to have been quiet and
monotonous, occasionally relieved by a warlike excursion, but generally
spent in hunting, throughout the winter, and in loitering about his
village, during the summer. Such, indeed, is the life of most Indians.
Having no intellectual pursuits and little desire for the acquisition of
property, beyond the supply of their immediate wants, they have in
reality but two sources of excitement--war and the chase. They take no
interest in the domestic affairs of their families, have little taste
for the pursuits of agriculture, and, if not engaged in hostile
excursions, in following the deer, or in trapping the beaver, they sink
into listless inactivity. It is highly probable that many of their wars
are undertaken, more for the gratification of that love of excitement,
which is an indestructible element of the human mind, than from any
constitutional proneness to cruelty and bloodshed. They need both
physical and intellectual excitation, and having none of the resources
which mental and moral culture throws open to civilized man, they seek
it in making war upon each other or upon the wild animals which share
with them the woods and the prairies.

Subsequently to the treaty of 1816, and perhaps in that year, the
government of the United States built Fort Armstrong, upon Rock Island,
in the Mississippi river, and but a few miles from the village where
Black Hawk and his band resided. This measure, though not actually
opposed, was by no means acceptable to them. They probably did not
relish the gradual advances upon them, of the white population; but they
entertained, moreover, a special regard for this beautiful island, which
is justly considered one of the finest in the whole extent of the
Mississippi. It is fertile, and produces many varieties of nuts and
fruits, and being in the rapids of the stream, the waters which lave its
shores, yield an abundance of excellent fish. In addition to all this,
they have a traditionary belief, that the island was the favorite
residence of a good spirit which dwelt in a cave in the rocks on which
Fort Armstrong now stands. This spirit had often been seen by the
Indians, but after the erection of the Fort, alarmed by the noise and
intrusion of the white man, it spread its beautiful, swan-like wings,
and disappeared. During the year 1817, the Sacs sent out some warriors
against the Sioux, and succeeded in killing several of them, but Black
Hawk was not of the party. About t