SWANTONi INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 283

 it is within easy reach of their guns, they fire and kill it. They kill many of
 them in this manner, and it must be admitted that they are more skillful than the
 French as well in the chase of the wild buffalo as in that of the bear and deer."
 In 1714 St. Denis was dispatched to Texas to examine the Spanish
 settlements in that quarter, and in order to aid him in the undertak-
 ing P6nicaut was sent to the Acolapissa to bring back the Natchitoches
 and reestablish them in their former seats. This removal after so
 many years of intimacy, perhaps owing to the loss in fighting strength
 that it involved, or perhaps because they saw a chance of possessing
 themselves of the Natchitoches women and children, moved the
 Acolapissa to fall upon their long-time friends, slay 17, and capture
 50 women and girls. The remainder scattered and rejoined P6nicaut
 during the night, who led them to St. Denis. That officer was much
 angered by this action and promised at some future time to take
 vengeance on the Acolapissa and restore the captives.b Whether any
 active steps were taken in this direction does not appear, but it is
 probable that the Natchitoches women were recovered without open
 rupture, for the Acolapissa are numbered among those tribes which
 cane to sing the calumet before M. de 1'Epinay in 1717,c and in 1718,
 according to P6nicaut, they followed the example of the other
 friendly tribes by coming over to the Mississippi and settling on the
 east side, 13 leagues above New Orleans.a Perhaps P6nicaut is
 slightly mistaken in giving this date, as they are not mentioned in
 La Harpe's account of his ascent of the Mississippi and Red rivers in
 1719.6 At any rate, they were met there in 1722 by Father Charle-
 voix, who has the following to say of them:
 The 4th we arrived before noon at the great village of the Colapissas. It is
 the finest village of Louisiana, yet they reckon in it but 200 warriors, who have
 the character of being very brave. Their cabins are in the shape of a pavilion,
 like those of the Sioux, and they seldom make any fire in them. They have a
 double roof; that in the inside is made of the leaves of the palmetto (lattanior)
 interwoven together; that on the outside is made of mats.
 The cabin of the chief is 36 feet in diameter. I had not before seen one so
 large, for that of the great chief of the Natchez is but 30 feet. As soon as we
 appeared in sight of this village they beat a drum, and we had scarcely landed
 before the chief sent his compliments to me. I was surprised, in advancing
 toward the village, to see the drummer dressed in a long gown, half white
 and half red, with a white sleeve on the red side and red sleeve on the white.
 I inquired into the origin of this custom, and they told me it was not ancient;
 that a governor of Louisiana had made a present of a drum to these savages,
 who have always been our faithful allies, and that this kind of beadle's habit
was their own invention. The women are better shaped here than in Canada,
and their way of dressing themselves is also somewhat more becoming.f

 a P(nicaut in Margry, Ddcouvertes, v, 467-409.
 bMargry, Decouvertes, v, 496. 'Penicaut dates this two years too early.
 Ibid., 547.
 Ibid., 558.
 lIbid., vi, 243 et seq.
 f Charlevoix's Journal in French, Hist. Coll. La., 177. 1851.