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-*
- [Footnote: 1877), ii, p. 181. For a secondary account, see Parkman, La Salle (Boston,
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.—Ed.]
