THE RED MEN OF IOWA.

By the terms of the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, the Indians had agreed to relinquish their right to the tract of land six miles square at the mouth of the Chicago River, "where a fort formerly stood." There had been a small trading-post at that point during the early French explorations. Here, in 1804, the government of the United States erected Fort Dearborn. In 1812 the garrison at Fort Dearborn, consisting of about seventy men, was under the command of Captain Heald. The other officers were Lieutenant Helm, Ensign Rowan (both very young men) and Surgeon Voorhees. Besides the garrison, there were attached to the establishment the family of Mr. Kinzie, who had been engaged in the fur trade there since 1804, and also several Canadians, with their wives and children. The Pottawattamies and other tribes occupying the country bordering on Lake Michigan had manifested hostility toward the Americans previous to the battle of Tippecanoe, and many of them were in that battle. Some of the principal chiefs were understood to be in alliance with the British, for they had visited Fort

On the 7th of April a party of Winnebagoes killed a man named White, and a Frenchman employed by him, about four miles from Fort Dearborn. This massacre was followed by a succession of alarms at the garrison for several days, after which, for a short time, all apprehension of danger ceased. It transpired, however, that immediately after the attack upon Major Van Horne at Brownstown, on the 7th of August, Tecumseh had sent a runner to the Indians about Fort Dearborn, claiming a victory in that engagement, and that there was every prospect of a success over General Hull. As Tecumseh had doubtless anticipated, this intelligence decided them at once to become the allies of the British, and no doubt led to the attack on the troops of the garrison. It was on the afternoon of the 7th of August that a friendly Pottawattamie chief named Winnemeg, or Catfish, arrived at Fort Dearborn bearing dispatches from Governor Hull, the commander-in-chief of the northwest, announcing the declaration of war against Great Britain. His orders to Captain Heald were to evacuate the post, if practicable, and distribute the property in the fort belonging to the government to the neighboring Indians. The order to evacuate was read next morning on parade, but Captain Heald omitted to call a council with his officers. He announced at once his intention to abandon the post. The subordinate officers waited upon Captain Heald and remonstrated against this course. The friendly Pottawattamie chief Winnemeg, who knew the purport of the dispatch from