unsuccessful excursion,
Black Hawk found himself once more at the head of two hundred braves,
and again set off to avenge the repeated outrages of the Osages upon the
Sac nation. Soon after he reached the enemy's country, he met a party
about equal in number to his own. A battle ensued. The Osages lost near
one hundred men, and Black Hawk nineteen. He claims, in the attack, to
have killed five of the enemy, with his own hand. This severe engagement
had the effect, for some time, of keeping the Osages upon their own
lands and arresting their depredations upon the Sacs. This cessation of
hostilities gave the latter an opportunity of redressing the wrongs
which the Cherokees had committed upon them, by murdering some of their
women and children. A party was raised for this purpose, and met the
Cherokees upon the Merrimack river, below St. Louis, the latter being
most numerous. In this battle Py-e-sa, the father of Black Hawk was
killed. The Cherokees were compelled to retreat with the loss of
twenty-eight men, the Sacs having but seven killed. Upon the fall of
Py-e-sa, Black Hawk assumed the command and also took possession of the
"medicine bag," then in the keeping of his father. Owing to the
disasters of this expedition, and especially the death of his father,
Black Hawk, for the ensuing five years, refrained from all warlike
operations, and spent his time in fishing and hunting. At the end of
this period, being about the year 1800, he made another excursion,
against the Osages, at the head of about five hundred Sacs and Foxes and
a hundred Ioways, who had joined him as allies. After a long march they
reached and destroyed about forty lodges of the enemy, killing many of
their bravest warriors, five of whom were slain by the leader of the
invading army. In the year 1802, he terminated a severe and protracted
campaign against the Chippewas, Kaskaskias and Osages, during which six
or seven battles were fought and more than one hundred of the enemy
killed. The following summer Black Hawk made one of his periodical
visits to St. Louis to see his Spanish father, by whom he was well
received. Upon his next visit to this Spanish dignitary, he found many
sad and gloomy faces, because the United States were about to take
possession of the town and country around it. "Soon after the Americans
arrived," says Black Hawk, "I took my band and went to take leave, for
the last time, of our father. The Americans came to see him also. Seei