SWANTON INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 35

stocks within a very limited area, which is possible but rather unlikely
under the circumstances.
 The Chitimacha seem always to have constituted one compact
people, the only divisions being into villages. A few early narratives
couple with this tribe the Yagenatcito, a name signifying in Choctaw
' Big country,' but there is no clew as to what tribe was intended by
it. Possibly it refers to the Opelousa or the Atakapa, but more likely
it was used to cover a part of the Chitimacha. In that case, however,
the distinction was probably imposed from without rather than by the
people themselves.
 Of the Atakapa proper there were at least three bands, on the Ver-
inilion. Mermentau. and Calcasieu rivers, respectively. It is likely
that the small Opelousa tribe, near the present city of that name,
spoke a language belonging to this stock. Sibley states that they
possessed a Ianguage different from all others," but understood
Atakapa," which shows at least that they could not have been Mus-
khogeali. because in that case their trade language would have been
Mobilian, and Sibley would have noted the fact as he has in so many
other instances.' Westward of the Sabine, on the lower Neches and
Trinity were a people called by the Spaniards Orcoquisac. That
portion of their country about Galveston bay was the scene of the
adventuress of Simars de Belle-Isle, a Frenchman abandoned by the
vessel in which he was making the voyage to Louisiana. After wan-
d ,riing about for some time and being on the point of starving,
he fell in with a band of these people, by whom he was held
captive until rescued by the Hasinai and taken to St. Denis at
Natchitoches. Later he acted as La Harpe's guide when the latter
was sent to examine the feasibility of establishing a French post in
that country, and from his own account preserved in Margry and the
narratives of La Harpe we have considerable information regarding
the life and manners of these Indians.c Unfortunately, although he
declares that he was familiar with the language, M. de Belle-Isle has
not left us any specimen of it. The fact that these people are also
called Atakapa may have some significance, but it is very slight.
At a later period the Spaniards established a mission among the
Orcoquisac, but it was soon given up. and the tribe left in compara-
tive obscurity for a long period. This much we do learn, that the
Orcoquisac were distinct from the Caddoan tribes and in manners
and customs resembled the Atakapa very closely as well as the
Karankawa and other people on or near the coast of Texas. All
that we knew of their language, however, is the name of the tribe
itself: Yegsa. the term which they applied to the Spaniards; and
 k Ann. 9th Cong.. 2d sess.. 1086, 1852.
 Ibid.. 1070 rtl rlq.
 I Margry, ID)couvertes, vi, 320-347; La Harpe, Jour. Hist., 263-276, 1831.