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THE RED MEN OF IOWA.
against Colonel Clark, in 1778, would indicate that they were a treacherous and deceitful people. They were hostile toward the whites, and regarded their encroachments with jealousy in 1778, as their fathers did the invasion of La Salle nearly one hundred years before. The Sacs and Foxes were accustomed to speak of the Mas-coutins with abhorrence on account of their cruelties. They had a tradition of a severe battle which they fought with them opposite the mouth of the Iowa River. The Sacs and Foxes had descended the Mississippi in canoes, and were attacked by the Mas-coutins. The contest continued nearly one day, but the Sacs and Foxes were at length defeated, and attempted to escape in their canoes. The Mascoutins pursued them, and but few of the Sacs and Foxes survived to report at home the story of their defeat. Having left the last traces of their existence on what is now
Iowa soil, we have perpetuated the memory of this vanished people by enrolling the appellation Muscatine in our Indian geographical nomenclature.
