The first notice of [the Alabama after De Soto's encounter in 1541] occurs in March, 1702, after the foundation of the first Mobile fort had been begun, where they appear together with the Conchaque—by which is evidently meant the Muskogee—as enemies of the Mobile tribes whom they had caused to abandon many of their former settlements. Penicaut says that Iberville sent messengers from Mobile to the Choctaw and Alabama, and that their chiefs came to him to sing the calumet of peace along with the chiefs of the Mobile;5 but he is perhaps in error in placing the visit of the chiefs before Iberville's return, as Iberville himself says nothing regarding it, while La Harpe states that eight honored chiefs of the Alabama came to the Mobile fort May 12, fifteen days after Iberville's departure. These eight chiefs, La Harpe informs us, "came to ask M. de Bienville whether they should continue the war against the Chicachas, the Tomes, and the Mobiliens. He counseled them to make peace, gave them some presents, and so determined them to carry out what they had promised."1 In the report which he drew up after his return to France from this expedition Iberville speaks of these Indians as follows: "The Conchaques and Alibamons have their first villages thirty-five or forty leagues northeast, a quarter east from the Tohomes, on the banks of a river which falls into the Mobile five leagues above the fort, toward the east. These two villages may consist of four hundred families; the greater part have guns, are friends of the English and will be shortly ours."2 (Swanton)