not, in 1720, amount to more than 1200 warriors.[268] Only six or seven years prior to this period, their warriors were estimated at 4000. This rapid decrease they attributed to the prevalence of contagious diseases, by which they had been wasted, for it does not appear that they were ever addicted to war, having long lived in peace with the neighbouring nations, who venerated their sacred institutions, and acknowledged their political ascendancy and power. Their dominion once extended from the borders of bayou {273} Manchac to the banks of the Ohio, and they numbered not less than 500 suns or caziques. Descended from, and confederated with them, were the Taensas of the Mobile, and the Chetimashas of bayou Placquemine, remnants of whom still exist, not far from the sites where they were first found by the French colonists, and against whom they waged an unsuccessful war.
The Natchez had a distinct tradition of migrating to the Mississippi, from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, at two distinct periods of time. A part of the nation (probably about the period of the first establishment of the Mexican monarchy) fled from the threatening oppression of their natural enemies, and living in undisturbed tranquillity for several generations in their newly acquired territory, they became very populous, and were only joined by the Great Sun after the arrival and invasion of the Spaniards, with whom at first they had entered into an alliance. As to their ultimate oriental origin, it appears to be merely connected with their presumption of a descent from the sun, which first illuminates the eastern hemisphere. It was this superstition which proved so fatal to the Mexicans, who venerated as a celestial race the Spanish conquerors, because they had arrived from
