The Indians did not disperse after the ceremonies of the surrender had been gone through.  They continued still in the vicinity of the Portage, in the constant expectation of the arrival of the annuity money, which they had been summoned there to receive.  But the time for setting out on his journey to bring it was postponed by Governor Porter from week to week.  Had he foreseen all the evils this delay was to occasion, he would, possibly, have been more prompt in fulfilling his appointment.

Many causes conspired to make an early payment desirable.  In the first place, the Winnebagoes, having been driven from their homes by their anxiety to avoid all appearance of fraternizing with the Sauks, had made this year no gardens nor corn-fields They had, therefore, no provisions on hand, either for present use or for their winter’s consumption, except their scanty supplies of wild rice.  While this was disappearing during their protracted detention at the Portage, they were running the risk of leaving themselves quite unprovided with food, in case of a bad hunting-season during the winter and spring.

In the next place, the rations which the Agent had been accustomed, by the permission of Government, to deal out occasionally to them, were now cut off by a scarcity in the Commissary’s department.  The frequent levies of the militia during the summer campaign, and the reinforcement of the garrison by the troops from Port Howard, had drawn so largely on the stores at this post that there was necessity for the most rigid economy in the issuing of supplies.

Foreseeing this state of things, Mr. Kinzie, as soon as the war was at an end, commissioned Mr. Kercheval, then sutler at Fort Howard, to procure him a couple of boat-loads of corn, to be distributed among the Indians.  Unfortunately, there was no corn to be obtained from Michigan; it was necessary to bring it from Ohio, and by the time it at length reached Green Bay (for in those days business was never done in a hurry) the navigation of the Fox River had closed, and it was detained there, to be brought up the following spring.

As day after day wore on and “the silver” did not make its appearance, the Indians were advised by their Father to disperse to their hunting-grounds to procure food, with the promise that they should be summoned immediately on the arrival of Governor Porter; and this advice they followed.

While they had been in our neighborhood, they had more than once asked permission to dance the scalp-dance, before our door.  This is the most frightful, heart-curdling exhibition that can possibly be imagined.  The scalps are stretched on little hoops, or frames, and carried on the end of slender poles.  These are brandished about in the course of the dance, with cries, shouts, and furious gestures.  The women, who commence as spectators, becoming excited with the scene and the music which their own discordant notes help to make more deafening, rush in, seize the