“Sir:–In obedience to your orders, I left Fort Independence on the 2d ult. and reached Rock River, our place of destination, on the evening of the 4th inst., without meeting a single Indian or any occurrence worthy of relation. “On my arrival at the mouth of Rock River, the Indians began to make their appearance in considerable numbers; running up the Mississippi to the upper village and crossing the river below us. After passing Rock River, which is very small at the mouth, from an attentive and careful examination, as I proceeded up the Mississippi, I was confident it was impossible for us to enter its mouth with our large boats. Immediately opposite its mouth a large island commences, which, together with the western shore of the Mississippi, was covered with a considerable number of horses, which were doubtless placed in those situations in order to draw small detachments on shore; but in this they were disappointed, and I determined to alter the plan which you had suggested, which was to pass the different villages as if the object of the expedition was Prairie du Chien, for several reasons. First, that I might have an opportunity of viewing the situation of the ground to enable me to select such a landing as would bring our artillery to bear on the villages with the greatest advantage. I was likewise in hopes a party would approach us with a flag, from which I expected to learn the situation of affairs at the Prairie, and ascertain in some measure their numbers and perhaps bring them to a council, when I should have been able to have retaliated on them for their repeated acts of treachery; or, if they were determined to attack us, I was in hopes to draw them some distance from their towns towards the rapids, run down in the night and destroy them before they could return to their defense. But in this I was disappointed. The wind, which had been in our favor, began to shift about at the time we passed the mouth of Rock River, and by the time we reached the head of the island, which is about a mile and a half long, it blew a perfect hurricane, quarterly down the river, and it was with great difficulty we made land at a small island, containing six or eight acres, covered with willows, near the middle of the river, and about sixty yards from the upper end of the island. In this situation I determined to remain during the night if the storm continued, as I knew the anchors of several of the boats in that event would not hold them, and there was a great probability of their being drifted on sandbars, of which the river is full in this place, which would have exposed the men very much in getting them off, even if they could have prevented their filling with water.