The Winnebagoes in council had promised to use their utmost endeavors to preserve peace and good order among their young men.  They informed their Father that the bands on the Rock River, with the exception of Win-no-sheek’s, were all determined to remain friendly and keep aloof from the Sauks.  To that end, they were abandoning their villages and corn-fields and moving north, that their Great Father, the President, might not feel dissatisfied with them.  With regard to Win-no-sheek and his people, they professed themselves unable to answer.

Time went on, and brought with it stories of fresh outrages.  Among these were the murders of Auberry, Green, and Force, at Blue Mound, and the attack on Apple Fort.  The tidings of the latter were brought by old Crely,[53] the father of Mrs. Paquette, who rode express from Galena, and who averred that he once passed a bush behind which the Sauks were hiding, but that his horse smelt the sweet-scented grass with which they always adorn their persons when on a war-party, and set out on such a gallop that he never stopped until he arrived at the Portage.

Another bearer of news was a young gentleman named Follett, whose eyes had become so protruded and set from keeping an anxious look-out for the enemy, that it was many days after his arrival at a place of safety before they resumed their accustomed limits and expression.

Among other rumors which at this time reached us, was one that an attack upon Fort Winnebago was in contemplation among the Sauks.  That this was in no state of defence the Indians very well knew.  All the effective men had been withdrawn, upon a requisition from General Atkinson, to join him at his newly-built fort at Kosh-ko-nong.

Fort Winnebago was not picketed in; there were no defences to the barracks or officers’ quarters, except slight panelled doors and Venetian blinds—­nothing that would long resist the blows of clubs or hatchets.  There was no artillery, and the Commissary’s store was without the bounds of the Fort, under the hill.

Mr. Kinzie had, from the first, called the attention of the officers to the insecurity of their position in case of danger, but he generally received a scoffing answer.

“Never fear,” they would say; “the Sauks are not coming here to attack us.”

One afternoon we were over on a visit to some ladies in the garrison, and, several officers being present, the conversation, as usual, turned upon the present position of affairs.

“Do you not think it wiser,” inquired I of a blustering young officer, “to be prepared against possible danger?”

“Not against these fellows,” replied he, contemptuously.

“I do not think I would even take the trouble to fasten the blinds to my quarters.”

“At least,” said I, “if you some night find a tomahawk raised to cleave your skull, you will have the consolation of remembering that you have not been one of those foolish fellows who keep on the safe side.”