of the Beard;
They will welcome him to their glorious homestead
When they see so many scalps at his girdle,
And his black beard with French blood painted red.'"

He stood up in proud defiance before the admiring French; his noble
form expanded to its full proportions, hatred in his heart and triumph
in his eyes. Facing his foes, he viewed the platoon selected to deal
him his death, and lifted his eyes and hands to the sun. The officer
gave the command, the platoon fired as one man, and the great chief of
the Beard passed away.

This was the beginning of difficulties with the French, and also the
commencement of the utter destruction of the Natchez. War succeeded
war, until the last of this people, few in number, broke up from the
Washita, whither they had fled for security years before, and went, as
they fondly hoped, too far into the bosom of the deep West to be found
again by the white-skins. But Clarke and Lewis found them high up on
the Missouri, still preserving the holy fire, the flat heads, and their
hatred of the white race. Their bones are even now turned up by the
plough near the mounds of their making, and soon these mounds will be
all that is left to speak of the once powerful Natchez. I have stood
upon the great mound of their temple at the White Apple village, forty
years ago, then covered with immense forest-trees, at the graves of the
great grandfather and mother of my children. To these was donated, in
1780, by the Spanish Government, the land on which the temple and the
village stood. It is a beautiful spot in the centre of a lovely and
most picturesque country. It was here these Indians feasted the great
La Salle and his party when descending the Mississippi. They were the
first white men that had descended the river, and the first white men
the Natchez had ever seen.

CHAPTER XX.

EXPLORATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.

CHICAGO--CRYING INDIANS--CHICKASAWS--DE SOTO--FEAST OF THE GREAT SUN--
CANE KNIVES--LOVE-STRICKEN INDIAN MAIDEN--RAPE OF THE NATCHEZ--MAN'S
WILL--SUBJUGATION OF THE WATERS--THE BLACK MAN'S MISSION--ITS DECADE.

La Salle, who first discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River, was
a man of most remarkable energy and enterprise. He had been engaged in
commercial pursuits for some time in Canada; but, seized with the
spirit of adventure--very probably inspired by the reports of the
Jesuit missionaries, who were going and returning from the vast
wilderness--and insp