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316
SPAIN IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY, 1785-17?4
Abenaquis had arrived lately among the Chickasaws, bringing messages of peace to them as well as to the Choctaws. While they were with Ogoulayacabe, talking and showing one another the glass bead collars of the other nations, some of which had been sent by the parents of those who had been killed by the Chickasaws last winter, and getting ready to discuss peace terms, there arrived among the Chickasaws at that moment two Choctaw parties, one from the village of the Abeka and the other from the village called Anchaoula. Ogoulayacabe proposed that they assist at the conference, but they refused under the excuse that they did not want to appear suspicious and went 011. Whereupon the northern nations suspected some treason and said to the Chickasaws that they could see very well that they were their enemies and that consequently they would go away, which they did immediately. It is said that a party of them went to warn their nations and that the others are trailing the two Choctaw parties which cannot escape being destroyed, or at least so one presumes.
I received your last three letters dated the 4th and 14th of June last. I am pleased to see by one of them that you have made up your mind to send some rice to St. Etienne and that you have ordered me to send for it so that I may distribute it to the Indians when they come to the fort. Thereafter I hope that they will not pester me so much. Besides, in connection with your orders, when I saw the supply of corn getting low I sent Darbone?s small boat to fetch me the corn I had bought from the Sieur Djois, as I told you in my previous letter. If it does not get too dry this summer, I expect and I hope this year to find among the various traders around this post at least one hundred minots of com. I shall get the rest from the inhabitant* of St. Etienne, which will be profitable for the King in view of the cost of shipping. Next year I hope that we shall be able to supply this product in ample quantities to fill the needs of the traders, the employees, and the troops.
Many chiefs came to the tort and, as you know, I have to give them supplies for their warriors, their women, their children, and themselves, and besides, have them at my table, as Monsieur Guilm&r may have told you. This will come very high in the course of the year. However, I have done it all the time I have been in the nation at my own expense. Yet may I be so bold as to hope, now that things are on a different footing, that you will be so good as to consider my request, which I do not doubt you will find reasonable.
I beg you to send me your orders concerning the rations which I should give to the chiefs and what they are to be. Tell me whether it should be as at New Orleans and Mobile, because they always ask for bread, rice, and meat.
Seditious speeches are beginning to die down among the Choctaw
PROBLEMS OF FRONTIER DEFENSE, 1792-1794
nation, although the warriers are still very impertinent. But this is caused by drink and it is not very feasible to deprive them of it. However, a rather timely threat made by one of our great medal chiefs named Totehouman, to kill all the animals of the traders living in that nation if Favre?s animals at TombecW, were killed, has been sufficient to restrain them. The others are not saying anything and besides, I hope the food which we give them will cause them to think.
I do not know where we are going to put the armourer. I suppose he ought to be lodged in the fort as is the surgeon. The fort is so small and the buildings so much one on top of the other that there is not much leeway for such lodgings. The oven touches the storehouse and without a chimney is likely to set fire to it whenever sparks fly from it. The storekeeper also asks for a lodging and requested me to speak to you about it.
I have also told you in one of my previous letters how necessary it was to have a shed for the Indians. The interpreter requested an apartment at the far end of it. I hope that you will be so kind as to let me know your disposition in this regard. As for the surgeon, Broutin told me that there were not any good ones at Mobile. If one could be found in the city, he would surely be better, according to what I am told, than the one whom I am to get.
Up to now the Choctaws have not discussed the death of the Texas Indian who was killed and scalped by seven Alibamons. In a few days I am going to visit them expressly for the purpose of finding out about it from a trader of the nation, a creole from Mobile called Chastan, who has spent at least six months wintering with the Choctaws. When he arrived here he did not speak to me about it, which makes me think that the Choctaws have had nothing to do with it.
As it is very cold here now and as the sentries ought to have capes, I beg you to give orders to send up four or five of them.
The officers also request candles, which I did not want to grant them without orders from you, although the Sieur Palau told me f that they were given at Plamine. I shall wait for your orders on this matter, as well as for the candles, because there are none in the King?s storehouse.
I	have just been told that the remainder of the Talapoosa party had crossed the river about twelve leagues above the post. Some Choctaws who were hunting in that direction, reported that their dogs had barked all night. This worried them and as soon as it was daylight they went to investigate. They saw the grass crushed down and judged that many people had passed by there and were going in a north-westerly direction. This makes me presume that they want to reach the Cumberland road or attack the whites who live