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FLEUR DE LYS
lake is fully ten leagues in circumference and two leagues across. The next day we continued our route, always keeping to the channel of Pontchartrain, and one league from there found another river that the savages guiding us called Tandgepao,45 which in savage signifies white corn; the water in it is very good to drink. Three leagues farther, on the same channel, one finds a bayouque, or stagnant water, called Castein Bayouque,40 which means the place of fleas.47 The next day we left there and came five leagues away to a river that flows into the lake, which the savages call Taleatcha,48 which in French is Riviere-aux-Pierres; in it we found some of those shells, or cockles, about which I have already spoken, with which the savages scrape their boats after they have been burned. In these cockles, pearls are found. We gave two dozen of them to M. de Bienville, who was with us. This river is only three leagues distant from Pointe-aux-Coquilles. Here we left Lake Pontchartrain and took our way on this river, which conducted us, at a half league from there, to another of its branches that flows down to Isle-aux-Pois, only three leagues away. Here we spent the night because of the conveniences of the river, whose water is
46	The Tangipahoa River flowing into Lake Pontchartrain from Tangipahoa Parish.
40 Castinc Bayou, near Mandeville, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Margry (Decouvertes, V, 387) gives Castimbayouquc, which is wrong. Castein Bayouque, or Casteinbayouque, is derived from Choctaw kasbti, "flea,” and bayuk, “bayou,” according to Read, Louisiana Place-Names, p. 17.
47	". . . lieu des puces/’ Spofford ms., p. 24. The Clermont ms. has a blur for puces, and Margry, having to guess, gave “lieu d’espaces,” which makes no sense. Decouveries, V, 3S7.
48	Pearl River, which is not a translation of the Indian name. Margry (Decou-vertes, V, 387) gives Tulcascha. But all ms. entries have Taleatcha, derived, according to Read, from Choctaw tali} “rock,” and hacha, "river.” Louisiana Place-Names, p. 1 j.
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AND CALUMET
very good to drink and is of great help for all Frenchmen who come through these parts, for the water of Lake Pontchartrain is tainted with tidal salt water that comes into it. The next day, leaving Isle-aux-Pois, we passed through some little rigolets,49 which end up at the sea three leagues away, near Baye de St. Louis. We slept at the entrance of the bay, close by a spring of fresh water that flows down from the mountains and that nowadays is called La Belle Fontaine.50 We hunted for a few days on the shore\>f this bay. We loaded our longboats with the buffalo and deer that we killed, and the next day we brought them to our fort.
As soon as we arrived, we gave M. de Sauvol, the commandant, a detailed account of the discovery of the Missicipy, which we had found incomparably beautiful, both for its width and for the charms of its banks. M. de Bienville made him a present of the pearls we had found in the cockles. M. de Sauvol told us that he would give them to M. d’Hyberville. But we never learned afterwards what became of them or whether they were valuable.
Several days afterwards, the savages who had guided
40 "Des pctits rigolets.” Rigolet is a diminutive of French rigok, "channgL” These little rigolets are not the same channel as the Little Rigolets cutting off Rabbit Island, on modern maps. A detailed inset on Delisle’s “Carte de la Louisiane” has Petits Chenaux (Pctits Rigolets) marked in the position of East Pearl River; to the south is the main pass marked Gr. Chenaux (present-day Rigolets). Therefore, I believe the French used Pctits Rigolets for East Pearl River.
M D’Anvitle’s "Carte de la Louisiane” shows a Fontaine (small crock or spring) in the neighborhood of the present-day town of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. But Belle Fontaine was a common place name throughout the province of Louisiana, and I am not sure about this location. The most southern point between Ocean Springs and Pascagoula is still callcd Belle Fontaine Point, and there is a Bellefontaine on the west shore of Mobile Bay, both pronounced Belle Fountain by seamen I have interviewed.
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