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Show 78 n1en is, close leather pantaloons, and J hunting shirt, or frock of the same. They never ren1ain long enough in the same place to plant any thing: the stnall Cayenne pepper grows · spontaneously in the country, with which, and s01ne wild herbs and fruits, particularly a bean that grows in great plenty on a small tree rescinbling a willow, called n1askcto, the won1en cook their bnffaloe beef in a manner that would be grateful to an English squire. They alternate1y occupy the i1nmense space of country fron1 the Trinity and Braces, crossing the Red river, to the heads of Arkansa and ~~1issouri, to river Grand, and beyond it, about St. a Fe, and over the dividing ridge on the waters of the 'iV estern ocean, \\·here they say they have seen large peroques, with n1asts to them; in describing which, they make a drawil1g of a ship, with all its sails and rigging; and they describe a place where they have seen vessels ascending a river, over which \Vas a draw bridge that opened to give then1 a passage. Their native language of sounds differs from the la1 - guage 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 n1uch among themselves. They have a number of Spanish men and women among them, who are slaves, and who they 1nade prisoners when young. An elderly gentleman now living at Natchitoches, who, some years ago, carried on a trade with the Hietans, a few clays ago related to me the following story: About 20 years ago a party ofthese Indians passed over the river Grand to Chewawa, the residence of the governor-general of what is called the five internal provinces; lay in mnbush for an opportunity, and m~de ~risoner the governor's daughter, a young lady, gomg 111 her coach to mass, and brought her off. The governor sent a message to him (my informant) \\:ith a thousand dollars, for the purpose of recovering h1s daughter: he immediately dispatched a confiden- 79 tial trader, then in his employ, Yvith the atnount of the 1000 dollars in merchandise, who repd.ired to the nation, found her, and purchased her ransom; but, to his great surprise, she refused to return with hitn to her father, and sent by hin1 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 1node of life, and ·w~s well treated by her husband; and that she should be more unhappy by returning to her father, under these circumstances, than by re1naining where she was. Which message was conveyed to her father, whorewarded the trader by a present of 300 dollars n1ore for ~is tr~uble and fidelity; and his daughter is now livmg With her Indian husband in the nation, by whom she has three children. NATCHITOCHES, formerly lived wht>re the town of Natchitoches is now situated, which took its name from them. An elderly French gentleinan lately informed me, he ren1embered when they wer~ 600 men strong. I believe it is now 98 years since the French. first established then1selves at Natchitoch ,· ever smce, these Indians have been their steady and faithful friends. After the massacre of the French inhabitants of Natchez, by the Natchez Indians, in ~ 728,. those Indians fled frmn the French, after be- . mg remfOt:ced, and came up Red river, and camped about 6 miles below the town of Natchitoches near the river, by the side of a small lake of clear ;vater, and erected a mound of considerable size, where it n?w remains. Monsieur St. Dennie, a French Canad~ an, was then commandant at Natchitoches; the Indians called him the Big Foot, were fond of him, for he ~as a brave man. St. Dennie, with a few French soldiers, ~d what militia he could muster, joined by the Natchitoches Indians' attacked the Natchez, an . |