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87 1729.

  “M. de Chopart, commandant of Fort Rosalia, out of mere spite against the Indians, ordered them to remove from their village, (twelve miles below the present site of Natchez) under pretence that he wished to build a town on the same site.  The Indians prevailed on him to let them remain in their houses till after the ensuing harvest, on condition that each hut should pay him a fowl & a basket of corn. At the time appointed for the payment of this tribute, which was the last of November, the Indians having previously concerted their plan with wonderful secrecy, seized upon the fort, which fell into hands with very little opposition.  M. Chopart fell by the hand of one of the meanest of the Indians, the Chiefs disdaining to stain their hands with his blood.  The number of the French slain on this occasion was nearly seven hundred.  The forts & settlements on the Yazoo & Washita shared the same fate, and so great was the carnage that scarcely a Frenchman escaped to tell the News.” Ling’s Chr: 91.