In 1698 French Catholic missionary priests Antoine Davion and François de Montigny and J. B. La Source (a lay person and possible servant to the priests) visited the Taensa; de Montigny founded a short-lived mission among them. De Montigny at that time records their population as being 700 people. In 1699 French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville recorded the Taensa as having 300 warriors and living in seven villages named as Taensas, Chaoucoula, Conchayon, Couthaougoula, Nyhougoula, Ohytoucoulas, and Talaspa. The majority of these names are in the Muskogean Mobilian trade language and not the Natchezan Taensa language.