[60] Thomassy, p. 31.
[61] Champigny, p. 127, note 5. “They were obliged to change boats from smaller to smaller three times, in order to bring merchandise to Biloxi, where they ran carts a hundred feet into the ocean and loaded them, because the smallest boats could not land.”
[62] “Clérac” is thus translated by authority of Margry, v. 573, note. He says it means a workman engaged in the manufacture of tobacco, and is derived from the territory of Clérac (Charcute-Inférieure). With this interpretation we can understand why one of the grants was “Celle des Cléracs aux Natchez” (Dumont, ii. 45).
[63] [See Vol. IV. p. 161.—Ed.]
[64] Natchez is never mentioned by the French writers except with expressions of admiration for its soil, climate, and situation. Dumont (vol. ii. p. 63) says “the land at Natchez is the best in the province. This establishment had begun to prosper.” The number of killed at the massacre is stated at “more than two hundred” by Father Le Petit (Lettres édifiantes, xx. 151). Writers like Dumont and Le Page du Pratz state the number at more than seven hundred. Even the smaller number is probably an exaggeration. The value of the tobacco produced at Natchez is alluded to in Champigny; but the place does not seem to have rallied from this blow. Bossu, in 1751, speaks of the fertility of its soil, “if it were cultivated.”
[65] The Capuchin in charge of the post at Natchez was away. The Jesuit Du Poisson, from the Akensas, happened to be there, and was killed.
[66] Clairborne in his Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and State, places the fort of the Natchez in Arkansas, at a place known as “Sicily Island,” forty miles northwest from Natchez.
[67] “I am the only one of the French who has escaped sickness since we have been in this country.” Du Poussin from the Akensas, in Kip, p. 263.
[68] Poussin (De la puissance Américaine, Paris, 1843, i. 262) says: “Nevertheless, about this time (1751) the inhabitants began to understand the necessity of seriously occupying themselves with agricultural pursuits.”
[69] The Present State of the Country and Inhabitants, European and Indians, of Louisiana (London, 1744).