First Infantry which constituted the garrison of Fort Crawford, with these Colonel Taylor returned to Prairie du Chien.

"After a short time it was reported that the Indians were on an island in the river above the prairie, and Colonel Taylor sent a Lieutenant (Lieutenant Davis) with an appropriate command to explore the island. Unmistakable evidence of their very recent presence was found, and contemporaneously Black Hawk, with the remnant of his band and accompanied by some friendly Winnebagoes, appeared under a white flag on the east bank of the river, and the lieutenant returned with them to the fort, where Colonel Taylor treated them as surrendered hostiles. Their trails were followed through the brush to the west side of the island, where signs of canoes having just been pushed off were discovered. The lieutenant* and his party recrossed the island to get their boats, and there saw, on the east side of the river, a large collection of Indians under a white flag. On going to the group it proved to be Black Hawk with a portion of his band, with a few Winnebagoes, who said Black Hawk had surrendered to them, and that they wanted to take him to the fort and to see the Indian agent. The lieu

Lieutenant Davis.

tenant went with the Indians to the fort, reported to Colonel Taylor, among other things, his disbelief of the Winnebago story. The grand old soldier merely replied, 'They want the credit of being friendly and to get a reward, let them have it.'"

Black Hawk was taken with his two sons, and other braves, his nation was scattered, and the prisoners, sixty in number, were sent down to Jefferson Barracks under Lieutenant Davis's care, where they were heavily ironed. The cholera was prevailing at that time at Rock Island, and on the boat two of the captive Indians were seized with it, and suffered intensely. Lieutenant Davis did all he could for them, unavailingly. The sufferers had an oath of friendship, a custom common among the Indians, and they plead with him to put them ashore that they might go to the hunting-grounds together. At the first little settlement their request was granted. Mr. Davis said his heart ached as he saw the friend who was suffering the least supporting the head of his dying companion. He never knew their fate.

Black Hawk sat silent and stolid, the only feeling he exhibited was when the settlers along the shore came on the boat to see him. This Lieutenant Davis prohibited, and in some measure prevented, and by showing the

captives courtesy and by little kindly offices, merited and received from Black Hawk the thanks rendered by that chief in his "Autobiography." He said: "We started to Jefferson Barracks in a steam-boat, under the charge of a young war chief (Lieutenant Davis), who treated us all with much kindness. He is a good and brave young chief, with whose conduct I was much pleased. On our way down we called at Galena, and remained a short time. The people crowded to the boat to see us, but the war chief, would not permit them to enter the apartment where we were, knowing, from what his own feelings would have been if he had been placed in a similar situation, that we did not wish to have a gaping crowd around us."

Martial courtesy to a fallen foe, which has in this day somewhat fallen into desuetude, was then revered as one of the first obligations of an "officer and a gentleman."

So ended the Black Hawk War. It seems a small matter now, but then it stirred the hearts of the whole country.

Perhaps this vague account of Black Hawk's fatal battle for the rights of his nation, seen dimly through the mists of nearly seventy years of time and prejudice which have been wrapped about this unhappy, hunted, and nearly extinct race, is very mixed, and at times

nearly unintelligible; but with the meagre information culled from rare books now out of print, aided by the memory of the tales Mr. Davis told of his experiences at that time, it is the best that could be done.

The belligerents are overcome, traduced, defrauded, and dead. The man has painted the picture, the lion is not an artist, and his teeth and claws were drawn before he joined the silent majority. The unsuccessful, like the absent, are always wrong.