THE RED MEN OF IOWA.

After his discharge from the army, Davenport turned his attention to business as a trader and contractor. For some time, however, he was in the employ of Colonel Morrison, a government contractor, who supplied the troops with provisions. In the spring of 1816, he embarked with Colonel Lawrence, the same friend with whom he had enlisted ten years before, for the mouth of Rock River. They landed at Rock Island, May 10. There Davenport employed soldiers to assist him in building storehouses for provisions, and had a bake-house and oven erected. This was the first house built on that historic island. Port Armstrong was erected the same summer. There were several Indian villages in the vicinity and nearly ten thousand Indians. For the first year he devoted his attention exclusively to supplying the troops with provisions, but the second year he purchased a small stock of Indian goods, and commenced as an Indian trader. He employed assistants, with pack-horses visited the villages of the different tribes and bands, and bought furs and other commodities, very much to the displeasure of the French traders of the American Fur Company, who claimed a monopoly of that business. He was warmly welcomed by the chiefs of the different tribes, sold his goods readily, received excellent furs, and realized handsome profits. He soon established several branch trading-posts on Rock River. At first he traded chiefly with the Winnebagoes, but in a year or two, in opposition to the traders of the American Fur Company, he commenced to trade with the Sacs and Foxes on both sides of the Mississippi.