On August 19th the trail of the annual hunting party was crossed; but the nine hundred men, women, and children who had made the trip had returned to their homes three weeks before, and kept away from the military party. Since no warning could be given to them in person, a notice written in both English and French was circulated in Pembina and in the British settlements to the north. But the natives obtained sweet revenge when Colonel Smith attempted to buy from the farmers in the vicinity of the principal trading post--Fort Garry--a sufficient supply of oats for his troops. The half-breeds declined to bring the grain, giving as their excuse that they did not desire to trespass on American soil when warned to keep off.[109] Not only to the north did the troops from Fort Snelling make expeditions. The wide range of its influence is illustrated by the task which occupied the attention of its soldiers during the summer of 1850. On August 8, 1849, Governor Ansel Briggs of Iowa forwarded to the Secretary of War a petition, signed by over a hundred citizens of Iowa County, in which they complained of the presence of a great number of Indians who were destroying the timber, removing the section corners, and even demanding rent from some of the settlers--claiming that they owned the land on the Iowa River.[110] To investigate conditions and to report upon what steps would be necessary to remove the cause of complaint, Brevet Major Samuel Woods, stationed at Fort Snelling, was ordered to proceed to the State of Iowa. On the twenty-fifth of September he left for Prairie du Chien, and arriving here set out for Fort Atkinson, thinking that probably the Winnebagoes were the Indians causing the trouble. But he discovered that many of them had just set out for the upper Mississippi, and those remaining behind were so few in number that they could cause little inconvenience to the frontier. From Fort Atkinson Major Woods passed southward through Fayette, Buchanan, Linn, and Johnson counties to Iowa City. At this time the region traversed was sparsely settled. For a hundred miles south of Fort Atkinson there were only two settlements--one, consisting of a few families, high upon the Volga River, and the other larger in numbers clustered about some mills on the Wapsipinicon River. About fifteen miles north of Marion the inhabitants became more numerous. Here were found Indians--Sacs and Foxes, Pottawattomies, and Winnebagoes--but they were not hostile and their presence caused no objection.