warriors, who are meditating an attack on Old Fort Clark, and resolved to dispute the passage of the river with boats that may try to go up. We can judge of the worth of this news in a few days. It is added that they are well armed; they have two cannon, abundance of powder and lead, firearms and arrows. We shall see. I put my trust in the Lord's providence and the protection of the holy Virgin Mary, our kind mother. I am sent out by obedience, and under the auspices of the Government, in the capacity of " messenger of the word of peace." Still, it is impossible to deceive one's self - this is a very critical moment; but si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nose
The situation is aggravated and peace rendered almost impossible by the recent occurrences which I have related in connection with the unhappy Winnebagoes, which have inflamed the hatred of the whites in every Indian heart; and also by the continual aggressions of our raw frontier soldiery, little habituated to military discipline, who abandon themselves to all sorts of cruel and shameful excesses. Two instances will show you what I mean.
Eight friendly Indians, riding at full speed, according to their custom, approached a troop of soldiers. The latter, not knowing the signal to stop them, called to them to halt. The Indians did not understand either the language or the order, and rode on. The soldiers fired on them and killed seven. The single one who escaped brought the news to his camp. The reprisals were terrible and barbarous. They took vengeance some time afterward, first by an attack upon a steamboat, in which four men were killed, and further by attacking a Mackinaw containing fifteen men, a young girl and a woman with two children, all of whom were massacred in the most frightful manner.
Here is another. Some soldiers, in a state of drunkenness, came to an Indian lodge in which several women were assembled. They grossly insulted the squaws, who tried to run to escape their brutality. Then they shot after them, and several of the poor creatures were struck and killed.