tities and most luxuriantly, affording the Indian an important staple of subsistence.
In former times this region of country abounded in buffalo, moose, deer, and bear, and till within thirty years past, in every one of its many water courses, the lodges of the valuable and industrious beaver were to be found.
Possessing these manifold advantages, this country has always been a favorite home and resort for the wild Indian, and over its whole extent, battle fields are pointed out where different tribes have battled for its possession.
The attention of the Ojibways was early directed to it. They found it in possession of the powerful and wide-spread Dakotas, whom after many years of severe fighting, they eventually forced to seek for new homes farther westward, and they in turn, took possession and have kept to this day the large and beautiful lakes which form the sources of the "Great River."
It is related by their old traditionists, that the boy whose father had died in his stead on the burning fagots of the cruel O-dug-am-ees (as has been related in a former chapter), grew up to be a man. The remembrance of his deep wrong made him a warrior. He never let pass an opportunity of taking revenge and letting his prowess be known among the enemies of his tribe. To him, war not only became a chief business in life, but a pastime, and having adopted the name of his murdered father, Bi-aus-wah, eventually became a noted war-leader and chief, and the first Ojibway pioneer to the country of the Upper Mississippi.
After the death of his father, he proceeded with his relatives to Fond du Lac, where he remained till middle age, and from which place he joined the war parties which marched against the Dakotas at Sandy Lake, on the St. Croix River and in the vicinity of Mille Lac. When he had earned in many a hard-fought battle, the admiration
