ria trader, had been taken prisoner.
"By Gomo and his party?" I immediately inquired. They replied, "no, but
by the Americans, who came up with boats. They took him and the French
settlers prisoners, and they burned the village of Peoria." They could
give us no information regarding our friends on Rock river. In three
days more we were in the vicinity of our village, and were soon after
surprised to find that a party of Americans had followed us from the
British camp. One of them, more daring than his comrades, had made his
way through the thicket on foot, and was just in the act of shooting me
when I discovered him. I then ordered him to surrender, marched him
into camp, and turned him over to a number of our young men with this
injunction: "Treat him as a brother, as I have concluded to adopt him in
our tribe."

A little while before this occurrence I had directed my party to proceed
to the village, as I had discovered a smoke ascending from a hollow in
the bluff, and wished to go alone to the place from whence the smoke
proceeded, to see who was there. I approached the spot, and when I came
in view of the fire, I saw an old man sitting in sorrow beneath a mat
which he had stretched over him. At any other time I would have turned
away without disturbing him, knowing that he came here to be alone, to
humble himself before the Great Spirit, that he might take pity on him.
I approached and seated myself beside him. He gave one look at me and
then fixed his eyes on the ground. It was my old friend. I anxiously
inquired for his son, my adopted child, and what had befallen our
people. My old comrade seemed scarcely alive. He must have fasted a long
time. I lighted my pipe and put it into his mouth. He eagerly drew a few
puffs, cast up his eyes which met mine, and recognized me. His eyes
were glassy and he would again have fallen into forgetfulness, had I
not given him some water, which revived him. I again inquired, "what has
befallen our people, and what has become of our son?"

In a feeble voice he said, "Soon after your departure to join the
British, I descended the river with a small party, to winter at the
place I told you the white man had asked me to come to. When we arrived
I found that a fort had been built, and the white family that had
invited me to come and hunt near them had removed to it. I then paid
a visit to the fort to tell the white people that my little band were
friendly, and that we wished to hunt in