Maturin Le Petit

Maturin Le Petit (1693–1739)^[1] was a Jesuit priest sent among the Choctaws in 1726^[2] and to observe the Natchez in 1730^[3] in an area of what became part of Mississippi. He was also in New Orleans.^[4] He wrote of the Natchez that, "The sun is the principal object of veneration to these people" and that "they cannot conceive of anything which can be above this heavenly body."^[5] The French were fascinated by accounts of the Natchez as they had been ruled by their own Sun King, Louis XIV (le Roi Soleil).^[6]