olunteering to die in place of his sick brother, presents one of those
rare cases of self-devotion, which should be held in remembrance.

In the following autumn, Black Hawk and some of his band went on a visit
to their British father at Malden and received presents from him. A
medal was given to Black Hawk for his fidelity to the British in the
late war, and he was requested to come up annually, to that place, with
his band, and receive such presents, as had been promised them by
Colonel Dixon, when they joined the English forces. These visits were
regularly made, it is believed, from that time down to the year 1832. It
is owing to this circumstance that Black Hawk's party has long been
known by the appellation of the "British Band."

In the winter of 1822, Black Hawk and his party, encamped on the
Two-rivers, for the purpose of hunting, and while there was so badly
treated by some white men, that his prejudices against the Americans
were greatly strengthened. He was accused of having killed the hogs of
some settlers, who, meeting him one day in the woods, wrested his gun
from his hands, and discharging it in the air, beat him so severely with
sticks that for several nights he was unable to sleep. They then
returned him his gun and ordered him to leave the neighborhood. Of the
perpetration of this outrage, there is little doubt, while the fact of
Black Hawk's having committed the offence charged upon him, rests, at
best, upon suspicion. Supposing him to have been guilty, and the
supposition is at variance with the whole tenor of his intercourse with
the whites, it was on their part, one of those brutal appeals to _club_
law, which are but too often practised towards the Indians; and which,
when avenged by them, not unfrequently brings upon their nation, the
power and the arms of the United States.

The ensuing summer, the expediency of a removal of the whole of the Sacs
and Foxes, to the west side of the Mississippi, was urged upon them by
the agent at Fort Armstrong. The principal Fox chief, as well as
Keokuk, assented to the removal. The latter sent a messenger through the
village informing the Indians that it was the wish of their great
Father, the President, that they should remove, and he pointed out the
Ioway river as presenting a fine situation for their new village. There
was a party, however, among the Sacs, made up principally of the
"British Band," who were decidedly opposed to a removal; and they called
u