228 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 43

other Frenchmen swam across the river, and having reached a cypress swamp
where a master carpenter mnmed Couillard was working on wood for buildings,
they informed him what had passed, and warned him to save himself.a
 Couillard profited by this advice, killed two Natchez hunters that
were with him, and descended to New Orleans in a large pirogue,
although greeted with shots from the captured batteaux on the way.
 The adventure of still another, a soldier named Navarre, is thus
related by Du Pratz:
 Navarre told them [the French soldiers at the Tonicas] that a girl with whom
he was very much in love cnnie to him early in the morning and warned him
that the French were going to be killed by the Natchez; that he should escape
promptly and that lie had no time to lose: Ihat she brought him a pistol, pow-
der, and balls, so that if he was attacked in escaping he might defend himself
andl die like a warrior if he had to die. IIe mounted on horseback to inform
his commandant, but he met another Frenchman escaping, who told him that
the Natchez had struck the blow. Navarre concealed himself in the woods
until evening, and at night went to the French establishment to find some way
to embark. Seeing a light in a French house he went there, but perceiving that
it was full of natives he fled, and seeing plainly that it was not possible for
him to escape (o that side he went that night to the house of his mistress, who
concealed him in the depths of the wood, where she and her companions nour-
ished him for eight to ten days, and then brought him provisions for his jour-
ney, showed him the road to take to the Tonicas, and she said to him: We pre-
sume that the French will exact vengeance for the death of their brothers, but
if you return with them try to have me to live with you." b
 The actions of the Indians during and after the massacre are best
related by Charlevoix and Le Petit, whose testimony in substance is
as follows:
 During the massacre the head chief of the Natchez, the great Sun,
was seated calmly under the tobacco shed of the India Company.
There his warriors brought to him the head of the commandant,
about which they ranged those of the principal Frenchmen of the
post, leaving their bodies a prey to the dogs, the buzzards, and other
carnivorous birds. They did not illtreat the negro and Indian slaves
that surrendered to them. In fact, before executing their plot they
had made sure of several negroes, among whom were two com-
manders. These had persuaded the rest that under the Indians they
would be free; that our women and children would become their
slaves, and that there was nothing to fear from the French of the
other posts, as the massacre would be carried out simultaneously
everywhere. It seems, however, that the secret had been confided to
only a small number for fear of its taking wind. Their real reason
for the good treatment accorded to the negroes, men as well as women,
was their desire to sell them to the English in Carolina. The white
women, however, were treated with the utmost indignity during the
two or three months of their captivity, the least miserable being
those who knew how to sew, who were kept busy making shirts,
 D" umont, Mem. Hist. sur La Louisiane, 1I, 150-153.
 "Du Pratz, Hist. de La Louisiane, II, 26, 207.
 'Those assigned to the White Woman, however, were treated with great kindness, both
 by her and the wife of the great Sun ; cf. Charlevoix, Hist. Louisiana, vi, 113.


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