A Half-Century of Conflict, vol 2 | Page 5

French post at
Natchitoches with six soldiers and a sergeant [Footnote: For an
interesting contemporary map of the French establishment at
Natchitoches, see Thomassy, _Géologie pratique de la Louisiane._].
His errand was to explore the country, open trade if possible with the
Spaniards, and establish another post high up Red River. He and his
party soon came upon that vast entanglement of driftwood, or rather of
uprooted forests, afterwards known as the Red River raft, which choked
the stream and forced them to make their way through the inundated
jungle that bordered it. As they pushed or dragged their canoes through
the swamp, they saw with disgust and alarm a good number of snakes,
coiled about twigs and boughs on the right and left, or sometimes over
their heads. These were probably the deadly water-moccason, which in
warm weather is accustomed to crawl out of its favorite element and
bask itself in the sun, precisely as described by La Harpe. Their nerves
were further discomposed by the splashing and plunging of alligators
lately wakened from their wintry torpor. Still, they pushed painfully on,
till they reached navigable water again, and at the end of the month
were, as they thought, a hundred and eight leagues above Natchitoches.
In four days more they reached the Nassonites.
These savages belonged to a group of stationary tribes, only one of
which, the Caddoes, survives to our day as a separate community. Their
enemies the Chickasaws, Osages, Arkansas, and even the distant
Illinois, waged such deadly war against them that, according to La
Harpe, the unfortunate Nassonites were in the way of extinction, their
numbers having fallen, within ten years, from twenty-five hundred
souls to four hundred. [Footnote: Bénard de la Harpe, in Margry, VI.

264.]
La Harpe stopped among them to refresh his men, and build a house of
cypress-wood as a beginning of the post he was ordered to establish;
then, having heard that a war with Spain had ruined his hopes of trade
with New Mexico, he resolved to pursue his explorations.
With him went ten men, white, red, and black, with twenty-two horses
bought from the Indians, for his journeyings were henceforth to be by
land. The party moved in a northerly and westerly course, by hills,
forests, and prairies, passed two branches of the Wichita, and on the 3d
of September came to a river which La Harpe calls the southwest
branch of the Arkansas, but which, if his observation of latitude is
correct, must have been the main stream, not far from the site of Fort
Mann. Here he was met by seven Indian chiefs, mounted on excellent
horses saddled and bridled after the Spanish manner. They led him to
where, along the plateau of the low, treeless hills that bordered the
valley, he saw a string of Indian villages, extending for a league and
belonging to nine several bands, the names of which can no longer be
recognized, and most of which are no doubt extinct. He says that they
numbered in all six thousand souls; and their dwellings were high,
dome-shaped structures, built of clay mixed with reeds and straw,
resting, doubtless, on a frame of bent poles. [Footnote: Beaurain says
that each of these bands spoke a language of its own. They had horses
in abundance, descended from Spanish stock. Among them appear to
have been the Ouacos, or Huecos, and the Wichitas,--two tribes better
known as the Pawnee Picts. See Marcy, _Exploration of Red River._]
With them were also some of the roving Indians of the plains, with
their conical teepees of dressed buffalo-skin.
The arrival of the strangers was a great and amazing event for these
savages, few of whom had ever seen a white man. On the day after
their arrival the whole multitude gathered to receive them and offer
them the calumet, with a profusion of songs and speeches. Then warrior
after warrior recounted his exploits and boasted of the scalps he had
taken. From eight in the morning till two hours after midnight the din
of drums, songs, harangues, and dances continued without relenting,

with a prospect of twelve hours more; and La Harpe, in desperation,
withdrew to rest himself on a buffalo-robe, begging another Frenchman
to take his place. His hosts left him in peace for a while; then the chiefs
came to find him, painted his face blue, as a tribute of respect, put a cap
of eagle-feathers on his head, and laid numerous gifts at his feet. When
at last the ceremony ended, some of the performers were so hoarse
from incessant singing that they could hardly speak. [Footnote:
Compare the account of La Harpe with that of the Chevalier de
Beaurain; both are in Margry, VI. There is an abstract in _Journal
historique._]
La Harpe was told by