Throughout the whole of his visit in Boston, Keokuk preserved his grave and dignified manners, winning the respect and admiration of all who had an opportunity of coming in contact with him. Upon his return to the west, he spent a few hours in Cincinnati, and was visited by a great number of persons. We had the pleasure of taking him by the hand, and of making some inquiries in regard to his character, of those who were personally acquainted with him.
In person, Keokuk, is stout, graceful and commanding, with fine features and an intelligent countenance. His broad expanded chest and muscular limbs, denote activity and physical power; and he is known to excel in dancing, horsemanship, and all athletic exercises. He has acquired considerable property, and lives in princely style. He is fond of travelling, and makes frequent visits of state to the Osages, the Ottaways, the Omahas and the Winnebagoes. On these occasions he is uniformly mounted on a fine horse, clad in a showy robe wrought by his six wives, equipped with his rifle, pipe, tomahawk and war-club. He is usually attended in these excursions by forty or fifty of his young men, well mounted and handsomely dressed. A man precedes the party to announce his approach to the tribe he is about to honor with a visit; and such is his popularity, that his reception is generally in a style corresponding with the state in which he moves. These visits are most frequently made in autumn, and are enlivened by hunting, feasting, dancing, horse-racing and various athletic games, in all of which Keokuk takes an active part. He moves, it is supposed, in more savage magnificence, than any other Indian chief upon the continent.
In point of intellect, integrity of character, and the capacity for governing others, he is supposed to have no superior among the Indians: Bold, courageous, and skilful in war—mild, firm and politic in peace: He has great enterprize and active impulses, with a freshness and enthusiasm of feeling, which might readily lead him astray, but for his quick perception of human character, his uncommon prudence and his calm, sound judgment. At an early period of his life he became the chief warrior of his tribe, and by his superior talents, eloquence, and intelligence, really directed the civil affairs of his nation for many years, while they were nominally conducted in the name of the hereditary peace chief. Such is Keokuk, the Watchful Fox, who prides himself upon being the friend of the whiteman.
CHAPTER VI.
Murder of twenty-eight Menominies by the Foxes of Black Hawk's band—Naopope's visit to Malden—Black Hawk recrosses the Mississippi—General Atkison orders him to return—Stillman's attack—Defeated by Black Hawk—His white flag fired upon—He sends out war parties upon the frontier—Attack upon Fort Buffalo—General Dodge's battle on the Wisconsin—Black Hawk and his band leave the Four Lakes and fly to the Mississippi—Pursued by General Atkinson—Black Hawk's flag of truce fired upon by the Captain of the Warrior—Twenty-three Indians killed.
Black Hawk and his band were not long upon the west side of the Mississippi, before new difficulties arose, calculated to disturb the harmony which it was hoped the treaty of the 30th of June, had established between them and the United States. The period of their removal to the west side of the Mississippi, was too late in the season to enable them to plant corn and beans a second time; and before autumn was over they were without provisions. Some of them, one night, recrossed the river to steal roasting-ears from their own fields,—to quote the language of Black Hawk,—and were shot at by the whites, who made loud complaints of this depredation. They, in turn, were highly exasperated at having been fired upon for attempting to carry off the corn which they had raised, and which they insisted, belonged to them.
Shortly after this, a party of Foxes, belonging, it is believed, to Black Hawk's band, went up the Mississippi, to Prairie des Chiens, to avenge the murder of some of their tribe, which had been committed in the summer of 1830, by a party of the Menominies and Sioux. The Foxes attacked the camp of the Menominies and killed twenty-eight of them. The authorities at Prairie des Chiens, made a demand of the murderers, that they might be tried and punished under the laws of the United States, according to the treaty of 1825. Black Hawk, with other chiefs, took the ground that the United States had no right to make this demand, and refused to give them up. Here then was another source of difficulty.
Neapope, a chief of the British band, and second in command to Black Hawk, prior to the removal of the Indians to the west side of the Mississippi, had started on a visit to Malden, to consult their British Father in regard to the right to retain their lands on Rock river. He returned late in the fall, bringing word that in his opinion, the Americans could not take their lands, unless by purchase; and this purchase, it was contended by Black Hawk had never been made. Neapope on his way from Malden, called to see the Prophet, who assured him that early the ensuing spring, not only the British, but the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies and Winnebagoes, would assist them to regain their village and the lands around it. Black Hawk believed, or affected to believe, this information, and began to make preparations to increase the number of his braves by recruiting from different villages. He sent a messenger to Keokuk, and to the Fox tribe, to inform them of the good news he had heard, and to ask their co-operation. Keokuk had too much sagacity to be imposed upon by tales of either British or Indian assistance, and sent word to Black Hawk that he was deceived and had better remain quiet. With a view of preventing further difficulty, he is said to have made application to the agent at St. Louis, that the chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes might be permitted to visit Washington city, to see the President, and if possible make a final adjustment of the matter in dispute. Black Hawk alledges he was anxious to make this visit to his Great Father, and had determined, to submit peaceably to his counsel, whatever it might be. But the arrangement for the visit, from some cause, was not perfected, and Black Hawk proceeded with his own plans. He established his head quarters at the point where Fort Madison formerly stood, on the west side of the Mississippi, and made another unsuccessful effort to draw into his support some of the braves under Keokuk. Having assembled his own party he began to ascend the Mississippi—the women and children in canoes with their provisions, camp equipage and property—his warriors armed and mounted on their horses. Below Rock island, they were met by the Prophet, who informed them that there was a great war chief then at Fort Armstrong, with a large body of soldiers. The Prophet stated that the agent and trader at Rock island, had attempted to dissuade him from joining Black Hawk, but he had refused to take their advice, because so long as they remained at peace, the Americans dare not molest them. Having reached the mouth of Rock river, in the early part of April 1832, the whole party rashly and in violation of the treaty of the previous year, crossed to the east side of the Mississippi, for the avowed purpose of ascending Rock river, to the territory of their friends, the Winnebagoes, and raising a crop of corn and beans with them. General Atkinson with a body of troops was then at Fort Armstrong, having been ordered by government to that point, for the purpose of preventing a war between the Menomenies and the Foxes, and demanding the surrender of those Indians who had committed the murders at Fort Crawford. After Black Hawk and his party had proceeded some distance up Rock river, he was overtaken by an express from General Atkinson, with an order for him to return and recross the Mississippi, which he refused to obey, on the ground that the General had no right to make such an order; the Indians being at peace and on their way to the prophet's village, at his request, to make corn. Before they had reached this point, they were overtaken by a second express from General Atkinson, with a threat, that if they did not return, peaceably, he would pursue and force them back. The Indians replied that they were determined not to be driven back, and equally so not to make the first attack on the whites. Black Hawk now ascertained that the Winnebagoes, although willing that he should raise a crop of corn with them, would not join in any hostile action against the United States. The Pottowatomies manifested the same determination, and both denied having given the prophet any assurances of co-operation. Black Hawk immediately came to the conclusion, that if pursued by General Atkinson, he would peaceably return with his party, and recross the Mississippi. He was encamped at Kish-wa-cokee, and was preparing to compliment some Pottowatomie chiefs, then on a visit to him, by a dog-feast.
In the mean time the Illinois militia, ordered out by Governor Reynolds, upon his hearing of this second "invasion," of the state, had formed a junction with the regular troops under General Atkinson at Rock island, the latter assuming the command of the whole. From this point, the militia, being generally mounted, proceeded by land to Dixon's ferry on Rock river, about half way between the mouth of that stream and the encampment of Black Hawk. General Atkinson with three hundred regulars and three hundred militia ascended Rock river in boats to the same point. Major Stillman, having under his command a body of two hundred and seventy-five mounted volunteers, obtained leave of General Whitesides, then in command of the Illinois militia, at Dixon's ferry, to go out on a scouting expedition. He proceeded up Rock river about thirty miles, to Sycamore Creek, which empties into that river on the east side. This movement brought him within a few miles of the camp of Black Hawk and a part of his braves, at the time when the old chief was engaged in getting up a dog-feast in honour of his Pottowatomie visitors.