Natchez was visited by La Salle and party in 1682, but did not receive its first white settlers until 1698, when Pere Davion, who shortly after located where Port Adams now is,-and Pere St. Cos
Natchez was visited by La Salle and party in 1682, but did not receive its first white settlers until 1698, when Pere Davion, who shortly after located where Port Adams now is,-and Pere St. Cosme, who remained among the Indians at that point and remained until the year 1707 arrived. The latter was killed by the Chittimaches near Donaldsonville, La., while en route to that Indian town. On February 11, 1700, Lemoyne d’Iberville and Lemoyne Bienville, accompanied by Henri de Tonti, who visited them at Biloxi, arrived at Natchez and were welcomed by Pere St. Cosme. The proposition to establish a post there was well received and the name La Ville de Rosalie aux Natchez was bestowed upon the site. The cabin of the chief and the temple of the sun were soon given neighbors in the shape of stately log huts and the foundations of a city were made. In 1716 a fort was constructed at that point, and in 1718 the plantation of M. de la Houssaye, on St. Catherine’ s creek, was opened, and a house for the owner erected in the village. The farms of Pellerin and Bellecourt were opened close by in 1819, and in 1820 the great plantation of Hubert was cleared on that creek, the gristmill, the forge, the armory and the machine-shop were erected and equipped, and the Montplaisir tobacco farm, within a half-myriameter, or about three miles of the village, established. No sooner was this settlement made than British intrigue introduced trouble, and the disagreements between the colonists and Indians, leading up to the massacre of 1729, were commenced. The history of this terrible affair is given in the second chapter of the general history of the state. Enough here to state that the French colony at Natchez was exterminated and in turn, the Natchez themselves were blotted off the face of the earth by the French colonial troops and Choctaws in 1732. In 1745 there were eight white males (soldiers), two Negro families, and fifteen Negro slaves at Natchez. In 1751 there 