520 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i. 1899
had joined the Creeks. 1 We may be sure that they took an active part in the wars which the Chickasaw waged with the French for nearly twenty years. On Bowen's Indian map of 1764 is found a town with the legend, " Remainder of the Natches," marked on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, about 34 50', or northwest of the present Austin, Mississippi. The Chickasaw towns are placed somewhat to the southwest, while the present city of Natchez is shown as "Nautches/" Adair in 1775 speaks of "the Nanne Hamgeh old town in- habited by the Mississippi — Nachee Indians," in the western- most part of the Chickasaw country.* It is quite possible that investigation would discover some of the name still living with the Chickasaw nation in Indian Territory.
Those of the Natchez who joined the Creeks seem to have constituted the greater portion of the broken tribe. We have no exact knowledge as to when they first arrived, or by what route, but it is probable that they came by way of the Chickasaw after the persistent hostility of the French rendered the future of the latter tribe precarious. This is the statement of Milfort, who lived among the Creeks about 1780, and says that the Natchez were assigned lands on Coosa river, upon which they built the towns of Nauchee and Abicoochee. 4 Adair says that the " Nah- chee Indians" constituted one town among the Creeks in 1775.* They formed an important element of strength in the mixed con- federacy of the Creeks, being estimated at 150 warriors in 1764/ and again, with probably more correctness, at 50 to 100 warriors in 1799/ By way of comparison it may be stated that Adair puts the Catawba at about 100 warriors in 1775. Swan, who visited the
��1 Haywood, op. cit., p. 106.
8 Bowen map, 1764, in Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, 1855, v, at p. 252.
'Adair, History of the American Indians, 1775, p. IQ5.
4 Milfort, quoted in Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, 1884, p. 229.
- Adair, op. cit, p. 257.
• Bouquet's estimate, 1764, in Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1802, p. !4oet passim. 1 Hawkins (1799) quoted in Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, 1884, p. 139.
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