his family, consisting of his wife and her sister, French
Canadians like himself, Ouilmette, one of the most attached
of his people, and enjoying almost equal popularity with
the red men. About a quarter of a mile beyond Ouilmettes,
and immediately opposite to the Pottawattamie encampment,
from which it was divided only by the river, was another
small but neat dwelling. This belonged to Mr. Heywood,
and was then inhabited by his wife and daughter, whom he
would not permit to reside at the farm, as well on account
of its rudeness of accommodation, as of the dread of
exposing them, in that remote situation, to the very
danger which we have seen he had himself so recently
encountered.

Such was the civilian population of that sparsely inhabited
country in 1812. Let us now see the strength of its
garrison.

For the defence of so distant an outpost, almost cut off,
as we have already shown, from communication with the
more inhabited portions of the States, the American
government had not thought it requisite to provide more
than a single company of soldiers, a force utterly
inadequate to contend in a case of emergency, with the
hordes of savages that could be collected around them
within a few hours, and WEEKS before any efficient succor
could be obtained. This error, grave at any time, in
those who sought to extend the influence of their name
and arms throughout that fertile region which has now,
within little more than a quarter of a century, become