524 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



around by the river, -vvhicli divides and runs on eacli side of it. It is composed cMefly 

 of rock, and all its strata correspond exactly witli those of the projecting promonto- 

 ries on either side of the river. We at length arrived safe at Prairie du Chien, which 

 was also sans steamer. We were moored again, thirty miles below, at the beautiful 

 banks and bluffs of Cassville, which, too, was sans steamer. We dipped our paddles 

 again.— Pages 208, 209, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years. 



Mr. Catlin and his companions were forced to use the cance until they 

 reached Eock Island, from whence he writes : 



[Letter from Eock Island, Upper Mississippi.] 



It will be seen by this that I am again wending my way towards home. Our neat 

 little " dug-out," by the aid of our paddles, has at length brought my traveling com- 

 panion and myself in safety to this place, where we found the river, the shores, and 

 the plains contiguous alive and vivid with plumes, with spears, and war-clubs of the 

 yelling red men. 



We had heard that the whole nation of Sacs and Foxes were to meet Governor 

 Dodge here in treaty at this time, and nerve was given liberally to our paddles, which 

 had brought us from Traverse de Sioux, on the Saint Peters River, and we reached here 

 luckily in time to see the parades and forms of a savage community transferring the 

 rights and immunities of their natural soil to the insatiable grasp of pale-faced voracity. 



We are now six hundred miles below the Falls of Saint Anthony, where steamers 

 daily pass, and we feel, of course, at home. I spoke of the treaty. We were iust in 

 time, and beheld its conclusion. It was signed yesterday, and this day, of course, is 

 one of revel and amusements — shows of war, parades, and dances. The whole of the 

 Sacs and Foxes are gathered here, and their appearance is very thrilling and at the 

 same time pleasing. These people have sold so much of their land lately that they 

 have the luxuries of life to a considerable degree, and may be considered rich ; conse- 

 quently they look elated and happy, carrying themselves much above the humbled 

 manner of most of the semi-civilized tribes, whose heads are hanging and drooping in 

 poverty and despair. — Page 209, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years. 



Here Mr. Catlin painted many portraits of the Sacs and Foxes, and 

 their games and amusements. (See Nos. 1-21.) 



THE SAC AND FOX INDIANS AT ROCK ISLAND IN 1836. 



Mr. Catlin writes : 



The Sacs and Foxes are already drawing an annuity of twenty-seven thousand dol- 

 lars, for thirty years to come, in cash and by the present treaty just concluded that 

 amount will be enlarged to thirty-seven thousand dollars per annum. This treaty 

 with the Sacs and Foxes, held at Rock Island, was for the purchase of a tract of 

 land of two hundred and fifty-six thousand acres lying on the loway River, west of 

 the Mississippi, a reserve which was made in the tract of land conveyed to the Gov- 

 ernment by treaty after the Sac war, and known as the "Black Hawk purchase." 

 The treaty has been completed by Governor Dodge, by stipulating on the part of Gov- 

 ernment to pay them seventy-five cents per acre for the reserve (amounting to one 

 hundred and ninety-two thousand dollars), in the manner and form following : 



Thirty thoitsand dollars to be paid in specie in June next, at the treaty-ground, 

 and ten thousand dollars annually for ten years to come, at the same place and in 

 the same manuer, and the remaining sixty-two thousand in the payment of their 

 debts and some little donations to widows and half-breed children. The American 

 Fur Company was their principal creditor, whose account for goods advanced on 

 credit they admitted to the amount of nearly fifty thousand dollars. It was stipu- 

 lated by an article in the treaty that one-half of these demands should be paid in cash 

 as soon as the treaty should be ratified, and that five thousand dollars should be ap- 

 propriated annually for their liquidation until they were paid off. 



