Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/228

212 wars with the northern tribes, and with white people, have greatly reduced their numbers. They are said to have had two thousand five hundred warriors, but they are now estimated at one thousand five hundred. They have about forty-five towns in which they reside when they are not engaged in hunting or war excursions. They are a tall, robust, and well formed people, of a lighter complexion than the neighbouring Indian nations. The men are very generally six feet in height. The women are also tall and of an handsome figure, rather slender and delicate. This nation has been much celebrated for their talents and correct morals.

The Chickasaws reside in the Mississippi Territory, on the Yazoo river, and westward of the Tennessee river, as far north as the Ohio, of and down the Ohio and Mississippi, to the Chactaw line of Natchez district. The boundary of the lands allotted to this nation is particularly described in the treaty of Hopewell on the 10th of January, 1786. Their country lies north of the Chactaw nation, and is very much an extended plain with little rising land. It is well watered and the soil generally good. They reside in about seven or eight towns and had formerly five hundred and seventy-five warriors, and seventeen hundred and twenty-five souls.

The Chactaws, a powerful, subtle, hardy, Indian nation, reside between the Tombigby and Mississippi rivers. The limits of the country, within the United States on which this nation is to live and hunt, was particularly stipulated at the treaty of Hopewell, on the 3d of January, 1786. Their country is hilly, with extensive, fertile plains intervening between the high lands. Unlike most of the Indian nations they have paid considerable attention to husbandry. Some of them have large farms, in a good state of culture, and many of them spend much of their time in agricultural improvements. Although they do not possess one quarter part of the quantity of land which the Creek nation occupies, their number of people is more than two thirds as large as the Creek confederacy. Many years ago they had forty-three towns and villages, containing 4,041 warriors, and 12,123 souls. Since that time they are supposed to have