Black Hawk witnessed these movements with dissatisfaction. The Indians had a superstitious veneration for the island, claiming, as will be seen from Black Hawk’s words:[47] “A good spirit had care of it, who lived in a cave in the rocks immediately under the place where the fort now stands, and has often been seen by our people. He was white, with large wings like a swan’s, but ten times larger. We were particular not to make much noise in that part of the island which he inhabited, for fear of disturbing him. But the noise of the fort has since driven him away, and no doubt a _bad spirit_ has taken his place.” And in further contemplation of the beauties of the place and pleasures of this island to the Indians, Black Hawk was made to utter many fine sentiments, of a character to command our stanchest support and evoke a sympathy from one cover of this history to the other, had they been ingenuous and free from the suspicion that Col. Patterson may have allowed his generous nature to tint them a color not to be found in that Indian’s nature. [Illustration: FORT ARMSTRONG.] Though hampered by various annoyances, the troops eventually completed Fort Armstrong and occupied it; their presence serving a healthy object lesson to quiet those British Sacs who were too fierce to be pacified while life lasted, and to stimulate a healthy and satisfactory trade between the remote points of the north and northwest and those to the south. It frequently has been alleged that Black Hawk and his people never received their annuities. This is untrue as the record of the time has disclosed.[48] In November, 1820, we find the Sacs were drawing their annuities and had been on the 3d of each November; in fact, those annuities had been made permanent, and while bickerings about a fair division at times had been noticeable, the tribes and head men were satisfied.[49] It may be well to add here, that when Rev. Jedediah Morse made the report just cited, he was a commissioner appointed by the President for the purpose of ascertaining the actual state of the Indian tribes of the northwest, and having visited Fort Armstrong in the summer of 1820, he found British flags still floating and English medals still worn almost exclusively in Black Hawk’s village. An exchange of these for American flags and medals had been recommended in a letter written to him November 20, 1820, from that post, and he adopted the suggestion in his report;[50] but the flags and medals continued in evidence, notwithstanding Morse’s report.