At this same meeting, the treaty was made which has already been set out at length, and while the same authority mentions the fact without comment, it will be quoted, and following it some reasons may be noted why the bargain was not one of particular rigor. At least Black Hawk’s argument may be shown to be specious: “At this meeting with the chiefs of the Sac and Fox Indians, the Government negotiated a treaty by which the Indian title was extinguished to the largest tract of land ever ceded in one treaty by the Indians since the settlement of North America, as it includes all the country from the mouth of the Illinois River to the mouth of the Ouisconsing, on the one side, and from the mouth of the Illinois to near the head of the Fox River on the other side; and from the head of the latter a line is drawn to a point 36 miles above the mouth of the Ouisconsing, which forms the northern boundary, and contains upwards of 51 millions of acres.” Black Hawk offers to leave the question of bargain to the people of the United States. From present day standpoints it might be considered a hard bargain, but from the facts in the case, the reply might be made with an inquiry if the Wisconsin farmer got much of a bargain when he bought from a sharper the Masonic Temple of Chicago for $2,000. Two-thirds or more of the land ceded was claimed and occupied by the Winnebagoes and Pottowattomies at the time, and Black Hawk knew the fact and admitted it times without number on subsequent occasions. Even down so close to him as the Prophet’s village, in the present county of Whiteside, the country was Winnebago territory; the same at Dixon’s Ferry, while over on the Illinois River the Pottowattomies had for a great length of time held dominion, and this had never been controverted by the Sacs and Foxes. The fact is that the United States acquired but very little territory by that treaty, when the magnificent proportions are mentioned without regard to the facts.