As Dumont (and Le Page) wrote their histories of Louisiana in the 1750s, it was the Natchez Massacre of 1729 that they perceived as the turning point in the history of the colony. During the boom period in the early 1720s when new plantations or concessions were being built by investors in Law’s company, the Terre Blanche and St. Catherine’s concessions at Natchez were among the most successful. The fertile land atop the bluffs at Natchez, Mississippi, were safe from the annual floods of the Mississippi, and well situated to participate in trade between New Orleans and the Illinois colony. The Natchez Indians were friendly toward the French, and a few Natchez women married French colonists. But when commandant Chepart demanded land to build his own concession, the natives were incensed, and began to plan an uprising. On November 29th, a surprise attack took the lives of about 240 French men. Dumont in the Mémoires historiques claimed he had been in Natchez until the day before the attack. His manuscript reveals that he actually left in January, fleeing from Chepart, who had imprisoned him for insubordination. Dumont’s wife Marie, however, was living near Natchez at the time of the revolt and was held prisoner for several weeks by one of the chief women of the Natchez. Her information likely formed the kernel of Dumont’s account of the rebellion in his manuscript and book. See my article “Plotting the Natchez Massacre” for more. Or consult the wikipedia page on the Natchez Massacre which I wrote with help from my son Joshua.
Perhaps the most detailed narrative of the Natchez revolt and the French response is one by the Pointe Coupée militia captain Jean-Baptiste de Laye. This and is found in the colonial archives collection “Depôts et Fortifications des Colonies” 04DFC38. My translation is attached here, and runs more than 22000 words. As you can see in my translation of the document, de Laye rejects outright the notion of a mass conspiracy of many tribes to attack on the same day as the Natchez. For the transcription of the original document I am grateful to Arnaud Balvay, who has also written the best, and only, scholarly book about the Natchez Massacre, La Révolte des Natchez.