“The Indians had been defeated, dispersed, and some of the principal chiefs are now in prison and in chains, at Jefferson Barracks. * * * *

“It is very well known, by all who know the Black Hawk, that he has always been considered a friend to the whites. Often has he taken into his lodge the wearied white man, given him good food to eat, and a good blanket to sleep on before the fire. Many a good meal has the Prophet given to people travelling past his village, and very many stray horses has he recovered from the Indians, and restored to their rightful owners, without asking any recompense whatever. * * * *

“What right have we to tell any people, ‘You shall not cross the Mississippi river on any pretext whatever?’ When the Sauk and Fox Indians wish to cross the Mississippi, to visit their relations among the Pottawattomies, of Fox river, Illinois, they are prevented by us, because we have the power!”

I omit, in the extracts I have made, the old gentleman’s occasional comments upon the powers that dictated, and the forces which carried on the warfare of this unhappy Summer. There is every reason to believe that had his suggestions been listened to, and had he continued the Agent of the Sauks and Foxes, a sad record might have been spared. I mean the untimely fate of the unfortunate M. St. Vrain, who, a comparative stranger to his people, was murdered by them, in their exasperated fury, at Kellogg’s Grove, soon after the commencement of the campaign.

[NOTES]

BY REUBEN GOLD THWAITES

1 (page [page 2]).—Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River in 1820; resumed and completed by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake in 1832, by Henry R. Schoolcraft (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1855—the year in which Wau-Bun was written).

2 (page [page 2]).—The etymology of Michilimackinac (now abbreviated to Mackinac) is generally given as “great turtle,” and is supposed to refer to the shape of the island. The Ottawa chief, A. J. Blackbird, in his History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan (Ypsilanti, Mich., 1887), pp. 19, 20, gives a far different derivation; he traces the name back to “Mishinemackinong,” the dwelling-place of the Mishinemackinawgo, a small tribe, early allies of the Ottawas, but practically annihilated by the Iroquois, during one of the North-western raids of the latter.