During the 1710s and 1720s, French presence and settlement in Natchez territory increased from a handful of traders and missionaries to hundreds of settlers (some 400 French colonists and 200 enslaved Africans). They cultivated several large tobacco plantations, and maintained a military post at Fort Rosalie. French colonists often intermarried with Natchez women. At first the Natchez welcomed the French settlers and assigned them land grants, although historians have noted it was unlikely they had the same concept of land ownership as the French.