stream, now with almost irresistible impetuosity hurrying on his little flotilla.  This chief by many signs and diagrams marked with his finger upon the sand of the beach, described the country out of which flowed the Missouri, and into which went the Mississippi, and seemed to comprehend at least the extent of its constantly accumulating waters and great length.  Like all the other savages, he represented the dangers below as being too formidable for the small party of La Salle.  He described the Natchez Indians and gave them a terrible character; then the monsters of the woods and the waters.  He marked the form of the tiger, the bear, and the alligator and described them as aggressive and ferocious.  Taking a handful of sand he scattered it on the boat’s floor or bottom, and pointing to the separate particles, attempted to explain by this means the countless numbers of these Indians, and monsters of the country below.  Here was his first information of the existence of the Natchez, but his information augmented as he descended the river.  At the bluffs, where now is Memphis, he encountered the Chickasaws and learned of the visit of De Soto to that point, and of his death.  These Indians warned him of the dangers he had to encounter.  They had had trouble with De Soto and were chary of their intercourse with the whites, but manifested no hostility.

The next tribe of Indians seen was at the Walnut Hills, now Vicksburg.  Their flat heads told him he had reached the country of that formidable nation, but he held no communication with them.  Landing at the great bluff or Natchez, he found there quite a village.  The natives approached him manifesting the kindest and most hospitable intentions.  For some days he delayed, to learn as much as possible from these people in the observation of their character and the topography and peculiarities of the country they were inhabiting.  Runners had been dispatched to the Great Sun at the White Apple village, to inform him of the advent of these pale-faced strangers, with beard on their chins.  Like information was communicated to the towns on Cole’s Creek and further in the interior.  La Salle was furnished with pilots and requested to drop down to the White Cliffs, now known as Ellis’ Cliffs, eighteen miles below Natchez, where a delegation would meet and conduct him to the White Apple village.  These pilots caused the landing of the party at the mouth of St. Catharine’s Creek, a point much nearer the village than the cliffs, and from whence it was much more easily approached.  Thence they conducted them to the village and temple of the Great Sun.  They came by surprise, and there was manifested some suspicions of the motive.  But being informed it was the work of the pilots, all were satisfied and a messenger dispatched for the great escort awaiting the party at White Cliffs.