immediately set out for Prairie du Chien by the way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and would have me to go with him.

"You must calculate the time when I shall probably reach Mackinack, and I trust you will join us there. I have a thousand reasons why you should undertake the tour. Many of the Indians will be from your agency, and such a convocation will never again. be seen upon this frontier. You can return by the Chippewa River, which will give you a fine opportunity of becoming acquainted with a part of the country very little known."

Leaving my sister with friends temporarily at Detroit, I pursued my way, without loss of time, to the Sault; where, among the correspondence accumulated, I found some subjects that may be noticed. Mr. C. C. Trowbridge gives this testimony respecting Mr. A. E. Wing, a gentleman then prominent as a politician.

"He is an intelligent, high minded and honorable man, and gifted with habits of perseverance and industry which eminently qualify him to represent the Territory in Congress.

On the 1st of June the Executive of the Territory apprizes me of his return from Wapekennota, and that he is bending all his force for the contemplated trip to Prairie du Chien.

"I enclose you," he adds, "the copy of a letter from the war department, by which you will perceive that the Secretary has determined, that the outrage of last fall shall not go unpunished. His determination is a wise one, for the apprehension of the Chippewa murderers is essential to the preservation of our character and influence among the Indians."

June 17th. Business and science, antiquities and politics are curiously jumbled along in the same path, without, however (as I believe they never do where the true spirit of knowledge is present), at all mingling, or making turbid the stream of inquiry.

Colonel Thomas L. M'Kenney, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in a letter of this date says: "At the Little Falls of the Potomac, are to be seen the prints of turkeys' feet in stone, made just as the tracks of the animal appear, when it runs upon dust or in the snow.'

22d. On this day, there suddenly presented themselves, at the office of Indian Agency, the Chippewa war party who committed the murders at Lake Pepin, on the Mississippi, last year, who, on the demand made upon the nation, with a threat of military punishment, surrendered the murderers. I immediately

commenced their examination, after having an additional special interpretor sworn in (Truman A. Warren), and sending for a justice of the peace to assist in their examination. The entire day was devoted in this manner, and at the close, six of the party against whom an indictment for murder would lay, committed on a mittimus, with a note requesting the commanding officer to imprison them in the guard house, until he could have them conveyed to the sheriff of the county, at Michilimackinack. Their names were, Sagetone, Otagami, Kakabisha, Annimikence, and Nawajiwienoce to whom was afterwards added Kewaynokwut, the leader of the party. The incidents of this transaction, as they appeared in that examination, have been narrated on a previous page.

This surrendery was evidently made on representations of the traders, who acted on strong assurance that it would avert the marching of a military force against them, and on some mistaken notions of their own about public clemency.

When the examination was finished, and while preliminary steps were in process, for their committment, I addressed them as follows:

"Chippewas I have listened attentively to all that has been said, either for or against you, and have been careful to have it put upon paper, that nothing might be forgotten. It appears you went to the Mississippi, for the purpose of attacking the Sioux, to revenge murders which they had committed in your country. In an evil hour you encountered a party of Americans, consisting of four persons, encamped at the foot of Lake Pepin. It was night. They were all asleep. You went to their tent in a hostile manner, and were received as friends. They gave you tobacco and presents; and your war chief told them they need not fear, that they should not be molested.

On this declaration he withdrew, followed by the whole party, and had proceeded some distance, when an evil suggestion occurred to one of the party, who said, "that when he went out hunting he did not like to return without having killed something." Guns were fired. An electric effect was produced and a rush towards the tent they had left took place among those who were in the rear. The strife seemed who should get there first, and imbrue his hands in blood.

"Of this number you Sagetone, you Kakabisha, you Otagami, you Annimikence, and you Nawajiwienoce, were principal actors,

and you had the meanness to put to death men who had never harmed you, and who, by your own confession, you had robbed of their arms, but whom you had, nevertheless, promised their lives. This was not an evidence of courage, but of cowardice. By this perfidious act you also violated your promises, and proved yourselves to be the most debased of human beings-liars!

"You have asked me many times in the course of this day to take pity on you. How have you the hearts to stand up and ask me for pity, when you have showed no pity yourselves. When those poor disarmed and despairing men implored you to pity their condition, reminding you of your promises, and their generosity in making you presents, when you saw them afterwards submit to be plundered, you gave them not pity but the war club and scalping knife. Did you suppose the God of white men would permit you to go unpunished? Did you think you had got so far in the woods that no person could find you out? Or, did you think your great father, the President, governed by a pusillanimous principle, would allow you to kill any of his people, without seeking to be revenged? "Let this day open your eyes. You have richly deserved death, and not a man of your nation could complain, if I should order you at this instant, to be drawn out before my door, and shot. But a less honorable death awaits you.

"I have before told you, that your Great Father the President is as just as he is powerful; and that he seeks to take away the life of no man, without full, just, and clear proof of guilt. For this purpose he has appointed other chiefs, whose duty it is to hear, try, and punish all offences.

"Before these judges you shall now be sent. You will be closely examined. You will have counsel assigned to defend your cause. You will have every advantage that one of our own citizens could claim. If any cause can be shown why one of you is less guilty than another it will then appear; if not, your bodies will be hung on a gallows."

I then addressed Kewaynockwut. "No person has accused you of murder; but you have led men who committed murder, and have thereby excited the anger of your Great Father, who is slow to forgive when any of his people, even the poorest of them, have been injured, far less when a murder has been committed. Though I include you with those cowards who first took away

the arms of our people, and then shot them-those mean dogs who sit trembling before me-I do not forgive you. The blood of our citizens rests upon you. I can neither take you by the hand, nor smoke the pipe you offer to me. You lie under the severe censure of your Great Father, whose anger, like a dark cloud, rests upon you and your people.

"Four of the chief murderers, namely, Okwagun, Pasigwetung, Metakossiga, and Wamitegosh, yet remain inland. Go, in order to appease his anger; take your followers with you, and bring them out. You cannot do a more pleasing act to him and to your own nation. For you must reflect that if these murderers are not promptly brought out, war will be immediately made against your villages, and the most signal vengeance taken."

Great alarm was manifested by the murderers, when they saw that the questions and answers were written down, and a strict course of accountability taken as the basis of the examination. I had foreseen something of this alarm, and requested the commanding officer to send me a detachment of men. Lieutenant C. F. Morton, 2d Infantry, to whom this matter was entrusted, managed it well. He paraded his men in a hollow square, in front of the office, in such manner that the office formed one angle of the square, so that the main issue from the door ushered the individual into a square bristling with bayonets. He stood himself with a drawn sword.

It was eleven o'clock in the evening when their examination and the final arrangements were completed; and when I directed the interpreter to open the door and lead out the murderers, they were greatly alarmed by the appearance of the bright array of musquetry, supposing, evidently, that they were to be instantly shot. They trembled.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Trip to Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi-Large assemblage of tribesTheir appearance and character-Sioux, Winnebagoes, Chippewas, &c.— Striking and extraordinary appearance of the Sacs and Foxes, and of the Iowas-Keokuk-Mongazid's speech-Treaty of limits - Whisky question-A literary impostor-Journey through the valleys of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers-Incidents-Menomonies-A big nose-Wisconsin Portage.

June 23d. THE whole village was alive with the excitment of the surrendery of the murderers. The agency office had been crowded with spectators during the examination; and both white and red men saw in their voluntary delivery into the hands of the agent, an evidence of the power of the government in watching over and vindicating the lives and interests of its citizens in the wildest wilderness, which was gratifying to all.

To Gitche Iauba, the chief at the bay of Kewywenon, in Lake Superior, who had been instrumental in producing the delivery, I presented a silver medal of the first class, with a written speech approbatory of the act, and complimentary of himself. In the meantime, my preparations for attending the general convocation of tribes, at Prairie du Chien, were completed. I placed the agency under the charge of Captain N. S. Clark, 2d Infantry, who had satisfactorily and ably performed its duties during my absence at New York. I had selected a delegation of the most influential chiefs to attend the contemplated council. And all things being ready, and my canoe-allége in the water, with its flag set, I embarked for the trip on the 24th. I descended the straits that day, and having turned Point Detour reached Michilimackinack the next morning. The party from Detroit had reached that point the same morning, after traversing the Huron coasts for upwards of 300 miles, in a light canoe. Congratulations on the success that had attended the demand for the Chippewa murderers, awaited me. Some