be permitted to return home to take
care of them." Black Hawk concluded his address to the President, which
embraced a history of the late war, by saying, "We did not expect to
conquer the whites, no. They had too many houses, too many men. I took
up the hatchet, for my part, to revenge injuries which my people could
no longer endure. Had I borne them longer without striking, my people
would have said, Black Hawk is a woman. He is too old to be a chief--he
is no Sac. These reflections caused me to raise the war-whoop. I say no
more of it; it is known to you. Keokuk once was here; you took him by
the hand, and when he wished to return to his home, you were willing.
Black Hawk expects, that, like Keokuk, we shall be permitted to return
too." The President gave them assurances that their women and children
should be protected from the Sioux and the Menominies, and that so soon
as he was satisfied that peace was restored on the frontiers, they
should be permitted to return home.

On the 26th of April, they set off for Fortress Monroe, at Old Point
Comfort, where they remained until the fourth of June, when, an order
was received, from the President, by the commanding officer, for the
liberation of the Indian captives. The kind treatment of the prisoners
by Colonel Eustis, then in command at Fortress Monroe, had won greatly
upon their regard. When about to depart, Black Hawk waited upon the
Colonel, and said;--

"Brother, I have come on my own part, and in behalf of my companions, to
bid you farewell. Our great father has at length been pleased to permit
us to return to our hunting grounds. We have buried the tomahawk, and
the sound of the rifle will hereafter only bring death to the deer and
the buffalo. Brother, you have treated the red men very kindly. Your
squaws have made them presents, and you have given them plenty to eat
and drink. The memory of your friendship will remain till the Great
Spirit says it is time for Black Hawk to sing his death-song. Brother,
your houses are as numerous as the leaves upon the trees, and your young
warriors, like the sands upon the shore of the big lake that rolls
before us. The red man has but few houses, and few warriors, but the red
man has a heart which throbs as warmly as the heart of his white
brother. The Great Spirit has given us our hunting grounds, and the skin
of the deer which we kill there, is his favorite, for its color is
white, and this is the emblem of peace. This hun