While waiting for the arrival of the Choctaws, Bienville reviewed his troops, and found them to consist of five hundred and forty-four white men, excluding the officers, forty-five negroes, and a body of Indians. At length six hundred Choctaw warriors arrived, and the army resumed its march. On the 22d of May, it encamped about twenty-seven miles from the Chickasaw villages. On the 23d, Bienville ordered fortifications to be constructed for the protection of his boats, and placed twenty men under Captain Vanderck in them. The next day, the army with provisions for twelve days, marched six miles further, and encamped on account of a tempest. On the 25th, within the space of twelve miles, the army had to cross three deep ravines running through a thick cane-brake, and had to wade through water rising up to the waist. It then emerged on a beautiful open prairie, on the edge of which they encamped, at the distance of six miles from the Chickasaw villages. The intention of Bienville was to turn round those villages of the Chickasaws to march upon the village of the Natchez, which was in the rear, and to attack first those whom he considered as the instigators of the Chickasaw war. But the Choctaws insisted with such pertinacity upon attacking the Villages which were nearer, and which, they said contained more provisions than that of the Natchez, and they represented with such warmth, that, in the needy condition in which they were, it was absolutely necessary they should take possession of these provisions, that Bienville yielded to their importunities. The prairie, in which these villages were situated, covered a space of about six miles. The villages were small, and built in the shape of a triangle, on a hillock sloping down to a brook which was almost dry; further off was the main body of the Chickasaw villages, and the smaller ones seemed to be a sort of vanguard. The Choctaws having informed Bienville that he would find water no where else, he ordered the army to file off close to the wood which enclosed the prairie, in order to reach another hillock that was in sight. There the troops halted to rest and take nourishment. It was past twelve o’clock.