The day previous to our departure from St. Louis, the investigation took place in the Museum, which is also the office of Indian affairs. There were upwards of twenty Indians present, including the hostages. The charge made against these unfortunate people and on which they had been obliged to come six or seven hundred miles, to stand their trial before _white judges_, was, "that the Ioways had come down on the white territory--killed the cattle, and attacked the settlers, by which attack four citizens lost their lives." The principal chief implicated in the affair, named "Big-neck," was called upon for his defence. In the person of this man there was nothing remarkable. He advanced into the centre of the room, and disengaging his right arm from the blanket, shook hands with the judges, and then, in succession, with all the officers of the court. This ceremony being ended, he paused, and drawing himself up to his full height, extended his arm forward towards the judge, and inclining his head a little in the same direction, said, "If I had done that of which my white brother accuses me, I would not stand here now. The words of my red-headed father (General Clarke) have passed through both my ears, and I have remembered them. I am accused, and I am not guilty." (The interpreter translated each sentence as it was delivered, and gave it as nearly verbatim as possible--observe, the pronoun I is here used figuratively, for _his party, and for the tribe_). "I thought I would come down to see my red-headed father, to hold a talk with him.--I come across the line (boundary)--I see the cattle of my white brother dead--I see the Sauk kill them in great numbers--I said that there would be trouble--I turn to go to my village--I find I have no provisions--I say, let us go down to our white brother, and trade our powder and shot for a little--I do so, and again turn upon my tracks, until I reach my village."--He here paused, and looking sternly down the room, to where two Sauks sat, pointed his finger at them and said, "The Sauk, who always tells lie of me, goes to my white brother and says--the Ioway has killed your cattle. When the lie (the Sauk) had talked thus to my white brother, he comes, thirty, up to my village--we hear our brother is coming--we are glad, and leave our cabins to tell him he is welcome--but while I shake hands with my white brother," he said, pointing to his forehead, "my white brother shoots me through the head--my best chief--three of my young men, a squaw and his[6] child. We come from our huts unarmed--even without our blankets--and yet, while I shake hands with my white brother, he shoots me down--my best chief. My young men within, hear me shot--they rush out--they fire on my white brother--he falls, four--my people fly to the woods without their rifles." He then stated that four more Indians died in the forest of cold and starvation, fearing to return to their villages, and being without either blankets or guns.