dice to yield up their village and the graves of their
fathers, to strangers, who had no right to the soil, and the breach
between Keokuk and himself was widened.

The white immigrants continued to increase, and the Sac village was the
great point of attraction to them. It was situated on the neck of land
formed by the junction of Rock river with the Mississippi, and had been
the chief village of the tribe for sixty or seventy years. "Their women
had broken the surface of the surrounding prairie with their hoes, and
enclosed with a kind of flimsy pole fence, many fields, which were
annually cultivated by them, in the raising of corn, beans, potatoes and
squashes. They had also erected several hundred houses of various
dimensions, some probably an hundred feet in length by forty or fifty
broad; which were constructed of poles and forks, arranged so as to form
a kind of frame, which was then enclosed with the bark of trees, which,
being peeled off and dried under a weight for the purpose of keeping it
expanded, was afterwards confined to the walls and roof by means of
cords, composed of the bark of other trees. This indeed is a delightful
spot:--on the north-west rolls the majestic Mississippi, while the dark
forests which clothe the numerous islands of Rock river, with its
several rippling streams on the south-east, form a delightful contrast,
which is rendered still more pleasing from the general declivity of the
surrounding country, as it sinks gradually away to the shores of these
rivers. This ancient village had literally become the grave-yard of the
nation. Scarcely an individual could be found in the whole nation, who
had not deposited the remains of some relative, in or near to this
place. Thither the mother, with mournful and melancholy step, annually
repaired to pay a tribute of respect to her departed offspring; while
the weeping sisters and loud lamenting widows, joined the procession of
grief; sometimes, in accordance with their own feelings, no doubt, but
always in pursuance of an established custom of their nation, from time
immemorial. On these occasions they carefully clear away every spear of
grass or other vegetable, which they find growing near the grave, and
make such repairs as may be thought necessary. They also carry to the
grave some kind of food, which they leave there for the spirit of the
deceased: and before they conclude these ceremonies, they often, in a
very melancholy and lamenting mood, ad