DEFEAT OF BLACK HAWK.

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July, General Gaines marched to the Sacs' village, and they humbly sued for peace, which was granted. Meanwhile a party of them, under Black Hawk, murdered twenty-eight of the friendly Menominies, and recrossed the Mississippi to the lands which they had ceded to the United States. General Atkinson marched after him, and at Dixon's Ferry, on Rock River, May 15th, 1833, learned that a party of two hundred and seventy-five men, under Major Stillman, had been attacked at Sycamore Creek, on the preceding day, while incautiously marching after the Indians, and lost a great many of their number, the Indians having suffered but little.

The cholera broke out among the troops, in July, and whole companies were nearly broken up; in one instance, nine only surviving, out of a corps of two hundred and eight. Twelve Indians were killed by Gen. Dodge's men, at Galena, and sixteen others afterwards fell by his arms, about forty miles from Fort Winnebago. Meanwhile, General Atkinson, with an army greatly superior to that of Black Hawk, pursued him through trackless forests, always finding himself no nearer his enemy at the end of his journey, than he had been at its commencement. Finally, however, Black Hawk, seeing the necessity of his escape, and that it could not be effected with his whole. force, sent his women and children down the Mississippi in boats, many of which fell into the hands of the whites. About four hundred of them were encamped on Bad Axe river, where they were discovered on the 1st of August, by the steamboat Warrior, which had been sent up the Mississippi with a small force on board, in hopes of finding them. In the action which ensued, twenty-three Indians were killed and many wounded, without any loss to the troops. After the fight, the Warrior returned to Prairie du Chien, and before she could return next morning, General Atkinson had engaged the Indians. The Warrior joined the contest, and the Indians retreated with considerable loss, thirty-six of their women and children being taken. Eight of the troops were killed and seventeen wounded in this engagement. Black Hawk was now pursued over the Wisconsin, and overtaken in an advantageous

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JACKSON RETIRES FROM OFFICE.

position at the foot of a precipice over which the army had to pass. The Indians fought with the fury of tigers, leaving one covert for another, and were only routed at the point of the bayonet. Notwithstanding the smallness of his force, which scarcely numbered three hundred men, Black Hawk maintained the battle for three hours, when he barely escaped, with the loss of all his papers, and one hundred and fifty of his bravest warriors, among whom was Neopop, his second in command. A party of Sioux now volunteered to pursue the remainder of the enemy, of whom they succeeded in killing about one hundred and twenty. The great chief himself was finally captured by a party of Winnebagoes and given up to General Street, at Prairie du Chien. Treaties were then made with the rest of the Sacs, the Foxes, and the Winnebagoes, by which the United States acquired some very valuable lands on favourable terms. Black Hawk, his two sons, and six of the principal chiefs were retained as hostages. The chief and his son were carried to Washington to visit the President, receiving many valuable presents on their route. They returned to their homes by way of Detroit, and were liberated at Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, in Illinois, in August, 1833. He having been by the treaty deposed, Keokuk was made chief of the tribe, and Black Hawk settled on the Mississippi.

In the early part of the year 1837, General Santa Anna, who had been taken prisoner at the battle of San Jacinto, and subsequently obtained his liberty from his Texan captors, visited Washington, whence, after a short stay, he sailed for Mexico, in an United States vessel of war.

On the 4th of March, the term of General Jackson's presidency expired, and Martin Van Buren, whose views of general policy coincided with those of his predecessor, took possession of the chair. After issuing a valedictory address, the late President retired to his residence in Tennessee.

VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION.

EAVING the honours and the cares of government to his successor, President Jackson delivered to his countrymen a valedictory address; and nearly at the same time appeared the inaugural speech of the new President.

"Unlike all that have preceded me,"

was the language of this manifesto, "the revolution that gave us existence as a nation, was achieved at the period of my birth; and whilst I contemplate, with grateful reverence, that memorable event, I feel that I belong to a later age, and that I may not expect my countrymen to weigh my actions with the same kind and partial hand."

The new President was scarcely seated in his chair, when the storm, so long collecting itself, burst upon the commercial classes. It was at New Orleans, that the first failures, of any consequence, were declared; but New York followed; the banks found the demands upon their funds increase with frightful rapidity, while, what was yet more ominous, their circulation returned upon them. The alarm broke out into a panic; then came a general "run" upon the banks; and a