The period had now arrived when the difficulties between this country and Great Britain, were to be settled by an appeal to arms.  Some discontent had prevailed among the Sacs, in regard to the encroachments of the Americans upon their hunting grounds.  They, however, offered their services to the United States, to fight against the British, but their offer was declined.  They had not been as liberally supplied with presents and goods at Fort Madison, as they had anticipated, and in the mean time, the British agents had artfully fomented their discontent, and labored to win their confidence by the most liberal distribution among them of goods and ardent spirits.  Shortly after the declaration of war, Girty, a British trader, arrived at Rock island with two boats loaded with goods, and the British flag was hoisted.  He informed the Indians that he had been sent to them by Colonel Dixon, with presents, a large silk flag and a keg of rum.  The day after his arrival, the goods were divided among the Indians, they promising to pay for them, in furs, in the following spring.  Girty informed Black Hawk that Colonel Dixon was then at Green Bay, with a large quantity of goods, arms and ammunition, and was desirous that he should raise a party of warriors and join him.  Black Hawk succeeded in collecting about two hundred braves, and soon reached Green Bay, where he found Dixon encamped, with a large body of Indians, assembled from other tribes, who had been already furnished with clothing and with arms.  Black Hawk had an interview with Dixon, two other war chiefs and the interpreter.  “He received me,” says Black Hawk, “with a hearty shake of the hand, and presented me to the other chiefs, who shook my hand cordially, and seemed much pleased to see me.  After I was seated, Colonel Dixon said, “General Black Hawk, I sent for you, to explain to you, what we are going to do, and the reasons that have brought us here.  Our friend Girty, informs us in the letter you brought from him, what has taken place.  You will now have to hold us fast by the hand.  Your English father has found out that the Americans want to take your country from you, and has sent me and his braves to drive them back to their own country.  He has likewise sent a large quantity of arms and ammunition, and we want all your warriors to join us.”  He then placed a medal round my neck, and gave me a paper, (which I lost in the late war,) and a silk flag, saying, “You are to command all the braves that will leave here the day after to-morrow, to join our braves near Detroit.”

On the following day, arms, clothing, knives and tomahawks, were distributed to Black Hawk’s band, and upon the succeeding morning, they started, in all near five hundred braves, to join the British army.  This was in August, 1812, shortly after the surrender and massacre of the American troops at Chicago, which place they passed a few days after it had been evacuated.  Of the movements of Black Hawk during his connection