” The Chickasaw minko said that he would “have to think about this” but that De Soto would receive his answer in the near future.

His answer was in keeping with the Chickasaw’s later reputation as a people who “don’t take guff” with a talent of “going for the jugular” with the sudden and unexpected.

Chickasaw warriors made a surprise night attack on the Spanish encampment bringing along live coals in clay pots to set it afire.

The result was chaos, and De Soto himself was almost killed when his saddle came loose after mounting a horse to defend the camp.

The Chickasaw withdrew and when the smoke cleared in the morning, the Spanish had lost 12 men, 57 horses, and 400 of their precious pigs.

Even worse, almost all of their clothing and weapons had been destroyed, and the expedition was within a hair’s breadth of being wiped out.

Later Spanish expeditions into the Southeast were careful to avoid the Chickasaw, and 130 years went by before the Chickasaw met another European.

This time it was the French in the form of the small party of Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet exploring the Mississippi River in 1673.

Somewhat wary because of De Soto’s encounter with the Chickasaw was well-known in Europe, Marquette and Joliet merely noted their location at the bluffs near Memphis.

Stopping at the Chickasaw Bluffs because La Salle was ill, and the expedition armorer, Pierre Prudehomme, wandered off into the woods and became lost.

Prudehomme was finally found almost starved 9-10 days later, and after recovering his strength, La Salle left for the Gulf in March.

These had been set in motion in 1670 when 150 British colonists landed in South Carolina and built Charleston at the mouth of the Ashley River.

The new colony’s purpose was threefold: prevent the spread of Spanish missions up the coast from Florida into territory claimed by Britain; commercial plantations; and trade with the region’s tribes.

Unfortunately, there was insufficient labor for plantations, and Virginia traders were well-established with the Cherokee and Siouan tribes in the piedmont immediately to the west.

Unable to overcome the Virginian advantage, Carolina traders were forced to look elsewhere for customers, and while the French were preoccupied with their war in the Great Lakes with the Iroquois and La Salle’s futile attempt to establish a French colony on the Texas coast in 1686, Charleston traders were able to extend their reach all the way to the Mississippi River.

By 1685 Henry Woodward had a permanent post among Upper Creeks in northern Alabama and sent two men overland to trade with the Chickasaw.

By 1698 British traders visits to the Chickasaw villages were routine, and Thomas Welch, guided by Jean Couture, a Frenchman left in charge (and subsequently ignored) at Arkansas Post, was trading with the Quapaw on the Arkansas River.

Under constant attack, they gathered what remained and retreated cold, desperate, and almost entirely naked to an abandoned Chickasaw village where they hastily built a forge to repair their weapons and saddles

The fur trade had propelled the French exploration of the Great Lakes, but the lower Mississippi Valley did not have enough beaver to draw them south.

On his return that April, he chose to stop at the Quapaw villages (Chickasaw enemies) on the opposite side of the river

With the exception of Arkansas Post established by Tonti at the Quapaw villages in 1686, France was slow to exploit the resources of the region La Salle had claimed in 1682.