or at the State House. Some war-dances were performed on
the Common for the amusement of the populace, and afterwards the party
was taken to see a performance by Edwin Forrest at the Tremont Theatre.
Here all went well, except that at an exciting point in the play where
one of the characters fell dying the Indians burst out into a war-whoop,
to the considerable consternation of the women and children present.

A few months after returning to his Iowa home, Black Hawk, now
seventy-one years of age, was gathered to his fathers. He was buried
about half a mile from his cabin, in a sitting posture, his left hand
grasping a cane presented to him by Henry Clay, and at his side a supply
of food and tobacco sufficient to last him to the spirit land, supposed
to be three days' travel. "Rock River," he said in a speech at a Fourth
of July celebration shortly before his death, "was a beautiful country.
I liked my town, my cornfields, and the home of my people. I fought
for it. It is now yours. Keep it, as we did. It will produce you good
crops."

The Black Hawk War opened a new chapter in the history of the Northwest.
The soldiers carried to their homes remarkable stories of the richness
and attractiveness of the northern country, and the eastern newspapers
printed not only detailed accounts of the several expeditions but highly
colored descriptions of the charms of the region. Books and pamphlets by
the score helped to attract the attention of the country. The result
was a heavy influx of settlers, many of them coming all the way from
New England and New York, others from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Lands
were rapidly surveyed and placed on sale, and surviving Indian
hunting-grounds were purchased. Northern Illinois filled rapidly with a
thrifty farming population, and the town of Chicago became an entrepot.
Further north, Wisconsin had been organized, in 1836, as a Territory,
including not only the present State of that name but Iowa, Minnesota,
and most of North and South Dakota. As yet the Iowa country, however,
had been visited by few white people; and such as came were only hunters
and trappers, agents of the American Fur and other trading companies,
or independent traders. Two of the most active of these free-lances
of early days--the French Canadian Dubuque and the Englishman
Davenport--have left their names to flourishing cities.

To recount the successive purchases by which the Government freed Iowa
soil from Indian domin