Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/160

150 Fè, and over the mountains, to the waters of the western ocean. They say, they have seen big peroques, with masts, which they describe by drawing a ship and the sails and rigging. Their language sounds different from that of any other nation, and none can either speak or understand it; but they have a language by signs, whchwhich [sic] can be understood by all Indians; and which they use much in conversing among themselves. They are generally at war with the Spaniards, and often commit depredations on the inhabitants of Saint a Fé, and Saint Antoine; but have always been friendly to the French or Americans, who have been among them. They have a number of Spanish men and women among them; who are slaves, and who were made prisoners when they were young.

The following story is related by an elderly gentleman, living at Natchitoches, who formerly carried on a trade with this nation. A number of years ago, a party of these Indians passed over the River Grand, to Chewawa, the residence of the governor-general of what is called the five internal provinces; lay in ambush for an opportunity, and made a prisoner of the governor's daughter, a young lady, as she was going in her coach to mass, and brought her off. The governor sent a message to this gentleman, with a thousand dollars, for the purpose of recovering his daughter: he immediately dispatched a confidential trader, then in his employ, with the