Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/135

 SECT. III.] SOUTHERN INDIANS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 99 stock, and speaking, with but few varieties, the same lan- guage. The Chicasas occupied the northern, and the Choctaws the southern part of that territory. The Chicasas were warlike and in a state of hostility with the Cherokees, the Illinois, the Arkansas, and occasionally even with the Choctaws. The Arkansas and especially the Illinois were the steadfast allies of the French. Enterprising British traders from South Carolina reached at an early date the Chicasa country. And owing to those two causes, they became the firm allies of the English, and the inveterate enemies of the French. It was in vain that these invaded their territory, in 1736, by the Tombigbee, and in 1740, from the Mississippi. The Chicasas repelled the in- vaders and granted at last only a precarious peace. They adhered to the British during the war of Independence ; but they have never committed any hostilities against the Ameri- cans since the year 1783. Their continued wars had considerably lessened their num- bers. Tonti, the first European who met with them, but who had no opportunity of ascertaining their number, estimated their warriors, in 1682, at two thousand. Adair, who resided many years amongst them, says, that in 1763, they were reduced to four hundred and fifty ; which would give at most a popula- tion of eighteen hundred souls. According to the late War Department estimate they now amount to five thousand four hundred and twenty-nine. There is no doubt of the increase of the southern Indians during the last forty years ; but it is proba- ble that Adair had underrated their number. An arrangement is in train for a cession of their territory in exchange for lands west of the Mississippi. The vocabulary of their language was written in my pres- ence by an intelligent boy of their nation, who was living with Colonel McKinney, then at the head of the Indian bureau of the War Department, and who spoke and wrote English with great facility. His orthography may in some respects be defective ; but it is, on the whole, one of the most authentic vocabularies we possess. Although the separation of the Chicasas from the Choctaws must have taken place long ago, the language is still almost the same, and differs more in the pronunciation than in the words. They understand each other without interpreters. The tradition of the Chicasas is that they came from the west. The Choctaws have lost the