While the men were helplessly floundering in the mud to extricate their boat, which had run aground, Black Hawk was pouring a murderous fire into their exposed ranks, and that, too, after promising the day previous to be friendly. To reduce the hapless wretches still more, fire was thrown by arrows into the sails, and the boat, likely to be consumed, was abandoned; then the Indians plunged into the water and drew it ashore. At this stage Black Hawk virtuously knocked in the heads of all the kegs of whisky which he found in the hold, yet when he retired down the river to the Fox village, opposite the mouth of Rock River, he hoisted the British flag and when, immediately after, the British came along with a keg of rum, Black Hawk and his band had a great feast and dance,[31] ending the scene in a protracted and hilarious spree. A refinement of the ethics of liquor-drinking quite abstruse–this difference between whisky and rum! Those British brought the Indians a gun which was used on the defenseless Americans under Zachary Taylor a little later as Black Hawk stated: “We were pleased to see that almost every shot took effect.” ----- Footnote 24: The moment Black Hawk returned, the Sacs of his village became unusually active in their depredations. Footnote 25: This was one of the posts the British solemnly stipulated in the treaty of Paris to turn over to the U.S.. but which they retained. Footnote 26: Niles Register, Vol. 6, p. 242.–June 11, 1814. Footnote 27: Niles Register, Vol. 6, p. 242.–June 11, 1814. Footnote 28: History generally records Dickson as a trader of good parts and not- so savage as pictured during this war. Footnote 29: Niles Register, Vol. 6, p. 426.–Aug. 20, 1814. Footnote 30: Niles Register, Vol. 6, p. 390.–Aug. 6, 1814. Footnote 31: His autobiography. ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER VIII. MAJOR TAYLOR’S BATTLE–BATTLE OF THE SINK HOLE–VARIOUS MURDERS–BRITISH AGENTS WITHDRAWN FROM ROCK RIVER COUNTRY. Disturbances by the Sacs now followed so frequently that Major Zachary Taylor, with a detachment of troops, was sent against that one disturbing and bandit element of Indian population located near the mouth of Rock River, Black Hawk’s village. Black Hawk attacked and repulsed Major Taylor in a manner which made the pulse of every settler throb with fear for the safety of his family. He had, without the least provocation, been constantly and successfully engaged in warfare the most stubborn and unrelenting, and backed by his British friends, the safety of the country, after Taylor’s defeat, hung in the balance. Major Taylor’s report, a temperate and dignified document, is as follows: