I did not comprehend, but she made me understand by signs, that there
was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast."

It is unfortunate, for the purpose of sociological study, that this
Indian girl appears so infrequently in the many accounts Le Page has
left us in his highly interesting studies of early Louisiana and its
original inhabitants. He does not even tell us the Indian girl's name.

We are told that after living on the banks of Bayou St. John for about
two years, he left for the bluff lands of the Natchez country. His
Indian girl decided she would go with him, as she had relatives there.
Hearing of her plan, her old father offered to buy her back from Le
Page. The Chitimacha girl, however, refused to leave her master,
whereupon, the Indian father performed a rite of his tribe, which made
her the ward of the white man--a simple ceremony of joining hands.

Le Page spent eight years among the Natchez and what he wrote about
them--their lives, their customs, their ceremonials--has been
acknowledged to be the best and most accurate accounts we have of
these original inhabitants of Louisiana. He has left us, in his
splendid history, much information on the other Indian tribes of the
lower Mississippi River country.

Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz tells us he spent sixteen years in
Louisiana before returning to France in 1734. They were years well
spent--to judge by what he wrote.

As it was written and published in the French language, Le Page's
history proved in many instances to be a tantalizing casket of
historical treasure that could not be opened by those who had not