RISING OF THE SIOUX. 6 



We found a good deal of excitement in the town, as it was 

 threatened by the Sioux Indians, under " Little Crow," who 

 thought themselves wronged by their agent, and had begun 

 what ended in the Minnesota massacre. It seems that the 

 Sioux had come in to get their yearly supplies of blankets, 

 ammunition^ &c., from the Government, and found that only 

 a portion of these having come, the agent refused to serve out 

 anything till the arrival of the remainder. The Indians had 

 only brought food for so many days and were soon on the 

 verge of starvation, when one day there drove up to the agent's 

 house a waggon drawn by four span of very fine fat oxen. 

 A number of half-starved Indians were standing round, and 

 one of them felt the oxen with his finger, remarking to his 

 companions what a grand feast they would make. On this 

 the driver hit him with his whip, and was at once shot dead 

 by the Indian, and within five minutes the agent and his 

 family were all murdered. This was the last straw only, as 

 the Indians had had a good deal to complain of before this 

 happened. They all immediately disappeared to mature their 

 plans, and there was a lull which preceded the awful storm 

 which broke soon afterwards. This had happened before our 

 arrival, and all who could do so had left St. Paul's, expecting 

 it to be attacked at any moment. 



It turned out afterwards that what had delayed the outbreak 

 was the fact that " Hole-in-the-day," the great Chippewa chief, 

 had not been able to join the Sioux, and his tribe refused to 

 rise without him. He had come into the town to buy ammu- 

 nition, and had been seized and put in jail, where he remained 

 till the whole thing was over, and his tribe, living all round 

 St. Paul's, had prevented the town being attacked. 



