SWANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 361

Ashnoya and his son Bernard also appear frequently as parties to
the sale of lands in the same neighborhood and probably belonged
to the same division, though they may have had a separate village."
In November, 1760, it is recorded that a Mr. Fusilier de la Clair pur-
chased from Rinemo [Kinemo], chief of the Atakapa village, called
in French Lamonier," the said village and land depending thereon
of 2 leagues in front from north to south, limited on the west by the
river Vermilion and on the east by the river Teche. About the same
time three or four other purchases were made from the Atakapa
Indians, by which a very large proportion of the land of that district
and nearly or quite all of the valuable lands on the river Teche were
embraced. The Spanish governor, O'Reilly, however, passed regu-
lations or ordinances by which no grant of land in Opelousas, Ataka-
pas, or Natchitoches, could exceed 1 league square, and this ordinance
appears to have been applied to a certain degree to purchases already
made. Many tracts of land were purchased from the Atakapa In-
dians about the time Louisiana was transferred to the United States,
and some subsequent to that change at a time when it was known on
good information that those Indians were reduced to a single village,
the inhabitants of which were short of one hundred. In some in-
stances six or eight distinct tracts were sold by the same individual
Indian.
 In spite of the sales above alluded to, the Vermilion village was
not abandoned until early in the last century. In 1779 this band
furnished 60 men to Galvez's expedition against the British forts on
the Mississippi.'
 The next important band of Atakapa toward the west lived on
Mermenton river and its branches. They furnished 120 men to Gal-
vez's expedition." In 1787 we are informed that the principal Ata-
kapa village in that district was at the Island of Woods," later
known as the Island of Lacasine," from an Indian reputed to be its
chief. It extended the entire length of this island, but the principal
settlement was at the upper end. About 1799 it was abandoned and
the people moved to a village on the Nementou (Mermentou). It was
probably shortly after this that Lacasine was succeeded by C6lestine
la Tortue. The latter appears to have been before that time chief
of a village on the prairie of Nezpique." His father, who had been
chief before him, was named La Tortue, whence the son's last name.
Mention is also made of a chief Nementou, but it is uncertain whether
this was the native name of C6lestine, a title derived from the name
of his village, or another person altogether. It is stated plainly that
this was the last Atakapa village among the eastern Atakapa, and
 'According to the Chitimacha there was once an Atakapa village on the site of
Loreauville.
 bAmer. State Papers, Pub. Lands, II1, 111.