. I left the boat again about eight miles from Le Glass' landing, right side; walked two and a half miles across a point, to a Mr. Hoomes'; round the point is called 16 miles. I found the lands, through which I passed, high,

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