the other, in the center, borne by RED BIRD, was white. They bore no arms. When they had approached near to the Fox river, they stopped, and singing was heard. Those who were familiar with the air, and who recognized the bearer of the white flag, said: "It is RED BIRD singing his death song." When they had reached the margin of the river, Maj. WHISTLER ordered Capt. CHILDS, who was officer of the guard, to take the guard to the river, and ascertain what the Winnebagoes wanted. They replied they had come to deliver up the murderers. They were received by the guard, and taken across the river into the presence of Maj. WHISTLER. In the lead was CAR-I-MAU-NEE, a distinguished chief. He said:

"They are here. Like braves they have come in. Treat them as braves. Do not put them in irons."

The military had been drawn up in line, the Menomonee and Oneida Indians in groups on the left, the band of music on the right. In front of the center stood RED BIRD and his two accomplices in the GAGNIER murder, while those who had accompanied them formed a semi-circle on the right and left. All eyes were fixed on RED BIRD, as well they might be, for of all his tribe he was the most perfect in form, face, and gesture. In height he was about six feet; straight without restraint. His proportions from his head to his feet were those of the most exact symmetry, and even his fingers were models of beauty. His face was full of all the ennobling, and, at the same time, winning expressions; it appeared to be a compound of grace and dignity, of firmness and decision, all tempered with mildness and mercy. It was impossible to conceive that such a face concealed the heart of a murderer.

It was painted, one side red, the other intermixed with green and white. He was clothed in a Yankton suit of dressed elk-skin, perfectly white, and as soft as a kid glove, new and beautiful. It consisted of a jacket, ornamented with fringe of the same material, the sleeves being cut to fit his finely-formed arm, and of leggings, also of dressed elk-skin, the fringe of which was varied and enriched with blue beads. On his feet he wore moccasins. On each shoulder, in place of an epaulette, was fastened a preserved red bird. Around his neck he wore a collar of blue wampum, beautifully mixed with white, which was sewed on to a piece of cloth, whilst the claws of a panther or wild cat,

with their points inward, formed the rim of the collar. Around his neck were hanging strands of wampum of various lengths, the circles enlarging as they descended. There was no attempt at ornamenting the hair, after the Indian style; but it was cut after the best fashion of the most civilized. Across his breast, in a diagonal position, and bound tight to it, was his war pipe, at least three feet long, brightly ornamented with dyed horse hair, and the feathers and bills of birds. Other ornaments were displayed with exquisite taste upon his breast and shoulders. In one of his hands he held the white flag, and in the other the calumet or pipe of peace.

There he stood. Not a muscle moved, nor was the expression of his face changed a particle. He appeared conscious that, according to the Indian law, he had done no wrong. His conscience was at repose. Death had no terrors for him. He was there prepared to receive the blow that should send him to the happy hunting grounds to meet his fathers and brothers who had gone before him.

All were told to sit down, when a talk followed between the head men of the Winnebagoes and Maj. WHISTLER, in which the former claimed much credit for bringing in the captives, and hoped their white brothers would accept horses in commutation for the lives of their friends, and earnestly besought that in any event they might not be put in irons. They were answered and told that they had done well thus to come in; were advised to warn their people against killing ours, and were impressed with a proper notion of their own weakness and the extent of our power. They were told that the captives should not be put in irons, that they should have something to eat, and tobacco to smoke.

RED BIRD then stood up, facing the commanding officer, Maj. WHISTLER. After a moment's pause, and a quick survey of the troops, and with a composed observation of his people, he spoke, looking at Maj. WHISTLER, and said:

"I am ready." Then advancing a step or two, he paused and said: "I do not wish to be put in irons. Let me be free. I have given away my life-(stooping and taking some dust between his finger and thumb and blowing it away)-like that," (eyeing the dust as it fell and vanished), then adding: "I would not take it back. It is gone."

Having thus spoken, he threw his hands behind him, indicating that he was leaving all things behind him, and marched briskly up to Maj. WHISTLER, breast to breast. A

platoon was wheeled backward from the center of the line when, Maj. WHISTLER stepping aside, the prisoners marched through the line in charge of a file of men, to a tent that had been provided for them in the rear, where a guard was set over them. The other Indians then left the ground by the way they had come, taking with them the advice they had received, and a supply of meat, flour, and tobacco.

Gen. ATKINSON's troops, very soon after the surrender of these captives, arrived at Fort Winnebago, as did also the volunteers in command of Col. DODGE. The Indian prisoners were delivered over to Gen. ATKINSON, by whom they were sent to Fort Crawford. Gen. ATKINSON met the greyheaded DE-KAU-RAY at the Portage, who, in presence of Col. DODGE, disclaimed for himself and the other Winnebagoes any unfriendly feeling toward the United States, and disavowed any connection with the murders on the Mississippi. Gen. ATKINSON then discharged the volunteers, assigning two companies of regulars to the occupation of Fort Crawford, and ordering the other regulars to their respective posts, while he himself returned to Jefferson Barracks. And thus ended the Winnebago outbreak.

It may be thought that the results of this war are very meagre for the amount of force employed in it. If measured by the amount of blood shed after the murders at Prairie du Chien and on the keel-boat, the criticism is very correct. But if it be intended to suggest that there was no sufficient reason for apprehending that the Winnebagoes contemplated a general rising against and massacre of the whites, the thought and suggestion are the results of great ignorance of the intentions of the Winnebagoes, and of the facts of the case. There is satisfactory evidence that the Pottawatamies were allied with the Winnebagoes, and that they were to fall upon and destroy the settlement at Chicago, and it is probable that but for the movements resulting from the efforts of Gen. CASS, who was fortunately near the seat of war, the whole country would have been overrun with a general Indian outbreak.

RED BIRD died in prison at Prairie du Chien; and in September, 1828, his two accomplices, We-kau and Chic-hon-sic, were indicted, tried, and convicted at a term of the United States court held by Judge DOTY, as accomplices of RED BIRD in the murder of GAGNIER and LIPCAP. They were sentenced to be hung on the 26th of December following;

but before that day a pardon arrived from President ADAMS, dated November 3d, and the two Indians were discharged.

CHAPTER XII.

THE BLACK HAWK WAR.

The termination of the Winnebago war brought a temporary restoration of peace, which revived anew the adventurous spirit of immigration, and brought with it a large influx of miners and others to the lead mines, and prosperity and progress constantly attended the increasing settlements of the country, which received no material check until the occurrence of the Black Hawk war in 1832. The village of BLACK HAWK, or, as he called himself, BLACK SPARROW HAWK, on the left bank of the Mississippi, near the mouth of Rock river, included the site of the present city of Rock Island. This Indian village was all embraced within the limits of the territory ceded by the treaty with the Sauks and Foxes, made at St. Louis on November 3, 1804, by Gen. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. The validity of this treaty, which was not signed by BLACK HAWK, was denied by him, and although it was ratified and confirmed by another treaty made in May, 1816, to which BLACK HAWK affixed his mark, he pretended to be ignorant of what he had done, and denied that the second treaty had any more validity than the first.

Previous to 1831 the white settlers were in possession of much of the country east of the Mississippi, around BLACK HAWK'S Village, and even of the village itself; and in the spring of that year the chief, driven to desperation in his fruitless attempts to resist what he chose to consider the lawless encroachments of the white settlers, and aggravated by a recent murderous attack of friendly Menomonees, near Prairie du Chien, crossed the Mississippi from the west with his own band of about three hundred warriors, usually called the British band, together with the women and children, with a purpose to regain, if possible, the possession of the home of his people and the burial place of his forefathers.

He ordered the white settlers away, threw down their fences, unroofed their houses, cut up their grain, drove off and killed their cattle, and threatened the people with death if they remained. About the first of June six companies of the United States troops were, upon the application of Gov. REYNOLDS, Sent from Jefferson Barracks to the scene of the disturbance; and by the 10th of June fifteen hundred volunteers, on the call of the Governor, assembled at Beardstown, on the Illinois river, and were duly organized under Gen. JOSEPH DUNCAN, of the State militia. On the 26th of June, the volunteer force having united with the regulars under Gen. GAINES, marched, to the Sauk village; but no enemy was found there. The Indians had quietly departed on the approach of the army, and in their canoes had crossed to the western side of the Mississippi, which it was not claimed had been embraced in the territory ceded by the treaties.

The army remained encamped for several days on the site of the town on Rock Island, where BLACK HAWK and his chiefs and braves sued for peace, and a treaty was entered into on June 30th, by which the Indians agreed to remain forever after on the west side of the river, and never to recross it without the permission of the President or the Governor of the State. Gen. GAINES reported that—

"The Sauks were as completely humbled as if they had been chastised in battle, and less disposed to disturb the frontier inhabitants."

In this the General was greatly mistaken; for scarcely a year elapsed before BLACK HAWK, with all the savage forces he could command, again crossed the Mississippi, when the real Black Hawk war ensued.

This war, although originating on a portion of Rock river some distance from the settlements in the lead mines, and inaugurated by a tribe who laid no claim to our territory, justly caused great alarm to the inhabitants. The lead mine region was not so distant from the scene of the first hostile demonstrations, that it could not easily be reached; and the relations between the Sauks and the Winnebagoes were such, that serious fears were entertained that the two tribes would make the war a common one.

These apprehensions induced Col. DODGE, in the month of May, to assemble a company of fifty volunteers, commanded by Captains JAMES H. GENTRY and JOHN H. ROUNTREE, who proceeded to the head of the Four Lakes, where, on the 25th