l other
outrages in the proud old chief's estimation, and we can imagine him
sitting in his cabin on the highest ground in the village, looking over
the magnificent landscape, brooding upon the blight which had fallen
upon the beautiful home of his tribe, and harboring thoughts of revenge.
Still he refrained from open resistance till the spring of 1831.

[Illustration: BLACKHAWK AND THE TWO RUFFIANS]

It was the custom of the tribe to spend the winter months hunting and
trapping in northeastern Missouri, returning in the spring to Saukenuk.
This time they found the whites more aggressive than ever. They had
fenced in the most of the cultivated land, plowed over the burying
ground, and destroyed a number of houses. They received the Indians with
hostile looks, but Black Hawk at last did what he ought to have done at
first, ordered the squatters all off the peninsula. He then went to an
island where a squatter sold liquor and had paid no heed to his
entreaties not to sell to the Indians, and with a party of his braves
knocked in the heads of the whisky barrels and poured their contents on
the ground. The liquor vendor immediately hurried to Governor Reynolds,
of Illinois, with his tale of woe and represented that Black Hawk was
devastating the country with torch and tomahawk.

Governor Reynolds at once issued a flamboyant proclamation calling for
volunteers, and asked the United States authorities at Saint Louis for
aid. A considerable body of regulars was dispatched up the river and
reached Saukenuk before the volunteers. Black Hawk told his people to
remain in their houses, and not to obey any orders to leave Saukenuk,
for they had not sold their home and had done no wrong. But when he saw
the undisciplined, lawless and wildly excited volunteers, who came a few
days later, he told the people that their lives were in danger and they
must go. Accordingly the next morning at an early hour all embarked in
their canoes and crossed the Mississippi. They were visited there by the
officials, and Black Hawk entered into an agreement to remain west of
the river.

Black Hawk's band spent the fall and winter, after their expulsion from
Saukenuk, in great unhappiness and want. It was too late to plant corn,
and they suffered from hunger. Their winter's hunt was unsuccessful, as
they lacked ammunition, and many of their guns and traps had gone to pay
for the whisky they had drunk before Black Hawk broke up the traffic. In
the mea