While this was disappearing during their protracted detention at the Portage, they were running the risk of leaving themselves quite unprovided with food, in case of a bad hunting-season during the winter and spring.
In the next place, the rations which the Agent had been accustomed, by the permission of Government, to deal out occasionally to them, were now cut off by a scarcity in the Commissary's department.

The frequent levies of the militia during the summer campaign, and the reinforcement of the garrison by the troops from Port Howard, had drawn so largely on the stores at this post that there was necessity for the most rigid economy in the issuing of supplies.
Foreseeing this state of things, Mr.Kinzie, as soon as the war was at an end, commissioned Mr.Kercheval, then sutler at Fort Howard, to procure him a couple of boat-loads of corn, to be distributed among the Indians.

Unfortunately, there was no corn to be obtained from Michigan; it was necessary to bring it from Ohio, and by the time it at length reached Green Bay (for in those days business was never done in a hurry) the navigation of the Fox River had closed, and it was detained there, to be brought up the following spring.
As day after day wore on and "the silver" did not make its appearance, the Indians were advised by their Father to disperse to their hunting-grounds to procure food, with the promise that they should be summoned immediately on the arrival of Governor Porter; and this advice they followed.
While they had been in our neighborhood, they had more than once asked permission to dance the _scalp-dance,_ before our door.

This is the most frightful, heart-curdling exhibition that can possibly be imagined.

The scalps are stretched on little hoops, or frames, and carried on the end of slender poles.