114 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. the Bayagoulas, a Mississippi tribe now extinct, is also particu- larly mentioned ; and traces of it are found amongst the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and the Caddoes of Red River. Du Pratz asserts that the Taensas and the Chitimachas, both originally living on the west side of the Mississippi, were kin- dred tribes of the Natches. But we have a vocabulary of the Chitimachas, in which no affinity is perceived with that of the Natches. They seem to have been alone of their stock in that region, and according to their tradition had come from the west. In the year 1729, on account of a threatened encroachment on one of their villages, in the expectation of being joined by the other Indian nations, they unexpectedly attacked and mas- sacred more than two hundred French inhabitants. They were a few months after besieged in their principal fort by the French and the Choctaws, and driven from their country. They retired to the west of the Mississippi, where the French pur- sued them ; and they experienced such losses, that they have ever since ceased to exist as a distinct nation. What contrib- uted most to its extinction, was the capture of the greater part of the women, who were carried to St. Domingo and sold as slaves. The survivors took refuge at first among the Chicasas, and subsequently among the Creeks, with whom they are now incorporated. They are reduced to about three hundred souls, and have preserved their language amongst themselves, but speak Muskhogee ; and it is only through that medium that a communication can be held with them, as there is not a single interpreter of their language. When, in the year 1826, Isahlakteh, the Natches chief, was asked whether he was a Sun, he immediately answered that he was not, for his father was one. But he was less disposed or less ready to answer the inquiries concerning the creed of his tribe at this time. After some conversation between him and Colonel Hambly, this gentleman told me that he said, that the sacred fire was no longer preserved, and that the sun was to them an object of respect but not of worship. We know but little more than the names of the other small tribes, which formerly inhabited the seashore between the Mo- bile and the Mississippi, and the two banks of this last river, or which are still found west of the Mississippi, and within
