Though their initial relations with the Europeans had been friendly, the rivalry of the European powers strained native populations throughout the region. The Taensa ultimately migrated in 1715, under the protection of the French, to lands near modern Mobile on an eastern branch of the Mobile River north of Mobile Bay that was subsequently named for them as the Tensaw River. In 1763 the French ceded the eastern half of French Louisiana to the British following their defeat in the Seven Years' War. The Taensa, along with the Apalachee and Pakana, relocated again, this time west of the Mississippi to French territory on the Red River. There they eventually merged with the Chitimacha. According to historian James Mooney, they numbered about 100 persons in 1805.