1814.

FORTS BUILT ON UPPER MISSISSIPPI.

911

shed, that this expedition was a very insignificant affair. Very few Indians were killed, very little fighting done, but one or two of the army were lost, and. yet as a means of protecting the frontier settlements of these territories, it was most efficient, and gave at least six months quiet to the people. After this, the Indians shook their heads and said, 'White men like the leaves in the forest   like the grass in the prairies   they grow everywhere.'

The following additional items are taken from the Missouri 1814.] Gazette:

"During this season strenuous efforts were made by the small force at command, to plant forts along the Upper Mississippi. The general rendezvous was at Cape au Gris, an old French hamlet on the left bank of the Mississippi, a few miles above the mouth of the Illinois river. Armed boats were used for the purpose of transporting the necessary materials, men and stores.

"About the 1st of May, Governor Clark fitted out five barges, with fifty regular troops and one hundred and forty volunteers, and left St. Louis on an expedition to Prairie du Chien. On the 13th of June, the Governor, with several gentlemen who accompanied him, returned with one of the barges, having left the officers and troops to erect Fort Shelby and maintain the position.

" No Indians molested the party till they reached Rock river, where they had a skirmish with some hostile Sauks. The Foxes resided at Dubuque, and professed to be peaceable, and promised to fight on the American side.

"Twenty days before the expedition reached Prairie du Chien, the British trader, Dickson, left that place for Mackinac, with eighty Winnebagoes, one hundred and twenty Follsavoine, and one hundred Sioux, probably as recruits for the British army along the lake country. He had gained information of the expedition of Governor Clark from his Indian spies, and had left Captain Beace with a body of Mackinac feucibles, with orders to protect the place.

"The Sioux and Renards, (Foxes,) having refused to fight the Americans, Beace and his soldiers fled. The inhabitants also fled into the country, but returned as soon as they learned they were not to be injured. A temporary defense was immediately erected. Lieutenant Perkins, with sixty rank and file from Major Z. Taylor's company of the 7th regiment, took possession of the house occupied by the Mackinac Fur Company, in which they found nine or ten trunks of Bickson's property, with his papers and correspondence.