my interesting reminiscences of the early days of Chicago, all of which and vastly more have been recorded in her charming volume of personal recollections, entitled "Wau-bun: the 'Early Day' in the Northwest." During a whole winter she and her family were compelled to use the greatest economy for fear they might exhaust their slender stock of flour and meal before it would be replenished from "below"-Mackinaw. At the same time the Indians of that neighborhood were famishing "dying in companies," she said, "from mere destitution. Soup made from the bark of the slippery elm, or stewed acorns was the only food that many had subsisted on for weeks."

Forty years afterwards the commerce of that city amounted, annually, to $450,000,000, and the grain market there forms the basis of speculation as railway shares do in Wall street. In 1873 there were fifteen grain-elevators there with a storage capacity of 12,800,000 bushels, each receiving and shipping 100,000 bushels a day. At the same time the total value of live stock received there, including cattle valued at $41,000,000, hogs at $33,500,000, sheep at $950,000, and horses at $250,000, was estimated at more than $75,000,000. A million and a quarter of hogs were packed there that year. Think of it only forty years before, a single white family there with the best facilities for supply, were afraid their stock of flour and meal might become exhausted before the ice in the lake should break up in the spring, and the Indians were "dying in companies from mere destitution !" That little germ of a village has grown to a city of three hundred thousaud inhabitants.

In 1812, the Kinzie house and its surroundings became the theatre of stirring events. The gar rison of Fort Dearborn consisted of fifty-four men, under the charge of Captain Nathan Heald, assisted by Lieutenant Lenai T. Helm, (son-in-law of Mrs. Kinzie), and Ensign Ronan. The surgeon was Dr. Voorhees. The only residents at the post, at that time, were the wives of Captain Heald and Lieutenant Helm, and of a few of the soldiers, Mr. Kinzie and his family, and a few Canadian voyageurs with their wives and children. The soldiers and Mr. Kinzie were on the most friendly terms with the Pottawatomies and Winnebagoes, the principal tribes around them, but they could not win them from their attachment to the British. After the battle of Tippecanoe, in

the autumn of 1812, it was observed that the leading chiefs became sullen, for some of their people had perished in that conflict with American troops.

One evening in April, 1812, Mr. Kinzie sat playing his violin and his children were dancing to the music, when Mrs. Kinzie came rushing into the house, pale with terror, and exclaiming, "The Indians! the Indians!" "What? where?" eagerly inquired Mr. Kinzie. "Up at Lee's, killing and scalping," answered the frightened mother, who when the alarm was given was attending Mrs. Burns, a newly-made mother living not far off. Mr. Kinzie and his family crossed the river in boats and took refuge in the fort, to which place Mrs. Burns and her infant not a day old, were conveyed in safety. To the shelter of the guns of Fort Dearborn the rest of the white inhabitants fled. The Indians were a scalping party of Winnebagoes who hovered around the fort some days, when they disappeared, and for several weeks the inhabitants there were not disturbed by alarms.

Chicago was then so deep in the wilderness, that the news of the declaration of war against Great Britain, made on the 19th of June, 1812, did not reach the commander of the garrison at Fort Dearborn until the 7th of August. Now the fast mail train will carry a man from New York to Chicago in twenty-seven hours, and such a declaration might be sent, every word, by the telegraph, in less than the same number of minutes!

The news reached Captain Heald with an order from General Hull, at Detroit, to evacuate Fort Dearborn if possible, and in that event to distribute all the United States' property contained in the fort, and in the government factory or agency that stood just outside of the stockade, among the Indians in the neighborhood. This was probably intended as a peace-offering to the savages to prevent their joining the British, who were then menacing Detroit.

The bearer of the despatch was a friendly Pottawatomie chief. He knew the purport of the order, and begged Mr. Kinzie to advise Captain Heald not to execute it. The Indians had already received intelligence of the capture of Mackinaw by the British, and the close investment of Detroit, and if the order for distribution and evacuation should become known among them, the savages would begin war at once. "Leave the fort and

stores as they are," said the chief, "and let the Indians make distribution for themselves; while they are engaged in that business, the white people may escape to Fort Wayne," a military post on the side of the present town of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

His

Mr. Kinzie and Captain Heald's officers knew the wisdom of the chief's advice, but the commander, a strict disciplinarian, resolved to follow Hull's order to the letter. On the morning of the 8th he caused the order to be read to his troops, and then assumed the whole responsibility. officers remonstrated with him, in vain. They argued that the order left it to his discretion to go or stay; that on account of the women and children this march would be slow and perilous, and that, with the ample provisions and ammunition in the fort, they could withstand a siege by the Indians, for months. Heald replied that special orders had been issued from the War Department, that no post should be surrendered without first giving battle to the assailants; that his force was totally inadequate to attempt a fight with the Indians, and that he had faith in the professions of friendship of many of the chiefs about him. He said he should call them together make the distribution, and take up his march for Fort Wayne.

Captain Heald held a farewell council with the Indians on the afternoon of the 12th, in which his officers refused to join, for they had received information that treachery on the part of the sav ages, was designed-that they intended to murder the white people in the council and thea destroy those within the fort. Lieutenant Helm opened a port-hole that displayed a cannon pointed directly upon the council, and so Captain Heaid was saved from destruction. The intimidated Indians accepted the captain's offer to distribute among them the property of the government, including the arms and ammunition; and it was agreed that the distribution should take place the next day. The Pottawatomies agreed to furnish an escort for the safe journey of the garrison to Fort Wayne.

Mr. Kinzie knew the Indians well. He begged Captain Heald not to confide in their promises nor distribute the arms and ammunition among them, for it would fearfully increase their power to harass the frontier settlements. Heald resolved to violate the treaty so far as to withhold the munitious of war, and the powder, as well as

liquors were cast into the water, on the night of the 13th, after the distribution of the other property had been made.

On the evening of the 12th, Black Partridge, 1 friendly chief, came to Captain Heald and said: "I come to deliver to you the medal that I wear. It was given me by the Americans, and I have long worn it in token of our mutual friendship. But our young men are resolved to imbrue their hands in the blood of the white people. I cannot restrain them, and I will not wear a token of peace while I am compelled to act as an enemy." This warning was pondered by the captain, and made him yield more readily to the advice of Mr. Kinzie; and on the night of the 13th he cast the powder and liquor and the muskets, which had been broken up, into the water. That evening the Black Partridge said to Mr. Griffith, the interpeter: "Linden birds have been singing in my ears to-day; be careful on the march you are going to take."

On that dark night, vigilant Indians had crept near the fort, and discovered the destruction of their promised booty going on within. The next morning the powder was seen floating on the surface of the river. The savages were exasperated, and made loud complaints and threatenings because of this breach of faith. The celebrated Black Hawk, who was with the Indians there, afterwards declared that had the terms of the treaty been strictly complied with, the white peo ple would not have been molested.

On the following day, when preparations were a-making to leave the fort, and all the inmates were deeply impressed with a sense of impending danger, Captain Wells, an uncle of Mrs. Heald, was discovered upon the Indian trail near the Sand Hills on the border of the lake not far dis tant, with a band of mounted Miamis, of whose tribe he was a chief, having been adopted by the famous Little Turtle. When news of Hull's order reached Fort Wayne, he had started with this force to assist Heald in defending Fort Dearborn. He was too late. Every means for its defence had been destroyed the night before, and arrange. ments were made for leaving the fort on the morning of the 15th.

It was a warm, bright morning at the middle of August. There were positive indications that the savages intended to murder the white people, and when the latter went out of the southern gate of

the fort, the march was like a funeral procession. The band, feeling the solemnity of the occasion, struck up the Dead March in Saul. Captain Wells, who had blackened his face with gunpowder in token of his fate, took the lead with the friendly Miamis, followed by Captain Heald with his wife by his side, on horseback. Mr. Kinzie, hoping by his personal influence to avert the impending blow, accompanied them, leaving his family in a boat in charge of a friendly Indian, to be taken to his trading station at the site of Niles, Michigan, in the event of his death.

The procession moved slowly along the lake shore until they reached the Sand Hills between the prairie and the beach, when the Pottawatomie escort filed to the right, under the leadership of Blackbird, and placed those hills between them and the white people. Wells and his Miamis had kept in the advance. They suddenly came rushing back, Wells shouting, "They are about to attack us; form instantly!" These words were quickly followed by a storm of bullets that came over the little hills which the treacherous savages had made their covert for the murderous attack. The white troops charged upon the Indians, drove them back to the prairie, and then the battle was waged between fifty-four soldiers, twelve civilians and three or four women (for the cowardly Miamis had fled at the outset) against about five hundred Indian warriors. The white people, hopeless, resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible.

The conflict was short and desperate, in which personal prowess of highest order was displayed on the part of the white people. In this combat women bore a conspicuous part. Ensign Ronan wielded his weapon vigorously, even after falling upon his knees, weak from the loss of blood. Captain Wells, who was by the side of his niece, Mrs. Heald, when the conflict began, behaved with the greatest coolness and courage. He said

to her, "We have not the slightest chance for life. We must part to meet no more in this world; God bless you;" and then he dashed forward. Seeing a young warrior painted like a demon, climb into a wagon in which were twelve children, and tomahawk them all, he cried out, unmindful of his personal danger, "If that's their game, butchering women and children, I'll kill too." He spurred his horse toward the Indian camp, where they had left their squaws and little ones,

hotly pursued by swift-footed young warriors who sent bullets after him. One of these killed his horse and wounded the captain severely in the leg. With a yell, the young braves rushed forward to make him a prisoner, and reserve him for torture. He resolved not to be made a captive, and by the use of most provoking epithets, he tried to induce them to kill him instantly. He called a fiery young chief a squaw, when the enraged warrior killed Wells instantly with his tomahawk, jumped upon his body, cut out his heart and ate a portion of the warm morsel with savage delight.

Mrs. Heald was an excellent equestrian and expert in the use of the rifle, and she fought the savages bravely, receiving some severe wounds. Though faint from the loss of blood, she managed to keep her saddle. A savage raised his tomahawk to kill her, when she looked him full in the face, and, with a sweet smile and gentle voice she said, in his own language, "Surely you will not kill a squaw!'' The arm of the savage fell and the life of the heroic woman was saved. Mrs. Helm, the step-daughter of Mr. Kinzie, had an encounter with a stout Indian who attempted to tomahawk her. Springing on one side, she received the glancing blow of the weapon on her shoulder, and at the same instant she seized the savage around the neck with her arms, and endeavored to get hold of his scalping knife which hung in a sheath on his breast. While she was struggling, she was dragged from her antagonist by another powerful Indian, who bore her, in spite of her struggles, to the margin of the lake and plunged her in. Το her astonishment she was so held by him that she would not drown, and she soon perceived that she was in the hands of the friendly Black Partridge, who saved her life.

The wife of Sergeant Holt, a large and powerful woman, behaved as bravely as an Amazon. She rode a fine, high-spirited horse which the Indians coveted, and several of them attacked her with the butts of their guns, for the purpose of dismounting her, but she used the sword, which she had received from her badly-wounded husband, so skillfully, that she foiled them. Suddenly she wheeled her horse, and dashed over the prairie, followed by a large number of the savages, who shouted: "The brave woman! the brave woman! don't hurt her!" They finally overtook her, and while she was fighting them in front, a powerful savage came up behind her, seized her by the neck

and dragged her to the ground. Horse and woman were made captives. The latter was afterwards ransomed.

In that sharp conflict, two-thirds of the white people were slain or wounded, and all the horses, provisions and baggage were lost. Only twentyeight stray men remained to fight about five hundred Indians who were made furious at the sight of blood. The white people had succeeded in breaking through the ranks of the murderers, and gained a slight eminence on the prairie, near a grove called The Oak Woods. The Indians did not pursue, but gathered on their flanks, while the chiefs held a consultation on the Sand Hills and showed signs of a willingness to parley. It would have been madness to renew the fight with the savages, so Captain Heaid, accompanied by a half-breed boy in the service of Mr. Kinzie, went forward and met Blackbird on the open prairie, where terms for a surrender were arranged. It was agreed that the white people should give up all their arms to Blackbird, and that the survivors should become prisoners of war to be exchanged for ransoms as soon as practicable. With this understanding, captors and captives started for the Indian camp near the fort, to which Mrs. Helm had been taken, bleeding and suffering, by Black Partridge, and met her step-father, and learned that her husband was safe.

A new scene of horrors was now opened at the Indian camp. According to the interpretation of the capitulation by the Indians, the wounded were not included in the terms of the surrender. General Proctor, the British commander at Malden, had offered a liberal sum for scalps delivered there; so nearly all of the wounded men were killed and scalped, and the price of the trophies was afterward paid for them. In this tragedy Mrs. Heald was compelled to play a conspicuous part. The Indians coveted the fine horse on which she rode, and had aimed at the rider. Seven bullets took effect upon her person. Her captor, who was about to kill her, as we have seen, left her in the saddle and led the horse toward the Indian camp. When near the fort, his gallantry yielded to his acquisitiveness, and he was taking her bonnet from her head to scalp her, so as to obtain Proctor's offered bounty for such trophies of war, when Mrs. Kinzie, who was yet sitting in the boat, discovered her. She had heard the sounds of the battle, but knew not the

result, until she saw the fair captive in the hands of the savage. "Run! run, Chandonnai !" er claimed Mrs. Kinzie, addressing one of her hus band's clerks, who was standing on the beach. "That is Mrs. Heald; he is going to kill her Take that mule and offer it as a ransom.” Chandonnai promptly obeyed, and increased the bribe by offering, in ad lition, two bottles of whiskey. These were of more value than Proctor's bounty, and the brave woman was concealed in Mrs. Kinzie's boat from the prying eyes of other scalphunters, and was saved.

Mrs. Burns and her infant, to whom allusion has been made, were captured by a chief and taken to his village, where they were kindly treated by the captain. His attentions to them aroused the jealousy of the chief's wife, who one day spitefully struck the infant on its head with a tomahawk with the intention of killing it. The blow took off some of its scalp. Thirtytwo years afterwards," said Mrs. Kinzie, the author of "" Wau-bun," "as I was on a journey to Caicago in the steamer Uncle Sam, a young woman, hearing my name, introduced herself to me, and, raising the hair from her forehead, showed me the mark of the tomahawk which had so nearly been fatal to her." She was the daughter of Mrs. Burns-the infant at the time of the tragedy at Chicago. I believe three of the children of Mr. Kinzie, the trader, yet survive, namely, Major John H. Kinzie (husband of the author of "Wau-bun"), his brother, Major Robert A. Kinzie, and their sister, Mrs. Hunter, wife of General David Hunter, of the United States army. They were little children then, with their mother in the boat. The brothers were both officers of Volunteers during the late Civil War, and a promising son of Major John H. Kinzie perished in that war, a martyr for his country.

Captain Heald was severely wounded in the fight, and was made a prisoner by an Indian from the Kankakee, who had a strong personal regard for him, and who, seeing the feeble state of Mrs. Heald, released him and allowed him to accom pany her to the mouth of the St. Joseph river, in Michigan. His humanity was a reason for such severe reproaches on his return to his native village, that he resolved to go to St. Joseph and reclaim him. Friendly Indians of his tribe gave Captain Heald warning, and he and his wife escaped to far-off Mackinaw in an open boat and

surrendered themselves as prisoners of war to the British commander there. Mrs. Heald died at the St. Charles Mission, in Missouri, in 1860.

On the morning after the massacre at Chicago, Fort Dearborn was burned by the savages. In 1816 the Pottawatomies ceded all the land on which Chicago now stands to the United States, when the fort was rebuilt on a somewhat more extensive scale, and the bones of the murdered were collected and buried. In that terrible tragedy twelve children, all the masculine civilians (excepting Mr. Kinzie and his sons,) Captain Wells, Surgeon Van Voorhees, Ensign Ronan, and twentysix private soldiers were murdered. The prisoners were divided among the captors and were finally reunited, or restored to their families or friends. One of the block-houses of the new fort remained near the bank of the river until 1856, when it was demolished.

The City of Chicago now covers the entire theatre of events just described. To the kind courtesy of Mrs. Kinzie (who is now numbered with the dead) I am indebted for the ability to designate the places of the general events on the map of the city. The Kinzie house was on the north side of the Chicago River at the intersection of Pine and North Water streets, about eighty feet east of what was the Lake House in 1860. "Lee's place," where the outrages in April began, was about a fourth of a mile above where Halstead street crosses the South Branch. Captain Wells was killed near the foot of Twelfth street, not far

from the Lake Shore. "The Oak Woods" were occupied as Camp Douglas in 1862, then just beyond the city limits on the Lake Shore. A portion of the tract is, I believe, now occupied by the grave of Stephen A. Douglas and the Chicago University. The place of parley on the prairie between Captain Heald and Blackbird was at about the intersection of Archer Road and Clarke street.

The wife of Mr. Kinzie, the trader who built the Kinzie house, was a young widow when he married her, with one daughter. Her first husband was Colonel M'Killup, a British officer attached to one of the companies who were stationed at Fort Miami, on the Maumee River, at the time of General Wayne's appearance there in 1794. While he was reconnoitering one night he was mistaken for an enemy, and nortally wounded. His widow married Mr. Kinzie, with whom and her daughter, she went to Chicago to live, in 1804. That daughter there became acquainted with Lieutenant Helm, of Kentucky, and married him in 1811, when she was eighteen years of age. She and Mrs. Heald were intimate friends. It is said that Nau-non-gee, a chief of the Colamet band, when in Fort Dearborn in the spring of 1812, seeing there two young women playing at battledore, said: "The white chiefs' wives are amusing themselves very much; it will not be long before they will be living in our cornfields." These words had a terrible significance, which was then hidden.

THE illustration on page 329 shows the Gun Park which was situated on the south side of the main Avenue about 150 feet east of the entrance gate on Front street. The building in the back ground represents the Timber House, where ship building material was stored away and properly seasoned, the second story of this building was used as a sail loft. In it large quantities of canvas was stored and here the sails were cut out and sewed together in proper shape, this work coming under the cog

nizance of the department of Equipment and Recruiting.

In the western end of the upper portion was the office of Navigation department, under whose charge is the Library, consisting of many valuable nautical and miscellaneous works; all the instruments used in navigating the ship are here to be found, also the bunting, comprising not only the stars and stripes, but flags of every nation. These were sometimes hung out to air, and as the great