Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/198

187 TUB PADOUCAS. , 187 These cLililren of the prairies had no villages of any importance as far as recorded. The Spaniards not only make mention of the Padoucas, but they record many things concerning these Indians, also. Without doubt they were permanently settled in the central and west part of Kansas. They are prominently named by Marquette in 1673; Du Tissenet, a young Canadian, who was in Kansas in 1719, actually visited them; also in 1721 Du Tissenet stated that they had a large village at* the head of the Smoky Hill river which he visited. History says of these people: "In the early part of the eighteenth century the Padouca nation was divided into several tribes, claiming the country from the headwaters of the northern fork of the Kansas river, then south nearly to the Spaniards of New Mexico. On the map of Charlevoix the Kan- ' sas river is called the Padouca river, and the same on that of Du Pratz, (on which the region afterwards em- bracing the Kansas territory was evidently drawn.) The Padouca villages are located at the sources of both forks of the Kansas river, and also on the Arkan- sas. The Padoucas belong to no one of the great In- dian families. They were of an unknown race and language, with habits in many respects dissimilar to that of any other nation. Their villages instead of being heterogeneously thrown together — a confused mass of lodges — were laid out regularly with streets that form squares as in a modern city. The houses were neatly built, and the Indians in intelligence and habits of living, rank higher than the more eastern tribes with whom they were almost constantly at war. Of their history after the visits of the Frencb