d his feet are slow on the war path. Tell him all this,
and tell him, too,' continued the untutored hero of the forest, with
trembling emotion and marked emphasis, 'that Black Hawk would have been
a friend to the whites, but they would not let him, and that the hatchet
was dug up by themselves and not by the Indians. Tell your chief that
Black Hawk meant no harm to the pale faces when he came across the
Mississippi, but came peaceably to raise corn for his starving women and
children, and that even then he would have gone back, but when he sent
his white flag the braves who carried it were treated like squaws and
one of them inhumanly shot. Tell him too,' he concluded with terrible
force, while his eyes fairly flashed fire, _'that Black Hawk will have
revenge,_ and that he will never stop until the Great Spirit shall say
to him, _'come away.'_

"Thus saying he loosened the cord that bound my arms, and after giving
me particular directions as to the best course to pursue to my own camp,
bade me farewell and struck off into the trackless forest, to commence
that final struggle which was decided against the Indians.

"After the war was over, and the renowned Black Hawk had been taken
prisoner, he was sent to Washington and the largest cities of the
seaboard, that he might be convinced how utterly useless it was for
him to contend against fate. It was enough, and the terrible warrior
returned to the seclusion of his wilderness home, while the scepter of
his chieftainship was given to the celebrated Keokuk.

"On the occasion of the ceremony by which Black Hawk was shorn of his
power, and which took place on Rock Island, in the Mississippi, I shook
the hand of the great chief, who appeared highly pleased to meet me once
more; and upon parting with me he said with mournful dignity, as he cast
above him a glance of seeming regret: 'My children think I am too old to
lead them any more!'

"This was the last time I ever saw him; and the next I learned of him
was that he had left his old hunting grounds forever, and his spirit had
gone to that bar where the balance will be rightly adjusted between the
child of the forest and his pale face brethren."

Although the Winnebagoes and the Pottowattomies had resolved to take
no part in the war, a few young men from each of these tribes, being
emboldened by Black Hawk's victory in the engagement with Stillman's
regiment, concluded to join him. As the party moved up the river, war
part