BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY


the next disturbance the three villages in question are not mentioned,
blame being laid by the Tattooed-serpent on the small nation of Tioux.
 Running through the history of this entire period, from 1713 to
 1729, we thus see two influences at work among the Natchez, a friendly
 attitude, at least grounded on policy, on the part of the people of the
 Grand village and the Flour village, including the supreme chiefs of
 the nation, and a hostile position maintained by the people of White
 Apple, The Hickories, and the Grigras and fostered more or less by
 English traders. There is no doubt, as Du Pratz intimates, that the
 devastation of their owns by the French was never forgotten by
 these latter, but more than all the exaction of the life of Old-hair
 must have rankled in their minds. Bienville, in spite of his long
 acquaintance with Indians, appears to have had for his motto re-
 pression rather than conciliation, and while this policy worked very
 well in dealing with the smaller tribes, such as the Chitimacha, with
 the Natchez and Chickasaw, numerous and proud people sensitive to
 insults, it was another matter. It was particularly poor policy on
 his part to insist on exacting the life of a principal Sun such as Old-
 hair, a man who, by the constitution of the Natchez nation itself,
 was immune from being put to death-especially when we consider
 that no Frenchman of prominence had died as a direct result of the
 outbreak. If, as Du Pratz claims, there was no adequate reason for his
 attack on the Natchez towns, Bienville's action was not only unwise
 but constituted a political blunder of the first magnitude. There is
 no question regarding his bravery, energy, or loyalty, and his ability
 to handle a difficult situation with success had been demonstrated in
 the first Natchez war, but like Perrier after him his aim was to con-
 trol by fear, and in pursuing it he stirred up one of the most deeply
 seated passions of the American Indian, blood-vengeance, and drew
 it down upon numbers of his French compatriots. Nor do his cam-
 paigns against the Chickasaw show generalship of a very high order,
 at least when Indians were the objects of attack. Perhaps, like his
 brother Iberville, he was naturally more of a sailor than a soldier.
 Be this as it may, there can be little doubt that his drastic measures
 during the third Natchez war in some measure paved the way for
 the great uprising of 1729.
 A great obstacle to this uprising was removed in the death of the
 Tattooed-serpent in 1725 a and his brother, the great Sun, three years
 later.b The former was head war chief of the nation, and such was
 the confidence and love of his brother that he was given practical
 control over the entire people and by some Frenchmen was supposed
 to be actually the head chief. Whether from real friendship or from
policy these two were firm friends of the French, and the media


e Du Pratz, Hist. de La Louisiane, Iii, 242, note.


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[BULL. 43


a See pp. 144-157.