Natchez

or Natches . A tribe of Indians who formerly occupied four or five villages situated east of the Mi i ippi in a tract of country which embraced the site of the city of that name. They were generally friendly to the early French settlers; but in 1729, being enraged by the brutal avarice of Chopart, the commander of the garrison, who demanded as a plantation the very site of their principal village, they concerted a general ma acre of the French, which they effected November 28, killing about 200 and holding the women and children captives. The French took a bloody and terrible revenge. Under the leadership of Le Sueur, a French man, 700 Choctaws broke upon the slumbers of the Natchez on the night of January 28, 1730, liberated the captives, and with a lo of but two of their number, brought off 60 scalps and 18 prisoners. On February 8 following the French under Loubois completed the ruin of the tribe. Some fled to the neighboring tribes and some cro ed the Mi i ippi to the vicinity of the Natch it oches. They were pursued and their places of refuge taken. Of the scattered remnants some remained with the Chick a saws, others settled with the Muskogees, and about 400 were shipped to San Domingo and sold as slaves. Thus perished the Natchez as an independent tribe.