Legends and Lore of the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast by Edmond Boudreaux Jr. Page B

River, which caused La Tour’s troops to be overextended. The practice of firing the cannons on the Tchoutacabouffa caused fish kills that were dangerous to public health, so he moved the cannons to the peninsula. La Tour then doubled his line of defense, thus causing his troops to be “over tacked.” In historical text of French occupation of Biloxi’s peninsula, the primary defenses focused on an attack from sea.

    Courtesy of Alan Santa Cruz Collection .

    Fishing near the Tchoutacabouffa River, Biloxi. Courtesy of Alan Santa Cruz Collection .
    The writer continued with the Spanish Period, from which he related a curious reference of how Biloxi was saved by the Tchoutacabouffa. It seems the Indians had surrounded Biloxi, but fearing the Spanish cannons, they set a siege to starve the Spanish into submission. As the garrison neared starvation, “some expert fishermen got into buggies, general about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, slipping through the woods with marvelous ability and dexterity proceeded to the Tchoutacabouffa and caught such immense numbers of green trout and other fish,” saving the Spanish garrison. There is just one problem with this miraculous saving of the garrison: the Spanish never had a garrison post in Biloxi. The author also failed to indicate how the siege ended. It is also interesting to note that the fishermen slipped out of the Indian-surrounded fort in broad daylight, let alone how they slipped back in with buggies loaded with fish.
    The author continued with what he called the Commandant Didier’s administration. The writer said that in 1710, a severe winter visited Biloxi with several feet of snow. Yes, he wrote several feet of snow! The gulf was frozen enough to walk to Deer Island, all communication was stopped and the city was facing starvation and a lack of firewood. Ah, yes, the fishermen to the rescue! With cast nets, hooks and line (but no bait), the fishermen journeyed to the Tchoutacabouffa. It’s unclear whether they walked there on the frozen ice, but of course they returned with “an immense score of fresh fish and transported it to a primitive log warehouse” situated at about the site of Swetman’s Drugstore in 1903. Here they divided the fish according to size. Some they cured as food, some became fuel and others that were “liberally subjected to alcoholic treatments served in the place of candles and lamps during the long dark winter nights.” Little did we know the many uses of fish or that several feet of snow had ever fallen on the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast!
    The writer then moved to the American period and a famous duel on the Tchoutacabouffa. He said that a celebrated Indian chief and a trapper had both fallen in love with a beautiful Indian maiden. She was having difficulty choosing between then, so the Indian chief and the trapper decided on a fishing contest to settle their quest. They would both wade into the Tchoutacabouffa River up to their chins and string the fish around their necks. Fishing from sunrise to sunset, the one who caught the greatest quantity would be the winner. Unfortunately, the Indian strung large fish while the trapper only strung smaller fish. As sunset neared, the exhausted Indian “sank down into the waters and was drowned, leaving the trapper the triumphant victor.” The writer concluded that his long, winding tale is the reason Biloxi should be beholden to the Tchoutacabouffa River.

CHAPTER 12
    D’I BERVILLE AND THE O POSSUM
    Today we take for granted that we will not encounter any animal life that we have not seen, heard of or read about. But in contrast, when the French were exploring the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast, they did not know what they might run into, be it man or beast. One of the most interesting encounters occurred when French explorer Pierre Lemoyne d’Iberville was visiting the village of the Bayogoulas on the Mississippi River.
    On March 14, 1699,