Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/153

143 French formerly had a station and factory. A few years ago they suffered very much by the small pox, and are reduced to about forty men. They consider themselves the same as the Caddos, with whom they intermarry; visit one another in the greatest harmony; have the same manners, customs and attachments.

The Adaize live about forty miles from Natchitoches, on a lake called Lac Macdon, which communicates with the division of Red river, that passes by Bayau Pierre. They live where their ancestors have lived, time immemorial; the nearest nation to the old Spanish fort, or Mission Adaize; only twenty men of them remain, but there are more women. Their language differs from all other, and is said to be so difficult to speak or understand, that no nation can speak ten words of it; but they all speak Caddo, and most of them French; to whom they were always attached, and joined them against the Natchez Indians, after the massacre of Natchez, in 1728. While the Spaniards occupied Adaize, some priests attempted to proselyte them to the Roman Catholic religion, but without the smallest success.

The Aliche, pronounced Eyeish, reside near Nacogdoches. They were some years ago a considerable nation, and lived on a bayau of the same name, about twelve miles west of the Sabine river, but the small pox destroyed the most of them. The nation is now almost extinct,