Note 34 — Chapter VI · The burning of the Steamer Stonewall.—Indian Mounds and Earthworks at Cahokia.—Confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri.—Sacs and Foxes.—Education of Indians.—Nauvoo.—Winona.—Sioux Encampment.—Ancient Mounds near St. Paul’s.—The Sioux War in Minnesota.—Note upon the Ogallalas.

As I looked at the cliff and the reflection of its shadow in the calm smooth waters of the lake, I recalled to mind a similar scene viewed from the deck of H.M.S. Racer when passing at sunset the promontory of Cape Leucate, in Santa Maura, the classical site of Sappho’s leap. There is a special interest attached to the fate of Winona, for it proves that Indian girls of Dakota birth are capable of higher degrees of sentiment with regard to their marriage, than those believed to exist among other tribes. She was not permitted for some tribal reason to marry the man she had chosen, and preferred death to marriage with the warrior to whom she was assigned by the command of her parents.