Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/117

109 to deluge the earth with water, and drown all the people upon it, selected one Caddo family, and placed it on this eminence. The water not rising so high as the top of it, this family was saved, when all the rest of the people in the world were destroyed; and from this family all the Indian nations are descendants. Not only the Caddos, but all the other bands of Indians, pay homage to this eminence, when they pass it. The neighbouring bands consider the Caddoquies their common father, and treat them with respect. Their number of warriors do not much exceed one hundred men, but they brave death with the utmost fortitude, and boast that they have never embrued their hands in the blood of a white man. They carry on an incessant warfare with the Osage and Chicktaw nations, but live in peace with the other bands.

From the Caddo old towns to the Panis villages, following the course of the river, which is nearly west, is about seven hundred miles; the land alternately clothed with timber and prairie, and some of the prairies very extensive. On a branch of Red river, which comes in about one hundred and thirty miles below the Panis towns, it is said, silver mines have been lately discovered; and just below the first village, the Ra-ha-cha-ha, or the Missouri branch of Red river, enters from the north; which is a large stream, and the water so brackish, that it cannot be drank. At its head waters, the Indians collect large 10