do wrong all their lives, and then if
they are sorry for it when about to die, all is well, but with us it is
different. We must continue to do good throughout our lives. If we have
corn and meat, and know of a family that have none, we divide with them.
If we have more blankets than we absolutely need, and others have not
enough, we must give to those who are in want. But I will presently
explain our customs and the manner in which we live.

We were treated friendly by the whites and started on our return to our
village on Rock river. When we arrived we found that the troops had
come to build a fort on Rock Island. This, in our opinion, was a
contradiction to what we had done--"to prepare for war in time of
peace." We did not object, however, to their building their fort on
the island, but were very sorry, as this was the best one on the
Mississippi, and had long been the resort of our young people during
the summer. It was our garden, like the white people have near their
big villages, which supplied us with strawberries, blackberries,
gooseberries, plums, apples and nuts of different kinds. Being situated
at the foot of the rapids its waters supplied us with the finest fish.
In my early life I spent many happy days on this island. A good spirit
had charge of it, which lived in a cave in the rocks immediately under
the place where the fort now stands. This guardian spirit has often been
seen by our people. It was white, with large wings like a swan's, but
ten times larger. We were particular not to make much noise in that part
of the island which it inhabited, for fear of disturbing it. But the
noise at the fort has since driven it away, and no doubt a bad spirit
has taken its place.

Our village was situated on the north side of Rock river, at the foot of
the rapids, on the point of land between Rock river and the Mississippi.

In front a prairie extended to the Mississippi, and in the rear a
continued bluff gently ascended from the prairie.

BLACK HAWK'S TOWER.

On its highest peak our Watch Tower was situated, from which we had a
fine view for many miles up and down Rock river, and in every direction.
On the side of this bluff we had our corn fields, extending about two
miles up parallel with the larger river, where they adjoined those of
the Foxes, whose village was on the same stream, opposite the lower end
of Rock Island, and three miles distant from ours. We had eight hundred
acres in cultivation in