THE NATCHEZ TRADITIONS.
NATCHEZ--MIZEZIBBEE; OR, THE PARENT OF MANY WATERS--INDIAN MOUNDS--THE
CHILD OF THE SUN--TREATMENT OF THE FEMALES--POETIC MARRIAGES--UNCHASTE
MAIDS AND PURE WIVES--WALKING ARCHIVES--THE PROFANE FIRE--ALAHOPLECHIA
--OYELAPE--THE CHIEF WITH A BEARD.
The little city of Natchez is built upon a bluff some three hundred
feet in elevation above the Mississippi River, and immediately upon its
brink. It receives its name from a tribe of Indians once resident in
the country; and who were much further advanced in civilization than
their more warlike neighbors, the Choctaws and the Chickasaws. The
country around is hilly and beautiful, fertile and salubrious. The
population was intelligent and refined, and was remarkable for having
more wealth than any community outside of a large city, in the United
States, of the same amount of population. The town of Natchez (for,
properly speaking, it is no more) consists of some three or four
thousand inhabitants, and has not increased to any considerable extent,
for many years.
Beyond the river, in Louisiana, is an alluvial plain extending for
fifty miles, through which meander many small streams, or bayous, as
they are termed in the language of the country. Upon most of these the
surface of the soil is slightly elevated above the plane of the swamp,
and is remarkably fertile. Most of these were, at the commencement of
the late war, in a high state of cultivation as cotton plantations. As
in many other places, the river here has changed its bed by cutting off
a large bend immediately opposite the town, creating what is known as
Lake Concordia. This lake was formerly the bed of the river, and
describes almost a complete circle of some twelve miles in diameter. On
both sides of this lake beautiful plantations, with splendid
improvements, presented a view from the bluff at Natchez extremely
picturesque when covered with luxuriant crops of corn and cotton. The
fertility of the soil is such that these crops are immensely heavy; and
when the cotton-plant has matured its fruit, and the pent-up lint in
the large conical balls has burst them open, exposing their white
treasure swelling out to meet the sun's warm rays, and the parent stock
to the first frost of autumn has thrown off her foliage, and all these
broad fields are one sheet of lovely white, as far as the eye can
view--the scene is lovely beyond description; and when the same rich
scene was presented extending along the banks of the great river, with
the magnificent steamers resting at the wharf below, and others
cleaving the current in proud defiance of the mighty volume of hurrying
waters--the splendor and magnificence of the whole sublimated the
feelings as we viewed it in wonder.
The river, the bluff, and the lake are there; but waste and desolation
frown on these, and the fat earth's rich fruits are yielded no more.
Fanaticism's hot breath has breathed upon it, and war's red hand (her
legitimate offspring) has stricken down the laborer; tillage has
ceased, and gaunt poverty and hungry want only are left in her train.
When the great La Salle moored his little fleet at the foot of this
bluff, ascended to its summit, and looked over this then forest-clad
plain, did he contemplate the coming future of this beautiful discovery
of his genius and enterprise? When he looked upon the blue smoke
curling above the tall tree-tops along the lake, in the far distance,
as it ascended from the wigwams of the Natchez, the wild denizens of
this interminable forest, did his prophetic eye perceive these lovely
fields, happy homes, and prosperous people, who came after him to make
an Eden of this chosen spot of all the earth? and did it stretch on to
contemplate the ruin and desolation which overspreads it now? How blest
is man that he sees not beyond to-day!
Here he first met the Natchez, and viewed with wonder the flat heads
and soft, gazelle eyes of this strange people. They welcomed his
coming, and tendered him and his people a home. From them he learned
the extent of the great river below, and that it was lost in the great
water that was without limit and had no end. These Indians, according
to their traditions, had once inhabited, as a mighty nation, the
country extending from near the city of Mexico to the Rio Grande, and
were subjects of the Aztec empire of Mexico. They had been persecuted
and oppressed, and determined, in grand council, to abandon the country
and seek a home beyond the Mizezibbee, or Parent-of-many-waters, which
the word signifies.
Their exodus commenced in a body. They were many days in assembling
upon the east bank of the Rio Grande; and thence commenced their long
march. They abandoned their homes and the graves of their ancestors for
a new one in the lovely region they found on the hills extending from
the mouth of the Yazoo to Baton Rouge. Their principal town and seat of
empire was located eleven miles below Natchez, on the banks of Second
Creek, two miles from the Mississippi River. It is a delightful spot of
high table-land, with a small strip of level low-land immediately upon
the margin of the dimpling little stream of sweet water. Upon this flat
they erected the great mound for their temple of the Sun, and the
depository of the holy fire, so sacred in their worship. At each point
of the compass they erected smaller mounds for the residences of their
chief, or child of the Sun, and his ministers of state. In the great
temple upon the principal mound they deposited the fire of holiness,
which they had borne unextinguished from the deserted temple in Mexico,
and began to build their village. Parties went forth to establish other
villages, and before a great while they were located in happy homes in
a land of abundance. They formed treaties of amity with their powerful
but peaceable neighbors, the Choctaws, and ere long with the Chickasaws
and other minor tribes, east, and below them, on the river, the
Tunicas, Houmas, and others; for the country abounded with little
bands, insignificant and powerless.
These Indians revered, as more than mortal, their great chief, whom
they called the child of the Sun. They had a tradition that when they
were a great nation, in Mexico, they were divided into parties by feuds
among their chiefs, and all their power to resist the aggressions of
their enemies was lost; consequently they had fallen under the power of
the Aztecs, who dominated them, and destroyed many of their people.
Upon one occasion, when a common enemy and a common suffering had made
them forget their quarrels, they were assembled for council. Suddenly
there appeared in their midst a white man and woman, surrounded with a
halo of light coming directly from the sun. They were all silent with
awe when this man spoke, and with such authority as to make every chief
tremble with fear. They bowed to him with reverence, and he professing
to be weary with his long journey, they conducted him with his wife to
a lodge, and bade them repose and be rested. The chiefs, in the
darkness of the night and in silence, assembled, while the celestial
pair slept, conscious of security. After long and close council, they
determined to proffer the supreme authority of the nation to this man,
sent to them by the sun. When this determination had been reached, the
chiefs, in a body, repaired to the house occupied by their mysterious
visitors and, arousing them from sleep, they formally tendered to the
man the crown and supreme authority over the chiefs, all their
villages, and all their people. At first he refused, asserting that he
knew their hearts; they carried hatred of one another, and that they
would come to hate him; then they would disobey him, and this would be
death to all the Natchez. Finally yielding to the importunities and
earnestly repeated protestations of a determination to obey him and
follow his counsels implicitly, he agreed to accept the crown upon
certain conditions. These were: first and paramount, that the Natchez
should abandon their homes and country, and follow him to a new home
which he would show them; and that they should live and conform
strictly to the laws he would establish. The principal of these were:
the sovereign of Natchez should always and forever be of his race, and
that if he had sons and daughters, they should not be permitted to
intermarry with each other, but only with the people of the Natchez.
The first-born of his sons should be his successor, and then the son of
his eldest daughter, and should he have no daughter, then the son of
his eldest sister, or in default of such an heir, then the eldest son
of the nearest female relative of the sovereign, and so in perpetuity.
So soon as he was inaugurated chief and supreme ruler, he went out in
the midst of the assembled multitude and called down in their presence
fire from the sun; blessed it and made it holy. He created a guard of
eight men, made them priests and gave them charge of the fire, and bid
them, under pain of death, to preserve and keep alive this holy fire.
They must tend it day and night and feed it with walnut wood, and in
their charge it went before the moving host to where he had promised
they should find a new and better home than the one they were leaving.
Another tradition says, they were aiders of the Spaniards in the
conquest of Mexico, and that these became as great persecutors of their
people as the Aztecs. But from many of their traditions connected with
their new home which extended back far beyond the conquest of Mexico,
it is thought by historians that this tradition alludes to some other
war in which they took part against their oppressors. They were
remarkable for their size and symmetry of form of their men; but like
all the race, they made slaves of their women, imposing every burden
from the cultivation of their fields to the duties of the
household--the carrying of heavy burdens and the securing of fuel for
winter. These labors served to disfigure and make their women to appear
prematurely aged and worn, and they seemed an inferior race when
compared with the men.
The laws imposed by their chief of the sun were strictly obeyed. They
compelled the telling of truth on all occasions; never to kill, but in
self-defence; never to steal, and to preserve inviolate the
marriage-vow. The marriage ceremony was poetic and impressive. No girl
ever dreamed of disobeying her parents in the choice of a husband; nor
was elopement ever heard of among them; nor did the young man presume
to thrust himself upon a family to whom, or to any member of whom, he
was not acceptable. But when the marriage was agreeable to the families
of both parties and was consequently determined upon, the head of the
family of the bride went with her and her whole family to the house of
the bridegroom, who there stood with all his family around him, when
the old man of the bridegroom's family welcomed them, by asking: "Is it
thou?" "Yes," answered the other ancient. "Sit down," continued the
other. Immediately all were seated, and a profound silence for many
minutes ensued. Then the eldest man of the party bid the groom and
bride to stand up, when he addressed them in a speech in which he
recapitulated all the duties of man and wife; informed them of the
obligations they were assuming, and then concluded with a lecture of
advice as to their future lives.
When this ceremony was concluded, the father of the bridegroom handed
to his son the present he was to make to the family of the bride. Then
the father of bride stepped up to the side of his daughter, when the
groom said to the bride: "Wilt thou have me for thy husband?" The bride
answered: "With all my heart; love me as I will love thee; for thou art
my only love for all my life." Then holding the gift above her head,
the groom said: "I love thee; therefore I take thee for my wife, and
this is the present with which I buy thee," and then he handed the
present to her parents. Upon his head he wore a tuft of feathers, and
in his hand a bow, emblematic of authority and protection. The bride
held in one hand a green twig of the laurel-tree, and in the other an
ear of corn--the twig indicated she would preserve her fame ever fair
and sweet as the laurel leaf; the corn was to represent her capacity to
grow it and prepare it for his food, and to fulfil all the duties of a
faithful wife. These ceremonies completed, the bride dropped the ear of
corn which she held in her right hand, and tendered that hand to the
bridegroom, who took it and said: "I am thy husband." She replied: "I
am thy wife." The bridegroom then went round and gave his hand to every
member of the family of his wife. He then took his bride by the arm and
led her around and she took the right hand of all the family of the
bridegroom. This done, he walked with her to his bed, and said: "This
is our bed, keep it undefiled."
There obtained among these primitive beings a most curious and most
disgusting custom. The young marriageable females were permitted to
prostitute themselves for gain, in order to provide a marriage portion;
and she who could thus enrich herself was the most distinguished and
the most sought. But after marriage, she was compelled to purity, both
by their laws and by public sentiment; and in all the intercourse of
the French with them, no instance of infidelity was ever known in a
wife.
The great sun was indeed their Lycurgus. If before his advent among
them they had any laws, these had become obsolete, and his edicts
adopted universally. Their traditions represent him as living to
extreme old age, seeing his descendants of the fourth generation. These
were all little suns, and constituted the nobility of their nation,
which extended at one time to the country above, as far as St. Louis
and across to the Wabash. These traditions were carefully kept. Every
two years there were selected from the most intelligent boys of the
nation ten, to whom these traditions were carefully taught by the
depositories of them who had kept them best for the greatest time. They
were careful to exact that no word or fact should be withheld, and this
lesson was daily taught until the boy was a man, and every legend a
familiar memory. These he was compelled to repeat daily lest the memory
should rust, and for this purpose they went forth to all the villages
repeating all of these legends to all the people.
There were others selected in like manner to whom the laws were taught
as the traditions, and in like manner these were taught the people. In
every community there was a little sun to administer these laws, and
every complaint was submitted to him, and great ceremony was observed
at every trial, especially criminal trials. The judge, or little sun,
purified himself in the forest, imploring the enlightenment of the Good
Spirit, and purging away the influence of bad spirits by his
purification; and when he felt himself a fitted tabernacle of pure
justice, he came forward and rendered his judgment in the presence of
all the villagers of his jurisdiction, whose attention was compulsory.
It was one of the laws established in the beginning of the reign of the
Great Sun, that his posterity should not marry _inter se_, but only
with the common people of the nation. This custom was expelling the
pure blood of royalty more and more every generation, and long after
the arrival of the Natchez upon the Mississippi, the great and little
suns were apparently of the pure blood of the red man. Their
traditions, however, preserved the history of every cross, and when
Lasalle found these at Natchez and the White Apple village, nearly
every one could boast of relationship to the Great Sun. At that time
they had diminished to an insignificant power, and were overawed by
their more numerous and more powerful neighbors, the Choctaws and
Muscagees or Alabamas. Their legends recorded this constant decline,
but assigned no reason for it. They could now not bring more than two
thousand warriors into the field. Gayarie says not more than six
hundred; but those contemporaneous with planting the colony of Orleans
say, some two thousand, some more, and some estimate them as low as the
number stated in that admirable history of Louisiana whose author is so
uniformly correct. And here let me acknowledge my obligations to that
accomplished historian, and no less accomplished gentleman, for most of
the facts here stated, and if I have used his own language in
portraying them to a great extent, it was because it was so pure and
beautiful I could not resist it, the excuse the Brazilian gave for
stealing the diamond.
With regard to these people, their mode of life was that of most of the
other tribes. They lived principally by the chase; their only
cultivation was the Indian corn, pumpkins, and a species of wild beans
or peas, perfectly black, until their intercourse with the French, and
then they only added a few of the coarser vegetables. From whom they
derived the pumpkin is not known.
Their wars were not more frequent or more destructive than those of
their neighbors; and their general habits were the same. Still they
were going on to decay, and they contemplated with stolid calmness
their coming extinction. They felt it a destiny not to be averted or
avoided by anything they could do, and were content with the excuse of
folly for all its errors and sins. _It is the will of God, or the Great
Spirit, as the Indian phrases it._ They were more enlightened than
their neighbors, as historians have stated, because, I suppose, they
were more superstitious. They bowed to fate, the attribute of
superstition everywhere, and made no effort at relief from the causes
of decay.
Their religion, like all the aborigines of the continent, consisted in
the worship of the Great Spirit typified in the sun, to whom was
addressed their prayers and all their devotion. The sacred fire was the
emblem on earth; their Great Sun had brought it from the sun and given
it as holy to them to be forever preserved and propitiated by watching
and prayer. In every village and settlement they erected mounds upon
which the temple of the sun was built, and where was deposited the
sacred fire. Mounds, too, were built for burying-places, and in these
are now to be found in great abundance the flat heads and other bones
of this remarkable people.
They had a tradition that an evil spirit was always tempting them to
violate the laws, and the regulations of their religious belief. That
at one time he had so nearly extinguished the holy fire in their
temples, and the love of the sun in their hearts, that the Great Spirit
came and fought with them against him, until finally he was conquered
and chained in a deep cave, whence he still continued to send out
little devils to tempt and torment their people. It was these who
brought disease and death; these who tempted to lie, steal, and kill;
disobedience in their wives when they refused to perform their duties
or became bellicose, as wives sometimes will, of every people on earth.
It was a trite saying, shut up the cave in your heart and smother or
put out the bad spirit. It was a belief that these imps or little
devils found much more easy access to the caves in the hearts of women
than into those of men, and that they encouraged them to come and
nestle there. Is the belief alone the Indian's? There are some within
my knowledge whose experience at home might readily yield belief to
this faith of the savage.
Their traditions, too, told them of the great waters coming over all
the land, and destroying all the inhabitants except those who had
boats; and that the latter were carried away by the waters and left by
them on all the land that was permitted again to come above the waters;
and that by that means people were planted everywhere. These traditions
are quite as rational as most of the speculations as to how the earth
was populated, especially that which we learn in the cradle, of Adam
and Eve's mission.
It was death, by their law, to permit the holy fire to become
extinguished in the temples. To prevent such a calamity, it was
preserved in two temples at different points; when accidentally
extinguished in one, it was to be obtained from the other; but not
peacefully. The keepers must resist and blood must be spilt in order to
obtain it. Soon after they became acquainted with the French, the fire
was extinguished in the great temple at the White Apple village by the
lazy watcher. Knowing his fate, he stealthily lighted it from profane
fire. Great misfortunes following this, and shortly thereafter the loss
of the holy fire in the other temple near the Grindstone ford, on the
Bayou Pierre, in Claiborne County, Mississippi, they sought after the
legal and holy manner to procure fire from the White Apple village. Yet
the calamities continued. The watch who had suffered the fire to fail
in the first temple, conscience smitten, confessed his sin and paid its
penalty.
They now had only profane fire, and the whole nation was in the agonies
of despair. The cause of all their calamities was now no longer a
secret. They extinguished the profane fire, and in prayer, fasting, and
continued oblations, they propitiated the sun to send them fire that was
holy, to protect and preserve them. It was the folly of ignorance and
superstition, and availed nothing; but, like all prayer, was considered
a pious duty, though nothing was ever known to result therefrom, and
nature moved steadily and undeviatingly forward in obedience to the
fixed, immutable, and eternal laws affirmed by the all-wise Creator.
There was gloom upon every brow and despair in every heart. The curse
pronounced by the first Great Sun had come--destruction and death to all
the Natchez--because of the extinction of the holy fire. At length a
tree was stricken by lightning near the White Apple village temple,
and set on fire. The men of the temple saw the answer to their prayers
in this, and hastened to re-kindle the holy flame from this fire,
so miraculously sent them from heaven. It was to them a miracle,
because, though perfectly in obedience to natural laws, they did not
comprehend them, and like unto all people under similar circumstances,
all in nature is a miracle which they do not understand, and cannot
satisfactorily explain. But there was no efficiency found in this, and
the trouble went forward.
The French had come among them, and taught them the value and
corrupting influence of money. Boats had ascended and descended the
Great River, and communication, through this channel, had been
established with Canada. They were grasping, by degrees, the lands,
building forts and peopling the country. They had introduced the black
man, and the wiser of the Natchez saw in the future the doom of their
race. They saw the feuds fomented between the numerous tribes along the
coast of the Mississippi by the French, and the destruction of these by
bloody wars. They saw, too, to offend the French was sure to bring
destruction upon the offending party. Their neighbors were made,
through French influence, to fall upon and destroy them. The Chickasaws
and Choctaws--great nations, having multitudes of warriors--were under
the dominion of these pale-faced intruders, and they feared they might
be turned upon them in an unsuspecting hour.
There was among the Natchez a mighty chief and warrior. He was of great
stature and fame, being seven feet high and powerfully proportioned. He
had a large beard, and was called the chief of the Beard, because he
was the only man of all the tribe who had this facial ornament or
incumbrance. He was a mighty warrior and was wise in counsel. He
believed he saw great evil to the Natchez in the increase of the French
and the extension of French power. He knew, and told his people, this
was the foreboding of the extinction of the holy fire. He went forth
with the chief of the Walnut Hills, named Alahoplechia, and the chief
of the White Clay, Oyelape, among their neighbors of other tribes, the
Chicasaws and Choctaws, preaching a crusade against the French; urging
them to unite with the Natchez, the Homochittas, and the Alabamas, and
to attack and destroy the last man of the French settlements at Mobile,
Boloxy, Ship Island, and New Orleans, as they were mischievous
intruders from across the Salt Lake, whence they were yearly bringing
their people to rob them of their homes and appropriate them.
There had come to them red men from the Wabash and Muskingum, who bore
to them the sad news of the encroachments of the pale-faces upon their
people and their hunting-grounds. "Soon," said the bearded chief, who
was the leading spirit of the mission, "these white faces will meet
along the Great River. They will forget the arrow of truth and the
tomahawk of justice. They will only know power and oppression. Then
they will be mighty as the hurricane when the Great Sun hides his face
in wrath and the tempest tears the forest. Who can resist him then? The
holy fire has been sent again from heaven, from the Great Spirit, our
God, the Great Sun. It tells us to save our people from this fearful
destruction which comes with the white man. These pale-faces are
cunning; they must not know of our union. We must not counsel long, or
they will learn our intentions. We must strike at once. The Choctaws
must strike at Mobile. At the same moment, Homochittas, Boloxies, and
Homas, you must strike at Boloxi. The Chickasaws and the Natchez will
fall upon New Orleans and Rosalie." (The latter is the Indian name for
what is now Natchez.) His advice was startling, but unheeded. In order
to precipitate a war, on his return with the chiefs who accompanied him
and two warriors, they murdered a trading-party of French, at the hills
where is now Warrenton, in Warren County, Mississippi.
This murder was communicated to the French who, under Bienville, were
sent by Cordelac, then Governor of Louisiana, to take revenge, by
waging war upon the Natchez. Bienville was hated by Cordelac, because
he had refused the hand of his daughter, formally tendered him by her
father. He only gave the young and sagacious commander a small force
with which to wage this war--such an one as would have been overwhelmed
at once had he attempted open field movements. Knowing this, he
proceeded to an island opposite the village of the Tunicas, where he
entrenched himself and invited a conference. Three spies were sent by
the Natchez to reconnoitre; but they were baffled by Bienville with
superior cunning. They were sent back as not the equals of Bienville,
and with a message to the Great Sun that he must come with his chiefs,
that he desired to establish trading-posts among them, and would only
treat with the first in authority. They came with a consciousness that
the French were ignorant of these murders, and were immediately
arrested and ironed. Bienville told them at once of the murder, and of
his determination to have the murderers and to punish them. He had the
Great Sun, the Stung Serpent, and the Little Sun. The latter was sent
to bring the heads of the murderers, and he returned with three heads;
but Bienville, after examining these, told the chiefs they had
treacherously deceived him, and that those were not the heads of the
murderers. After a night's consultation they concluded it was
impossible to deceive him, and in the morning confessed the whole
truth, proposing to send Stung Serpent to bring the real murderers. But
knowing the wily character of this chief and his influence with his
tribe, he was not permitted to go. The young Sun was dispatched, and
succeeded in bringing the chief of the Beard and the chief of the
Walnut Hills, with the two warriors; but Oyelape had fled and could not
be had. He had probed to the truth of the French expedition; and being
guilty, cunningly and wisely made his escape.
The death sentence was passed upon these, and the two warriors were
shot at once; but the two chiefs were reserved for execution to another
day. Upon the sentence being communicated to them they commenced to
chant the death-song of their people, which they continued to do
throughout all the time, night and day, until led forth for execution.
The Great Sun, Stung Serpent, his brother, and all the other Indians
were brought out to witness the execution. When the two condemned
chiefs were brought forward, these witnesses of their death sang the
death-song; but the chief of the Beard looked sternly at them, and
defiantly at the executioners; and taking his position, turned to his
people and, addressing them, said:
"Let there be joy in the hearts of the Natchez. A child is born to them
of the race of their Suns. A boy is born with a beard on his chin. The
prodigy still works on from generation to generation.' So sang the
warriors of my tribe when I sprang from my mother's womb, and the
shrill cry of the eagle, in the heavens, was heard in joyful response.
Hardly fifteen summers had passed over my head when my beard had grown
long and glossy. I looked around, and saw I was the only red man that
had this awful mark on his face, and I interrogated my mother and she
said:
"'Son of the chiefs of the Beard,
Thou shall know the mystery
In which thy curious eye wishes to pry,
When thy beard from black becomes red.'
"Let there be joy in the hearts of the Natchez! A hunter is born to
them--a hunter of the race of the Suns. Ask of the bears, of the
buffaloes, of the tigers, and of the swift-footed deer, whose arrows
they fear most! They tremble and cower when the footstep of the hunter
with the beard on his chin is heard on the heath. But I was born with
brains in my head as well as a beard on my chin, and I pondered on my
mother's words. One day, when a panther which I slaughtered had torn my
breast, I painted my beard with my own blood, and I stood smiling
before her. She said nothing; but her eye gleamed with wild delight,
and she took me to the temple when, standing by the sacred fire, she
thus sang to me:
"'Son of the chiefs of the Beard,
Thou shall know the mystery,
Since, true to thy nature, with thine own blood
Thy black beard thou hast turned to red.'
"Let there be joy in the hearts of the Natchez; for a mighty chief,
worthy of the race of their Suns, has been born to them in thee, my
son--a noble chief with a beard on his chin. Listen to the explanation
of this prodigy. In days of old a Natchez maid of the race of their
Suns was on a visit to the Mobelians. There she soon loved the youthful
chief of that nation, and her wedding-day was nigh, when there came
from the big Salt Lake on the south a host of bearded men, who sacked
the town, slew the red chief with their thunder, and one of those
accursed evil spirits used violence to the maid when her lover's corpse
was hardly cold in death. She found in sorrow her way back to the
Natchez hills, where she became a mother, and lo! the boy had a beard
on his chin, and when he grew old enough to understand his mother's
words she whispered in his ear:
"'Son of the chiefs of the Beard,
Born from a bloody day,
Bloody be thy hand, and bloody be thy life
Until thy black beard with blood becomes red.'
"Let there be joy in the hearts of the Natchez. In my first ancestor a
long line of the first of hunters, chiefs, and warriors of the race of
their Suns had been born to them with beards on their chins. What chase
was ever unsuccessful over which they presided? When they spoke in the
council of the wise men of the nation, did it not always turn out that
their advice, whether adopted or rejected, was the best in the end? In
what battle were they ever defeated? When were they known to be worn
out with fatigue--with hardship, hunger or thirst, heat or cold, either
on land or water? Who ever could stem as they the rushing current of
the Father of rivers? Who can count the number of scalps which they
brought from distant expeditions? Their names have always been famous
in the wigwams of all the red nations. They have struck terror into the
breasts of the boldest enemies of the Natchez; and mothers, when their
sons paint their bodies in the colors of war, say to them:
"'Fight where, and with whom you please;
But beware, oh! beware of the chiefs of the Beard.
Give way to them as you would to death,
Or their black beards with your blood will be red.'
"Let there be joy in the hearts of the Natchez. When the first chief of
the Beard first trimmed the sacred fire in the temple, a voice was
heard which said: 'As long as there lives a chief of the race of the
Suns with a beard on his chin, no evil can happen to the Natchez
nation; but if the white race should ever resume the blood which it
gave in a bloody day, woe, three times woe, to the Natchez! Of them
nothing will remain but the shadow of a name.' Thus spake the invisible
prophet. Years rolled on, years thick on years, and none of the
accursed white-faces were seen; but they appeared at last, wrapped up
in their pale skins like shrouds of the dead, and the father of my
father, whom tradition had taught to guard against the predicted
danger, slew two of the hated strangers, and my father, in his turn,
killed four.
"'Praise be to the chiefs of the Beard,
Who knew how to avenge their old ancestral injury,
When with the sweet blood of a white foe
Their black beards they proudly dyed red.'
"Let there be joy in the hearts of the Natchez. When I saw the glorious
light of day there was born to them a great warrior of the race of
their Suns--a warrior and a chief with a beard on his chin. The pledge
of protection, of safety, and of glory stood embodied in me. When I
shouted my first war-whoop the owl hooted and smelt the ghosts of my
enemies, the wolves howled, and the carrion vultures shrieked with joy;
for they knew their food was coming, and I fed them with Chickasaws'
flesh and with Choctaws' flesh until they were gorged with the flesh of
the red man. A kind master and purveyor I was to them--the poor, dumb
creatures that I loved. But lately I have given them more dainty food.
I boast of having done better than my father. Five Frenchmen have I
killed, and my only regret in dying is, that it will prevent me from
killing more.
"'Ha! ha! ha! that was game worthy of the chief of the Beard!
How lightly he danced. Ho! ho! ho!
How gladly he shouted. Ha! ha! ha!
Each time with French blood his beard became red."
"Sorrow in the hearts of the Natchez! The great hunter is no more. The
wise chief is going to meet his fathers. The indomitable warrior will
no more raise his hatchet in defence of the children of the Sun. O
burning shame! He was betrayed by his brother-chiefs, who sold his
blood. If they had followed his advice they would have united with the
Choctaws, Chickasaws, and all the other red nations, and they would
have slain all the French dogs that came prowling and stealing over the
beautiful face of our country. But there was too much of the woman in
their cowardly hearts. Well and good! Let the will of fate be
accomplished. The white race will soon resume the blood which it gave,
and then the glory and the very existence of the Natchez nation will
have departed forever with the chief of the Beard; for I am the last of
my race, and my blood flows in no other human veins. O Natchez,
Natchez! remember the prophet's voice! I am content to die; for I leave
no one behind me but the doomed, while I go to revel with my brave
ancestors.
"'They will recognize their son in the chief of the Beard;
They will welcome him to their glorious homestead
When they see so many scalps at his girdle,
And his black beard with French blood painted red.'"
He stood up in proud defiance before the admiring French; his noble
form expanded to its full proportions, hatred in his heart and triumph
in his eyes. Facing his foes, he viewed the platoon selected to deal
him his death, and lifted his eyes and hands to the sun. The officer
gave the command, the platoon fired as one man, and the great chief of
the Beard passed away.
This was the beginning of difficulties with the French, and also the
commencement of the utter destruction of the Natchez. War succeeded
war, until the last of this people, few in number, broke up from the
Washita, whither they had fled for security years before, and went, as
they fondly hoped, too far into the bosom of the deep West to be found
again by the white-skins. But Clarke and Lewis found them high up on
the Missouri, still preserving the holy fire, the flat heads, and their
hatred of the white race. Their bones are even now turned up by the
plough near the mounds of their making, and soon these mounds will be
all that is left to speak of the once powerful Natchez. I have stood
upon the great mound of their temple at the White Apple village, forty
years ago, then covered with immense forest-trees, at the graves of the
great grandfather and mother of my children. To these was donated, in
1780, by the Spanish Government, the land on which the temple and the
village stood. It is a beautiful spot in the centre of a lovely and
most picturesque country. It was here these Indians feasted the great
La Salle and his party when descending the Mississippi. They were the
first white men that had descended the river, and the first white men
the Natchez had ever seen.