chain of cruelties and injustice inflicted upon the unhappy natives. Some of the newspapers have made an outcry, asking: " Who is to blame for this barbarous conduct toward the Winnebagoes? " And the answer is " Who? " In fact, no light has yet been obtained upon this sad affair; but an investigation has been made. May this be for the sake of form? I will let you know the results, if any are ever made known:'
On the Ilth of May, we found ourselves completely arrested by a sandbar a mile above Yankton, capital of the Territory of Dakota. This new town is still in its infancy. Its population consists of thirty or forty families. The capitol, the Governor's residence, and all the houses are made of logs and frame. Its situation upon the river, where the ground is high and sloping, is well chosen. Yankton will become a city of more and more importance, as the country settles up.
just now we are fairly stuck. The water continues low, and the difficulty of loading and unloading has been so great, that the captain has resolved to have a large boat, of the kind called Mackinaw, built, which will carry seventyfive tons of freight, to lighten the steamboat.
The pioneer settlers are living here in a continual state of uneasiness, and are on the alert day and night. Though the Sioux are driven out of their ancient territory, far from the tombs where the ashes of their ancestors repose, bands of marauders still range their old domain, to rob and slay the invaders of their soil. Quite recently, six of the un happy inhabitants have fallen at their hands. The paper of the Loth of May announces, on hearsay, no doubt, that our boat will meet great opposition on the part of 3,000 Sioux
This forcible expatriation of the Winnebagoes, and the absurd scheme adopted of sending them from Mankato down the St. Peter's to Fort Snelling, thence down the Mississippi to the Missouri, thence up the latter stream to their new reservation, a total distance around of r,goo miles as against 300 miles overland, were public measures which, viewed from this distance, appear unjustifiable.