Black Hawk was yet more enraged when he
found, in April, 1831, that during the absence of himself and his people
from their village on a hunting expedition a fur-trader had purchased
from the government the ground on which the village stood, and was
preparing to cultivate the field upon which the Indians had for many
years raised their corn. This was in violation of the letter and spirit
of the treaty, which provided that the Indians could occupy their lands
until they were needed for settlement, and the frontier settlements were
yet fifty miles distant. War soon followed between the whites and
Indians, Abraham Lincoln, afterward President of the United States, being
enlisted as a volunteer. Colonel Zachary Taylor, afterward President, was
one of the officers in command of the United States troops. After
fighting with varied fortunes for several months, Black Hawk was defeated
with the loss of many warriors, and fled to a village of the Winnebagoes.
The latter escorted the fallen chieftain to the United States authorities
at Prairie du Chien. "Black Hawk is an Indian," said the captive warrior,
speaking in the third person. "He has done nothing an Indian need be
ashamed of. He has fought the battles of his country against the white
men, who come year after year to cheat them and take away their lands. He
will go to the world of spirits contented." Black Hawk was well treated
as a prisoner, taken to Washington to visit the President, and liberated
after peace had been made.

* * *

During Jackson's second term the American settlers in Texas succeeded,
after a conflict attended by signal heroism and ferocity, in securing
their independence of Mexico. The massacre of the Alamo by the Mexicans
under Santa Anna, will always be remembered in American history. The
Mission of the Alamo, which the Texans defended to the death against
overwhelming numbers, was entirely isolated from the town of San Antonio.
It consisted of several buildings, and a convent yard, surrounded by high
and thick walls, having partly, like all the old missions, the character
of a fortress. Fourteen pieces of artillery were mounted for the defence,
and the garrison, when it entered the Alamo, consisted of one hundred and
forty-five men, untrained in arms, except in the use of the rifle. Their
leader was Lieutenant Colonel William Barret Travis, a native of North
Carolina, and second in command was Colonel James B