At last the
steamer itself, as we came nearer the head of the bay, was pitched out
of the right channel and driven a-muck. She stuck fast on the mud, and
we were all glad to escape and go up to the town of Navarino in boats.
After spending some days here in an agreeable manner, most of the party,
indeed nearly all who were not connected with the commission, returned
in the boat, Mrs. S. in the number, and the commissioners soon proceeded
up the Fox River to _Butte des Morts_. Here temporary buildings of logs,
a mess house, etc., were constructed, and a very large number of Indians
were collected. We found the Menomonies assembled in mass, with full
delegations of the midland Chippewas, and the removed bands of Iroquois
and Stockbridges, some Pottowattomies from the west shores of Lake
Michigan, and one hand of the Winnebagoes. Circumstances had prepared
this latter tribe for hostilities against the United States. The replies
of the leading chief, Four-Legs, were evasive and contradictory; in the
meantime, reports from the Wisconsin and the Mississippi rivers denoted
this tribe ripe for a blow.
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