The poor girl had been betrothed to a young man of her own people, and, as is generally the case, the attachment on both sides was very strong.  Among these simple people, who have few subjects of thought or speculation beyond the interests of their daily life, their affections and their animosities form the warp and woof of their character.  All their feelings are intense, from being concentrated on so few objects.  Family relations, particularly with the women, engross the whole amount of their sensibilities.

The marriage connection is a sacred and indissoluble tie.  I have read, in a recent report to the Historical Society of Wisconsin, that, in former times, a temporary marriage between a white man and a Menomonee woman was no uncommon occurrence, and that such an arrangement brought no scandal, I am afraid that if such eases were investigated, a good deal of deceit and misrepresentation would be found to have been added to the other sins of the transaction; and that the woman would be found to have been a victim, instead of a willing participant, in such a connection.

At all events, no system of this kind exists among the Winnebagoes.  The strictest sense of female propriety is a distinguishing trait among them.  A woman who transgresses it is said to have “forgotten herself,” and is sure to be cast off and “forgotten” by her friends.

The marriage proposed between the young officer and the daughter of Day-kau-ray, was understood as intended to be true and lasting.  The father would not have exposed himself to the contempt of his whole nation by selling his daughter to become the mistress of any man.  The Day-kau-rays, as I have elsewhere said, were not a little proud of a remote cross of French blood which mingled with the aboriginal stream in their veins, and probably in acceding to the proposed connection the father of Agathe was as much influenced by what he considered the honor to be derived as by the amount of valuable presents which accompanied the overtures made to him.

Be that as it may, the poor girl was torn from her lover, and transferred from her father’s lodge to the quarters of the young officer.

There were no ladies in the garrison at that time.  Had there been, such a step would hardly have been ventured.  Far away in the wilderness, shut out from the salutary influences of religious and social cultivation, what wonder that the moral sense sometimes becomes blinded, and that the choice is made, “Evil, be thou my good!”

The first step in wrong was followed by one still more aggravated in cruelty.  The young officer left the post, as he said, on furlough, but he never returned.  The news came after a time that he was married, and when he again joined his regiment it was at another post.

There was a natural feeling in the strength of the “woe pronounced against him” by more tongues than one.  “He will never,” said my informant, “dare show himself in this country again!  Not an Indian who knows the Day-kau-rays but would take his life if he should meet him!”