Fevrier, 1703_ (Margry, vi. 180).

[367] _Bienville au Ministre, 6 Septembre, 1704._

[368] Beaurain, _Journal historique_.

[369] Hubert, _Memoire envoye au Conseil de la Marine_.

[370] Penecaut, _Relation_, chaps. xvii., xviii. Le Page du Pratz,
_Histoire de la Louisiane_, i. 13-22. Various documents in Margry, vi.
193-202.

[371] For an interesting contemporary map of the French establishment at
Natchitoches, see Thomassy, _Geologie pratique de la Louisiane_.

[372] Benard de la Harpe, in Margry, vi. 264.

[373] Beaurain says that each of these bands spoke a language of its
own. They had horses in abundance, descended from Spanish stock. Among
them appear to have been the Ouacos, or Huecos, and the Wichitas,--two
tribes better known as the Pawnee Picts. See Marcy, _Exploration of Red
River_.

[374] Compare the account of La Harpe with that of the Chevalier de
Beaurain; both are in Margry, vi. There is an abstract in _Journal
historique_.

[375] _Relation de Benard de la Harpe._ _Autre Relation du meme._ _Du
Tisne a Bienville._ Margry, vi. 309, 310, 313.

[376] _Bienville au Conseil de Regence, 20 Juillet, 1721._

[377] _Instructions au Sieur de Bourgmont, 17 Janvier, 1722._ Margry,
vi. 389.

[378] The French had at this time gained a knowledge of the tribes of
the Missouri as far up as the Arickaras, who were not, it seems, many
days' journey below the Yellowstone, and who told them of "prodigiously
high mountains,"--evidently the Rocky Mountains. _Memoire de la
Renaudiere_, 1723.

[379] This meeting took place a little north of the Arkansas, apparently
where that river makes a northward bend, near the twenty-second degree
of west longitude. The Comanche villages were several days' journey to
the southwest. This tribe is always mentioned in the early French
narratives as the Padoucas,--a name by which the Comanches are
occasionally known to this day. See Whipple and Turner, _Reports upon
Indian Tribes_, in _Explorations and Surveys for the Pacific Railroad_
(Senate Doc., 1853, 1854).

[380] _Relation du Voyage du Sieur de Bourgmont, Juin-Novembre, 1724_,
in Margry, vi. 398. Le Page du Pratz, iii. 141.

[381] _Journal du Voyage des Freres Mallet, presente a MM. de Bienville
et Salmon._ This narrative is meagre and confused, but serves to
establish the main points. _Copie du Certificat donne a Santa Fe aux
sept _[huit]_ Francais par le General Hurtado, 24 Juillet, 1739._ _Pere
Rebald au Pere de Be