396 EXPEDITIO?; TO THi; 



rade, Wapasha, added, " Wc thought that you, who live near 

 to white men, were wiser and more refined than we are who 

 live at a distance; but it must indeed be otherwise if you 

 do such deeds " They then rose and departed. Renville 

 is positive that he could not have been deceived, for it was 

 the head, heart, both hands and feet of a man that he saw 

 in the dishes ; and he saw some of the warriors partaking 

 of them. The British officers were in their camp, and not 

 aware of the transactions that were going on among the 

 Indians. When informed of them they expressed great dis- 

 satisfaction. Col. Dickson, having sent for the Winnebago 

 who had first set this thing on foot, asked him what could 

 impel him to such horrid deeds, when he coolly replied, 

 that it was better for him to do as he did, than to behave 

 as the Americans had done, who had burnt his house, 

 killed his wife and daughter, and mutilated their corpses. 

 Col. Dickson then bade him depart, and never again ap- 

 pear in his presence. Gen. Proctor gave him the same 

 directions. It appears that the victim of this feast, whose 

 name we could not ascertain, was a prisoner of the Win- 

 nebagoes, who killed him with a view to prepare the en- 

 tertainment. It was not done for want of provisions, for 

 at that time the camp was plentifully supplied ; neither 

 does it appear that, in this case, it w^as fondness for the 

 taste of human flesh, but, doubtless, a desire to vent their 

 rage and spleen upon their prisoner, which induced them 

 to prepare and partake of this disgusting repast. The Da- 

 cotas have always spoken of such deeds in terms of the 

 highest reprobation ; and we heard of one case only as hav= 

 ing happened among them ; it occurred in the year 1811, 

 during a very general famine, three women partook of the 

 flesh of a man who had previously died of hunger ; but even 

 in this ease where they w^ere urged by a necessity which 



