The Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk - Black Hawk (howl and other poems TXT) 📗

return, etc. The Major said he was not a speechmaker, or a very good talker, but would read the orders sent to him to dispossess them, and see that they crossed the river.

After some discussion, the writer, at his request, wrote out a short address for the Major, and on going over the next morning, we met some four or five hundred miners at the grocery store, who had assembled to listen to the orders sent for their removal. There being no boards or boxes into which to improvise a stand for the speaker, a whisky-barrel was introduced, from the head of which, after apologizing to the miners for the disagreeable duty that had been placed upon the Major, and in consequence of his suffering from a bad cold, we had taken the stand to read to them his short address, and as most of them had spent the summer in the service of the Government as soldiers in the field, and had been honorably discharged, the Major felt satisfied that there would be no objection manifested by anyone in the large crowd before us to disobey an order from the Government. After the close of the Major’s address, the question was put to vote by raising of hands. There was a general upraising of hands, which was declared to be unanimous for immediate removal. Owing to the good treatment received by the Major, he proposed to treat the entire party, and, to facilitate the matter, buckets of whisky with tin cups were passed around, and after all had partaken they shook hands with the Major and commenced crossing over in flatboats.

At three o’clock in the afternoon we crossed over on the last boat, and took our departure for Galena. During the evening the Major’s report of how his peaceable removal of a large body of intruders from the west to the east bank of the Mississippi had been accomplished, was made out and mailed. But the further fact that all those miners had re-crossed the river, and were then in their mining camps, was not recorded, for the reason that the Major had not been posted as to their intentions.

Owing to the provisions of the treaty, it was a long time before Congress passed an act for the sale of these lands, and confirmation to the titles of town sites, hence, many of those who had laid out the town of Dubuque had left the county, and at the time of proving up their claims failed to put in an appearance⁠—the writer being one of them⁠—whilst those who remained, with the Messrs. Langworthy, became sole proprietors⁠—the latter having lived to see the town rise in importance, and at this time become one of the most populous cities on the west side of the Mississippi.

Endnotes

Capt. Stephenson was held in high estimation as a brave and accomplished gentleman, and at the organization of Rock Island county the county commissioners honored his name by calling the county seat Stephenson, which name it retained until after his death, when that of Rock Island was adopted. ↩

Colophon

The Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk
was published in 1833 by
Black Hawk.

Threadable
sponsored the production of this ebook for
Standard Ebooks.
It was produced by
Alex Cabal,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2004 by
Martin Schub and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, Black Hawk, Prominent Sac Chief,
a painting completed in 1832 by
George Catlin.
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