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7/ aid of the Choctaws, and in so doing they wanto possess themselves of all the plunder. Accordingly they violated their treaty, and before the time on which the massacre was to have been consummated, and upon a time when they were to meet at the French garrison to pay the tribute that had been so unjustly required of them, and which they intended should serve as a pretext for their assemblage at the Fort, they, with one impulse, seized the knives, axes &c of the garrison, which, with their own instruments of wrath, they soon effected a complete and an entire massacre of their self constituted masters, and appropriated to themselves their plunder.

At the time stipulated by the treaty between them and the Choctaws, the latter appeared, but found the work completed in which they were to have participated. In compliance with the treaty, however, they demanded half the plunder; but this was refused, and they immediately, to punish such a flagrant violation of Justice, declared war upon the Natchez nation. The latter being highly elated and flattered by their recent success, and stimulated by a desire to retain the plunder, felt able to successfully defend themselves. In this, they finally found themselves disappointed, and to prevent the entire destruction of their tribe, they precipitably left the country in the possession of their enemy, whither they went the Choctaws know not.

Not long after this event, the Choctaws were visited by an embassy from the Tensas Indians*, a small tribe living at a place, now known as Lake Louis or Louiss's Lake which is one of the boundaries of Cicily Island in the parish of O. Cattahoola, {Louisiana,) informing them that the Natchez Tribe had settled in their country, and had become so troublesome that they had called upon them (the Choctaws) for assistance to drive them away.

The Choctaws, after taking the matter into consideration, declined. They felt that they had sufficiently punished them for their perfidy, and that nothing could be gained by a further pursuit of them.

However much the Tensas regretted the refusal of aid from the Choctaws, they made it a virtue of necessity to war with the intruding Natchez, which happened not to be for a long time, for other French troops, shortly after the massacre, re-took possession of the Natchez country. To these the Tensas tribe applied for assistance and did not apply in vain. The French were anxious to revenge the unopposed slaughter of their friends and eagerly embraced this opportunity not to oblige the Tensas, but to satiate their revenge by a total destruction of those of the Natchez nation which had escaped from the Choctaws.

With the Tensas Indians as pilots they descended the Miss. to Red river, up it to Black river, up it to the mouth of Byou Louis, the outlet of Lake Louis, and up this as far as prudence or necessity required. Being thus guided by persons who well knew the country and the camp of the Natchez, the destruction _______________

• A clan of the monumental Indians, from what I can learn.