ch which he made in the last year of his
life, in alluding to his difficulties with the whites, he says, "Rock
river was a beautiful country--I liked my towns, my cornfields, and the
home of my people;--I fought for it,"--a declaration as creditable to
the heart of the speaker, as it is important to a just estimate of his
conduct, in resisting the removal of his tribe from their native land.
The love of country is not confined to civilized life, but swells the
heart and nerves the arm of the untutored man of the woods. "I LIKED
MY TOWNS, MY CORNFIELDS, AND THE HOME OF MY PEOPLE;--I FOUGHT FOR
IT," should be inscribed over the humble grave of Black Hawk.

* * * * *

NOTE.--Since writing that portion of the foregoing narrative
which treats of the causes of the late war with the Sacs and Foxes, the
following article, from the able pen of judge Hall, has met our
observation. It was published in the Western Monthly Magazine in 1833,
one year after the termination of that conflict. The writer was then a
resident of Illinois, and intimately acquainted with the relations
existing between the whites and Indians. His remarks are valuable. They
embrace a graphic description of the region inhabited by the Sacs and
Foxes, and fully sustain the position which we have taken in this
volume, that the "Black Hawk war" was the result of unprovoked
agressions made by the American people upon the Indians.

"I have just returned from a delightful voyage. I have explored a
portion of the exquisitely beautiful shores of the upper
Mississippi; and am ready to confess that until now, I had little
idea of the extent, the grandeur, or the resources of the west. The
world cannot produce such another country as this great valley of
ours. Yet to understand its value, one must ascend the Mississippi
and the Illinois, and see the noble prairies of the two states
which are destined to eclipse all others. I cannot convey to you in
adequate language, my admiration of this attractive region. The
traveller who visits the western country, and fancies he has
acquired _any_ knowledge of it--I say _any_, by simply tracing the
meanders of the Ohio, or spending weeks, or years, if you please,
at Cincinnati or Louisville, is very much mistaken. There is much
to admire in western Pennsylvania and Virginia; Kentucky and Ohio
are full of attraction; but the man