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 that they were very numerous in the time of Ferdinand de Soto, I am unable to learn. In the abridged relation of this expedition by Purchas,[86] cannot possibly discover any thing relating to them. The people of Quigaute must have occupied a country not far from the Arkansa, and are said by La Vega[87] to have been numerous and powerful, but that they were the same people as the Arkansas or O-guah-pas, seems by no means probable. From their own tradition it does not appear that they were visited by the whites previous to the arrival of La Salle; they say, that many years had elapsed before they had any interview with the whites, whom they had only heard of from their neighbours.

In a council held with the Quapaws some years ago, con-*

1892), index. In 1686, as Tonty ascended the Mississippi after his vain search for La Salle, he visited the Arkansas village and left six men to hold a post. Nuttall seems to have confused the two visits.—]
 * [Footnote: 1877), ii, p. 181. For a secondary account, see Parkman, La Salle (Boston,