CHAPTER XIII.

Another Negotiation with the Indians-Journey to Lake Winnebago-Hostile Feeling among the Winnebagoes-Descends the Wisconsin-Personal Danger at an Indian Village-Providential Escape-Attack on the Miners-War Messages-General Cass organizes the Miners for Defense -Alarm at Fever River-He hastens to St. Louis-General Atkinson orders on Troops-Rapidity of General Cass' Movements-Arrival at Green Bay-Treaty of Butte de Morts-Singular Occur rence Cause of Indian Difficulties-British Agents-The North American Review-Article of General Cass.

In the month of June, 1827, General Cass, with Colonel McKenney as his associate Commissioner, left his home in Detroit, for another negotiation with the Indians, at Lake Winnebago. This time, he was to meet in council the Chippewas, the Menominees, and Winnebagoes; and his instructions from the War Department were, to establish the boundary line between the tribes, as agreed upon at the treaty of Prairie du Chien, and to define the boundaries of the lands set apart to the New York Indians. On his arrival at Green Bay, he did not find the Winnebagoes, who were to be parties to the contemplated negotiation. It was rumored, that they were making efforts to enlist the Pottawatomies to join them in a war of extermination.

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The council was opened, and while holding it with the Indians at that place, a runner came in with the startling intelligence, that the Winnebagoes, who were expected, instead of attending had broken out into hostilities, and had actually attacked the settlements. At that time, the communication between Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, upon the Mississippi river, where these passing, was by water up the Fox river about two hundred miles to the portage, thence across to the Wisconsin and down that stream to the Mississippi, which it enters three or four miles below Prairie du Chien. General Cass embarked in a birch canoe with fifteen paddles to visit the scene of difficulty, and to take such measures for the protection of the people and for restraining the Indians as might be found necessary. He ascended the Fox river, crossed the portage, and descended the Wisconsin about ninety miles; there he met a boat coming up, belonging to the American Fur Company, with some of their

traders on board, from whom he first learned the true state of things, which was more alarming than he had anticipated. The Winnebagoes had struck at some of the settlements about the Prairie, and fire and blood had, as usual, marked their course. They were at open war, and preparing to attack the frontiers, where the alarm was naturally very great. Some of these traders were intelligent men, well acquainted with the Indians, and enjoying their confidence, which was proved by the fact that they were permitted to proceed with their party upon their voyage without molestation, for the Indians feel much kindness towards the traders who treat them well. They urged General Cass not to proceed farther, but to turn back, as he had no force, and his position would be a very dangerous one. They said the Winnebagoes told them that they should shut up the portage path, and that no other boat after theirs should pass. However, General Cass felt that he could not yield to these representations, though he felt their weight, but he felt also the necessity of continuing his mission at all hazards, as the consequences were all important to that district of country. The traders told him that the hostile Winnebagoes were encamped upon a high prairie some thirty miles lower down. Approaching the place indicated, the Indians were seen from the canoe to be in an evident state of agitation, moving rapidly about and watching the descending party. The flag of the United States was flying from the canoe, and though the Indians did not know who was in it, they saw at once that the movement was an uncommon one, and that probably some public officer was on board. General Cass directed the boat to approach the shore as near as possible, and then debarking with his interpreter and secretary, he ordered the crew to paddle out into the middle of the stream, and there to await the result. He then ascended the high bank where the Indians were assembled, and the first thing which struck him was the sight of the squaws and children who were running away across the prairie. It is always a bad sign with the Indians when their women and chil dren flee from the meetings which they hold with the white man. On approaching the Indians, they received General Cass coldly, but without any direct demonstrations of hostility. Some of the chiefs had been in council with him and knew him, and all of them soon learned that he was their American father, charged, under their great father the President, with all the business

between them and their white brethren. A conversation took place, and after awhile the pipe, that indispensable instrument of consultation, went around, and they seemed to be a good deal. mollified. General Cass remonstrated with the chiefs in a firm tone against their dangerous proceeding, and stated their inevitable destruction, should they continue in their course. He invited them to come to Green Bay, where a council was then sitting, and if they had any just causes of complaint, he requested them to make them known to the commissioners, and assured them that justice should be done to them. An hour or two was spent in this intercourse, and the elder chiefs evidently became impressed with the conviction that they had placed themselves in a dangerous position, and they promised to do all they could to restrain their young men, and also that they would attend the council at Green Bay. The interview seemed to pass off well, and the conduct of the Indians, so far as came within the observation of General Cass, was respectful. The young men surrounded the chiefs, listening attentively in the usual Indian manner, but without saying a word. They always evince on these occasions great deference, the effect of which is, however, destroyed by the first impulsive movement. When General Cass had taken leave of the chiefs, and turned away from them, a young man suddenly leveled his gun at him and pulled the trigger, but luckily it missed fire. He was immediately seized by the chiefs, and his gun taken from him. It was obvious that the chiefs were afraid to commit an act so flagrantly hostile as would have been the murder of the representative of the United States in one of their councils, and therefore instantly arrested the act of the young man. The party re-embarked in their canoe, and continued their voyage to Prairie du Chien, which they reached without further accident, though several parties of hostile Winnebagoes were roaming about. At the Prairie General Cass found the inhabitants in the highest state of alarm, having resorted to the old unoccupied fort. He took such measures as were in his power to provide for the immediate danger and to organize the people for their defense, and he promised them to repair with all speed to St. Louis, and there to place himself in communication with the Superintendent of Indian Affairs and with the general commanding the troops of the United States, and to have a force. sent up without delay for their relief. At Fever river, now

Galena, the miners had been driven in and the settlements broken up. Boats upon the Mississippi had been attacked, and the danger was rapidly spreading. General Cass stopped at Fever river, where the inhabitants were assembled. He gave them his advice, and explained to them his mission. At that time, on the right bank of the Mississippi, down to the Missouri line, there were no settlers, and but few on the left bank. On a recent excursion to Rock Island and Burlington, on the opening of a railroad, General Cass adverted to the wonderful difference he found in the condition of the country after an interval of twentyeight years, a change which resembles rather the dreams of an Eastern imagination than the sober realities of actual life. Arrived at St. Louis, the necessary arrangements were immediately made. for the protection of the frontier, and a force was dispatched which reduced the Winnebagoes to obedience. From St. Louis General Cass ascended the Illinois in his canoe and passed into Lake Michigan, by the water communication, without leaving it. At the head of the Des Plaines, a branch of the Illinois which approaches near Chicago, is a shallow lake, appropriately named Mud lake. The party entered it towards evening, and it soon became so dark that they could not discern the bank. The lake was covered with the broad leaves of a kind of lily, favorite haunts of disgusting looking water snakes. A birch canoe can not touch the shore without danger of having a hole broken through its slight material. It is brought near the land, and there retained while the passengers disembark, and this is effected by their being carried ashore upon the backs of the voyageurs. And in the same manner is the freight disposed of. The canoe is then taken from the water and carried by the men upon the land. Finding they could not get to shore safely, the party spent the night upon that slimy sheet of water. Eighteen men in a small canoe, in a hot summer night, with the poles stuck into the mud across the canoe to steady it, accompanied with the most intense rain and with the most intense thunder and lightning, such are the reminiscences which belong to that memorable night. And he who was not there, or has never been in such a place, if such another place there is, has little conception of what a formidable enemy a mosquito can be. During that long night,-long in suffering, though short in the calendar, for it was in the month of July, their venomous attacks were beyond the power of

description. As soon as the dawn of day enabled the party to discern the surrounding objects, the anchor poles were taken from the mud, and the voyage was resumed. A small branch of the Chicago creek takes its rise close to this Mud lake, and the whole region being flat and marshy, when the waters are high this creek flows back into the lake, and thus a communication was formed by which boats passed from the Des Plaines, which runs through the lake, to the Chicago creek, and of course to Lake Michigan. This channel of communication, though almost shut up by the rank water vegetation, was found in the morning, and the travelers entered it, and as the descent to Lake Michigan is rapid, and the distance but a few miles, that space was soon passed over, and the canoe rested upon the broad bosom of that great lake. The magnificent city which occupies the junction of the Chicago creek and the lake, and of miles around, had then no existence. The white man was not there with the power and the desire to change everything around him. There were no troops, and but few families, and these were connected with the Indian trade. They were of course exposed at all times to the sudden hostility of the Indians. As the canoe approached their cabins at the mouth of the creek, the voyageurs commenced their songs, and these were heard by the traders and at first mistaken for the shouts of the Indians. Knowing that the times were dangerous, they were at first in great fear, being entirely destitute of the means of resistance, but they were soon and happily re-assured by the sight of our flag and by the arrival of the canoe, and it was with demonstrations of the liveliest joy that they received General Cass upon the bank.

In the almost fabulous progress of our country, there are few greater marvels than the change which a few years has wrought by the building up of the great city which now occupies that spot, then so lonely and exposed. It is difficult to conceive that but the other day, as it were, silence and solitude spread over all those regions, interrupted only by the Indian, or by the wild animals, his co-tenants of the forest, whom God has given to him for his support.

From Chicago to the point of departure at Green Bay, the voyage was upon Lake Michigan, and was happily terminated. after a rapid passage.

General Cass made the trip from Prairie du Chien to St. Louis