This is the name of a tribe that formerly occupied, and of course owned, a vast tract of country lying on the East of the Mississippi, and between its banks and the Ohio, and now forming a considerable portion of the great and populous state of Illinois. History furnishes us a full and extraordinary account of the once warlike character and numbers of this tribe; and also of the disastrous career that they have led, from their first acquaintance with civilized neighbours; whose rapacious avarice in grasping for their fine lands—with the banes of whiskey and small-pox, added to the unexampled cruelty of neighbouring hostile tribes, who have struck at them in the days of their adversity, and helped to erase them from existence. Perhaps there has been no other tribe on the Continent of equal power with the Kas-kas-ki-as, that have so suddenly sank down to complete annihilation and disappeared. The remnant of this tribe have long since merged into the tribe of Peorias of Illinois; and it is doubtful whether one dozen of them are now existing. With the very few remnants of this tribe will die in a few years a beautiful language, entirely distinct from all others about it, unless some enthusiastic person may preserve it from the lips of those few who are yet able to speak it. Of this tribe I painted _Kee-mon-saw_ (the little chief), half-civilized, and, I should think, half-breed (+plate+ 191); and _Wah-pe-seh-see_ (+plate+ 192), a very aged woman, mother of the same. This young man is chief of the tribe; and I was told by one of the Traders, that his mother and his son, were his only subjects! Whether this be true or not, I cannot positively say, though I can assert with safety that there are but a very few of them left, and that those, like all of the last of tribes, will soon die of dissipation or broken hearts. [Illustration: 189 190] [Illustration: 191 192] [Illustration: 193 194] [Illustration: 195 196] PE-O-RI-AS. The name of another tribe inhabiting a part of the state of Illinois; and, like the above tribes, but a remnant and civilized (or _cicatrized_, to speak more correctly). This tribe number about 200, and are, like most of the other remnants of tribes on the frontiers, under contract to move to the West of the Missouri. Of this tribe I painted the portrait of _Pah-me-cow-e-tah_ (the man who tracks, +plate+ 193); and _Kee-mo-ra-ni-a_ (no English, +plate+ 194). These are said to be the most influential men in the tribe, and both were very curiously and _well_ dressed, in articles of civilized manufacture. PI-AN-KE-SHAWS.