Louisiana and the Natchez: Grand Sun
The Stung Arm, being informed of the whole design, pretended to approve of it, and, leaving her son at ease, henceforward was only solicitous how she might defeat this barbarous design: the time was pressing, and the term prefixed for the execution was almost expired.
She vainly attempted to convey a warning to the commandant. The hints of danger she sent him by soldiers were blindly ignored.
The Stung Arm, fearing a discovery, notwithstanding her utmost precaution and the secrecy she enjoined, repaired to the temple and pulled some rods out of the fatal bundle; her design was to hasten or forward the term prefixed, to the end that such Frenchmen as escaped the massacre might apprise their countrymen, many of whom had informed the commandant, who clapt seven of them in irons, treating them as cowards on that account. .
Notwithstanding all these informations, the commandant went out the night before [the fatal day] on a party of pleasure, with some other Frenchmen, to the grand village of the Natchez, without returning to the fort till break of day; where he was no sooner come, but he had pressing advice to be upon his guard.
The commandant, still flustered with his last night's debauch, added imprudence to his neglect of these last advices, and ordered his interpreter instantly to repair to the grand village and demand of the Grand Sun whether he intended, at the head of his warriors, to come and kill the French, and to bring him word directly. The Grand Sun, though but a young man, knew how to dissemble, and spoke in such a manner to the interpreter as to give full satisfaction to the commandant, who valued himself on his contempt of former advices: he then repaired to his house, situate below the fort.
The Natchez had too well taken their measures to be disappointed in the success thereof. The fatal moment was at last come. The Natchez set out on the eve of St. Andrew, 1729, taking care to bring with them one of the lower sort, armed with a wooden hatchet, in order to knock down the commandant: they had so high a contempt for him that no warrior would deign to kill him. The houses of the French filled with enemies, the fort in like manner with the natives, who entered in at the gate and breaches, deprived the soldiers, without officers or even a sergeant at their head, of the means of self-defence. In the mean time the Grand Sun arrived, with some warriors loaded with corn, in appearance as the first payment of the contribution; when several shots were heard. As this firing was the signal, several shots were heard at the same instant. Then at length the commandant saw, but too late, his folly: he ran into the garden, whither he was pursued and killed. The massacre was executed everywhere at the same time. Of about seven hundred persons, but few escaped to carry the dreadful news to the capital; on receiving which the governor and council were sensibly affected, and orders were despatched everywhere to put people on their guard.
The other Indians were displeased at the conduct of the Natchez, imagining they had forwarded the term agreed on, in order to make them ridiculous, and proposed to take vengeance the first opportunity, not knowing the true cause of the precipitation of the Natchez.
After they had cleared the fort, warehouse, and other houses, the Natchez set them all on fire, not leaving a single building standing.
Steps were immediately taken by the French to revenge themselves upon their enemies. A force, partly made up of Choctaw allies, assailed the fort of the Natchez, who offered to release the French women and children prisoners if peace was promised them. This was agreed to, and the Natchez took advantage of the opportunity to vacate the fort by stealth, under cover of night, with all their baggage and plunder, leaving only the cannon and ball behind. They took refuge in a secret place to the west of the Mississippi, which proved difficult to discover. As soon as the place of concealment was found, the French set out to chastise the murderers.
The Messrs. Perier set out with their army in very favorable weather, and arrived at last, without obstruction, near to the retreat of the Natchez. To get to that place, they went up the Red River, then the Black River, and from thence up the Silver Creek, which communicates with a small lake at no great distance from the fort which the Natchez had built in order to maintain their ground against the French.
The Natchez, struck with terror at the sight of a vigilant enemy, shut themselves up in their fort. Despair assumed the place of prudence, and they were at their wits' end on seeing the trenches gain ground on the fort: they equip themselves like warriors, and stain their bodies with different colors, in order to make their last efforts by a sally which resembled a transport of rage more than the calmness of valor, to the terror, at first, of the soldiers.