It were useless to attempt to describe our feelings during that long and dreary day. When night arrived the cry of a drunken Indian, or even the barking of a dog, would fill our hearts with terror.
As we sat, at a late hour, at the open window, listening to every sound, with what joy did we at length distinguish the tramp of horses—we knew it to be Griffin and Jerry ascending the hill, and a cheerful shout soon announced that all was well. They had ridden seventy miles that day, besides holding a long “talk” with the Indians.
The Winnebagoes in council had promised to use their utmost endeavors to preserve peace and good order among their young men. They informed their father that the bands on the Rock river, with the exception of Win-no-sheek’s were all determined to remain friendly, and keep aloof from the Sauks. To that end, they were all abandoning their villages and cornfields, and moving north, that their Great Father, the President, might not feel dissatisfied with them. With regard to Win-no-sheek and his people, they professed themselves unable to answer.
Time went on, and brought with it stories of fresh outrages. Among these were the murders of Auberry, Green, and Force, at Blue Mound, and the attack on Apple Fort. The tidings of the latter were brought by old Crély,[[99]] the father of Mrs. Paquette, who rode express from Galena, and who averred that he once passed a bush behind which the Sauks were hiding, but that his horse smelt the sweet-scented grass with which they always adorn their persons when on a war-party, and set out on such a gallop that he never stopped until he arrived at the Portage.
Another bearer of news was a young gentleman named Follett, whose eyes had become so protruded, and set, from keeping an anxious lookout for the enemy, that it was many days after his arrival at a place of safety, before they resumed their accustomed limits and expression.
Among other rumors which at this time reached us, was one that an attack upon the fort was in contemplation among the Sauks. That this was certainly in no state of defence, the Indians very well knew. All the effective men had been withdrawn, upon a requisition from General Atkinson, to join him at his newly-built fort at Kosh-ko-nong.[[100]]
Fort Winnebago was not picketed in—there were no defences to the barracks or officers' quarters, except slight panelled doors and Venetian blinds—nothing that would long resist the blows of clubs or hatchets. There was no artillery, and the Commissary’s store was without the bounds of the fort, under the hill.
Mr. Kinzie had, from the first, called the attention of the officers to the insecurity of their position, in case of danger, but he generally received a scoffing answer.
“Never fear,” they would say—“the Sauks are not coming here to attack us.”