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MINOR SAC AND FOX CHIEFS AND BRAVES.
paho became the chief actor in a plot to attack and destroy that fort and its garrison. His plan was to gain admittance for himself and some of his warriors to the fort with arms concealed under their blankets, pretending, however, that they were desirous of holding a council. The plot was disclosed to the commandant of the garrison by a young squaw who had been on terms of intimacy with some of the officers, so that when Pashepaho and his warriors presented themselves at the gate they found it guarded with a loaded cannon, and the gunner with lighted torch in his hand ready to fire.
Subsequent to his plot against Fort Madison, Pashepaho made an attempt to gain a lodgment in Fort Armstrong at Rock Island, though in quite a different way. The year before, while some of his warriors were on a hunting excursion they fell in with a party of their enemy, the Sioux, and had taken several scalps. This was after a treaty of peace had been made between the Sioux and the Sacs and Foxes, to which the United States was also a party. The Sioux therefore complained of the outrage to the authorities at Washington, and an order was issued demanding the surrender of the culprits. They were brought in and held as prisoners at Fort Armstrong, where they were provided with comfortable quarters and plenty to eat during the winter. After faring sumptuously several months at the expense of the government, and without labor or exertion on their part, they were released on payment to the Sioux of a small amount out of the annuity due their tribe. Pashepaho, remembering how well his braves had fared, concluded that the next winter he would have an easy life in comfortable quarters, and avoid the
