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9 daughter had acted in the tragedy till after the slaughter of her father and friends, when she communicated it. As she had nothing left, (lover, father, friends, all gone,) to make life desirable to her, she went to a neighbouring lake and drowned herself.

Note: - the time at which the massacre happened is not definitely known; some of the French writers say that is occured in 1717 others say 1727.- Dr. Cely informed John Fletcher Esq. of Natchez that he saw a Mrs. Blanch in 1824 who was 108 years old, she told him that her breasts had just commenced growing or making a swell in her bosom at the time of the battle. If we suppose her to have been 11 years old at the time, then it must have happened in 1717.

As to the locality of the French fort, which is not precisely known, this woman stated that it was at a point, from which the river, both up and down, could be seen at one view, and the only place known that answers this description is the upper end of Ellis' Clifts. With regard to the massacre, this woman knew of no one having escaped except herself. She was not in the fort at the time, and as soon as hostilities commenced she ran down the bluff to the river and crossed it in a canoe and continued on the opposite shore till she found it convenient or safe to depart, when she floated down the river to Baton Rouge at which place there was a french settlement.

To communicate to you all that I designed in the outset I have been compelled to encroach upon a third sheet, and not wishing to make you pay postage on blank paper I will give you some other Indian matter which possibly you may find use for, at some time or other.

While in Virginia I investigated the mounds as far as I....and made notes of what I discovered. The mounds of V[irginia]...marked a border line, between the Atlantic people.....great western world; that is, the mounds do not approach nearer the Atlantic coast than the falls of the larger rivers. The Mounds of Virginia are much older than any I have examined in the South. This is evident from the less preserved condition of the bones which they contain. Those who built them differed from those of the South in their sepullchral ceremonies. Mr. Jefferson, in his notes, tells us that he examined a mound on the Rivanna river, and that the contained bones had evidently been thrown, confusedly, into a heap, as though they had been gathered from a battle field. In support of this opinion he states that in several instances, discovered the foot bones within the cranium. That Mr. Jefferson's opinions cannot always be relied upon will be seen presently.

I examined a mound on the farm of Mr. Joel Watkins on the Appomattox river. It had been six or seven times the subject of examination before by visit, and upon some occasions by intelligent gentlemen; nevertheless, nothing was discovered but bones in disorder and confusion. Perhaps idle curiosity, a stimulus entirely insufficient for close and patient observation, impelled to the examination. And this may be assigned as the reason for our present paucity of information upon the contents of these human repositiories. I descended in the Mound but a few inches before I came to

PS Letters to N. Orleans care of John McHenry Esq. will find me