Seventy-two years' recollections of Wisconsin

              230 Wisconsin Historical Collections [voi.iii
cennes, Hamilton and his forces were suddenly attacked in turn by the gallant Clarke, and made prisoners of war. It had been Hamilton's plan, as the summer of 1779 should roll around;, to re-conquer the rest of the Illinois country; but his hopes were suddenly blasted by the daring and gallantry of his wily antagonist. Without^ however, knowing anything of Ham¬ ilton's misfortune, Oapt. De Peyster called a grand council of the North-Western tribes to assemble at I'Arbre Croche, near Mackinaw, early in the summer, for the purpose of embodying an Indian force to make a diversion towards Fort Ohartres, in favor of Gov. Hamilton.*
Pierre Caree had been sent to Milwaukee to invite the Indians there to attend the grand council; and failing of success, Gautier De Verville, De Langlade's nephew, who had s^wed with him during the old French war, and thus far in the Bevolutionary contest, and was thoroughly acquainted with the Indians, next went; but he returned, reporting that he had met with no better success—^that the Indians had laughed at him:.t iSTow De Langlade went, determined to induce them to attend the council, and take up the hatchet on the side of the British. He talked with them awhile without any apparent favorable results, when he concluded tx> resort to his knowledge of Indian habits and customs. He built a lodge in the midst of the village, with a door at each end; had several dogs killed, and had the dog-feast prepared; then placed the raw heart of a dog on a stick at each door. Then the Indians partook of the feast, when De Langlade, singing the war song, and marching around within "the lodge, as he passed one door he bent do'WJi and took a bite of the raw heart, and repeated the same ceremiony as he passed the other—-an appeal to Indian
* These movements of Clark and Hamilton are stated on authority of Clark's M8. Papers, and De Peyster's Miscellanies. L. C. D.
tNo wonder Col. De Peyster denominated them "those runegates of Milwaukee—a horrid set of refractory Indians.'* L.C. D.