united in a memorial to the Executive of the state of Illinois, in which they set forth that the Sac Indians of Rock river had “threatened to kill them; that they had acted in a most outrageous manner; threw down their fences, turned horses into their corn-fields, stole their potatoes, saying the land was theirs and that they had not sold it,—­although said deponents had purchased the land of the United States’ government:  levelled deadly weapons at the citizens, and on some occasions hurt said citizens for attempting to prevent the destruction of their property,” &c. &c.  The memorial concludes with the still more startling outrage, that the said Indians went “to a house, rolled out a barrel of whiskey and destroyed it.”  One of these eight afflicted memorialists, swore the other seven to the truth of their statements, and with an earnest prayer for immediate relief, it was placed before his Excellency, on the 19th of May.

This long catalogue of outrages, backed by other memorials, and divers rumors of border depredations, committed by “General Black Hawk” and his “British Band,” called into immediate action the patriotism and official power of the Governor.  Under date of Bellville, May 26, 1831, he writes to the superintendent of Indian affairs, General William Clark, at St. Louis, that in order to protect the citizens of Illinois, which he considered in a state of “actual invasion,” he had called out seven hundred militia to remove a band of Sac Indians, then residing at Rock river, and he pledges himself to the superintendent, that in fifteen days he will have a force in the field, sufficient to “remove them dead or alive, over to the west side of the Mississippi.”  But to save all this disagreeable business, his Excellency suggests to General Clark that perhaps a request from him to these Indians, to remove to the west side of the river, would effect the object of procuring peace to the citizens of the state.  The letter concludes with the magnanimous declaration that there is no disposition on the part of the people of the state of Illinois to injure these unfortunate, deluded savages, “if they will let us alone.”

General Clark, under date of St. Louis, 28 May, 1831, acknowledges the receipt of the above letter, and says, that he had already made every effort in his power, to get all the Indians who had ceded their lands to remove.

On the same day, 28th May, 1831, Governor Reynolds writes to General Gaines, then at St. Louis, that he had received information that Black Hawk and his band had invaded the state of Illinois; and that he had called out seven hundred troops to meet them.  General Gaines, on the 29th of May, replies to his Excellency that he had ordered six companies of United States troops from Jefferson Barracks to Rock Island, and that they would be joined by four other companies from Prairie des Chiens, making in all ten companies; a force which he deemed sufficient to repel the invasion and give security to the frontier:  That if the residue of the Sacs and Foxes, or other tribes should unite with the band of Black Hawk, he would call on his Excellency for some militia, but did not then deem it necessary.