number of their settlements are inundated during the high waters for from eight to ten days. The village of the Tohomés, that is to say of the Little Chief, where there are about eight or ten cabins together, is at about the latitude of 31 degrees 22 minutes. They have communicating trails from one to another; that place may be six and a half leagues to the north a quarter northeast from the post. Following the rising grounds one comes easily to these villages; it would be easy to make wagon roads; one can go there and return at present on horseback. The ebb and flow come as far as the Tohomés when the waters are low. According to the number of settlements, which I have seen abandoned this river must have been well peopled. These savages speak the language of the Bayogoulas, at least there is little difference. There are in these two nations 350 men.1 Pénicaut mentions the arrival of the chiefs of several nations of Indians at the Mobile fort in 1702 to sing the calumet, and among them those of "the Mobiliens, the Thomez, and the people of the Forks [the Naniaba]." The following further translation from Pénicaut contains some interesting information regarding the tribes with which we are dealing: At this time five of our Frenchmen asked permission of M. de Bienville to go to trade with the Alibamons in order to have fowls or other provisions of which they had need. They took the occasion to leave with ten of these Alibamons, who were at our fort of Mobile and who wished to return. On the way they stopped five leagues from our fort in a village where were three different nations of savages assembled, who held their feast there. They are called the Mobiliens, the Tomez and the Namabas; they do not have a temple, but they have a cabin in which they perform feats of jugglery. To juggle (jongler), in their language, is a kind of invocation to their great spirit. For my part, and I have seen them many times, I think that it is the devil whom they invoke, since they go out of this cabin raving like those possessed, and then they work sorceries, like causing to walk the skin of an otter, dead for more than two years, and full of straw. They work many other sorceries which would appear incredible to the reader. This is why I do not want to stop here. I would not even mention it if I, as well as many other Frenchmen who were present there with me, had not been witness of it. Those who perform such feats, whether they are magical or otherwise, are very much esteemed by the other savages. They have much confidence in their prescriptions for diseases. They have a feast at the beginning of September, in which they assemble for a custom like that of the ancient Lacedemonians, it is that on the day of this feast they whip their children until the blood comes. The entire village is then assembled in one grand open space. It is necessary that all pass, boys and girls, old and young, to the youngest age, and when there are some children sick, the mother is whipped for the child. After that they begin dances, which last all night. The chiefs and the old men make an exhortation to those whipped, telling them that it is in order to teach them not to fear the injuries which their enemies may be able to inflict upon them, and to show themselves good warriors, and not to cry nor weep, even in the midst of the fire, supposing that they were thrown there by their enemies.3 Pénicaut goes on to say that four of the five prospective traders were treacherously killed by Alabama Indians when close to their 1 Iberville, in Margry, Iv, pp. 513-514. For the Bayogoulas see Bull. 43, Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 274-279. Margry, V, p. 425. Pénicaut, in Margry, v, pp. 427-428. town, one barely escaping with his life, and that this was the cause of a war between the French and that tribe.' 5 La Harpe, a better authority than Pénicaut, places this event in the year 1703. We learn from the same explorer that in May, 1702, eight chiefs of the Alabama had come to Mobile to ask Bienville whether or not they should continue their war with the Chickasaw, Tohome (Tomès), and Mobile, and that Bienville had advised them to make peace. October 1 some of them came down, sang the calumet, and promised to make peace. From this it appears that the alliance which Pénicaut represents as existing between the Alabama and the Mobile and Tohome was not of long standing. The act of treachery in killing four out of five French traders was, it seems, a first act of hostility after peace had been made the year before. The leader of the traders was named Labrie, and the one who escaped was a Canadian. According to Pénicaut, Bienville's first attempt to obtain reparation for this hostile act had to be given up on account of the treachery of the Mobile, Tohome, People of the Forks, and other Indian allies who misled and abandoned him "because they were friends and allies of the Alibamons against whom we were leading them to war." La Harpe does not mention this. Bienville led another party later on with little better success. Pénicaut places this expedition in 1702,7 La Harpe in December, 1703, and January, 1704.8 Two Tohome are mentioned by La Harpe as deputed along with three Canadians to bring in the Choctaw chiefs in order to make peace between them and the Chickasaw, who had come to Mobile to ask it. This was December 9, 1705." On the 18th of the same month it is noted that Bienville "reconciled the Mobilian nation with that of the Thomés; they were on the point of declaring war against each other on account of the death of a Mobilian woman, killed by a Thomé." This is the only mention of any difference between these two tribes; it is enough, however, to show that there was a clear distinction between them. In January, 1706, M. de Boisbrillant set out against the Alabama with 60 Canadians and 12 Indians. According to La Harpe he returned February 21 with 2 scalps and a slave.10 Pénicaut, who places the expedition in 1702, says that he had 40 men, killed all the men in 6 Alabama canoes, and enslaved all of the women and children. He adds that the Mobilians begged the slaves. from M. de Bienville, "because they were their relations," that the 1 Margry, Déc., V, pp. 428-429. La Harpe, Jour. Hist., pp. 76-77, 79. Ibid., pp. 73-74. Ibid., pp. 77, 79. Margry, Déc., v, p. 429. 7Ibid., pp. 429-431. La Harpe, Jour. Hist., pp. 82-83. The accounts of these two writers are given on pp. 191–195. 9 Ibid., p. 94. 10 Ibid., p. 96. request was granted; and that because of this action the Mobile afterwards joined the French in all the wars which they had with the Alabama. In view of the hostilities known to have existed between the tribes in question when the French first arrived in the country this last statement may well be doubted. According to Pénicaut the Alabama and their allies marched against the Mobile in 1708 with more than 4,000 men, but, owing to the forethought of D'Artaguette, who had advised his Indian allies to post sentinels, they accomplished no further damage than the burning of some cabins.2 This incursion is not mentioned by La Harpe, but, as D'Artaguette was actually in command at the time and La Harpe passes over the years 1708 and 1709 in almost complete silence, such a raid is very probable. 3 From what has been said above it is apparent that the Mobile and Tohome tribes were originally distinct, but they must have united in rather early French times. The last mention of the latter in the narrative of La Harpe is in connection with the murder, in 1715, of the Englishman, Hughes, who had come overland to the Mississippi, had been captured there and sent as a prisoner to Mobile by the French, and had afterwards been liberated by Bienville. He passed on to Pensacola and started inland toward the Alabama when he was killed by a Tohome Indian. Bienville, about 1725, speaks of the Little Tohome and the Big Tohome, by which he probably means the Naniaba and the Tohome respectively. Although none of our authorities mentions the fact in specific terms, and indeed the map of De Crenay of 1733 still places the Tohome in their old position on the Tombigbee," it is evident from what Du Pratz says regarding them, that by the third decade in the eighteenth century they had moved farther south, probably to have the protection of the new Mobile fort and partly to be near a trading post. A little to the north of Fort Louis is the nation of the Thomez, which is as small and as serviceable as that of the Chatôts; it is said also that they are Catholics; they are friends to the point of importunity. Keeping toward the north along the bay, one finds the nation of the Mobiliens, near the point where the river of Mobile empties into the bay of the same name. The true name of this nation is Mowill; from this word the French have made Mobile, and then they have named the river and the bay Mobile, and the natives belonging to this nation Mobiliens.? The Mobile church registers do not contain any references to the Tohome tribe, but the Mobile, or Mobilians, are mentioned in several 1 Margry, Déc., v, p. 432. Ibid., p. 478. La Harpe, Jour. Hist., pp. 118-119. • French transcriptions, Lib. Cong. 6 Plate 5; Hamilton, Col. Mobile, p. 196. Du Pratz, Hist. de la Louisiane, п, p. 213. 7 Ibid., pp. 213-214. The Tohome places, the first date being in 1715, the last in 1761, and Naniaba come to the surface still later in a French document dated some time before the cession of Mobile to Great Britain (1763) and in a list of Choctaw towns and chiefs compiled by the English, 1771-72.3 It is probable that the languages spoken by them were so close to Choctaw that they afterwards passed as Choctaw and, mingling with the true Choctaw, in time forgot their own original separateness. And this probability is strengthened by a Choctaw census made by Regis du Roullet, a French officer, in 1730, who classes the Tohome, Naniaba, and some Indians "aux mobiliens" as "Choctaw established on the river of Mobile." THE OSOCHI On an earlier page I have registered my belief that the origin of the Osochi is to be sought in that Florida "province" through which De Soto passed shortly before reaching the Apalachee. The name is given variously as Uçachile,5 Uzachil," Veachile, and Ossachile. Since the Timucua chief Uriutina speaks of the Uçachile as "of our nation," while the chief of Uçachile is said to be "kinsman of the chief of Caliquen," it may be inferred that the tribe then spoke a Timucua dialect.10 If this were really the case it is strange that, instead of retiring farther into Florida with the rest of the Timucua, these people chose to move northward entirely away from the old Timucua country. Nevertheless, Spanish documents do inform us of one northward movement as an aftermath of the Timucua rebellion in 1656. Other evidence seeming to mark out various steps in the migration of these people has been adduced already," mention being made of "Tommakees" near the mouth of Apalachicola River about 1700 by Coxe, 13 "Tomoóka" in the same region by Lamhatty in 1707,14 and a town or tribe near the junction of the Apalachicola and Flint Rivers called "Apalache ó Sachile" at a considerably later date.15 The ó in the last term has been mistaken by the cartographer for the Spanish connective ó, but there can be no doubt that it belongs properly with what follows. Osochi is always accented on the first syllable. The spot indicated on this map is that at which the Apalachicola Indians settled after the Yamasee war. We must suppose, then, unless we have to do with a very bad misprint, either that the Osochi were considered an Apalachicola band or that they were living with the Apalachicola midway between their old territories and the homes of the Lower Creeks. These facts do not, of course, amount to proof of a connection between the Uçachile and Osochi, but they point in that direction. 2 3 Adair, writing in the latter half of the eighteenth century, mentions the "Oosécha" as one of those nations, remains of which had settled in the lower part of the Muskogee country. On the De Crenay map (1733) their name appears under the very distorted form Cochoutehy (or Cochutchy) east of Flint River, between the Sawokli and Eufaula, but the French census of 1760 shows them between the Yuchi and Chiaha and those of 1738 and 1750 near the Okmulgee. In the assignment to the traders, July 3, 1761, we find "The Point Towns called Ouschetaws, Chehaws and Oakmulgees," given to George Mackay and James Hewitt along with the Hitchiti town.5 Bartram spells the name "Hooseche," and says that they spoke the Muskogee tongue, but this is probably an error even for his time. In 1797 their trader was Samuel Palmer." Hawkins, in 1799, has the following to say about them: Oose-oo-che; is about two miles below Uchee, on the right bank of Chat-to-ho-chee; they formerly lived on Flint river, and settling here, they built a hot house in 1794; they cultivate with their neighbors, the Che-au-haus, below them, the land in the point.8 The statement regarding their origin tends to tie them a little more definitely to the tribe mentioned in the Spanish map. The census of 1832 gives two settlements as occupied by this tribe, which it spells "Oswichee," one on Chattahoochee River and one "on the waters of Opillike Hatchee (Opile'ki hå'tci). In 1804 Hawkins condemns the Osochi for a reactionary outbreak which occurred there when "we were told they would adhere to old times, they preferred the old bow and arrow to the gun."10 After their removal west of the Mississippi the Osochi were settled on the north side of the Arkansas some distance above the present city of Muskogee. Later a part of them moved over close to Council Hill to be near the Hitchiti and also, according to another authority, on account of the Green Peach war. An old man belonging to this group told me that his grandmother could speak Hitchiti, and he believed that in the past more spoke Hitchiti than Creek. This is also indicated by the close association of the Osochi and Chiaha in early days. 1 Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 257. 2 Plate 5; Hamilton, Col. Mobile, p. 190. Miss. Prov. Arch., I, p. 96. MSS., Ayer Coll. Ga. Col. Docs., VIII, p. 522. • Bartram, Travels, p. 462. 7 Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, p. 171. Ibid., I, p. 63. Senate Doc. 512, 23d Cong., 1st sess., pp. 353-356; Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, IV, p. 578. 10 Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, p. 438. |