The Sac and Fox tribes are now residing on the west side of the Mississippi, and are living upon friendly terms with the United States. As a general remark, it may be said, that their intercourse with the United States has been of a pacific character. They took no part in the war of the Revolution: they were not parties to the Indian disturbances which terminated in the treaty of Greenville in 1795. Tecumseh and the Prophet failed to enlist them in their grand confederacy against the Americans, which was nearly broken up by the premature battle of Tippecanoe. The machinations of the British agents and traders, backed by the most liberal distribution of goods and fire arms, induced but a small party of them, not exceeding two hundred, to join the British standard in the late war with England. In the still more recent disturbance, on the frontiers of Illinois, called the "Black Hawk war," but a portion of these tribes, took up arms against the United States, the great mass of them refusing to take any part in it; while Keokuk, their principal chief, exerted all his influence to dissuade the "British Band" from engaging in so hopeless a contest. MA-KA-TAI-ME-SHE-KIA-KIAH, OR BLACK HAWK. CHAPTER III. Birth of Black Hawk--Early adventures--Battles with the Osages and Cherokees--Death of his father--Interview with Lieutenant Pike--Attack upon Fort Madison--Joins the British in the late war--Marches to lake Erie--Returns home after the attack upon Fort Stephenson--Murder of his adopted son--Battle of the Sink-hole near Cap au Gris--Treaty of peace at Portage des Sioux in 1816. Black Hawk is a remarkable instance of an individual, in no wise gifted with any uncommon physical, moral or intellectual endowments, obtaining, by the force of circumstances, the most extraordinary celebrity. Since the year 1831, his name has been familiarly known to the people of the United States; and the terror, which for a brief period, it excited upon the frontiers of Illinois, Missouri and Indiana, was only surpassed by the curiosity which pervaded every part of the union, to behold this notable chief of the woods, after he had been conquered, and was carried a prisoner of state, from the wilds of the West to the Atlantic sea-board. His tour through the United States, partook largely of the triumphal march of a successful hero. In the number of persons who flocked around him, the honors which he received were scarcely less flattering than those awarded to the illustrious Lafayette, while the "nation's guest." In the one case there was curiosity alone, in the other, curiosity and gratitude blended. To the casual observer, the distinction between the two cases is not very apparent.