He sends
out war parties upon the frontier--Attack upon Fort Buffalo--General
Dodge's battle on the Wisconsin--Black Hawk and his band leave the
Four Lakes and fly to the Mississippi--Pursued by General
Atkinson--Black Hawk's flag of truce fired upon by the Captain of the
Warrior--Twenty-three Indians killed.

Black Hawk and his band were not long upon the west side of the
Mississippi, before new difficulties arose, calculated to disturb the
harmony which it was hoped the treaty of the 30th of June, had
established between them and the United States. The period of their
removal to the west side of the Mississippi, was too late in the season
to enable them to plant corn and beans a second time; and before autumn
was over they were without provisions. Some of them, one night,
recrossed the river to _steal roasting-ears from their own fields,_--to
quote the language of Black Hawk,--and were shot at by the whites, who
made loud complaints of this depredation. They, in turn, were highly
exasperated at having been fired upon for attempting to carry off the
corn which they had raised, and which they insisted, belonged to them.

Shortly after this, a party of Foxes, belonging, it is believed, to
Black Hawk's band, went up the Mississippi, to Prairie des Chiens, to
avenge the murder of some of their tribe, which had been committed in
the summer of 1830, by a party of the Menominies and Sioux. The Foxes
attacked the camp of the Menominies and killed twenty-eight of them. The
authorities at Prairie des Chiens, made a demand of the murderers, that
they might be tried and punished under the laws of the United States,
according to the treaty of 1825. Black Hawk, with other chiefs, took the
ground that the United States had no right to make this demand, and
refused to give them up. Here then was another source of difficulty.

Neapope, a chief of the British band, and second in command to Black
Hawk, prior to the removal of the Indians to the west side of the
Mississippi, had started on a visit to Malden, to consult their British
Father in regard to the right to retain their lands on Rock river. He
returned late in the fall, bringing word that in his opinion, the
Americans could not take their lands, unless by purchase; and this
purchase, it was contended by Black Hawk had never been made. Neapope on
his way from Malden, called to see the Prophet, who assured him that
early the ensuing spring, not only the British, but th