With these contentious spirits, Black Hawk, restless Black Hawk, employed his genius, sending out runners to all points of the compass, some going as far as the Gulf of Mexico, to rally round him the confederacy which Tecumseh attempted, but who, with his transcendent genius for organization and war, failed, and so did Black Hawk, much more ingloriously, though assured by his runners of an irresistible force to join him the moment he rose to strike the whites. He had in 1831 sent his lieutenant, Ne-a-pope,[91] to the British in Canada to solicit aid. That Indian, inauspiciously returning through the village of Wa-bo-ki-e-shiek, the cross-bred Winnebago prophet, who lived at his village on the left bank of Rock River forty miles from its mouth, told the latter vicious meddler of the object of the Canadian trip. The unscrupulous prophet, delighted at the possibility of making trouble for the whites, performed for Ne-a-pope numerous incantations, received a few visions, and made a prophecy that if Black Hawk would take up the hatchet once more against the whites he would be joined by the Great Spirit and a great army of worldlings, and in no time at all he would vanquish the whites and be restored to his ancient village. It is more than probable that this hocuspocus had great influence with Black Hawk, which, added to Ne-a-pope’s falsehoods, determined Black Hawk to open another campaign against the whites without delay. To begin with, his followers had wantonly wasted their provisions, and even before winter had set in he had inaugurated nightly raids upon the storehouses of the whites, stealing the grain and vegetables there stored with a devilish glee. These raids continued with exasperating frequency and regularity all winter and spring. He even brought himself to believe that he could easily create dissension among the followers of Keokuk and overthrow his power entirely. Emissaries from the camp of Black Hawk had been busy in Keokuk’s village on the Iowa River,[92] and, by insidious industry, murmurs began arising upon all sides. Seizing this supreme moment, while Keokuk’s reputation, influence and life, perhaps, were quivering in the balance, Black Hawk threw off the mask and defiantly marched with his entire force to Keokuk’s village to dispute the supremacy of Keokuk, steal away his warriors and wage war upon the whites.