e slightest depredation was committed at any farm or house on the
march. The inhabitants fled, but the hungry Indians touched none of the
abundant food which they left behind. Not a gun was fired. Black Hawk
had ordered that no offense be given, and he was strictly obeyed.

Black Hawk was disappointed to find that the Winnebagoes were lukewarm
as to his enterprise, and also reluctant to let him plant a crop,
fearing to get into trouble with the government. He then pushed on to
confer with the Pottawatomi, who had a village at Sycamore Creek about
forty miles farther on. Here he found similar conditions; also he
learned the falsity of the story that he could get aid from the British.

He says that he then determined to return to Iowa and make the best of
it there. But he was too late--Governor Reynolds had issued another
proclamation, and two thousand volunteers besides a considerable body of
regulars were on his trail. He had made a farewell dog feast for his
Pottawatomi friends, when a scout brought news that about three hundred
whites were going into camp five miles distant. This was a sort of
independent command under Major Stillman, who had pushed ahead of the
main body. It was composed of lawless, undisciplined material, and at
that moment was suffering under the effects of drinking two barrels of
whisky which the troops had poured down their throats rather than leave
it on a wagon that was hopelessly stuck in the mud.

Black Hawk directed three young braves to take a white flag, go to the
camp, ask what the purpose of the command was, and to say that he
desired a conference with them. He then sent five others on horseback to
report the reception which the flag bearers met with. Three of them an
hour later came at full speed into camp, reporting that the whites had
surrounded the flag bearers and killed them and then chased the five who
had followed, killing two of them, and were coming on in full force. All
the devil in the old warrior's heart was roused by this brutal
treachery, and calling on the forty warriors who were with him at the
conference, the rest being in camp some miles away, he hastened to meet
the enemy. Forming an ambush in the brush, the Indians fired their guns
as the whites approached, just at nightfall, and rose up and charged
with a wild yell. The drunken volunteers at once turned and fled, the
panic gathering force as they went. The fugitives rushed through the
camp pell-mell, and all who we