"I have not surrendered myself without thought. While there was a single chance of success, I never left my post nor begged for peace, for I did not want it. Weatherford does not fear to meet any white man. But my people are gone, and my prayer is not for myself but for my nation. I look back with deep sorrow, and wish to avert deeper calamities that threaten to come upon my people. If I had been left to contend with the Georgia army, I should have raised my corn on one bank of the river, and fought them on the other. But your people have destroyed my nation. You are a brave man. I rely upon your generosity. You will exact no terms of a conquered people, but such as it is right they should accede to. Whatever they may be, it would now be madness and folly to oppose them. If they are opposed, you shall find me among the sternest enforcers of obedience. Those who still hold out can be influenced by nothing but a mean spirit of revenge. To this they _must not_, and _shall not_ sacrifice the last remnant of their country. You have told our nation where we might go and be safe. This is good talk, and they ought to listen to it. They _shall listen_ to it!" This fine speech produced the effect intended. General Jackson declined to accept Weatherford as a prisoner of war, and he strode out of the American camp as proudly as he had entered it, and kept the pledge made to his conqueror. [Illustration: NORTHERN INDIAN TOTEM POLES] CHAPTER XIII FIGHTING AGAINST FATE BLACK HAWK AND HIS WAR Black Hawk was born on Rock River, in Illinois, about the year 1767. When only fifteen years old he took the scalp of an enemy and soon gained so much fame on the war path, that he became one of the foremost of leaders, and often headed parties of his people against other tribes. It was claimed by the majority of the chiefs and sachems of the Sacs and Foxes that the treaty made with Governor Harrison in 1804, by which their lands east of the Mississippi were sold, was executed on the part of the Indians by a few chiefs, who had no authority of the nation to whom the act was unknown until some time later. When, therefore, the Americans built a fort on the Mississippi, the Indians were angry and tried to cut off the garrison.