[Illustration: The house of General Harrison at Vincennes, Ind. , as itnow appears. ]

 THE LAND OF THE MIAMIS

 By Elmore Barce

 Member of the State and National Bar Associations Member Indiana State Historical Society Author "Land of the Potawatomi"

 [Illustration]

 An Account of the Struggle to Secure Possession of the North-West from the End of the Revolution until 1812. 

 Fowler, Indiana THE BENTON REVIEW SHOP 1922

 Copyrighted, 1922, by the Benton Review Shop, Fowler, Ind. 

 Photos and Maps by Lieut. Don Heaton

 Dedicated to

 CARRIE MAY BARCE

 My Wife. 

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 A BRIEF RETROSPECT--_A general view of the Indian Wars of the Early Northwest_ 1

 WHAT THE VIRGINIANS GAVE US--_A topographical description of the country north of the Ohio at the close of Revolutionary War_ 6

 THE BEAVER TRADE--_A description of the wealth in furs of this section at the close of the Revolutionary War and the reasons underlying the struggle for its control_ 12

 THE PRAIRIE AND THE BUFFALO--_The buffalo as the main food supply of the Indians_ 20

 THE WABASH AND THE MAUMEE--_Chief line of communication with the tribes of the Early Northwest. The heart of the Miami country_ 34

 THE TRIBES OF THE NORTHWEST--_A description of the seven tribes of savages who opposed the advance of settlement in the Northwest. Their location. Kekionga, the seat of Miami power_ 44

 REAL SAVAGES--_The Savage painted in his true colors from the standpoint of the frontiersman_ 68

 OUR INDIAN POLICY--_The Indian right of occupancy recognized through the liberal policy of Washington and Jefferson_ 80

 THE KENTUCKIANS--_The first men to break through the mountain barriers to face the British and the Indians_ 112

 THE BRITISH POLICIES--_The British reluctant to surrender the control of the Northwest--Their tampering with the Indian tribes_ 126

 JOSIAH HARMAR--_The first military invasion of the Northwest by the Federal Government after the Revolution_ 145

 SCOTT AND WILKINSON--_The Kentucky raids on the Miami country along the Wabash in 1791_ 173

 ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT--_The first great disaster to the Federal armies brought about by the Miamis_ 195

 WAYNE AND FALLEN TIMBERS--_Final triumph of the Government over Indians and British_ 207

 THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE--_The surrender of the Ohio lands of the Miamis and their final submission to the government_ 238

 GOVERNOR HARRISON AND THE TREATY--_Purchase of the Miami lands known as the New Purchase which led to the strengthening of Tecumseh's Confederacy--the final struggle at Tippecanoe_ 245

 RESULTS OF THE TREATY--_Harrison's political enemies at Vincennes rally against him in the open, and are defeated in the courts_ 271

 THE SHAWNEE BROTHERS--_The Prophet as an Indian priest and Tecumseh as a political organizer --The episode of the eclipse of 1806--Tecumseh's personal appearance described_ 280

 PROPHET'S TOWN--_The capital of the Shawnee Confederacy in the heart of the Miami Country_ 295

 HARRISON'S VIGILANCE--_His political courage and activities save the frontier capital_ 305

 THE COUNCIL AT VINCENNES--_The dramatic meeting between Harrison and Tecumseh-- Tecumseh announces his doctrine of the common ownership of the Indian lands_ 316

 THE SECOND AND LAST COUNCIL--_The last meeting between the two leaders before Harrison marched into the Indian country_ 332

 THE MUSTER AND THE MARCH--_The rally of the Kentuckians and their clansmen in southern Indiana to Harrison's support--The coming of the Fourth United States Regiment--The march to the Tippecanoe battlefield_ 352

 THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE--_The night attack on Harrison's forces--The destruction of Tecumseh's Confederacy_ 371

 NAYLOR'S NARRATIVE--_A description of the battle by one of the volunteers_ 381

 LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

 PAGE

 1. The Home of General William Henry Harrison, at Vincennes, as it now appears Frontispiece

 2. A Section of the Grand Prairie in Benton County, Indiana, which extends West to Peoria, Illinois 25

 3. A Typical Buffalo Wallow on the Donaldson Farm, in Benton County, Indiana 33

 4. The Wabash River at Merom Bluff, Sullivan County, Indiana--LaMotte Prairie beyond 41

 5. Location of the Indian Tribes of the Northwest 57

 6. Shaubena, the best of the Potawatomi Chiefs, and a follower of Tecumseh 73

 7. Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States 97

 8. Map of the Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne Campaigns 161

 9. Map showing the Wea Plains, and the Line of Scott's March. Tippecanoe County, Indiana 185

 10. Indian Hills on the Wabash River, just below the old site of Fort Ouiatenon 193

 11. General Anthony Wayne and Little Turtle, at Greenville. From an old painting by one of Wayne's staff 241

 12. Governor William Henry Harrison 257

 13. Another View of the Wabash. A land of great beauty 291

 14. Raccoon Creek, Parke County, Indiana. The North Line of the New Purchase 323

 15. The Line of Harrison's March to Tippecanoe and the New Purchase of 1809 363

 16. Pine Creek, in Warren County, Indiana, near the place where Harrison crossed 371

 17. Judge Isaac Naylor. From an old portrait in the Court Room at Williamsport, Indiana 387

PREFACE

In presenting this book to the general public, it is the intention ofthe author to present a connected story of the winning of the Northwest, including the Indian wars during the presidency of General Washington, following this with an account of the Harrison-Tecumseh conflict in theearly part of the nineteenth century, ending with the Battle ofTippecanoe. 

The story embraces all of the early efforts of the Republic of theUnited States to take possession of the Northwest Territory, acquiredfrom Great Britain by the Treaty of 1783 closing the Revolutionary War. The whole western country was a wilderness filled with savage tribes ofgreat ferocity, and they resisted every effort of the government toadvance its outposts. Back of them stood the agents of England who hadretained the western posts of Detroit, Niagara, Oswego, Michillimacinacand other places in order to command the lucrative fur trade, and wholooked upon the advance of the American traders and settlers withjealousy and alarm. They encouraged the savages in their resistance, furnished them with arms and ammunition, and at times covertly aidedthem with troops and armed forces. In other words, this is a part ofthat great tale of the winning of the west. 

We are well aware that there is a very respectable school of historianswho insist that the British took no part in opposing the Americanadvance, but the cold and indisputable facts of history, the words ofWashington himself, contradict this view. England never gave up the ideaof retrieving her lost possessions in the western country until theclose of the War of 1812. 

An attempt has also been made in this work to present some of the greatnatural advantages of the Northwest; its wealth of furs and peltries, and its easy means of communication with the British posts. The leadingtribes inhabiting its vast domain, the Indian leaders controlling themovements of the warriors, and the respective schemes of Brant andTecumseh to form an Indian confederacy to drive the white man backacross the Ohio, are all dwelt upon. 

The writer is confessedly partial to the western frontiersmen. The partthat the Kentuckians played in the conquest of the Northwest is setforth at some length. The foresight of Washington and Jefferson, theheroism of Logan, Kenton, Boone and Scott and their followers, play aconspicuous part. The people of the eastern states looked with somedisdain upon the struggles of the western world. They gave but scantysupport to the government in its attempts to subdue the Indian tribes, voted arms and supplies with great reluctance, and condemned theborderers as savages and barbarians. There is no attempt to condemn theeastern people for their shortsightedness in this regard, but after all, that is the term exactly applicable. The West was won despite theirdiscouragement, and the empire beyond the mountains was conquerednotwithstanding their opposition. 

William Henry Harrison has been condemned without mercy. Much of thishostile criticism has proceeded from his political enemies. They havedistorted the plain facts of history in order to present the argumentsof faction. Harrison was the greatest man in the western world afterGeorge Rogers Clark. The revelations of history justify his suspicion ofthe British. The people of the West were alone undeceived. The Generalwas always popular west of the Alleghenies and justly so. Tecumseh andthe Prophet were, after all is said, the paid agents of the Englishgovernment, and received their inspiration from Detroit. Jefferson knewall these facts well, and so wrote to John Adams. Jefferson's heart beatfor the western people, and throughout the whole conflict he stoodstoutly on the side of Harrison. 

We recognize the fact that we have done but poorly. Out of the greatmass of broken and disconnected material, however, we have attempted toarrange a connected whole. We submit the volume with many misgivings andpray the indulgence of the reading public. We have endeavored at alltimes to quote nothing that we did not deem authentic, and havepresented no fact that is not based on written records. 

We desire to express our appreciation of the valuable help afforded bythe State Library people at Indianapolis, by Prof. Logan Esarey ofIndiana University, who kindly loaned us the original Harrison letters, and by Ray Jones and Don Heaton of Fowler, Indiana, who were untiring intheir efforts to give us all the assistance within their power. 

 E. B. 

CHAPTER I

A BRIEF RETROSPECT

--_A general view of the Indian Wars of the Early Northwest. _

The memories of the early prairies, filled with vast stretches of wavinggrasses, made beautiful by an endless profusion of wild flowers, anddotted here and there with pleasant groves, are ineffaceable. For theboy who, barefooted and care-free, ranged over these plains, in searchof adventure, they always possessed an inexpressible charm andattraction. These grassy savannas have now passed away forever. Gloriousas they were, a greater marvel has been wrought by the untiring hand ofman. Where the wild flowers bloomed, great fields of grain ripen, andvast gardens of wheat and corn, interspersed with beautiful towns andvillages, greet the eye of the traveler. "The prairies of Illinois andIndiana were born of water, and preserved by fire for the children ofcivilized men, who have come and taken possession of them. "

In the last half of the eighteenth century, great herds of buffalograzed here, attracting thither the wandering bands of the Potawatomi, who came from the lakes of the north. Gradually these hardy warriors andhorse tribes drove back the Miamis to the shores of the Wabash, and tookpossession of all that vast plain, extending east of the Illinois river, and north of the Wabash into the present confines of the state ofMichigan. Their squaws cultivated corn, peas, beans, squashes andpumpkins, but the savage bands lived mostly on the fruits of the chase. Their hunting trails extended from grove to grove, and from lake toriver. 

Reliable Indian tradition informs us that about the year 1790, the herdsof bison disappeared from the plains east of the Mississippi. The deerand the raccoon remained for some years later, but from the time of thedisappearance of the buffalo, the power of the tribes was on the wane. The advance of the paleface and the curtailment of the supply of game, marked the beginning of the savage decline. The constant complaint ofthe tribes to General William Henry Harrison, the first militarygovernor of Indiana, was the lack of both game and peltries. 

From the first the Indians of the Northwest were pro-British. Followingthe revolutionary war they accepted the overtures of England's agentsand traders, and the end of the long trail was always at Detroit. Themotives of these agents were purely mercenary. They were trespassers onthe American side of the line, for England had agreed to surrender allthe posts within the new territory by the treaty of 1783. The thingcoveted was the trade in beaver, deer and raccoon skins. In order thatthis might be done, the Americans must be kept south of the Ohio. Thetribes were taught to regard the crossing of the Alleghenies as a directattempt to dispossess them of their native soil. To excite their savagehatred and jealousy it was pointed out that a constant stream ofkeel-boats, loaded with men, women, children and cattle, weredescending the Ohio; that Kentucky's population was multiplying bythousands, and that the restless swarm of settlers and land hunters, ifnot driven back, would soon fill the whole earth. Driven as they were byrage and fear, all attempts at treaty with these savages were in vain. The Miamis, the Potawatomi and the Shawnees lifted the hatchet, andrushed to the attack of both keel-boats and settlements. 

The wars that followed in the administration of George Washington arewell known. Back of them all stood the sinister figure of the Englishtrader. Harmar was defeated at Miamitown, now Fort Wayne; St. Clair'sarmy was annihilated on the head waters of the Wabash. For a time thegovernment seemed prostrate, and all attempts to conquer the savages intheir native woods, futile. But finally General Anthony Wayne, the heroof Stony Point, was sent to the west. He was a fine disciplinarian and afearless fighter. At the battle of Fallen Timbers, in 1794, he broke thepower of the northwestern Indian confederacy, and in the following yearforced the tribes into the Treaty of Greenville. 

On July 11th, 1796, the British, under the terms of Jay's Treaty, evacuated the post of Detroit, and it passed into the hands of itsrightful owners, the American people. Well had it been for the red men, if, with this passing of the British, all further communication with theagents of Great Britain had ceased. Already had the tribes acquired arich legacy of hate. Their long intercourse and alliance with theEnglish; their terrible inroads with fire and tomahawk, on thesettlements of Kentucky; their shocking barbarities along the Ohio, hadenraged the hearts of all fighting men south of that river. But theBritish in retiring from American soil had passed over to Malden, nearthe mouth of the Detroit river. Communication with the tribes of thenorthwest was still kept up, and strenuous efforts made to monopolizetheir trade. At last came Tecumseh and the Prophet, preaching aregeneration of the tribes, and a renewal of the contest for thepossession of the lands northwest of the Ohio. All past treaties were tobe disregarded as impositions and frauds, and the advance of thepaleface permanently checked. The joy of the British agents knew nobounds. Disregarding all the dictates of conscience and even the welfareof the tribes themselves, they whispered in the ears of the Wyandots ofSandusky and began to furnish ammunition and rifles. As a result of thisfatal policy the breach between the United States and the Indianconfederates was measurably widened. The end was Tippecanoe, and theeternal enmity of the hunters and riflemen of southern Indiana andKentucky who followed General Harrison on that day. One of the ghastlysights of that sanguinary struggle, was the scalping by the white men ofthe Indian slain, and the division of their scalps among the soldiersafter they had been cut into strips. These bloody trophies were carriedback to the settlements along the Ohio and Wabash to satisfy the hatredof all those who had lost women and children in the many savage foraysof the past. 

With the death of Tecumseh at the battle of the Thames and thetermination of British influence in the west, the tribes soonsurrendered up their ancient demesne, and most of them were removedbeyond the Mississippi. The most populous of all the tribes north of theWabash were the roving Potawatomi, and their final expulsion from theold hunting grounds occurred under the direction of Colonel Abel C. Pepper and General John Tipton, the latter a hero of the Battle ofTippecanoe, and later appointed as Indian commissioner. At that time theremnants of the scattered bands from north of the Wabash amounted toonly one thousand souls of all ages and sexes. The party under militaryescort passed eight or nine miles west of the city of Lafayette, probably over the level land east of the present site of Otterbein, Indiana. 

Thus vanished the red men. In their day, however, they had been theundoubted lords of the plain, following their long trails in single fileover the great prairies, and camping with their dogs, women and childrenin the pleasant groves and along the many streams. They were savages, and have left no enduring temple or lofty fane behind them, but theirnames still cling to many streams, groves and towns, and a few factsgleaned from their history cannot fail to be of interest to us, whoinherit their ancient patrimony. 

CHAPTER II

WHAT THE VIRGINIANS GAVE US

--_A topographical description of the country north of the Ohio at theclose of the Revolutionary War. _

In the early councils of the Republic the stalwart sons of Virginiaexercised a preponderating influence. As men of broad nationalconceptions, who were unafraid to strike a decisive blow in theinterests of freedom, they were unexcelled. Saratoga had already beenwon, but at the back door of the newborn states was a line of Britishposts in the valleys of the Wabash and Mississippi and at Detroit, thatstood ready to pour forth a horde of naked savages on the frontiersettlements of the west and bring murder and destruction to the aid ofEngland's cause. In December, 1777, George Rogers Clark came fromKentucky. He laid before Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia, a boldplan for the reduction of these posts and the removal of the red menace. Into his councils the governor called George Wythe, George Mason andThomas Jefferson. An expedition was then and there set on foot that gavethe nation its first federal domain for the erection of new republicanstates. With a lot of worthless paper money in his pocket, and about onehundred and seventy-five hunting shirt men from Virginia and Kentucky, Clark marched across the prairies of southern Illinois, and capturedKaskaskia. Later he took Vincennes. Thus by the cool enterprise anddaring of this brave man, he laid the foundation for the subsequentnegotiations of 1783, that gave the northwest territory to the UnitedStates of America. 

The country thus conquered covered more than two hundred and forty-fourthousand square miles of the earth's surface, and comprised what are nowthe states of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. Withinits confines were boundless plains and prairies filled with grass;immense forests of oak, hickory, walnut, pine, beech and fir; enormoushidden treasures of coal, iron and copper. Add to all these naturalresources, a fertile soil, a temperate climate, and unlimited facilitiesfor commerce and trade, and no field was ever presented to the hand andgenius of man, better adapted to form the homes and habitations of afree and enterprising people. This was known and appreciated by thenoble minds of Washington and Jefferson, even at that day, and theyabove all other men of their times, saw most clearly the great vision ofthe future. 

At the close of the revolution, however, only a few scattered posts, separated by hundreds of miles, were to be found. Detroit, Michillimacinac, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and a few minor trading points, told the whole tale. Kentucky could boast of a few thousands, maintaining themselves by dauntless courage and nerves of steel againstBritish and Indians, but all north of the Ohio was practically anunbroken wilderness, inhabited by the fiercest bands of savages then inexistence, with the possible exception of the Iroquois. 

Over this territory, and to gain control of these tribes, England andFrance had waged a long and bitter conflict, and the gage of battle hadbeen the monopoly of the fur trade. The welfare of the savages wasregarded but little; they were the pawns in the game. The great end tobe acquired was the disposal of their rich peltries. No country was moreeasily accessible to the early voyageurs and French fur traders. It wasbounded on the north and northeast by the chain of the Great Lakes, onthe south by the Ohio, and on the west by the Mississippi. The heads ofthe rivers and streams that flowed into these great watercourses andlakes were connected by short portages, so that the Indian trapper orhunter could carry his canoe for a few miles and pass from the watersthat led to Lake Michigan or Lake Erie, into the streams that fed theMississippi or the Ohio. The headwaters of the Muskingum and itstributaries interlocked with those of the Cuyahoga; the headwaters ofthe Scioto with those of the Sandusky; the headwaters of the Great Miamiwith those of the Wabash and the St. Marys. In northern Indiana anotherremarkable system of portages appeared. The canoes of the traders werecarried some eight or ten miles from the little Wabash to the Maumee, placing the command of the whole Wabash country in the hands of theDetroit merchants. The sources of the Tippecanoe were connected byportages with the waters of the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, and a likeconnection existed between the waters of the Tippecanoe and the watersof the Kankakee. These portages were, as General Harrison observes, "much used by the Indians and sometimes by traders. " LaSalle passed fromLake Michigan to the waters of the St. Joseph, thence up that river to aportage of three miles in what is now St. Joseph county, Indiana, thenceby said portage to the headwaters of the Kankakee, and down that riverto the Illinois. At the post of Chicago the traders crossed from LakeMichigan by a very short portage into the headwaters of the Illinois, and General Harrison says that in the spring, the boats with theirloading "passed freely from one to the other. " In Michigan the heads ofthe streams that flowed into Lake Huron interlocked with the heads ofthose that went down to Lake Michigan. In Wisconsin, the voyageurspassed from Green bay up the Fox river to Lake Winnebago, thence by theFox again to the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin, thence down theWisconsin river to the Mississippi. Through this important channel oftrade passed nine-tenths of the goods that supplied the Indians abovethe Illinois river and those in upper Louisiana. 

This great network of lakes, rivers and portages was in turn connectedby the waterways of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, with the great headand center of all the fur trade of the western world, the city ofMontreal. 

The only practicable means of communication was by the canoe. Most ofthe territory of the northwest, being, as General Harrison observes, "remarkably flat, the roads were necessarily bad in winter, and in thesummer the immense prairies to the west and north of this, producedsuch a multitude of flies as to render it impossible to make use of packhorses. " Bogs, marshes and sloughs in endless number added to thedifficulties of travel. Hence it was, that the power that commanded thelakes and water courses of the northwest, commanded at the same time allthe fur trade and the Indian tribes in the interior. France forever lostthis control to Great Britain at the peace of 1763, closing the Frenchand Indian war, and at the close of the revolution it passed to us bythe definitive treaty of 1783. 

The importance of the posts of Detroit and Michillimacinac, forming thechief connecting links between the northwest and the city of Montreal, now fully appears. First in importance was Detroit. It commanded all thevaluable beaver country of northern Ohio and Indiana, southern Michigan, and of the rivers entering Lakes Erie and Huron. The trade coming fromthe Cuyahoga, the Sandusky, the tributaries of the Miami and Scioto, theWabash and the Maumee, all centered here. The French traders, and afterthem the British, did a vast and flourishing business with the savages, trading them brandy, guns, ammunition, blankets, vermilion and worthlesstrinkets for furs of the highest value. The significance of the oldtrading posts at Miamitown (Fort Wayne), Petit Piconne (Tippecanoe), Ouiatenon, and Vincennes, as feeders for this Detroit market by way ofthe Wabash and Maumee valleys, is also made plain. A glimpse of theactivities at Miamitown (Fort Wayne), in the winter of 1789-1790, whileit was still under the domination of the British, shows the Miamis, Shawnees and Potawatomi coming in with otter, beaver, bear skins andother peltry, the presence of a lot of unscrupulous, cheating Frenchtraders, who were generally drunk when assembled together, and who tookevery advantage of each other, and of the destitute savages with whomthey were trading. At that time the French half-breeds (and traders) ofthe names of Jean Cannehous, Jacque Dumay, Jean Coustan and others weretrading with the Indians at Petit Piconne, or Tippecanoe, and all thistrade was routed through by way of the Wabash, the portage at Miamitown, and the Maumee, to Detroit. The traders at Ouiatenon, who undoubtedlyenjoyed the advantage of the Beaver lake trade in northwestern Indiana, by way of the Potawatomi trail from the Wabash to Lake Michigan, werealso in direct communication with the merchants of Detroit, and dependedupon them. It is interesting to observe in passing, that the rendezvousof the French traders at the Petit Piconne (termed by General CharlesScott, as Keth-tip-e-ca-nunk), was broken up by a detachment of Kentuckymounted volunteers under General James Wilkinson, in the summer of 1791, and utterly destroyed. One who accompanied the expedition stated thatthere were then one hundred and twenty houses at this place, eighty ofwhich were shingled; that the best houses belonged to French traders;and that the gardens and improvements around the place were delightful;that there was a tavern located there, with cellars, a bar, and publicand private rooms. Thus far had the fur trade advanced in the old days. 

CHAPTER III

THE BEAVER TRADE

--_A description of the wealth in furs of this section at the close ofthe Revolutionary War and the reasons of the struggle for its control. _

Perhaps no country ever held forth greater allurement to savage huntsmenand French voyageurs than the territory acquired by Clark's conquest. Its rivers and lakes teemed with edible fish; its great forests aboundedwith deer, elk, bears and raccoons; its vast plains and prairies werefilled with herds of buffalo that existed up almost to the close of theeighteenth century; every swamp and morass was filled with countlessthousands of geese, ducks, swan and cranes, and rodents like the beaverand other animals furnished the red man with the warmest of raiment inthe coldest winter. 

To give some idea of the vast wealth of this domain in fur bearinganimals alone, it may be taken into account that in the year 1818 theAmerican Fur Company, under the control of John Jacob Astor, withheadquarters at Mackinaw, had in its employ about four hundred clerksand traders, together with about two thousand French voyageurs, whoroamed all the rivers and lakes of the Indian country from the Britishdominions on the north, to as far west as the Missouri river. Astor hadestablished a great fur business in direct competition with the BritishNorthwest Company and commanded attention in both London and China. The"outfits" of this company had trading posts on the Illinois, and all itstributaries; on the Muskegon, Grand, Kalamazoo and other rivers inMichigan; on the line of the old Potawatomi trail from the Wabashcountry to post Chicago, and in the neighborhood of the Beaver lakeregion in northern Indiana, and at many other points. The furs handledby them consisted of the marten (sable), mink, musk-rat, raccoon, lynx, wildcat, fox, wolverine, badger, otter, beaver, bears and deer, of whichthe most valuable were those of the silver-gray fox and the marten. Thevalue of these furs mounted into the hundreds of thousands of dollarsand they were originally all consigned to New York. For theseinteresting observations history lovers are indebted to theautobiography of the late Gurdon S. Hubbard of Chicago, who was, in hisyouth, in the employ of Astor, and who later in his lifetime conducted atrading post at Bunkum, now Iroquois, in Iroquois County, Illinois. Ithas been estimated that in the days of England's control of Canada andof all the northwest territory, that more than half in value of all thefurs exported "came from countries within the new boundaries of theUnited States, " that is, from the district north and west of the Ohioriver. 

Of all the fur-bearers, the most interesting were the beavers. How muchthese industrious gnawers had to do with the French and Indian wars andthe rivalry between England and France for the control of their domainnorth of the Ohio, is not generally appreciated. An animal that could beinstrumental in part, in bringing about an armed conflict between thetwo greatest powers of that day, should not be entirely eliminated fromhistory. 

At the time of Braddock's defeat, Colonel James Smith, then a boy, wascaptured by what seems to have been a party of the Caughnawaga Indians, some of whom lived along the rivers and streams in northern Ohio. Helived among the savages for some years and was adopted into one of theirfamilies. Later in life, he left a written account of many of hisexperiences, and among other things he tells us some interesting thingsconcerning the beavers. "Beavers, " says Caleb Atwater, an Ohiohistorian, "were once here in large numbers on the high lands at theheads of the rivers, but with those who caught them, they have longsince disappeared from among us. " Before the Revolution, and for someyears afterward, they were caught by the Indians in great numbers. Smithhad a valuable friend among the Indians by the name of Tecaughretanego. He was quite a philosopher in his way, but he was rather inclined tobelieve, like most of his fellows, that geese turned to beavers andsnakes to raccoons. He told Smith of a certain pond where he knew allthe beavers were frequently killed during a hunting season, but theywere just as thick again on the following winter. There was seemingly nowater communication with this pond, and beavers did not travel by land. Therefore it must be that the geese that alighted here in great numbersduring the fall, turned to beavers, and for proof of this assertion theIndian called Smith's attention to their palmated hind feet. The boysuggested that there might be subterranean passages leading to thispond, whereby the beavers could gain access to it, but Tecaughretanegowas not entirely convinced. 

In conversation with his Indian friend Smith happened to say thatbeavers caught fish. The Indian laughed at him, and told him thatbeavers ate flesh of no kind, but lived on the bark of trees, roots, andother growing things. "I asked him, " said Smith, "if the beaver was anamphibious animal, or if it could live under water? He said that thebeaver was a kind of subterraneous water animal, that lives in or nearthe water, but they were no more amphibious than the ducks and geesewere--which was constantly proven to be the case, as all the beaversthat are caught in steel traps are drowned, provided the trap be heavyenough to keep them under water. As the beaver does not eat fish, Iinquired of Tecaughretanego why the beavers made such large dams? Hesaid they were of use to them in various respects, both for their safetyand food. For their safety, as by raising the water over the mouths oftheir holes, or subterraneous lodging places, they could not be easilyfound; and as the beaver feeds chiefly on the barks of trees, by raisingthe water over the banks, they can cut down saplings for bark to feedupon, without going out much upon the land; and when they are obliged togo out upon land for this food they frequently are caught by the wolves. As the beaver can run upon land but little faster than a water tortoise, and is no fighting animal, if they are any distance from the water theybecome an easy prey to their enemies. "

The Indians caught great numbers of beavers by hunting and trapping. Inthe winter time when they found the beavers in their houses, they firstbroke up all the thin ice around about, and then by breaking into thehouses, drove the beavers into the water. Being soon forced to come tothe surface to take the air, the Indians commonly reached in and caughtthem by the hind legs, dragged them out on the ice and tomahawked them. Not only were the furs and skins utilized, but the flesh as well. Smithdescribes the meat as being a "delicious fare. " In the days before thesavages were corrupted by the French and English traders, they possesseda wonderful skill in dressing the skins of the buffalo, the bear and thebeaver. Beaver and raccoon skin blankets were made "pliant, warm anddurable. " Says Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary, "They sew togetheras many of these skins as are necessary, carefully setting the hair orfur all the same way, so that the blanket or covering be smooth, and therain do not penetrate, but run off. "

In the later days, however, the beaver proved to be more of a curse thana blessing. The Indian then wore the European blanket, and bartered hisvaluable furs away for whiskey and brandy. The riotous scenes ofdrunkenness, debauchery and murder became unspeakable. To Detroit theIndians swarmed from the shores of Erie and all the rivers in theinterior. Hunting for weeks and months and enduring privation, sufferingand toil, they came in at last with their women and children to buyrifles, ammunition and clothing. Here mingled the Miami, the Potawatomi, the Ottawa and the Wyandot; a motley gathering of all the tribes. In theend the result was always the same, and always pitiful. The traders camewith the lure of fire water, and when they departed the Indians wereleft drunken and destitute and often with death, disease and wounds intheir midst. 

Smith gives a vivid description of one of their orgies at Detroit asfollows: "At length a trader came to town (the Indian camp) with Frenchbrandy. We purchased a keg of it, and held a council about who was toget drunk, and who was to keep sober. I was invited to get drunk, but Irefused the proposal. Then they told me I must be one of those who wereto take care of the drunken people. I did not like this, but of the twoevils I chose that which I thought was the least, and fell in with thosewho were to conceal the arms, and keep every dangerous weapon we couldout of their way, and endeavor, if possible, to keep the drinking clubfrom killing each other, which was a very hard task. Several times wehazarded our lives, and got ourselves hurt, in preventing them fromslaying each other. Before they had finished the keg, near one-third ofthe town was introduced to this drinking club; they could not pay theirpart, as they had already disposed of all their skins; but they made noodds, all were welcome to drink. "

"When they were done with the keg, they applied to the traders, andprocured a kettle full of brandy at a time, which they divided out witha large wooden spoon--and so they went on and on and never quit whilstthey had a single beaver skin. When the trader had got all our beaver, he moved off to the Ottawa town, about a mile above the Wyandot town. "

"When the brandy was gone, and the drinking club sober, they appearedmuch dejected. Some of them were crippled, others badly wounded. Anumber of the fine new shirts were torn, and several blankets burned. Anumber of squaws were also in this club, and neglected their cornplanting. "

"We could now hear the effects of the brandy in the Ottawa town. Theywere singing and yelling in the most hideous manner, both night and day;but their frolic ended worse than ours; five Ottawas were killed, and agreat many wounded. "

The marshes, lakes, rivers and small streams of northern Ohio andIndiana, and of the whole of Michigan and Wisconsin, abounded with thehomes and habitations of the beavers. Behind them, as a memorial oftheir old days, they have left the names of creeks, towns, townships andeven counties. The beaver lake region of northern Indiana has a Beaver"lake, " a Beaver "township, " a Beaver "creek, " a Beaver "city, " and aBeaverville to its credit. The history of Vigo and Parke counties, Indiana, by Beckwith, Chapter Twenty, at page 208, recites that beaversexisted along all the small lakes and lesser river courses in northernIndiana, They were plentiful in Dekalb, Marshall, Elkhart, Cass. Whiteand Steuben. It is well known that their dams existed in large numbersin Newton and Jasper, and in practically all the Indiana counties northof the Wabash river. 

The above regions, with their wealth of peltries, England meant to holdas long as possible against the American advance, and she succeeded indoing so for twelve long years after the Revolution had closed. 

CHAPTER IV

THE PRAIRIE AND THE BUFFALO

--_The buffalo as the main food supply of the Indians. _

To describe all the wonders in the interior of the northwest would be aserious, if not an impossible task. The Grand Prairie, however, standsalone. It was one of the marvels of creation, resembling the ocean asnothing else did, making men who saw, never forget. 

On Sunday, the third day of November, 1811, General Harrison's army, with scouts in front, and wagons lumbering along between the flanks, crossed the Big Vermilion river, in Vermilion County, Indiana, traversedSand Prairie and the woods to the north of it, and in the afternoon ofthe same day caught their first glimpse of the Grand Prairie, in WarrenCounty, then wet with the cold November rains. That night they camped inRound Grove, near the present town of Sloan, marched eighteen milesacross the prairie the next day, and camped on the east bank of Pinecreek, just north of the old site of Brier's Mills. To the most of them, the sight must have been both novel and grand; if they could have knownthen that the vast undulating plain before them stretched westward inunbroken grandeur, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles to theMississippi river at Quincy; that these vast possessions in a few shortyears would pass from the control of the savage tribes that roamed overthem, and would become the future great granaries of the world, producing enough cereals to feed an empire, what must have been theirthoughts?

The magnitude of this great plain, now teeming with thousands of homesand farms, is seldom realized. Draw a straight line west from old FortVincennes to the Mississippi, and practically all north of it, to theWisconsin line, is the Grand Prairie. "Westward of the Wabash, exceptoccasional tracts of timbered lands in northern Indiana and fringes offorest growth along the intervening water courses, the prairies stretchwestward continuously across Indiana, and the whole of Illinois to theMississippi. Taking the line of the Wabash railway, which crossesIllinois in its greatest breadth, and beginning in Indiana, where therailway leaves the timber, west of the Wabash near Marshfield (in WarrenCounty), the prairie extends to Quincy, a distance of more than twohundred and fifty miles, and its continuity the entire way is onlybroken by four strips of timber along four streams running at rightangles with the route of the railway, namely, the timber on theVermilion river between Danville and the Indiana state line; theSangamon, seventy miles west of Danville, near Decatur; the Sangamonagain a few miles east of Springfield, and the Illinois river atMeredosia, and all the timber at the crossing of these several streams, if put together, would not aggregate fifteen miles, against the twohundred and fifty miles of prairie. Taking a north and south directionand parallel with the drainage of the rivers, one could start nearAshley, on the Illinois Central railway, in Washington county, and goingnorthward, nearly on an air line, keeping on the divide betweenKaskaskia and Little Wabash, the Sangamon and the Vermilion, theIroquois and the Vermilion of the Illinois, crossing the latter streambetween the mouths of the Fox and DuPage, and travel through to thestate of Wisconsin, a distance of nearly three hundred miles, withoutencountering five miles of timber during the whole journey. "

All that portion of Indiana lying north and west of the Wabash, isessentially a part of the Grand Prairie. "Of the twenty-seven countiesin Indiana, lying wholly or partially west and north of the Wabash, twelve are prairie, seven are mixed prairies, barrens and timber, thebarrens and prairie predominating. In five, the barrens, with theprairies, are nearly equal to the timber, while only three of thecounties can be characterized as heavily timbered. And wherever timberdoes occur in these twenty-seven counties, it is found in localitiesfavorable to its protection against the ravages of fire, by theproximity of intervening lakes, marshes or watercourses. " On the Indianaside, the most pronounced of the tracts of prairie occur in westernWarren, Benton, southern and central Newton, southern Jasper, andwestern White and Tippecanoe. Benton was originally covered with a greatpampas of blue-stem, high as a horse's head, interspersed here and therewith swamps of willows and bull grass, while only narrow fringes oftimber along the creeks, and some five or six groves of timber andwoodland, widely scattered, served as land marks to the early traveler. 

Those who early observed and explored the grassy savannas of Indiana andIllinois, always maintained that they were kept denuded of trees andforests by the action of the great prairie fires. Among those who havesupported this theory are the Hon. James Hall, author of "The West, "published in Cincinnati in 1848; the Hon. John Reynolds, former governorof the state of Illinois, and the Hon. John D. Caton, a late judge ofthe Supreme Court of Illinois. Caton's observations on this subject areso interesting and ingenious that we cannot refrain from making thefollowing quotation:

"The cause of the absence of trees on the upland prairies is the problemmost important to the agricultural interests of our state, and it is theinquiry which alone I propose to consider, but cannot resist the remarkthat wherever we do find timber throughout the broad field of prairie, it is always in or near the humid portions of it, as along the marginsof streams, or upon or near the springy uplands. Many most luxuriousgrowths are found in the highest portions of the uplands, but always inthe neighborhood of water. For a remarkable example, I may refer to thegreat chain of groves extending from and including the Au Sable grove onthe east and Holderman's grove on the west, in Kendall county, occupyingthe high divide between the waters of the Illinois and the Fox rivers. In and around all the groves flowing springs abound, and some of themare separated by marshes, to the borders of which the great treesapproach, as if the forests were ready to seize upon each yard of groundas soon as it is elevated above the swamps. Indeed, all our groves seemto be located where the water is so disposed as to protect them, to agreater or less extent, from the prairie fire, although not so situatedas to irrigate them. If the head waters of the streams on the prairiesare most frequently without timber, as soon as they have attainedsufficient volume to impede the progress of fires, with very fewexceptions, we find forests on their borders, becoming broader and morevigorous as the magnitude of the streams increase. It is manifest thatthe lands located on the borders of streams which the fire cannot pass, are only exposed to one-half the fires to which they would be exposed, but for such protection. This tends to show, at least, that if butone-half the fires that have occurred had been kindled, the arboraceousgrowth could have withstood their destructive influences, and the wholesurface of what is now prairie would be forest. Another confirmatoryfact, patent to all observers, is, that the prevailing winds upon theprairies, especially in the autumn, are from the west, and these givedirection to the fires. Consequently, the lands on the westerly sides ofthe streams are the most exposed to the fires, and, as might beexpected, we find much the most timber on the easterly sides of thestreams. "

[Illustration: A Section of the Grand Prairie in Benton County, Indiana, which extends west to Peoria, Illinois. ]

Local observation in Benton County, Indiana, which is purely prairiethroughout, would seem to confirm the judge's view. Parish grove, on theold Chicago road, was filled with springs, and a rather large spring onthe west side of the grove, supplied water for the horses of theemigrants and travelers who took this route to the northwest in theearly 40's. Besides this, the grove was situated on rather high uplands, where the growth of grass would be much shorter than on the adjoiningplain. It is probable that this spring on the west side, and the springynature of the highlands back of it, kept the ground moist and thevegetation green, and these facts, coupled with the fact that the grassas it approached the uplands, would grow shorter, probably retarded andchecked the prairie fires from the southwest, and gave rise to thewonderfully diversified and luxuriant growth of trees that was thewonder of the early settler. Sugar grove, seven miles to the northwestof Parish grove, and a stopping place on the old Chicago road, laymostly within the point or headland caused by the juncture of SugarCreek from the northeast, and Mud Creek from the southeast. Scarcely atree is on the southwestern bank of Mud creek, but where it widens onthe south side of the grove, it protected the growth of the forest onthe northern side. Turkey Foot grove, east and south of Earl Park, formerly had a lake and depression both on the south and west sides ofit. Hickory Grove, just west of Fowler, in the early days, had a lake orpond on the south and west. The timber that skirted the banks of Pinecreek, was heaviest on the eastern side. The headwaters of Sugar, Pineand Mud creeks, being small and narrow, were entirely devoid of trees ontheir banks, but as they flowed on and acquired strength and volume, askirt of forest appeared. 

The Grand Prairie, the home of the ancient Illinois tribe, the Sacs andFoxes, the Kickapoos, and the prairie Potawatomi, was also the home ofthe buffalo, or wild cow of America. No story either of the northwest orits Indian tribes would be complete without mention of the bison. Thinkof the sight that Brigadier General Harmar saw on the early prairies ofIllinois, when marching from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, in November 1787!With him the Miami chief, Pachan (Pecan) and a comrade, killing wildgame for the soldiers; before him stretching the vastness of theprairie, "like the ocean, as far as the eye can see, the view terminatedby the horizon;" here and there the herds of deer and buffalo far in thedistance. 

For centuries before the advent of the white man the buffalo herdsroamed the plain. The savage, with no weapon in his hands, save rudelychipped pieces of stone, was unable to reduce their numbers. With thecoming of firearms and the rifle the buffalo passed rapidly away. 

In the seventeenth and the early part of the eighteenth centuries thebuffalo ranged as far east as western New York and Pennsylvania, and asfar south as Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. Father Marquette, inhis explorations, declared that the prairies along the Illinois riverwere "covered with buffalos. " Father Hennepin, in writing of northernIllinois, between Chicago and the Illinois river, asserted that "Theremust be an innumerable quantity of wild bulls in this country, since theearth is covered with their horns. * * * They follow one another, sothat you may see a drove of them for about a league together. Theirways are beaten, as are our great roads, and no herb grows therein. "

Of the presence of large numbers of buffalo, that resorted to the saltylicks of Kentucky, we have frequent mention by both Humphrey Marshalland Mann Butler, the early historians of that state. In the year 1755, Colonel James Smith mentions the killing of several buffalo by theIndians at a lick in Ohio, somewhere between the Muskingum, the Ohio andthe Scioto. At this lick the Indians made about a half bushel of salt intheir brass kettles. He asserts that about this lick there were clear, open woods, and that there were great roads leading to the same, made bythe buffalo, that appeared like wagon roads. The wild cattle hadevidently been attracted thither by the mineral salts in the water. Inthe early morning of June 13, 1765, George Croghan, an Indian agent sentout by William Johnson, of New York, to report to the English governmentconditions in the west, coming into view of one of the fine largemeadows bordering on the western banks of the Wabash, saw in thedistance herds of buffalo eating the grass, and describes the land asfilled with buffalo, deer and bears in "great plenty. " On the 18th and19th of the same month, he traveled through what he terms as a"prodigious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaw's Hunting Ground, " anddescribes it as well watered and full of buffalo, deer, bears, and allkinds of wild game. He was still in the lower Wabash region. On the 20thand 21st of June he was traveling north along the Wabash in the vicinityof the Vermilion river in Vermilion county, and states that gameexisted plentifully, and that one could kill in a half hour as much aswas needed. He spoke, evidently, of the large variety of game beforementioned. The whole of the prairie of Illinois, filled with an abundantgrowth of the richest grasses, and all the savannas north of the Wabashin Indiana, that really constituted an extension of the Grand Prairie, were particularly suited to the range of the wild herds, and were thelast grounds deserted by them previous to their withdrawal west, andacross the Mississippi. 

The economical value of the herds of buffalo to the Indian tribes of thenorthwest may be gathered from the uses to which they were afterwardsput by the tribes of the western plains. "The body of the buffaloyielded fresh meat, of which thousands of tons were consumed; driedmeat, prepared in summer for winter use; pemmican (also prepared insummer) of meat, fat and berries; tallow, made up into large balls orsacks, and kept in store; marrow, preserved in bladders; and tongues, dried and smoked, and eaten as a delicacy. The skin of the buffaloyielded a robe, dressed with the hair on, for clothing and bedding; ahide, dressed without the hair, which made a tepee cover, when a numberwere sewn together; boats, when sewn together in a green state, over awooden frame work; shields, from the thickest portions, as rawhide;clothing of many kinds; bags for use in traveling; coffins, or windingsheets for the dead, etc. Other portions utilized were sinews, whichfurnished fibre for ropes, thread, bowstrings, snow shoe webs, etc. ;hair, which was sometimes made into belts and ornaments; "buffalochips, " which formed a valuable and highly prized fuel; bones, fromwhich many articles of use and ornament were made; horns, which weremade into spoons, drinking vessels, etc. " The Rev. John Heckewelder, inspeaking of the skill of the Delawares of Ohio, in dressing and curingbuffalo hides, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, says thatthey cured them so that they became quite soft and supple, and so thatthey would last for many years without wearing out. 

All at once, and near the beginning of the last decade of the eighteenthcentury, the buffalo herds east of the Mississippi, suddenlydisappeared. George Wilson, in his history of Dubois County, Indiana, says that, "toward the close of the eighteenth century a very coldwinter, continuing several months, froze all vegetable growth, starvedthe noble animals, and the herds never regained their loss. " Thisstatement is borne out by the testimony of the famous Potawatomichieftain Shaubena, of northern Illinois, who says that the trade inbuffalo robes east of the Mississippi ceased in about the year 1790;that when a youth he joined in the chase of buffalos on the prairies, but while he was still young, they all disappeared from the country. "Abig snow, about five feet deep, fell, and froze so hard on the top thatpeople walked on it, causing the buffalo to perish by starvation. Nextspring a few buffalo, poor and haggard in appearance, were seen goingwestward, and as they approached the carcasses of dead ones, lying hereand there on the prairies, they would stop, commence pawing and lowing, then start off again in a lope for the west. " It is true thatBrigadier-General Josiah Harmar, in marching from Vincennes toKaskaskia, in 1787, gives a striking account of the early prairies, "like the ocean, as far as the eye can see, the view terminated by thehorizon, " and describes the country as excellent for grazing, andabounding with deer and buffalo. Pachan, or Pecan, a famous Miamichieftain from Miamitown, and an Indian comrade, supplied the militaryparty with buffalo and deer meat on the march out, and on the return. Notwithstanding these facts, the story of the terrible winter and thedeep snow as told by Shaubena seems authentic, and while scatteredremnants of the great herds may still have existed for some timeafterward, the great droves stretching "for above a league together, "were seen no more. 

The great snowfall was the culminating tragedy. In order to securewhiskey and brandy the horse tribes of the prairies had slaughteredthousands, and bartered away their robes and hides. What distinguishesthe savage from civilized man is, that the savage takes no heed of themorrow. To satisfy his present passions and appetites he will sacrificeevery hope of the future. He no longer cures the skins and clothes hisnakedness. He thinks no longer of husbanding his supply of meat andgame. He robs the plain, and despoils every stream and river, and thenbecomes a drunken beggar in the frontier towns, crying for alms. Thesame thing that happened on the plains of Illinois at the close ofeighteenth, took place on the plains west of the Mississippi in the lasthalf of the nineteenth century. The giant herds melted away before theremorseless killings of the still hunters and savages, who threw away ameat supply worth millions of dollars in a mad chase for gain andplunder, and no one took a more prominent part in that killing than theIndian himself. 

"When the snow fall was unusually heavy, " says William T. Hornaday, "andlay for a long time on the ground, the buffalos fast for days together, and sometimes even weeks. If a warm day came, and thawed the uppersurface of the snow, sufficiently for succeeding cold to freeze it intoa crust, the outlook for the bison began to be serious. A man can travelover a crust through which the hoofs of a ponderous bison cut likechisels and leave him floundering belly-deep. It was at such times thatthe Indians hunted him on snow-shoes, and drove their spears into hisvitals as he wallowed helplessly in the drifts. Then the wolves grew fatupon the victims which they, also, slaughtered without effort. " This isprobably an accurate description of what took place east of theMississippi river about the year 1790, and left the bones of the herdsto bleach on the prairies. 

However the facts may be, it is certain that at the opening of thenineteenth century the buffalo were practically extinguished in theterritory of the northwest. A few scattered animals may have remainedhere and there upon the prairies, but the old herds, whose progenitorswere seen by Croghan were forever gone. In the month of December, 1799, Judge Jacob Burnet was traveling overland on horseback from Cincinnatito Vincennes on professional business, and while at some point north andwest of the falls of the Ohio, he and his companions surprised a smallherd of eight or ten buffalos, that were seeking shelter behind the topof a fallen beech tree on the line of an old "trace, " during a snowstorm. This is one of the last accounts given of any buffalos inIndiana. On August 18th and August 27th, 1804, Governor William HenryHarrison, as Indian agent for the United States government, bought alarge tract of land in southern Indiana, between the Wabash and the Ohiorivers, from the Delaware and Piankeshaw tribes. The right to make thispurchase was disputed by Captain William Wells, the Indian agent at FortWayne, and by the Little Turtle, claiming to represent the Miamis, andit was claimed among other things, that the lands bought were frequentedas a hunting ground by both the Miamis and Potawatomi, and that theywent there to hunt buffalo. The truth of this statement was denied byGovernor Harrison, who said that not an animal of that kind "had beenseen within that tract for several years. "

Traces of the old buffalo wallows are occasionally met with, even tothis day. The great animals "rolled successively in the same hole, andeach carried away a coat of mud, " which, baking in the sun, served toprotect them against the great swarm of flies, gnats and insects thatinfested the marshes and prairies of that early time. One of thesewallows, in a perfect state of preservation, exists in the northwestquarter of section thirty, in township twenty-five north, range sixwest, in Benton County, Indiana. It is several yards in diameter, hollowed out to a depth of four or five feet, and its periphery isalmost an exact circle. It is situated on a rather high, springyknoll, commanding a view of the surrounding plain for several miles. A great number of Indian arrow heads have been picked up in theimmediate vicinity, showing that the Indiana had previously resortedthither in search of game. 

[Illustration: A typical buffalo wallow on the Donaldson farm inBenton County, Indiana. Photo by Heaton. ]

CHAPTER V

THE WABASH AND THE MAUMEE

--_Chief line of communication with the tribes of the Early Northwest. The heart of the Miami Country. _

To give a detailed description of the many beautiful rivers, valleys andforests of the northwest at the opening of the last century, would bedifficult. It was, as before mentioned, a vast domain, well watered andfertile, and containing some of the best lands in the possession of thefederal government. Two rivers, however, assume such historicalimportance, as to merit a more particular mention. Along their coursestwo Indian confederacies were organized under the spur of Britishinfluence, to oppose the advance of the infant republic of the UnitedStates. These two rivers were the Wabash and the Maumee, both leading tothe principal center of the fur trade of the northwest, the town ofDetroit. 

The valley of the Wabash, famed in song and story, and rich in Indianlegend, is now filled with fields of corn and prosperous cities. At theclose of the Revolution, the great stream swept through an unbrokenwilderness of oak, maple and sycamore from its source to the old Frenchsettlement of Vincennes. Its bluffs, now adorned with the habitations ofa peaceful people, then presented the wild and rugged beauty ofpristine days; its terraces, stretching back to the prairies of thenorth and west, were crowned with forests primaeval; while naked Miamis, Weas and Potawatomi in canoes of bark, rounded its graceful courses tothe waters of the Ohio. 

For one who has ridden over the hills to the west and south of PurdueUniversity, and viewed the gorgeous panorama of the Wea plain, or whohas glimpsed in the perspective the wooded hills of Warren and Vermilionfrom the bluffs on the eastern side of the river, it is not hard tounderstand why the red man loved the Wabash. An observer who saw it inthe early part of the last century pens this picture: "Its green bankswere lined with the richest verdure. Wild flowers intermingled with thetall grass that nodded in the passing breeze. Nature seemed clothed inher bridal robe. Blossoms of the wild plum, hawthorn and red-bud, madethe air redolent. " Speaking of the summer, he says: "The wide, fertilebottom lands of the Wabash, in many places presented one continuousorchard of wild plum and crab-apple bushes, over-spread with arbors ofthe different varieties of the woods grape, wild hops and honeysuckle, fantastically wreathed together. One bush, or cluster of bushes, oftenpresenting the crimson plum, the yellow crab-apple, the blue lusciousgrape, festoons of matured wild hops, mingled with the red berries ofthe clambering sweet-briar, that bound them all lovingly together. "

Through all this wild and luxurious wilderness of vines, grasses andflowers flitted the honey bee, called by the Indians, "the white man'sfly, " storing his golden burden in the hollow trunks of the trees. While on the march from Vincennes, in the last days of September, 1811, Captain Spier Spencer's Yellow Jackets found three bee trees in an hourand spent the evening in cutting them down. They were rewarded by a findof ten gallons of rich honey. 

The great river itself now passed between high precipitous bluffs, crowned with oak, sugar, walnut and hickory, or swept out with longgraceful curves into the lowlands and bottoms, receiving at frequentintervals the waters of clear, sparkling springs and brooks that leapeddown from rocky gorges and hillsides, or being joined by the currents ofsome creek or inlet that in its turn swept back through forest, gladeand glen to sun-lit groves and meadows of blue grass. 

Everywhere the waters of the great stream were clear and pellucid. Theplow-share of civilization had not as yet turned up the earth, nor thefilth and sewerage of cities been discharged into the current. In placesthe gravelly bottom could be seen at a great depth and the forms offishes of great size reposing at ease. "Schools of fishes--salmon, bass, red-horse and pike--swam close along the shore, catching at the bottomsof the red-bud and plum that floated on the surface of the water, whichwas so clear that myriads of the finny tribe could be seen dartinghither and thither amidst the limpid element, turning up their silverysides as they sped out into deeper water. "

The whole valley of the Wabash abounded with deer, and their tiny hoofswrought foot paths through every hollow and glen. The small prairiesbordered with shady groves, the patches of blue-grass, and the sweetwaters of the springs, were great attractions. The banks of theMississinewa, Wild Cat, Pine Creek, Vermilion, and other tributaries, were formerly noted hunting grounds. George Croghan, who described theWabash as running through "one of the finest countries in the world, "mentions the deer as existing in great numbers. On the march of GeneralHarrison's men to Tippecanoe, the killing of deer was an every dayoccurrence, and at times the frightened animals passed directly in frontof the line of march. Raccoons were also very plentiful. On a furtrading expedition conducted by a French trader named La Fountaine, fromthe old Miamitown (Fort Wayne), in the winter of 1789-90, he succeededin picking up about eighty deer skins and about five hundred raccoonskins in less than thirty days. He descended the Wabash and "turned intothe woods" toward the White River, there bartering with the Indians fortheir peltries. 

As to wild game, the whole valley was abundantly supplied. In the springtime, great numbers of wild ducks, geese and brant were found in all theponds and marshes; in the woody ground the wild turkey, the pheasant andthe quail. At times, the sun was actually darkened by the flight of wildpigeons, while the prairie chicken was found in all the open tracts andgrass lands. 

The bottom lands of this river, were noted for their fertility. Theannual inundations always left a rich deposit of silt. This siltproduced excellent maize, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbersand melons. These, according to Heckewelder, were important items ofthe Indian food supply. 

To the Indian we are indebted for ash-cake, hoecake, succotash, samp, hominy and many other productions made from the Indian maize. The Miamisof the Wabash, with a favorable climate and a superior soil, produced afamous corn with a finer skin and "a meal much whiter" than that raisedby other tribes. How far the cultivation of this cereal had progressedis not now fully appreciated. In the expedition of General JamesWilkinson against the Wabash Indians in 1791, he is said to havedestroyed over two hundred acres of corn in the milk at Kenapacomaqua, or the Eel river towns, alone, and to have cut down a total of fourhundred and thirty acres of corn in the whole campaign. In GeneralHarmar's campaign against Miamitown in the year 1790, nearly twentythousand bushels of corn in the ear were destroyed. On the next dayafter the battle of Tippecanoe the dragoons of Harrison's army set fireto the Prophets Town, and burned it to the ground. Judge Isaac Naylorsays that they found there large quantities of corn, beans and peas, andGeneral John Tipton relates that the commissary loaded six wagons withcorn and "Burnt what was estimated at two thousand bushel. "

Of the many other natural advantages of this great valley, much might bewritten. Wheat and tobacco, the latter of a fine grade, were growing atVincennes in 1765, when Croghan passed through there. Wild hemp wasabundant in the lowlands. The delicious pecan flourished, and walnuts, hazelnuts and hickory nuts were found in great plenty. The sugar mapleexisted everywhere, and the Indians, who were the original sugar makersof the world, made large quantities of this toothsome article. Inaddition to this the whole valley was filled with wild fruits andberries, such as blackberries, dewberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and the luscious wild strawberry, that grew everywhere in the openspaces and far out on the bordering prairies. 

This sketch of the Wabash and its wonderful possibilities may not bemore aptly closed, than by appending hereto the description of ThomasHutchins, the first geographer of the United States. It appears in his"Topographical Description, " and mention is made of the connection ofthe Wabash by a portage with the waters of Lake Erie; the value of thefur trade at Ouiatenon and Vincennes, and many other points of vitalinterest. 

[Illustration: The Wabash River at Merom Bluff, Sullivan County, Indiana, La Motte Prairie beyond. ]

"Ouiatenon (Author's note: Just below Lafayette), is a small stockadedfort on the western side of the Wabash, in which about a dozen familiesreside. The neighboring Indians are the Kickapoos, Musquitons, Pyankeshaws, and a principal part of the Ouiatenons. The whole of thesetribes consists, it is supposed, of about one thousand warriors. Thefertility of soil, and the diversity of timber in this country, are thesame as in the vicinity of Post Vincent. The annual amount of skins andfurs obtained at Ouiatenon is about 8, 000 pounds. By the river Wabash, the inhabitants of Detroit move to the southern parts of Ohio, and theIllinois country. Their route is by the Miami river (Maumee) to acarrying place (Author's note: Miamitown or Fort Wayne), which, asbefore stated, is nine miles to the Wabash, when this river is raisedwith freshies; but at other seasons, the distance is from eighteen tothirty miles, including the portage. The whole of the latter is througha level country. Carts are usually employed in transporting boats andmerchandise, from the Miami to the Wabash river. "

No less wonderful was the valley of the Maumee, directly on the greattrade route between the Wabash and the post of Detroit. Croghan, who wasa good judge of land, and made careful observations, found the Ottawasand Wyandots here in 1765, the land of great richness, and game veryplentiful. It was a region greatly beloved by the Indian tribes, and thescene after the revolution, of many grand councils of the northwesternconfederacy. In a letter of General Anthony Wayne, written in 1794, heasserts that: "The margins of these beautiful rivers, the Miamis of theLake (Maumee), and the Au Glaize (A southern tributary), appear like onecontinued village for a number of miles, both above and below thisplace, Grand Glaize, nor have I ever before beheld such immense fieldsof corn in any part of America, from Canada to Florida. "

After General Wayne's army had defeated the Indians at the battle ofFallen Timbers on this river in 1794, they spent many days after thatconflict in destroying the fields of grain. One who marched with thearmy, in August of the above year, describes Indian corn fieldsextending for four or five miles along the Au Glaize, and estimatedthat there were one thousand acres of growing corn. The whole valley ofthe Maumee from its mouth to Fort Wayne, is described as being full ofimmense corn fields, large vegetable patches, and old apple trees, andit is related that Wayne's army, while constructing Fort Defiance for aperiod of eight days, "obtained their bread and vegetables from the cornfields and potato patches surrounding the fort. "

Is it any wonder that along these wonderful basins should be located theseats of power of the Miami Indians, the leaders of the westernconfederacy that opposed the claims of the United States to the landsnorth of the Ohio; that from the close of the Revolutionary war untilWayne's victory in 1794, the principal contest was over the possessionof the Miami village, now Fort Wayne, which controlled the trade in boththe Wabash and the Maumee Valleys, and that President George Washington, consummate strategist that he was, foresaw at once in 1789, the firstyear of his presidency, that the possession of the great carrying placeat Miamitown would probably command the whole northwest and put an endto the Indian wars?

CHAPTER VI

THE TRIBES OF THE NORTHWEST

--_A description of the seven tribes of savages who opposed the advanceof settlement in the Northwest. Their location. Kekionga, the seat ofMiami power. _

We have now to consider those Indian tribes and confederacies, which atthe close of the Revolutionary war, inhabited the northwest territory. 

Chief among them were the Wyandots, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas and Potawatomi. These were the seven tribes known inafter years as the "western confederacy, " who fought so long andbitterly against the government of the United States, and who were atlast conquered by the arms and genius of General Anthony Wayne in theyear 1794. 

The Ottawas, Chippewas and Potawatomi formed a sort of loose confederacyknown as the Three Fires, and Massas, a Chippewa chief, so referred tothem at the Treaty of Greenville. 

The Miamis, the most powerful of the confederates, were subdivided intothe Eel Rivers, the Weas, and the Piankeshaws. The Kickapoos, a smalltribe which lived on the Sangamon, and the Vermilion of the Wabash, wereassociated generally with the Potawatomi, and were always the allies ofthe English. The Winnebagoes of Wisconsin were of the linguistic familyof the Sioux; were generally associated with the confederates againstthe Americans, and many of their distinguished warriors fought againstGeneral Harrison at Tippecanoe. The decadent tribes known in early timesas the Illinois, did not play a conspicuous part in the history of thenorthwest. 

While the limits of the various tribes may not be fixed with precision, and the boundary lines were often confused, still there were wellrecognized portions of the northwest that were under the exclusivecontrol of certain nations, and these nations were extremely jealous oftheir rights, as shown by the anger and resentment of the Miamis at whatthey termed as the encroachment of the Potawatomi at the Treaty of FortWayne, in 1809. 

The Wyandots, for instance, were the incontestable owners of the countrybetween the Cuyahoga and the Au Glaize, in the present state of Ohio, their dominion extending as far south as the divide between the watersof the Sandusky river and the Scioto, and embracing the southern shoreof Lake Erie from Maumee Bay, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Largenumbers of them were also along the northern shores of Lake Erie, inCanada. Their territory at one time probably extended much farther southtoward the Ohio, touching the lands of the Miamis on the west, butcertainly embracing parts of the Muskingum country, to which they hadinvited the ancient Delawares, respectfully addressed by them as"grandfathers. " Intermingled with the Wyandots south and west of LakeErie were scattered bands of Ottawas, but they were tenants of the soilby sufferance, and not as of right. 

The Miamis have been described by General William Henry Harrison as themost extensive landowners in the northwest. He stands on record assaying that: "Their territory embraced all of Ohio, west of the Scioto;all of Indiana, and that part of Illinois, south of the Fox river andWisconsin, on which frontier they were intermingled with the Kickapoosand some other small tribes. " Harrison may have been right as to theancient and original bounds of this tribe, but Little Turtle, their mostfamous chieftain, said at the Treaty of Greenville, in 1795: "It is wellknown by all my brothers present, that my fore-father kindled the firstfire at Detroit; from thence, he extended his lines to the head-water ofScioto; from thence, to its mouth; from thence, down the Ohio, to themouth of the Wabash, and from thence to Chicago, on Lake Michigan. " Thetruth is, that the ancient demesne of the Miamis was much curtailed bythe irruption of three tribes from the north in about the year 1765, theSacs and Foxes, the Kickapoos and the Potawatomi, who conquered the oldremnants of the Illinois tribes in the buffalo prairies and divided thecountry among themselves. 

Says Hiram Beckwith, in speaking of the Potawatomi: "Always on friendlyterms with the Kickapoos, with whom they lived in mixed villages, theyjoined the latter and the Sacs and Foxes in the exterminating war uponthe Illinois tribes, and afterwards obtained their allotment of thedespoiled domain. " The Potawatomi advancing by sheer force of numbers, rather than by conquest, finally appropriated a large part of the landsin the present state of Indiana, north of the Wabash, commingling withthe Kickapoos at the south and west, and advancing their camps as fardown as Pine creek. The Miamis were loud in their remonstrances againstthis trespassing, and denounced the Potawatomi as squatters, "neverhaving had any lands of their own, and being mere intruders upon theprior estate of others, " but the Potawatomi were not dispossessed andwere afterwards parties to all treaties with the United Statesgovernment for the sale and disposal of said lands. The Miamis also losta part of their lands on the lower west side of the Wabash to theKickapoos. Pressing eastward from the neighborhood of Peoria, theKickapoos established themselves on the Vermilion, where they had avillage on both sides of that river at its confluence with the mainstream. They were, says Beckwith, "Greatly attached to the Vermilion andits tributaries, and Governor Harrison found it a difficult task toreconcile them to ceding it away. "

To the last, however, the Miamis remained the undisputed lords andmasters of most of the territory watered by the two Miamis of the Ohio, and by the Wabash and its tributaries down to the Ohio. The great headand center of their power was at Kekionga (now Fort Wayne), alwaysreferred to by President Washington as "the Miami Village. " It was apleasant situation in the heart of the great northwest, at the junctionwhere the swift flowing St. Joseph and the more gentle stream of theSaint Marys, formed the headwaters of the Maumee. On the eastern sideof the St. Joseph was the town of Pecan, a head chief of the Miami, andthe same savage who had supplied deer and buffalo meat for BrigadierGeneral Harmar on his mission to Kaskaskia in 1787. Pecan was an uncleof the famous chief, Peshewah, or Jean Baptiste Richardville, who afterthe death of Little Turtle in 1812, became the head chief of the Miamitribe, and was reputed to be the richest Indian in North America. Thesouthern end of this town was near the point of juncture of the St. Marys and St. Joseph, and the village extended north along what is nowknown as Lakeside, in the present city of Fort Wayne, a pleasant driverevealing at times the rippling waters of the river to the west. To thesouth of this village lay the Indian gardens, and east of the gardensthe extensive corn fields and meadows. On the northern side of the townmore corn fields were found, and north and west of it extended theforests. The banks of the Maumee just below the junction, and south ofthis old village, are quite high and steep, and along the northern sidenow runs the beautiful avenue known as Edgewater. Traveling downEdgewater to the eastward one comes to a great boulder with a brasstablet on it. You are at Harmar's Ford, and at the exact point where theregulars crossed the river just after sunrise of October 22nd, 1790, toattack the Indians. Here it was that Major John Wyllys fell leading thecharge. Along the southern bank of the Maumee the ground is elevated andcrowning these elevations were the forests again. It was through theseforests that Hardin's forces approached the fatal battlefield. 

On the western bank of the St. Joseph was a mixed village of French andIndians known as LeGris' Town, and it in turn was surrounded by morecorn fields. LeGris was also an important chief of the Miamis, and namedin Henry Hay's journal as a brother-in-law of the Little Turtle. Hesigned the treaty of Greenville under the Indian name ofNa-goh-quan-gogh. Directly south of this village ran the St. Marys, andto the west of it was a small wooded creek known as Spy Run. 

To these villages in August, 1765, came George Croghan on his way toDetroit. He describes the carrying-place between the Wabash and theMaumee systems to be about nine miles in length, "but not above halfthat length in freshes. " He reported navigation for bateaux and canoesbetween the carrying place and Ouiatenon as very difficult during thedry season of the year on account of many rapids and rifts; but duringthe high-water time the journey could be easily made in three days. Hesays the distance by water was two hundred forty miles and by land abouttwo hundred ten. Within a mile of Miamitown he was met by a delegationof the Miami chiefs and immediately after his entrance into the villagethe British flag was raised. He describes the villages as consisting ofabout forty or fifty cabins, besides nine or ten French houses. Heentertained no very high opinion of the French and describes them asrefugees from Detroit, spiriting up the Indians against the English. Hedescribes the surrounding country as pleasant, well watered, and havinga rich soil. 

Recently another account of these villages has been given to the worldby the publication of the diary of one Henry Hay, who, as arepresentative of certain merchants and traders of Detroit, visitedthese villages in the winter of 1789-1790, while they were still underthe influence of the British agents at Detroit, although the soil waswithin the jurisdiction of the United States government. It was then oneof the most important trading places for the Indian tribes in thenorthwest, and in close proximity to the great council grounds of thenorthwestern Indian confederacy in the valley of the Maumee. Le Gris, was there, and Jean Baptiste Richardville, then a youth; also the LittleTurtle himself, about to become the most famous and wily strategist ofhis day and time. 

Let there be no mistaken glamour cast about this scene. Already thedisintegration of the Indian power was setting in. The traders amongthem, both English and French, seem to have been a depraved, drunkencrew, trying to get all they could "by foul play or otherwise, " andtraducing each other's goods by the circulation of evil reports. Haysays, "I cannot term it in a better manner than calling it a rascallyscrambling trade. " Winter came on and the leading chiefs and theirfollowers went into the woods to kill game. They had nothing in reserveto live upon, and in a hard season their women and children would havesuffered. The French residents here seem to have been a gay, rollickingset, playing flutes and fiddles, dancing and playing cards, andgenerally going home drunk from every social gathering. The few Englishamong them were no better, and we have the edifying spectacle of onegiving away his daughter to another over a bottle of rum. The mightiestchieftains, including Le Gris, did not scruple to beg for whiskey, andparties of warriors were arriving from the Ohio river and Kentucky, withthe scalps of white men dangling at their belts. 

There was still a considerable activity at this place, however, in thefur trade, and the English thought it well worth holding. Raccoon, deer, bear, beaver, and otter skins were being brought in, although the seasonwas not favorable during which Hay sojourned there on account of itbeing an open winter. Constant communication was kept up with Detroit onthe one hand and the Petit Piconne (Tippecanoe) and Ouiatenon on theother. La Fountaine, Antoine LaSalle, and other famous French traders ofthat day were doing a thriving business in the lower Indian country. 

That these Miami villages were also of great strategical value from themilitary standpoint, and that this fact was well known to PresidentWashington, has already been mentioned. The French early establishedthemselves there, and later the English, and when the Americans afterthe Revolution took dominion over the northwest and found it necessaryto conquer the tribes of the Wabash and their allies, one of the firstmoves of the United States government was to attack the villages at thisplace, break up the line of their communication with the British atDetroit, and overawe the Miamis by the establishment of a strongmilitary post. 

To the last, the Miamis clung to their old carrying place. Wayneinsisted at the peace with the Miamis and their allies, at Greenville, Ohio, in 1795, that a tract six miles square around the newlyestablished post at Fort Wayne should be ceded to the United States, together with "one piece two miles square on the Wabash river, at theend of the portage from the Miami of the Lake (Maumee), and about eightmiles westward from Fort Wayne. " This proposal was stoutly resisted bythe Little Turtle, who among other things said: "The next place youpointed to, was the Little River, and you said you wanted two milessquare at that place. This is a request that our fathers, the French orBritish, never made of us; it was always ours. This carrying place hasheretofore proved, in a great degree, the subsistence of your youngerbrothers. That place has brought to us in the course of one day, theamount of one hundred dollars. Let us both own this place and enjoy incommon the advantage it affords. " Despite this argument, however, Wayneprevailed, and the control of Kekionga and the portage passed to theFederal government; that ancient Kekionga described by Little Turtle as"the Miami village, that glorious gate, which your younger brothers hadthe happiness to own, and through which all the good words of our chiefshad to pass from the north to the south, and from the east to the west. "

Returning to the Potawatomi, it will be seen that this tribe, whichoriginally came from the neighborhood of Green Bay, was probably fromabout the middle of the eighteenth century, in possession of most of thecountry from the Milwaukee river in Wisconsin, around the south shore ofLake Michigan, to Grand River, "extending southward over a large partof northern Illinois, east across Michigan to Lake Erie, and south inIndiana to the Wabash. " The Sun, or Keesass, a Potawatomi of the Wabash, said at the treaty of Greenville, that his tribe was composed of threedivisions; that of the river Huron, in Michigan, that of the St. Josephof Lake Michigan, and the bands of the Wabash. In the year 1765, GeorgeCroghan, Indian agent of the British government, found the Potawatomi invillages on the north side of the Wabash at Ouiatenon, with a Kickapoovillage in close proximity, while the Weas had a village on the southside of the river. This would indicate that the Potawatomi had alreadypushed the Miami tribe south of the Wabash at this place and had takenpossession of the country. 

Far away to the north and on both shores of Lake Superior, dwelt theChippewas or Ojibways, famed for their physical strength and prowess andliving in their conical wigwams, with poles stuck in the ground in acircle and covered over with birch bark and grass mats. The JesuitFathers early found them in possession of the Sault Ste. Marie, and whenGeneral Wayne at the treaty of Greenville, reserved the post ofMichillimacinac, and certain lands on the main between Lake Michigan andLake Huron, Mash-i-pinash-i-wish, one of the principal Chippewachieftains, voluntarily made the United States a present of the IslandDe Bois Blanc, at the eastern entrance of the straits of Mackinac, fortheir use and accommodation, and was highly complimented by the generalfor his generous gift. A reference to the maps of Thomas G. Bradford, of1838, shows the whole upper peninsular of Michigan in the possession ofthe Chippewas, as well as the whole southern and western shores of LakeSuperior, and a large portion of northern Wisconsin. One of theirprincipal sources of food supply was wild rice, and the presence of thiscereal, together with the plentiful supply of fish, probably accountsfor their numbers and strength. In the beginning of the eighteenthcentury, they expelled the Foxes from northern Wisconsin, and laterdrove the fierce fighting Sioux beyond the Mississippi. They were theundisputed masters of a very extensive domain and held it with a strongand powerful hand. One of their chiefs proudly said to Wayne: "Yourbrothers' present, of the three fires, are gratified in seeing andhearing you; those who are at home will not experience that pleasure, until you come and live among us; you will then learn our title to thatland. " Though far removed from the theatre of the wars of the northwest, they, together with the Ottawas, early came under the British influence, and resisted the efforts of the United States to subdue the Miamis andtheir confederate tribes, fighting with the allies against GeneralHarmar at the Miami towns, against St. Clair on the headwaters of theWabash and against Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers on the 20th ofAugust, 1794. 

The rudest of all the tribes of the northwest were the Ottawas, thoseexpert canoemen of the Great Lakes, known to the French as the"traders, " because they carried on a large trade and commerce betweenthe other tribes. They seem to have had their original home on MantoulinIsland, in Lake Huron, and on the north and south shores of theGeorgian Bay. Driven by terror of the Iroquois to the region west ofLake Michigan, they later returned to the vicinity of L'Arbe Croche, near the lower end of Lake Michigan, and from thence spread out in alldirections. Consulting Bradford's map of 1838 again, the Ottawas arefound in the whole northern end of the lower Michigan peninsula. Ottawacounty, at the mouth of Grand river, would seem to indicate that at onetime, their towns must have existed in that vicinity, and in fact theirpossessions are said to have extended as far down the eastern shore ofLake Michigan as the St. Joseph. To the south and east of these points"their villages alternated with those of their old allies, the Hurons, now called Wyandots, along the shore of Lake Erie from Detroit to thevicinity of Beaver creek, in Pennsylvania. " They were parties with theWyandots and Delawares and other tribes to the treaty of Fort Harmar, Ohio, at the mouth of Muskingum, in 1789, whereby the Wyandots cededlarge tracts of land in the southern part of that state to the UnitedStates government, and were granted in turn the possession and occupancyof certain lands to the south of Lake Erie. The Ottawa title to any landin southern Ohio, however, is exceedingly doubtful, and they wereprobably admitted as parties to the above treaty in deference to theiracknowledged overlords, the Wyandots. Their long intercourse with thelatter tribe, in the present state of Ohio, who were probably the mostchivalrous, brave and intelligent of all the tribes, seems to havesoftened their manners and rendered them less ferocious than formerly. Like the Chippewas, their warriors were of fine physical mould, andColonel William Stanley Hatch, an early historian of Ohio, in writing ofthe Shawnees, embraces the following reference to the Ottawas: "As Iknew them, (i. E. , the Shawnees), they were truly noble specimens oftheir race, universally of fine athletic forms, and light complexioned, none more so, and none appeared their equal, unless it was their tribalrelatives, the Ottawas, who adjoined them. The warriors of these tribeswere the finest looking Indians I ever saw, and were truly noblespecimens of the human family. " The leading warriors and chieftains oftheir tribe, however, were great lovers of strong liquor, and Pontiac, the greatest of all the Ottawas, was assassinated shortly after adrunken carousal, and while he was singing the grand medicine songs ofhis race. 

But the wandering Ishmaelites of all the northwest tribes were theShawnees. Cruel, crafty and treacherous, and allied always with theEnglish, they took a leading part in all the ravages and depredations onthe frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia during the revolution and ledexpedition after expedition against the infant settlements of Kentucky, from the period of the first pioneers in 1775, until Wayne's victory in1794. These were the Indians who kept Boone in captivity, made SimonKenton run the gauntlet, stole thousands of horses in Kentucky, and whofor years attacked the flatboats and keel boats that floated down theOhio, torturing their captives by burning at the stake. 

General William Henry Harrison, in speaking of the migrations of thistribe, says: "No fact, in relation to the Indian tribes, who haveresided on the northwest frontier for a century past, is better known, than that the Shawnees came from Florida and Georgia about the middle ofthe eighteenth century. They passed through Kentucky (along theCumberland river) on their way to the Ohio. But that their passage wasrather a rapid one, is proved by these circumstances. Black Hoof, theirlate principal chief (With whom I had been acquainted since the treatyof Greenville), was born in Florida, before the removal of his tribe. Hedied at Wapocconata, in this state, only three or four years ago. As Ido not know his age, at the time of his leaving Florida, nor at hisdeath, I am not able to fix with precision the date of emigration. Butit is well known that they were at the town which still bears their nameon the Ohio (Shawneetown, Ill. ), a few miles below the mouth of theWabash, some time before the commencement of the Revolutionary war; thatthey remained there some years before they removed to the Scioto, wherethey were found by Governor Dunmore, in the year 1774. That theirremoval from Florida was a matter of necessity, and their progress fromthence, a flight, rather than a deliberate march, is evident from theirappearance, when they presented themselves upon the Ohio, and claimedthe protection of the Miamis. They are represented by the chiefs of thelatter, as well as those of the Delawares, as supplicants forprotection, not against the Iroquois, but against the Creeks andSeminoles, or some other southern tribes, who had driven them fromFlorida, and they are said to have been literally sans provat et sansculottes. "

[Illustration: Location of the Indian Tribes of the Northwest. Drawingby Frank Morris]

Later writers have mentioned that while they originally dwelt in thesouth, that one division of the tribe lived in South Carolina, whileanother and more numerous division lived along the Cumberland river, andhad a large village near the present site of Nashville. The Cumberlandriver was known on the early maps preceding the Revolution as theShawnee river, while the Tennessee was called the Cherokee river. ThisCumberland division is said to have become engaged in war with both theCherokees and Chickasaws, and to have fled to the north to receive theprotection of the powerful nations of the Wabash. 

Notwithstanding the magnanimous conduct of the Miamis, however, they, together with the Wyandots of Ohio, always regarded the Shawnees withsuspicion and as trouble makers. The great chief of the Miamis toldAntoine Gamelin at Kekionga, in April, 1790, when Gamelin was sent bythe government to pacify the Wabash Indians, that the Miamis hadincurred a bad name on account of mischief done along the Ohio, but thatthis was the work of the Shawnees, who, he said, had "a bad heart, " andwere the "perturbators of all the nations. " To the articles of thetreaty at Fort Harmar, in 1789, the following is appended: "That theWyandots have laid claim to the lands that were granted to the Shawnees, (these lands were along the Miami, in Ohio), at the treaty held at theMiami, and have declared, that as the Shawnees have been so restless, and caused so much trouble, both to them and to the United States, ifthey will not now be at peace, they will dispossess them, and take thecountry into their own hands; for that country is theirs of right, andthe Shawnees are only living upon it by their permission. "

From the recital of the above facts, it is evident that the Shawneescould never justly claim the ownership of any of the lands north of theOhio. That, far from being the rightful sovereigns of the soil, theycame to the valleys of the Miamis and Wyandots as refugees from adevastating war, and as supplicants for mercy and protection. This isrecognized by the Quaker, Henry Harvey, who was partial to them, and formany years dwelt among them as a missionary. Harvey says that from theaccounts of the various treaties to which they were parties, "they hadbeen disinherited altogether, as far as related to the ownership of landanywhere. " Yet from the lips of the most famous of all the Shawnees, came the false but specious reasoning that none of the tribes of thenorthwest, not even the Miamis who had received and sheltered them, hada right to alienate any of their lands without the common consent ofall. "That no single tribe had the right to sell; that the power to sellwas not vested in their chiefs, but must be the act of the warriors incouncil assembled of all the tribes, as the land belonged to all--noportion of it to any single tribe. " This doctrine of communisticownership was advocated by Tecumseh in the face of all the conquests ofthe Iroquois, in the face of the claim of the Wyandots to much of thedomain of the present state of Ohio, and in the face of all of LittleTurtle's claims to the Maumee and the Wabash valleys, founded on longand undisputed occupancy and possession. It never had any authority, either in fact or in history, and moreover, lacked the great and savinggrace of originality. For if any Indian was the author of the doctrinethat no single tribe of Indians had the power to alienate their soil, without the consent of all the other tribes, the first Indian to clearlystate that proposition was Joseph Brant of the Mohawk nation, and Brantwas clearly inspired by the British, at the hands of whom he was apensioner. 

The savage warriors of the northwest were not formidable in numbers, butthey were terrible in their ferocity, their knowledge of woodcraft, andtheir cunning strategy. General Harrison says that for a decade prior tothe treaty of Greenville, the allied tribes could not at any time havebrought into the field over three thousand warriors. This statement iscorroborated by Colonel James Smith, who had an intimate knowledge ofthe Wyandots and other tribes, and who says: "I am of the opinion thatfrom Braddock's war, until the present time (1799), there never was morethan three thousand Indians at any time, in arms against us, west ofFort Pitt, and frequently not half that number. "

Constant warfare with the colonies and the Kentucky and Virginia huntingshirt men had greatly reduced their numbers, but above all the terribleravages of smallpox, the insidious effects flowing from the use ofintoxicants, and the spread of venereal disorders among them, whichlatter diseases they had no means of combating, had carried awaythousands and reduced the ranks of their valiant armies. 

Woe to the general, however, who lightly estimated their fightingqualities, or thought that these "rude and undisciplined" savages, asthey were sometimes called, could be met and overpowered by the tacticsof the armies of Europe or America! They were, says Harrison, "a body ofthe finest light troops in the world, " and this opinion is corroboratedby Theodore Roosevelt, who had some first hand knowledge of Indianfighters. The Wyandots and Miamis, especially, as well as other westernbands, taught the males of their tribes the arts of war from theirearliest youth. When old enough to bear arms, they were disciplined toact in concert, to obey punctually all commands of their war chiefs, andcheerfully unite to put them into immediate execution. Each warrior wastaught to observe carefully the motion of his right hand companion, soas to communicate any sudden movement or command from the right to theleft, Thus advancing in perfect accord, they could march stealthily andabreast through the thick woods and underbrush, in scattered order, without losing the conformation of their ranks or creating disorder. These maneuvers could be executed slowly or as fast as the warriorscould run. They were also disciplined to form a circle, a semi-circle ora hollow square. They used the circle to surround their enemies, thesemi-circle if the enemy had a stream on one side or in the rear, andthe hollow square in case of sudden attack, when they were in danger ofbeing surrounded. By forming a square and taking to trees, they puttheir faces to the enemy in every direction and lessened the danger ofbeing shot from behind objects on either side. 

The principal sachem of the village was seldom the war chief in chargeof an expedition. War chiefs were selected with an eye solely to theirskill and ability; to entrust the care and direction of an army to aninexperienced leader was unheard of. One man, however, was never trustedwith the absolute command of an army. A general council of the principalofficers was held, and a plan concerted for an attack. Such a councilwas held before the battle of Fallen Timbers, in which Blue Jacket, ofthe Shawnees, Little Turtle of the Miamis, and other celebrated leadersparticipated. The plan thus concerted in the council was scrupulouslycarried out. It was the duty of the war chief to animate his warriors byspeeches and orations before the battle. During the battle he directedtheir movements by pre-arranged signals or a shout or yell, and thusordered the advance or retreat. The warriors who crept through the longgrass of the swamp lands at Tippecanoe to attack the army of Harrison, were directed by the rattling of dried deer hoofs. 

It was a part of the tactics practiced by the war chiefs to inflict thegreatest possible damage upon the enemy, with the loss of as few oftheir own men as possible. They were never to bring on an attack withoutsome considerable advantage, "or without what appeared to them the sureprospect of victory, " If, after commencing an engagement, it becameapparent that they could not win the conflict without a great sacrificeof men, they generally abandoned it, and waited for a more favorableopportunity. This was not the result of cowardice, for Harrison saysthat their bravery and valor were unquestioned. It may have beenlargely the result of a savage superstition not to force the decrees ofFate. Says Harrison: "It may be fairly considered as having its sourcein that particular temperament of mind, which they often manifested, ofnot pressing fortune under any sinister circumstances, but patientlywaiting until the chances of a successful issue appeared to befavorable. " When the Great Spirit was not angry, he would again favorhis children. One tribe among the warriors of the Northwest, however, were taught from their earliest youth never to retreat; to regard"submission to an enemy as the lowest degradation, " and to "consideranything that had the appearance of an acknowledgment of the superiorityof an enemy as disgraceful. " These were the Wyandots, the acknowledgedsuperiors in the northwestern confederacy. "In the battle of the MiamiRapids of thirteen chiefs of that tribe, who were present, only onesurvived, and he badly wounded. "

The well known policy of the savages to ambush or outflank their enemieswas well known to Washington. He warned St. Clair of this terribledanger in the Indian country, but his advice went unheeded. Apre-concerted attack might occur on the front ranks of an advancingcolumn, and almost immediately spread to the flanks. This occurred atBraddock's defeat. The glittering army of redcoats, so much admired byWashington, with drums beating and flags flying, forded the Monongahelaand ascended the banks of the river between two hidden ravines. Suddenlythey were greeted by a terrible fire on the front ranks, which almostimmediately spread to the right flank, and then followed a horriblemassacre of huddled troops, who fired volleys of musketry at aninvisible foe, and then miserably perished. When St. Clair started hisill-fated march upon the Miami towns in 1791, his movements wereobserved every instant of time by the silent scouts and runners of theMiamis. Camping on the banks of the upper Wabash, and foolishly postinghis militia far in the front, he suddenly saw them driven back inconfusion upon his regulars, his lines broken by attacks on both flanks, and his artillery silenced to the last gun. The attack was so wellplanned, so sudden and so furious, that nothing remained but precipitateand disastrous retreat. Out of an army consisting of fourteen hundredmen and eighty-six officers, eight hundred and ninety men and sixteenofficers were killed and wounded. St. Clair believed that he had been"overpowered by numbers, " and so reported to the government. "It wasalleged by the officers, " says Judge Burnet, "that the Indians faroutnumbered the American troops. That conclusion was drawn, in part, from the fact that they outflanked and attacked the American lines withgreat force, and at the same time on every side. " The truth is, that St. Clair was completely outwitted by the admirable cunning and strategy ofLittle Turtle, the Miami, who concerted the plan of attack, and directedits operation. Nor is it at all likely that the Indians had a superiorforce. They often attacked superior numbers, if they enjoyed the betterfighting position, or could take advantage of an ambush or surprise. Avery respectable authority, who has the endorsement of historians, says: "There was an army of Indians composed of Miamis, Potawatomis, Ottowas, Chippewas, Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, and a few Mingoes andCherokees, amounting in all to eleven hundred and thirty-three, thatattacked and defeated General St. Clair on the 4th of November, 1791. Each nation was commanded by their own chiefs, all of whom were governedby the Little Turtle, who made the arrangements for the action, andcommenced the attack with the Miamis, who were under his immediatecommand. The Indians had thirty killed and died with their wounds theday of the action and fifty wounded. "

Of such formidable mould, were the redmen of the northwest, who wentinto battle stripped to the skin, and with bodies painted with horriblestripes of vermilion. So disastrous had been the result of theirvictories over the armies of Harmar and St. Clair, and so illy equippedwith men, money and supplies was the infant government of the UnitedStates, that immediately prior to the campaign of General Anthony Wayne, a military conference was held between President Washington, GeneralKnox, Secretary of War, and General Wayne, to devise a system ofmilitary tactics that should thereafter control in the conduct of allwars against the Indians of the northwest. 

The development of this system of tactics has been outlined by GeneralWilliam Henry Harrison, who was an aide to Wayne, in a personal letterto Mann Butler, one of the historians of Kentucky. 

It was determined that in all future contests with the tribes, that thetroops employed should, when in the Indian country, be marched in suchmanner as that the order of march could be immediately converted, bysimple evolution, into an order of battle. In other words, that thetroops while actually in the line of march, could be almost instantlyformed in lines of battle. This was to prevent any sudden or unexpectedattack, and this was always liable to occur in the thickly woodedcountry. The troops were also taught to march in open formation, eachfile to be more than an arm's length from those on the right and left. The old European system of fighting men shoulder to shoulder wasentirely impracticable in a wilderness of woods, for it invited toogreat a slaughter, interfered with the movement of the troops, andshortened the lines. The great object of the Indian tactics was alwaysto flank their enemy, therefore an extension of the lines was highlydesirable when entering into action. "In fighting Indians, there was noshock to be given or received, and a very open order was thereforeattended with two very great advantages; it more than doubled the lengthof the lines, and in charging, which was an essential part of thesystem, it gave more facility to get through the obstacles which anaction in the woods presented. "

A system was also developed whereby, in case the Indians attempted toflank the enemy, they were met by a succession of fresh troops comingfrom the rear to extend the lines. When encamped, the troops were toassume the form of a hollow square, with the baggage and cavalry, andsometimes the light infantry and riflemen, in the center. A rampart oflogs was to be placed around the camp, to prevent a sudden nightattack, and to give the troops time to get under arms, but this rampartwas not intended as a means of defense in daylight. "To defeat Indiansby regular troops, the charge must be relied upon; the fatality of acontest at long shot, with their accurate aim and facility of coveringthemselves, was mournfully exhibited in the defeats of Braddock and St. Clair. General Wayne used no patrols, no picket guards. In Indianwarfare they would always be cut off; and if that were not the case, they would afford no additional security to the army, as Indians do notrequire roads to enable them to advance upon an enemy. For the samereason (that they would be killed or taken), patrols were rejected, andreliance for safety was entirely placed upon keeping the army alwaysready for action. In connection with this system for constantpreparation, there was only a chain of sentinels around the camps, furnished by the camp guards, who were placed within supportingdistance. "

The outline and adoption of this system of tactics shows that bothWashington and Anthony Wayne were fully aware of the dangerous nature oftheir savage adversaries; that they had a wholesome respect for boththeir woodcraft and military discipline, and that they regarded theconquest of the western wilderness as a task requiring greatcircumspection and military genius. 

CHAPTER VII

REAL SAVAGES

--_The savage painted in his true colors from the standpoint of thefrontiersman. _

The poets and philosophers who dwelt in security far from the frontierposts of danger, have been much disposed in the past to extol thevirtues of the savage and bewail his misfortunes, at the expense of therugged pioneer who had to face his tomahawk and furnish victims for hismad vengeance. They went into rhapsodies when speaking of the "poorIndian, " assuming that in his primitive state, before he was corruptedby contact with the manners and customs of the white man, he representedall that was pure, good and simple, and that only after the Europeancame, did this child of nature take on that ferocity and savagery thatmade his name the terror of the wilderness. They said that he wascruelly and unjustly despoiled of his lands and possessions; driven likea wild beast before the face of the settlements, and by fraud and forcedeprived of every right that he had enjoyed. These philosophers, whilethus impeaching civilization, were always ready to condemn what theytermed as the "rude frontiersmen, " the men who originally made itpossible that the land might be inhabited, the soil brought to a stateof cultivation, and the arts and sciences brought to bear upon the wildforces of nature. They were especially severe in their animadversionsupon the Kentuckians. They denounced their raids upon the Indian townsand villages along the Scioto and the Wabash as barbarous and uncalledfor. They pointed to the fact that the Kentuckians pursued the Indianswith a fierce and relentless hatred, using the scalping knife, andburning down their cabins and corn fields, forgetting at the same timethe thousands of Kentuckians cruelly slain, the carrying away intocaptivity of pregnant women and innocent children, and the horribletortures ofttimes inflicted on the aged and the helpless. 

It must never be forgotten that despite his stoicism in facing danger, his skill in battle, his power to endure privation, and his undoubtedvalor and bravery, that the Indian was a savage, and entertained thethoughts of a savage. Toward those who, like the French, pampered hisappetites and indulged his passions to secure his trade, he entertainedno malice. The lazy, fiddling Canadians who dwelt in Kaskaskia andVincennes, had no ambition to absorb the soil or build up a greatcommonwealth. The little land they required to raise their corn, theirvines and their onions on, aroused no savage jealousies. But from thefirst moment that the Americans came through the gaps and passes of theBlue Ridge, and swept down the waters of the Ohio, with their women andchildren, their horses and cattle, the savage scented danger. These menwere not traders; they came to set up their cabins and to build homes. The wild dwellers in the wilderness must be tamed or swept back. Conflict was inevitable; war certain. On the one hand was a grimdetermination to advance civilization; on the other, just as grim adetermination to resist it. The savage, employing the same arts in hiswars with the white man as he did in his wars with his fellow savage, used stealth and cunning, the ambuscade, the scalping knife, and thetomahawk, and tortured his victims at the stake. A terrible hatred wasengendered, that meant death and extermination. In the sanguinarystruggles that followed, many outrages were no doubt perpetrated bylawless white men upon the Indians. Such men as Lewis Wetzel are nocredit to a race. But there is no sufficient ground either for theexaltation of the savage, or the condemnation of men like Boone, Kenton, Hardin and Scott, who stoutly fought in the vanguard of civilization. Itwas a war for supremacy between white man and red, and the fittestsurvived. The wild hunters of the forest and river, gave way to farmersand woodsmen, who made the clearings, built their cabins, and laid thefoundation for the future greatness of the west. The passing of thetribes was a tragedy, but it would have been a deeper tragedy still, hadsavagery prevailed. 

Among the Indians of the northwest there was one tribe that attained aconsiderable fame. In all their forays into Kentucky and Virginia theWyandots fought with the most fearless bravery and the most disciplinedskill. Their conduct at the battle of Estel's Station met with manywords of praise from Mann Butler, the Kentucky historian. It was wellknown among the settlements that the Wyandots treated their captiveswith consideration, and that they seldom resorted to torture by fire. Though few in numbers, they acquired the acknowledged supremacy in theconfederation of the northwest, were intrusted by Wayne at the treaty ofGreenville with the custody of the great belt, the symbol of peace andunion, and were given the principal copy of the treaty of peace. Betweenthe Wyandot and the Ottawa, however, and the Wyandot and the Potawatomi, there was a striking divergence. If the Wyandot represented the highestorder of intelligence among the savages of the northwest, the Potawatomirepresented one of the lowest. He was dark, cruel, treacherous andunattractive, and proved a willing tool for murder and assassination inthe hands of the English. There was no place on earth for the chivalrousKentuckian and the treacherous Potawatomi to dwell in peace together, and the imparting of some idea of the true nature of this Indian willnow engage our attention. 

When the Dutchman put flint-locks and powder into the hands of theIroquois, one of the tribes that he drove around the head of the greatlakes was the Potawatomi. Where did they come from? The Jesuit Relationsays, from the western shores of Lake Huron, and the Jesuit Fathers knewmore about the Algonquin tribes of Canada and the west than all others. All accounts confirm that they were of the same family as the Chippewasand Ottawas. From the head of Lakes Huron and Michigan they were forcedto the west and then driven to the south. In 1670 it is known that aportion of them were on the islands in the mouth of Green bay. They werethen moving southward, probably impelled by the fierce fighting Sioux, whom Colonel Roosevelt so appropriately named the "horse Indians, " ofthe west. At the close of the seventeenth century they were on theMilwaukee river, in the vicinity of Chicago, and on the St. Joseph riverin southern Michigan. They had gone entirely around the northern, western and southern sides of Lake Michigan, and were now headed in thedirection of their original habitations. 

According to Hiram W. Beckwith, the Potawatomi were the most populoustribe between the lakes and the Ohio, the Wabash and the Mississippi. Their debouch upon the plains of the Illinois has already beenmentioned. This was about the year 1765. The confederacy among them, theKickapoos and the Sacs and Foxes, resulted in the extermination of theold Illinois tribes, and after that extermination, the Kickapoos tookpossession of the country around Peoria and along the Vermilion river, the Potawatomi of eastern and northern Illinois, while the Sacs andFoxes went farther to the west. After the treaty of Greenville in 1795, the Potawatomi rapidly absorbed the ancient domain of the Miamis innorthern Indiana, swiftly pressing them back to the Wabash, and usurpingthe major portion of the small lake region in the north end of thestate. They had now become so haughty and insolent in their conduct asto refer to the Miamis as "their younger brothers, " and the Miamis, byreason of their long wars, their commingling with the traders, and theiracquisition of degenerate habits, were unable to drive them back. In1810 and 1811, Tecumseh and the one-eyed Prophet were eagerly seeking analliance with their treacherous chiefs. A demand was made uponTecumseh for the surrender of certain Potawatomi murderers and horsethieves who had invaded the Missouri region and committed depredations, but Tecumseh replied that he was unable to apprehend them, and that theyhad escaped to the Illinois country. The Potawatomi were now living inmixed villages west of the present sites of Logansport and Lafayette, and the southern limits of their domain extended as far down the Wabashas the outlet of Pine creek across the river from the present city ofAttica. 

[Illustration: Shaubena, the best of the Potawatomi Chiefs, and afollower of Tecumseh. By Courtesy The Chicago Historical Society]

The Potawatomi loved the remoteness and seclusion of the great prairie, and many of their divisions have been known as the "prairie" tribes. They seem to have lived for the most part in separate, roving bands, which divided "according to the abundance or scarcity of game, or theemergencies of war. " Encouraged by the English, they joined in theterrible expeditions of the Shawnees and Miamis against the keel-boatson the Ohio, and against the settlements of Kentucky. They wereinveterate horse-thieves. Riding for long distances across plain andprairie, through forests and across rivers, they suddenly swooped downon some isolated frontier cabin, perhaps murdering its helpless anddefenseless inmates, taking away a child or a young girl, killing cattleor riding away the horses and disappearing in the wilderness as suddenlyas they emerged from it. In the later days of Tecumseh's time, theseparties of marauders generally consisted of from four or five, totwenty. They were still striking the white settlements of Kentucky, andeven penetrated as far west as the outposts on the Missouri river. Their retreat after attack was made with the swiftness of the wind. Pursuit, if not made immediately, was futile. Traveling day and night, the murderous riders were lost in the great prairies and wildernesses ofthe north, and the Prophet was a sure protector. The savage chief, Turkey Foot, for whom two groves were named, in Benton and NewtonCounties, Indiana, stealing horses in far away Missouri, murdered threeor four of his pursuers and made good his escape to the great plains andswamps between the Wabash and Lake Michigan. 

There was nothing romantic about the Potawatomi. They were real savages, and known to the French-Canadians as "Les Poux, " or those who have lice, from which it may be inferred that they were not generally of cleanlyhabits. In general appearance they did not compare favorably with theKickapoos of the Vermilion river. The Kickapoo warriors were generallytall and sinewy, while the Potawatomi were shorter and more thickly set, very dark and squalid. Numbers of the women of the Kickapoos weredescribed as being lithe, "and many of them by no means lacking inbeauty. " The Potawatomi women were inclined to greasiness and obesity. The Potawatomi had little regard for their women. Polygamy was commonamong them when visited by the early missionaries. The warriors werealways gamblers, playing heavily at their moccasin games and lacrosse. 

Nothing, however, revealed their savage nature so well as their rapiddecline under the influence of whiskey. As we shall see hereafter, oneof the great motives that impelled their attacks on the flat boats ofthe Ohio river, was their desire not only for plunder, but for rum. Theboats generally contained a liberal supply. Nothing was more common thandrunkenness after the greedy and avaricious traders of the Wabash gotinto their midst and bartered them brandy for their most valuablepeltries. Potawatomi were found camping about Vincennes in great numbersand trading everything of value for liquor. In General Harrison's day, he endeavored time and time again to stop this nefarious traffic. On alloccasions when treaties were to be made, or council fires kindled, heissued proclamations prohibiting the sale of liquor to the Indians. These proclamations were inserted in the Western Sun, at Vincennes, onmore than one occasion, but they were unavailing. The temptation of ahuge profit was too strong. Carousals and orgies took place when theIndians were under the influence of "fire-water. " Fights and murderswere frequent. At the last, whiskey destroyed the last vestige of virtuein their women, and valor in their warriors. 

After the crushing of the Prophet in 1811, and the destruction ofBritish influence in the northwest, consequent upon the war of 1812, thedecline of the Potawatomi was swift and appalling. The terrible ravagesof "fire-water" played no inconsiderable part. Many of their principalchieftains became notorious drunkards reeling along the streets offrontier posts and towns and boasting of their former prowess. Even therenowned Topenebee, the last principal chief of the tribe of the riverSt. Joseph was no exception. Reproached by General Lewis Cass, becausehe did not remain sober and care for his people, he answered: "Father, we do not care for the land, nor the money, nor the goods; what we wantis whiskey! Give us whiskey!" The example set by the chiefs was notneglected by their followers. 

Nothing can better illustrate the shocking savagery and depravity ofsome of their last chieftains, after the tribe had been contaminated bythe effect of strong liquors, than the story of Wabunsee, principal warchief of the prairie band of Potawatomi residing on the Kankakee riverin Illinois, and in his early days one of the renowned and daringwarriors of his tribe. When General Harrison marched with his regularsand Indiana and Kentucky militia, on the way to the battlefield ofTippecanoe, he ascended the Wabash river, erecting Fort Harrison, nearthe present site of Terre Haute, and christening it on Sunday, the 27thday of October, 1811. From here, the army marched up the east bank ofthe river, crossing the deep water near the present site of Montezuma, Indiana, and erecting a block house on the west bank, about three milesbelow the mouth of the Vermilion river, for a base of supplies. Corn andprovisions for the army were taken in boats and pirogues from FortHarrison up the river, and unloaded at this block house. On Saturday, the 2nd day of November, John Tipton recorded in his diary that, "thisevening a man came from the Garrison (Fort Harrison) said last night hisboat was fired on--one man that was asleep killed dead. " Beckwithrecords that the dare-devil "Wabunsee, the Looking-Glass, principal warchief of the prairie bands of Potawatomis, residing on the Kankakeeriver, in Illinois, distinguished himself, the last of October, 1811, by leaping aboard of one of Governor Harrison's supply boats, loadedwith corn, as it was ascending the Wabash, five miles above Terre Haute, and killing a man, and making his escape ashore without injury. "Allowing a slight discrepancy in dates, this was probably the sameincident referred to by John Tipton, and taking into consideration thatthe boats were probably guarded by armed men, this was certainly adaring and adventurous feat. 

Yet it is recorded of this chief, that he always carried about with himtwo scalps in a buckskin pouch, "taken from the heads of soldiers in thewar of 1812, and when under the influence of liquor he would exhibitthem, going through the motions of obtaining those trophies. "Schoolcraft, whose attention was especially drawn towards this chieftainon account of his drunken ferocity, and who paints him as one of theworst of many bad savages of his day, says: "He often freely indulged inliquor; and when excited, exhibited the flushed visage of a demon. Onone occasion, two of his wives, or rather female slaves, had a dispute. One of them went, in her excited state of feeling, to Wabunsee, and toldhim that the other ill-treated his children. He ordered the accused tocome before him. He told her to lie down on her back on the ground. Hethen directed the other (her accuser) to take a tomahawk and dispatchher. She instantly split open her skull. "There, " said the savage, "letthe crows eat her. " He left her unburied, but was afterwards persuadedto direct the murderess to bury her. She dug the grave so shallow, thatthe wolves pulled out her body that night, and partly devoured it. "

The cold, cruel treachery of this tribe is without a parallel, save inthe single instance of the Shawnees. It has been admitted by Shaubena, one of their best chiefs, that most of the depredations on the frontiersettlements in Illinois during the Black Hawk war, were committed by thePotawatomi. The cowardly and brutal massacre at Chicago, August 15, 1812, was the work principally of the Potawatomi, "and their severalbands from the Illinois and Kankakee rivers; those from the St. Josephof the lake, and the St. Joseph of the Maumee, and those of the Wabashand its tributaries were all represented in the despicable act. " In thatmassacre, Captain William Wells, the brother-in-law of Little Turtle, was killed when he was trying to protect the soldiers and refugees. Hewas discovered afterwards, terribly mutilated. His body lay in oneplace, his head in another, while his arms and legs were scattered aboutover the prairie. The warriors of this tribe, stripped to the skin, except breech-cloth and moccasins, and with bodies painted with redstripes, went into battle with the rage of mad-men and demons andcommitted every excess known to human cruelty. 

Looking at the Potawatomi in the true light, and stripped of all thatfalse coloring with which he has been painted, and the facts remainsthat he was every inch a wild and untamed barbarian. And while we mustadmire him for his native strength, his wonderful endurance through thefamine and cold of the northern winters, and his agility and ingenuityin the chase or on the warpath, it is not any wonder that the childrenof that time, as Judge James Hall relates, "learned to hate the Indianand to speak of him as an enemy. From the cradle they listenedcontinually to horrid tales of savage violence, and became familiar withnarratives of aboriginal cunning and ferocity. " Nor is it any wonderthat when General Harrison crossed the Wabash at Montezuma and gave anorder to the advance guard to shoot every Indian at sight, that therough frontiersman, John Tipton, entered in his diary, "Fine News!"

CHAPTER VIII

OUR INDIAN POLICY

_--The Indian right of occupancy recognized through the liberal policyof Washington and Jefferson. _

By the terms of the definitive treaty of 1783, concluding the war of therevolution the territory northwest of the river Ohio passed forever fromthe jurisdiction of the British government, over to the new born statesof the United States. By the first article of that treaty, the thirteenformer colonies were acknowledged to be free, sovereign and independentpowers, and Great Britain not only relinquished all her rights to thegovernment, but to the "proprietary and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof. " At the time of that treaty, the northwestterritory was occupied by a number of powerful and warlike tribes ofsavages, yet no reservation of any kind was made in their favor by theEnglish negotiators. The Iroquois confederacy of New York, and moreparticularly the Mohawks, had stood out stoutly on the side of the king, but they were wholly forgotten in the articles of peace. Of this action, Joseph Brant, the Mohawk leader, in his communications with Lord Sidney, in 1786, most bitterly complained, expressing his astonishment "thatsuch firm friends and allies could be so neglected by a nationremarkable for its honor and glory. " Yet if Brant had been betteracquainted with the policy and usage of European nations, he would haveknown that England had granted away not only the sovereignty, but thevery soil of the territory itself, subject only to the Indian rights ofoccupancy. In all the ancient grants of the crown to the duke of York, Lord Clarendon and others, there passed "the soil as well as the rightof dominion to the grantee. " France, while adopting a liberal policytoward the savages of the new world, claimed the absolute right ofownership to the land, based on first discovery. Spain maintained a likeclaim. The war for supremacy in the Saint Lawrence, the Mississippi andthe Ohio valleys between Great Britain and France, terminating in thepeace of 1763, was a war waged for the control of lands and territory, notwithstanding the occupancy of the Indian tribes. If a countryacquired either by conquest or prior discovery, is filled with a peopleattached to the soil, and having fixed pursuits and habitations, theopinion of mankind would seem to require that the lands and possessionsof the occupants should not be disturbed, but if the domain discoveredor conquered is filled with a race of savages who make no use of theland, save for the purpose of hunting over it, a different solution mustof necessity result. There can be no admixture of races where the one iscivilized and the other barbarous. The barbarian must either lose hissavagery and be assimilated, or he must recede. The North AmericanIndian was not only brave, but fierce. In the wilds and fastnesses ofhis native land, he refused to become either a subject or a slave. Nolaw of the European could be formulated for his control; he obeyed onlythe laws of nature under which he roamed in freedom. He knew nothing offee or seisin, or the laws of conveyancing, as his white brother knewit. He knew only that the rivers and the forests were there, and that hegained his subsistence from them. With him, the strongest and thefiercest had the right to rule; the right to hunt the buffalo and elk. The European put fire arms into the hands of the Iroquois warrior, andthat warrior at once made himself master of all north of the Ohio andeast of the Mississippi, without regard to the prior claims of othertribes. To expect that a savage of this nature could be dealt with underthe ordinary forms and conventions of organized society, was to expectthe impossible. To him, the appearance of a surveyor or a log cabin wasan immediate challenge to his possession. Today he might be brought tomake a treaty, but on the morrow he was filled with a jealous hateagain, and was ready to burn and destroy. On the other hand, to leavehim in the full possession of his country was, as Chief Justice Marshallsaid: "To leave the country a wilderness. " To stop on the borderland ofsavagery and advance no further, meant the retrogression ofcivilization. The European idea of ownership was founded on user. Theinevitable consequence was, that the conqueror or discoverer in the newworld claimed the ultimate fee in the soil, and the tribes receding, asthey inevitably did, this fee ripened into present enjoyment. When GreatBritain, therefore, owing to the conquests of George Rogers Clark, surrendered up to the United States her jurisdiction and control overthe territory north and west of the Ohio river, she did, according tothe precedent and usage established by all the civilized nations of thatday, pass to her grantee or grantees, the ultimate absolute title to theland itself, notwithstanding its savage occupants, and the right to dealwith these occupants thenceforward became a part of the domestic policyof the new republic, with which England and her agents had nothing todo. "It has never been doubted, " says Chief Justice Marshall, "thateither the United States, or the several states, had a clear title toall the lands within the boundary lines described in the treaty, subjectonly, to the Indian right of occupancy, and that the exclusive power toextinguish that right was vested in that government which mightconstitutionally exercise it. " These facts should be kept in mind whenone comes to consider the equivocal course that England afterwardspursued. 

But how were the savage wards occupying these lands, and thus suddenlycoming under the guardianship of the republic, to be dealt with? Werethey to be evicted by force and arms, and their possessory rightsentirely disregarded, or were their claims as occupants to be graduallyand legitimately extinguished by treaty and purchase, as the frontiersof the white man advanced? In other words, was the seisin in fee on thepart of the states, or the United States, to be at once asserted andenforced, to the absolute and immediate exclusion of the tribes from thelands they occupied, or was a policy of justice and equity to prevail, and the ultimate right to the soil set up, only after the most diligenteffort to ameliorate the condition of the dependent red man had beenemployed? The answer to this question had soon to be formulated, for onMarch 1st, 1784, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and JamesMonroe, delegates in the Continental Congress on the part of the Stateof Virginia, in pursuance of the magnanimous policy of her statesmen, executed a deed of cession to the United States, of all her claim andright to the territory northwest of the Ohio, the same to be used as acommon fund "for the use and benefit of such of the United States ashave become, or shall become, members of the confederation or federalalliance of the states. " The only reservations made were of a tract ofland not to exceed one hundred and fifty thousand acres to be allowedand granted to General George Rogers Clark, his officers and soldiers, who had conquered Kaskaskia, Vincennes, and the western British postsunder the authority of Virginia, said tract being afterwards located onthe Indiana side of the Ohio, adjacent to the falls of that river, andknown as the "Illinois Grant, " and a further tract to be laid offbetween the rivers Scioto and Little Miami, in case certain landsreserved to the continental troops of Virginia upon the waters of theCumberland, "should, from the North Carolina line, bearing in furtherupon the Cumberland lands than was expected, " prove to be deficient forthat purpose. The cession of Virginia was preceded by that of New Yorkon the first day of March, 1781, and followed by that of Massachusetts, on the 19th day of April, 1785, and that of Connecticut on the 14th ofSeptember, 1786, and thus the immense domain now comprising the statesof Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, with the exceptionof the reservations of Virginia, and a small reservation of the state ofConnecticut in northeastern Ohio, passed over to the general government, before the adoption of the federal constitution, and before GeorgeWashington, the first president of the United States, was sworn intooffice, on the 30th day of April, 1789. 

But the wisdom and the broad national views of the leading Virginialaw-makers and statesmen, had already, in great measure, pointed the wayto the Indian policy to be pursued by Washington and his successors. Nostate, either under the old confederation or the new constitution, presented such a formidable array of talent and statecraft as Virginia. Washington, Jefferson, John Marshall, and Madison, stood pre-eminent, but there was also Edmund Randolph, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, GeorgeMason, William Grayson and Richard Henry Lee. 

Washington had always taken a deep and abiding interest in the westerncountry. In 1770 he had made a trip down the Ohio in company with hisfriends, Doctor Craik and William Crawford. The distance from Pittsburghto the mouth of the Great Kanawha was two hundred and sixty-five miles. The trip was made by canoes and was rather hazardous, as none ofWashington's party were acquainted with the navigation of the river. Theparty made frequent examinations of the land along the way andWashington was wonderfully impressed with the future prospects of thecountry. Arriving at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, he ascended thatriver for a distance of fourteen miles, hunting by the way, as the landwas plentifully stocked with buffalo, deer, turkeys and other wild game. He also made critical observations of the soil here, with a view tofuture acquisitions. The whole country below Pittsburgh at that time, was wild and uninhabited, save by the Indian tribes. 

At the close of the revolution the minds of Washington, Jefferson andother leading Virginians were filled with the grand project ofdeveloping and colonizing the west, and binding it to the union by theindissoluble ties of a common interest. There was nothing of the narrowspirit of provincialism about these men. Their thoughts went beyond thelimited confines of a single state or section, and embraced the nation. They entertained none of those jealousies which distinguish the smallfrom the great. On the contrary, they looked upon the mightytrans-montane domain with its many watercourses, its rich soil, and itstemperate climate, as a rich field for experimentation in the erectionof new and free republics. The deed of cession of Virginia had provided:"That the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into newstates, containing a suitable extent of territory, not less than onehundred, nor more than one hundred fifty miles square, or as nearthereto as circumstances will admit: and that the states so formedshould be distinct republican states, and admitted members of thefederal union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, andindependence, as the other states. " If this great public domain, thusdedicated to the whole nation, and under the control of its supremelegislative body, the continental congress, could be filled up with aconglomerate population from all the states, factions and sectionaljealousies would disappear, and at the same time the original stateswould be more closely knit together by the bonds of their commoninterest in the new federal territory. 

But there was one great obstacle to the realization of these hopes, andthat was the difficulty of opening up any means of communication withthis western empire. The mountain ranges stood as barriers in the way, unless the headwaters of such rivers as the Potomac and the James, couldbe connected by canals and portages with the headwaters of the Ohio andits tributaries. If this could be accomplished, and if the headwaters ofthe Miami, Scioto and Muskingum, could be connected in turn with thoseof the Cuyahoga, the Maumee and the Wabash, then all was well, for thiswould furnish an outlet for the commerce of the west through the portsand cities of the Atlantic seaboard. There were other and highlyimportant political questions that engaged Washington's attention atthis time, and they were as follows: The English dominion of Canadabordered this northwest territory on the north. The British, contrary tothe stipulations of the treaty of peace of 1783, had retained the postsof Detroit, Niagara and Oswego, to command the valuable fur trade of thenorthwest, and the Indian tribes engaged therein, and in addition theyalso enjoyed a complete monopoly of all trading vessels on the GreatLakes. To the south and west of this northwest territory lay theSpanish possessions, and the Spanish were attempting to bar the settlersof Kentucky from the use of the Mississippi for the purposes of trade. In other words, they were closing the market of New Orleans against theKentuckians. But suppose that either or both of these powers, who werethen extremely jealous of the growth and expansion of the new republic, should hold forth commercial advantages and inducements to the westernpeople? What then would be the result? What then the prospect of bindingany new states to be formed out of this western territory in theinterest of the federal union?

With all these great questions revolving in his mind, we see the fatherof his country again on horseback in the year 1784, traversing sixhundred and eighty miles of mountain wilderness in Pennsylvania andVirginia and examining the headwaters of the inland streams. He madeevery inquiry possible, touching the western country, examined everytraveler and explorer who claimed to have any knowledge of itswatercourses and routes of travel, and after spending thirty-three daysof fatiguing travel in the saddle, he returned to his home and made areport of his observations to Governor Harrison of Virginia. His remarkson the western country are so highly interesting and important, andmanifest such a deep and profound interest in the future welfare of thewestern world, as to call for the following quotations:

"I need not remark to you that the flanks and rear of the United Statesare possessed by great powers, and formidable ones, too; nor hownecessary it is to apply the cement of interest to bind all parts ofthe Union together by indissoluble bonds, especially that part of it, which lies immediately west of us, with the middle states. For whatties, let me ask, should we have upon these people? How entirelyunconnected with them shall we be, and what troubles may we notapprehend, if the Spaniards on their right, and Great Britain on theirleft, instead of throwing stumbling-blocks in their way, as they now do, should hold out lures for their trade and alliance? What, when they getstrength, which will be sooner than most people conceive (from theemigration of foreigners, who will have no particular predilectiontowards us, as well as from the removal of our own citizens), will bethe consequence of their having formed close connections with both oreither of those powers, in a commercial way? It needs not, in myopinion, the gift of prophecy to foretell. "

"The western states (I speak now from my own observation) stand as itwere upon a pivot. The touch of a feather will turn them any way. Theyhave looked down the Mississippi, until the Spaniards, veryimpolitically, I think, for themselves, threw difficulties in their way;and they look that way for no other reason, than because they couldglide gently down the stream; without considering, perhaps, thedifficulties of the voyage back again, and the time necessary to performit in; and because they have no other means of coming to us, but by longland transportations and unimproved roads. These causes have hithertochecked the industry of the present settlers; for except the demand forprovisions, occasioned by the increase of population, and a littleflour, which the necessities of the Spaniards compel them to buy, theyhave no incitements to labor. But smooth the road, and make easy the wayfor them, and then see what an influx of articles will be poured uponus; how amazingly our exports will be increased by them, and how amplywe shall be compensated for any trouble and expense we may encounter toeffect it. "

"A combination of circumstances makes the present conjuncture morefavorable for Virginia, than for any other state in the union, to fixthese matters. The jealous and untoward disposition of the Spaniards onthe one hand, and the private views of some individuals, coinciding withthe general policy of the court of Great Britain, on the other, toretain as long as possible the posts of Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego(which though done under the letter of the treaty, is certainly aninfraction of the spirit of it, and injurious to the Union) may beimproved to the greatest advantage by this state, if she would open theavenues to the trade of that country, and embrace the present moment toestablish it. It only wants a beginning. The western inhabitants woulddo their part towards its execution. Weak as they are, they would meetus at least half-way, rather than be driven into the arms of foreigners, or be made dependent upon them; which would eventually either bring on aseparation of them from us, or a war between the United States and oneor other of those powers, most probably the Spaniards. "

These remarks coming from the pen of Washington aroused intenseinterest in Virginia. He did not stop there. On the fourteenth ofDecember, 1784, we see him calling the attention of the president of theold continental congress to these affairs. He urged, "that congressshould have the western waters well explored, their capacities fornavigation ascertained as far as the communications between Lake Erieand the Wabash, and between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, and acomplete and perfect map made of the country at least as far west as theMiamis, which run into the Ohio and Lake Erie, " and he pointed out theMiami village as the place for a very important post for the Union. Theexpense attending such an undertaking could not be great; the advantageswould be unbounded. "Nature, " he said, "has made such a display of herbounty in these regions that the more the country is explored the moreit will rise in estimation. The spirit of emigration is great; peoplehave got impatient; and, though you cannot stop the road, it is yet inyour power to mark the way. A little while and you will not be able todo either. " Such were the enlightened and fatherly hopes that Washingtonthus early entertained of the great west and its struggling pioneers, who were trying to carve out their destinies in a remote wilderness. 

No less enlightened were the views of Jefferson. He may be said in truthto be the father of the northwest. When a member of the legislature ofVirginia, he had promoted the expedition under George Rogers Clark, which resulted in the conquest of the northwest, and its subsequentcession to the United States under the treaty of 1783. As governor ofVirginia he had taken part in its cession to the general government onMarch first, 1784. "On that same day, " says Bancroft, "before the deedcould be recorded and enrolled among the acts of the United States, Jefferson, as chairman of a committee, presented a plan for thetemporary government of the western territory from the southern boundaryof the United States in the latitude of thirty-one degrees to the Lakeof the Woods. It is still preserved in the national archives in his ownhandwriting, and is as completely his own work as the Declaration ofIndependence. " As the profoundest advocate of human rights of his day ortime, freeing himself from the narrow spirit of sectionalism, anddespising human slavery and its contamination of the institutions of afree people, he proposed the ultimate establishment of ten new states inthe territory northwest of the Ohio, a republican form of government foreach of them, and no property qualification for either the electors orthe elected. "Following an impulse of his own mind, " he proposed theeverlasting dedication of the northwest to free men and free labor, byproviding that after the year 1800 there should be neither slavery norinvoluntary servitude in any of them. While Jefferson's plan for theexclusion of slavery was stricken from the ordinance, his noble ideas offreedom were afterwards fully and completely incorporated in the finalOrdinance of 1787, whereby "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, " should ever bepermitted. This ordinance, through the predominating influence ofVirginia and her statesmen, was passed by the vote of Georgia, SouthCarolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York andMassachusetts, and afterwards ratified by the legislature of Virginiawho had to consent thereto to give it full force. 

It is at once apparent that these statesmen and patriots who lookedforward to the establishment of free republics in the western domain, based on free labor and equal rights, would never consent that thefoundation of these new republics should be laid in blood. The outragesperpetrated on the frontiers of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, andon the infant settlements of Kentucky, during the revolution, and all atthe instigation of the British, had left behind them a loud cry forvengeance. In fact similar outrages were still taking place daily. Theclaim was made that under the treaty of peace with Great Britain, thatno reservation had been made in favor of any of the Indian tribes, or infavor of their claims to any of the lands they occupied; that under thetreaty the absolute fee in all the Indian lands within the limits of theUnited States had passed to the several states such as Virginia, who hada legitimate claim to them, and later by cession of these states to thegeneral government, and that congress "had the right to assign, orretain such portions as they should judge proper;" that the Indiantribes, having aided Great Britain in her attempt to subjugate herformer colonies, and having committed innumerable murders, arsons andscalpings on the exposed frontiers, should now be required to pay thepenalty for their crimes; that their lands and hunting grounds shouldstand forfeit to the government, and they be expelled therefrom. Inother words, it was asserted that the government should turn a harsh andstern countenance towards all these savage marauders and drive them byforce, if need be, from the public lands. 

Towards all these arguments in favor of a hard and uncompromisingattitude toward the savage tribes, both Washington and Jefferson turneda deaf ear. They assumed a high plane of mercy and forgiveness towardsthe red man that must ever redound to their glory. On August 7th, 1789, in a message to the senate of the United States, Washington said: "Whilethe measures of government ought to be calculated to protect itscitizens from all injury and violence, a due regard should be extendedto those Indian tribes whose happiness, in the course of events, somaterially depends upon the national justice and humanity of the UnitedStates. " These sentiments were reflected in his course of action fromthe first day of peace with Great Britain. He, together with GeneralPhilip Schuyler, said, "that with regard to these children of theforest, a veil should be drawn over the past, and that they should betaught that their true interest and safety must henceforth depend uponthe cultivation of amicable relations with the United States. " He tookthe high ground that peace should be at once granted to the severaltribes, and treaties entered into with them, assigning them certainlands and possessions, within the limits of which they should not bemolested. To avoid national dishonor, he advocated the purchase of alllands occupied by the various Indian tribes as the advance of thesettlements should seem to require, thus fully recognizing the Indianright of occupancy. He utterly rejected all ideas of conquest, and as hecommanded a powerful influence over all the better minds of that day, his counsels prevailed. 

To those who have read Jefferson's speeches to the Little Turtle, theMiamis, Potawatomi and Delawares in the year 1808, near the close of hissecond administration, the broad humanitarianism and fatherlybenevolence of the third president is at once apparent. In thoseaddresses he laments the "destructive use of spirituous liquors, " thewasting away of the tribes as a consequence thereof, and directs theattention of their chieftains to "temperance, peace and agriculture, " asa means of restoring their former numbers, and establishing them firmlyin the ways of peace. "Tell this, therefore, to your people on yourreturn home. Assure them that no change will ever take place in ourdispositions toward them. Deliver to them my adieux, and my prayers tothe Great Spirit for their happiness. Tell them that during myadministration I have held their hand fast in mine; that I will put itinto the hand of their new father, who will hold it as I have done. "Jefferson demanded always that the strictest justice should be donetoward the tribes, and carrying forward his ideas in his first ordinanceof 1784, for the government of the northwest territory, he inserted aprovision that no land was to be taken up until it had been firstpurchased from the Indian tribes and offered for sale through theregular agencies of the government. 

The tree of justice thus planted by Washington and Jefferson, flourishedand grew until it produced the magnificent fruit of the Ordinance of1787, wherein it is stipulated that: "The utmost good faith shall alwaysbe observed toward the Indians; their lands and property shall never betaken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights andliberty, they never shall be invaded or disturbed, unless in just andlawful wars authorized by congress; but laws founded in justice andhumanity shall, from time to time be made, for preventing wrongs beingdone them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them. "

[Illustration: Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States. ]

In order that we may trace the development of the principles of equitythus incorporated in the Ordnance of 1787, and which thenceforwarddistinguished the domestic policy of the federal government towards thetribes, a brief review of the treaties had and negotiated with theIndian tribes prior to that year now becomes germane. The first treatyafter the revolution was that of Fort Stanwix (Rome) New York, concludedon the 22nd day of October, 1784, by and between Oliver Wolcott, RichardButler and Arthur Lee, commissioners plenipotentiary of the UnitedStates, on the one part, and the sachems and warriors of the Six Nationsof the Iroquois confederacy, on the other part. This treaty was opposedby Joseph Brant, chief of the Mohawks, and a firm friend and ally of theBritish, but supported by the Cornplanter, his rival, who was a friendof the United States. By its terms the United States gave peace to theSenecas, Mohawks, Onondagas and Cayugas on their delivery of hostages tosecure the return of prisoners taken during the Revolution; secured theOneidas and Tuscaroras, who had fought on the side of the United States, in the possession of the lands they occupied, and took all the tribesunder the protection of the federal government. On the other hand, theIroquois tribes yielded to the United States any and all claims to theterritory west of the western line of Pennsylvania, thus surrendering upany further pretensions on their part to any of the lands in thenorthwest territory. The treaty seems to have been openly conducted, andreally exhibited no small degree of leniency on the part of thegovernment, as the Mohawks especially had taken part in many horriblemassacres on the American frontier during the Revolution and were theobjects of almost universal execration. Then again, the Iroquois hadreally sacrificed but little in surrendering their claims to the landswest of the Pennsylvania line, for while they had at one timeundoubtedly conquered all of the tribes east of the Mississippi, thesedays of glory had long since departed, and the Wyandots, Delawares andMiamis were the rightful owners of a large part of the Ohio country. Thetreaty of Fort Stanwix was followed about ninety days later by thetreaty of Fort McIntosh, concluded on the 21st day of January, 1785, atthe mouth of Beaver creek, in Pennsylvania. The commissioners on thepart of the United States were George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler andArthur Lee, while the Indian negotiators were the "Half-King of theWyandots, Captain Pipe, and other chiefs, on behalf of the Wyandot, Delaware, Ottawa and Chippewa nations. " By the articles of this treatythe outside boundaries of the Wyandots and Delawares were fixed asfollows: Beginning at the mouth of the River Cuyahoga, where the city ofCleveland now stands, and running thence up said river to the portagebetween that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence runningdown said branch to the forks of the crossing place above old FortLaurens; thence extending westerly to the portages between the branchesof the Miami of the Ohio and the St. Marys; thence along the St. Marysto the Miami village; thence down the Maumee to Lake Erie; thence alongthe south shore of Lake Erie to the place of beginning. The Wyandot andDelaware nations, together with some Ottawa tribesmen dwelling among theWyandots, were given the right and privilege of living and hunting uponthe lands embraced within the above limits, but the United Statesreserved tracts of six miles square each, at the mouth of the Maumee, atSandusky, and at the portage of the St. Marys and Great Miami, as wellas some further small tracts at the rapids of the Sandusky river, forthe establishment of trading posts. All land east, south and west of theabove boundaries was acknowledged to be the property of the government, and none of the above tribes were to settle upon it. Furtherreservations for trading posts were made at Detroit and Michillimacinac. The Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas and Chippewas were granted peace, andat the same time were made to acknowledge the absolute sovereignty ofthe United States. Any Indian committing a murder or robbery upon anycitizen of the United States was to be delivered to the nearest post forpunishment according to the laws of the nation. The third and lasttreaty before the Ordinance, affecting the northwest, was held at themouth of the Great Miami, on January 31st, 1786, between George RogersClark, Richard Butler and Samuel H. Parsons, commissioners, and themurderous and horse-stealing Shawnees, and but for the cool daring andintrepidity of Clark, there probably would have been a massacre. Somerestraint was sought to be imposed on the Shawnee raiders who constantlykept the frontiers of Kentucky and Virginia in a turmoil. Owing to theirabsolute hostility, however, and the influence of the British agents atMiamitown and Detroit, only a few of the younger chiefs attended theconference. The Shawnees were made to acknowledge the United States asthe "sole and absolute sovereigns of all the territory ceded to them bya treaty of peace, made between them and the king of Great Britain, thefourteenth day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, "and in turn were granted peace and protection. They were allottedcertain lands to live and hunt upon, on the headwaters of the GreatMiami and the Wabash rivers. 

But a fundamental error had crept into all these negotiations, and thatwas, that the Indians' ancient right of occupancy was not recognized. That right of present enjoyment and possession, although claimed bysavages who had waged war without mercy, against women and children, was still a right. In the years to come, and after the new constitutionof the Union came into force and effect, the Supreme court of the UnitedStates, sitting in solemn judgment upon this very question, would haveto pronounce that the Indian tribes had an unquestioned right to thelands they occupied, "until that right was extinguished by a voluntarycession to the government, " notwithstanding the fact that the ultimatefee in the soil rested in the government. To declare that the Iroquois, the Wyandots and the Delawares, suddenly became divested of everyspecies of property in their lands, on the ground that they hadforfeited them by waging war against the United States, was to declarethat which could never be defended in a court of conscience and equity. But in the first hot moments succeeding the Revolution, and before men'sminds had time to cool, that was practically the principle upon whichthe continental congress had proceeded. 

By consulting the records of the old congress of date October 15th, 1783, it is found that a committee composed of Mr. Duane, Mr. Peters, Mr. Carroll, Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Arthur Lee, to whom had been referredthe whole question of Indian affairs, had reported in substance asfollows: That while the Indian tribes were "disposed to a pacification, "that they were not in "a temper to relinquish their territorial claimswithout further struggles;" that if the tribes were expelled from theirlands, they would probably retreat to Canada, where they would meet with"a welcome reception from the British government;" that this accessionof power on the part of Canada would make her a formidable rival incase of future trouble, and secure to her people the profits of the furtrade; "that although motives of policy as well as clemency ought toincline Congress to listen to the prayers of the hostile Indians forpeace, yet in the opinion of the committee it is just and necessary thatlines of property should be ascertained and established between theUnited States and them, which will be convenient to the respectivetribes, and commensurate to the public wants, because the faith of theUnited States stands pledged to grant portions of the uncultivated landsas a bounty to their army, and in reward of their courage and fidelity, and the public finances do not admit of any considerable expenditure toextinguish the Indian claims upon such lands;" that owing to the rapidincrease in population it was necessary to provide for the settlement ofthe territories of the United States; that the public creditors werelooking to the public lands as the basis for a fund to discharge thepublic debt. The committee went further. They reported with someparticularity that the Indians had been the aggressors in the late war, "without even a pretense of provocation;" that they had violated theconvention of neutrality made with Congress at Albany in 1775, hadbrought utter ruin to thousands of families, and had wantonly desolated"our villages and settlements, and destroyed our citizens;" that theyshould make atonement for the enormities they had perpetrated, and duecompensation to the republic for their wanton barbarity, and that theyhad nothing wherewith to satisfy these demands except by consenting tothe fixing of boundaries. Wherefore, it was resolved that a conventionbe held with the tribes; that they be received into the favor andprotection of the United States, and that boundaries be set "separatingand dividing the settlements of the citizens from the Indian villagesand hunting grounds. "

It will be seen that in all this report there is nothing said of vestedrights, or the just and lawful claims of the Indian occupants. Ifclemency was granted, it was a matter of grace. The government claimedthe absolute jus disponendi, without any word of argument on the part ofthe savages. On the same day that the above resolution for holding aconvention with the Indian tribes was agreed upon, preliminaryinstructions to the commissioners were decided upon by congress. It wasdetermined first, that all prisoners of whatever age or sex must bedelivered up; second, that the Indians were to be informed that after along contest of eight years for the sovereignty of the country, thatGreat Britain had relinquished all her claims to the soil within thelimits described in the treaty of peace; third, that they be furtherinformed that a less generous people than the Americans might, in theface of their "acts of hostility and wanton devastation, " compel them toretire beyond the lakes, but as the government was disposed to be kindto them, "to supply their wants, and to partake of their trade, " thatfrom "motives of compassion" a veil should be drawn over what hadpassed, and boundaries fixed beyond which the Indians should not come, "but for the purpose of trading, treating, or other business equallyunexceptionable. " There were other instructions, but is not essentialto this inquiry that they be enumerated. 

It is at once apparent that the commissioners on behalf of thegovernment who went into the treaties of Fort Stanwix, Fort McIntosh, and that at the mouth of the Great Miami, if they obeyed theinstructions of congress, gave the Indian tribes to understand that theUnited States absolutely owned every foot of the soil of the northwest, were entitled to the immediate possession of it, and if they allowed thesavages to remain upon it, and did not drive them beyond the lakes, itwas purely from "motives of compassion, " and not because these savagesenjoyed any right of occupancy that was bound to be respected by thegovernment. That these statements are true is proven by the report ofHenry Knox, secretary of war, to President Washington, on June 15th, 1789, in a review of past conditions relative to the northwesternIndians. The representations of Knox correctly reflected the views ofWashington himself. The Secretary says: "It is presumable, that a nationsolicitous of establishing its character on the broad basis of justice, would not only hesitate at, but reject every proposition to benefititself, by the injury of any neighboring community, however contemptibleor weak it might be, either with respect to its manners or power * * *The Indians being the prior occupants, possess the right of the soil. Itcannot be taken from them unless by their free consent, or by the rightof conquest in case of a just war. To dispossess them on any otherprinciple, would be a gross violation of the fundamental law of nations, and of that distributive justice which is the glory of a nation. " Hethen says the following: "The time has arrived, when it is highlyexpedient that a liberal system of justice should be adopted for thevarious Indian tribes within the limits of the United States. By havingrecourse to the several Indian treaties, made by the authority ofcongress, since the conclusion of the war with Great Britain, exceptthose made in January, 1789, at Fort Harmar, it would appear, thatcongress were of the opinion, that the treaty of peace, of 1783, absolutely invested them with the fee of all the Indian lands within thelimits of the United States; that they had the right to assign, orretain such portions as they should judge proper. " Again, and during thenegotiations of Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Randolph and TimothyPickering, with the northwestern Indians in 1793, this candid admissionis made of the former errors in the negotiations at Fort Stanwix: "Thecommissioners of the United States have formerly set up a claim to yourwhole country, southward of the Great Lakes, as the property of theUnited States, grounding this claim on the treaty of peace with yourfather, the king of Great Britain, who declared, as we have beforementioned the middle of those lakes and the waters which unite them tobe the boundaries of the United States. We are determined that our wholeconduct shall be marked with openness and sincerity. We thereforefrankly tell you, that we think those commissioners put an erroneousconstruction on that part of our treaty with the king. As he had notpurchased the country of you, of course he could not give it away. Heonly relinquished to the United States his claims to it. That claim wasfounded on a right acquired by treaty with other white nations, toexclude them from purchasing or settling in any part of your country;and it is this right which the king granted to the United States. Beforethat grant, the king alone had a right to purchase of the Indiannations, any of the lands between the Great Lakes, the Ohio and theMississippi, excepting the part within the charter boundary ofPennsylvania; and the king, by the treaty of peace, having granted thisright to the United States, they alone have now the right ofpurchasing. " Thus with perfect candor and justice did we afterwardsadmit that our first treaties with the tribes, were founded on amistaken and arbitrary notion of our rights in the premises, and withouta due regard to the right of occupancy of the Indian nations. Agovernment thus frank enough to declare its error, should have beenimplicitly trusted by the Indian chieftains, and no doubt would havebeen, but for the constant representations of the British agents who formercenary gain appealed to their fear and prejudice. 

These first errors in our Indian negotiations, however, were extremelycostly to us, and proved to be so many thorns in the side of therepublic. On the 20th of May, 1785, an ordinance was passed by thecontinental congress "for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands inthe western territory, " recently acquired under the treaties of FortsStanwix and McIntosh. Beginning at the western line of Pennsylvania, ranges of townships six miles square were to be laid off, extending fromthe river Ohio to Lake Erie. These ranges were to be surveyed under thesuperintendence of the chief geographer of the United States, assistedby surveyors appointed from each state, and these surveyors were in turnplaced over the different companies of chain carriers and axemen. Congress was making strenuous efforts to open up the western country topurchase and settlement. 

But at the first attempts of the government surveyors to enter the Ohiocountry, they met with a most determined resistance from the savages. Brigadier-General Tupper, of Massachusetts, who went to Pittsburgh torun some lines, was enabled to proceed no farther west than thatstation. Captain John Doughty, writing to the secretary of war from FortMcIntosh, on the 21st of October, 1785, says "They (the Indians) aretold by the British, and they are full in the persuasion, that theterritory in question was never ceded to us by Britain, further thanrespects the jurisdiction or putting the Indians under the protection ofthe United States. From this reasoning they draw a conclusion that ourclaim in consequence of that cession ought not to deprive them of theirlands without purchase. I believe you may depend upon it that this isthe reasoning of their chiefs. I am so informed by several persons whohave been among them. Our acting upon the late treaty made at this placelast winter, in beginning to survey their country, is certainly onegreat cause of their present uneasiness. " Everywhere the Britishpartizans of Miamitown and Detroit, in order to keep the tribes in firmalliance with England, and thus preserve the valuable fur trade, werepointing to the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh and tellingthe Indians that the Americans were laying claim to their whole country, and would drive them beyond the lakes. The British agents went further. According to Captain Doughty, certain emissaries of the British, whowere acquainted with the Indian language and manners, were constantlycirculating among the Indian towns in the Miami and Wyandot country, making presents to the savages, and appealing to their fears. From theinformation of one Alexander McCormick, communicated to Captain Doughty, it appears that some time during the season of 1785, a grand council ofthe tribes was held at Coshocton, on the Muskingum. Tribes were presentfrom a considerable distance beyond the Mississippi. The object of thiscouncil seems to have been to unite all the tribes and oppose theAmerican advance. "Two large belts of wampum were sent from the councilto the different nations, holding that they should unite and be at peacewith each other. " This looked like a threat of war. Matthew Elliott, anIndian agent of the British, said in the Shawnee town in the presence offorty warriors, "that the Indians had better fight like men than give uptheir lands and starve like dogs. " Simon Girty and Caldwell were amongthe Delawares and Wyandots advising them to keep away from thecontemplated treaty at the mouth of the Great Miami. 

In the face of all these portentous happenings the adoption of the greatOrdinance of 1787, came as a happy relief. It was apparent now, to theminds of all right thinking men, that an unfortunate interpretation hadbeen made of the treaty of peace; that nothing could justify anunlawful seizure of the Indian possessions. It might be humiliating toreverse the policy of the government, and give the British agents achance to say that the United States had been wrong from the beginning, but the leading men in the federal councils had determined to adhere tothe advice of Washington, and purchase every foot of the Indian lands. The potent words of the ordinance that "The utmost good faith shallalways be observed toward the Indians; their lands and property shallnever be taken from them without their consent, " were in every sensetruly American and placed the nation four-square to all the world. 

As a direct consequence of the new policy toward the tribes, asevidenced by the Ordinance of 1787, two separate treaties of peace wereentered into at Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum river, onJanuary 9th, 1789, and in the first year of George Washington'sadministration. The first treaty was concluded with the Wyandot, Delaware, Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi and Sac nations; the second withthe sachems and warriors of the Six Nations. About the time of theadoption of the Ordinance for the government of the northwest territory, the Ohio Company composed of revolutionary officers and soldiers, hadnegotiated with congress for the purchase of a large tract of land inthe Muskingum valley, and on the 7th day of April, 1788, the town ofMarietta, Ohio, had been established at the mouth of that river, opposite Fort Harmar. The purchase by the Ohio Company was succeeded bythat of John Cleves Symmes, of a large tract of land between the Greatand the Little Miami rivers, and about the first of January, 1789, thefoundations were laid of the present city of Cincinnati. On October 5th, 1787, Arthur St. Clair, of Revolutionary fame, was appointed as thefirst governor of the northwest territory, and on July 9th, 1788, hearrived at Marietta to assume his duties, to organize the government, and adopt laws for the protection of the people. 

The sale of these lands in the Indian country, the planting of these newsettlements, and the increasing tide of men, women and children sweepingdown the Ohio, to settle in Kentucky, seemed to verify all that theBritish agents had told the Indians respecting the American intentions. The depredations on the Ohio river, the plundering of boats, and murderof immigrants and settlers, were on the increase. Governor St. Clair hadbeen given instructions by congress on the 26th day of October, 1787, tonegotiate if possible an effectual peace. He was to feel out the tribes, ascertain if possible their leading head men and warriors and attachthem to the interests of the United States. The primary object of thetreaty was declared to be the removing of all causes of controversy, andthe establishment of peace and harmony between the United States and theIndian tribes. On July 2nd, 1788, he was given additional instructionsand informed that the sum of twenty thousand dollars had beenappropriated, in addition to six thousand dollars theretofore set aside, for the specific purpose of obtaining a boundary advantageous to theUnited States, "and for further extinguishing by purchase, Indiantitles, in case it can be done on terms beneficial to the Union. "Congress was evidently seeking to carry out the letter and spirit of theOrdinance, and to extinguish the Indian right of occupancy, by fairnegotiation and purchase. 

Time will not be taken here to enumerate the many difficultiesencountered by General St. Clair in the negotiation of the treaty atFort Harmar. The violent opposition of Joseph Brant and the Indiandepartment of the British government will be treated under another head. Suffice it to say that President Washington always considered this as afair treaty. In the instructions given by the government to GeneralRufus Putnam in 1792, this language occurs: "You may say that weconceive the treaty of Fort Harmar to have been formed by the tribeshaving a just right to make the same, and that it was done with theirfull understanding and free consent. "

Tarhe, a prominent chief of the Wyandots, said at the treaty ofGreenville, in 1795, to General Wayne: "Brother, you have proposed to usto build our good work on the treaty of Muskingum (Fort Harmar); thattreaty I have always considered as founded upon the fairest principles ** * I have always looked upon that treaty to be binding upon the UnitedStates and us Indians. " The same boundaries were fixed between theUnited States and the Wyandots and Delawares, as were fixed in thetreaty of Fort McIntosh, and the Six Nations ceded to the government alllands west of the Pennsylvania line, but this time a valuableconsideration was given for the land, and the United States"relinquished and quit claimed" to the tribes all claims to theterritory embraced within the Indian boundaries "to live and hunt upon, and otherwise to occupy as they shall see fit. " In other words, and asSecretary of War Knox says, congress had appropriated a sum of moneysolely for the purpose of extinguishing the Indian title, and forobtaining regular conveyances from the Indians, and this was accordinglyaccomplished. One who reads of this great triumph of right and justice, and this humane and merciful treatment of a race of savages, iscertainly justified in feeling a profound respect and admiration for thefathers of the republic. 

CHAPTER IX

THE KENTUCKIANS

--_The first men to break through the mountain barriers to face theBritish and the Indians. _

While the government of the United States was thus shaping its policytoward the Indian tribes, a new empire was building on the westernwaters, that was to wield a more powerful influence in the developmentof the western country, than all other forces combined. That empire wasKentucky. 

The waters of the Ohio "moving majestically along, noiseless as the footof time, and as resistless, " sweep from the junction of the Monongahelaand Allegheny to the waters of the Mississippi, a distance of ninehundred miles, enclosing in their upper courses the island ofBlannerhassett, below the mouth of the Little Kanawha, the island ofZane, near Wheeling, and leaping in a descent of twenty-two feet in adistance of two miles the Falls opposite the present city of Louisville. The lofty eminences which crowned its banks, the giant forests of oakand maple which everywhere approached its waters, the vines of thefrost-grape that wound their sinuous arms around the topmost branches ofits tallest trees, presented a spectacle that filled the soul of thetraveler with awe and wonder at every graceful turn of the river. In thespring a wonderful transformation took place in the brown woods. Theresuddenly appeared on every hand the opening flowers of the red-bud, whose whole top appeared as one mass of red blossoms, interspersed withthe white and pale-yellow blossoms of the dog-wood, or cornus florida. Thus there extended "in every direction, at the same time, red, whiteand yellow flowers; at a distance each tree resembling in aspect so manylarge bunches of flowers every where dispersed in the woods. " This wasthe Belle Riviere, or the beautiful river of the French, which they longand valiantly sought to hold against the advancing tides of Englishtraders and land hunters. This was that glorious gate to the west, through which floated the rafts and keel-boats of the American settlerswho took possession of the great northwest. 

But notwithstanding the beauty and grandeur of this stream, there wasnot, at the close of the French and Indian War, on the tenth ofFebruary, 1763, a single habitation of either white man or savage oneither the Ohio-Indiana side, or on the Kentucky side of this river. Says General William Henry Harrison: "The beautiful Ohio rolled its'amber tide' until it paid its tribute to the Father of Waters, throughan unbroken solitude. Its banks were without a town or village, or evena single cottage, the curling smoke of whose chimney would give thepromise of comfort and refreshment to a weary traveler. "

The reason for this solitude is apparent. To the south of the Ohio laythe "Dark and Bloody Ground" of Kentucky; "Dark, " because of its vastand almost impenetrable forests; "Bloody, " because of the constantsavage warfare waged within its limits by roving bands of Miamis, Shawnees, Cherokees, and other tribes who resorted thither in pursuit ofgame. Says Humphrey Marshall, the early historian of Kentucky: "Theproud face of creation here presented itself, without the disguise ofart. No wood had been felled; no field cleared; no human habitationraised; even the redman of the forest, had not put up his wigwam ofpoles and bark for habitation. But that mysterious Being, whoseproductive power, we call Nature, ever bountiful, and ever great, hadnot spread out this replete and luxurious pasture, without stocking itwith numerous flocks and herds; nor were their ferocious attendants, whoprey upon them, wanting, to fill up the circle of created beings. Herewas seen the timid deer; the towering elk; the fleet stag; the surlybear; the crafty fox; the ravenous wolf; the devouring panther; theinsidious wildcat; the haughty buffalo, besides innumerable othercreatures, winged, four-footed, or creeping. "

This was the common hunting ground of the wild men of the forest. Nonetook exclusive possession, because none dared. The Ohio was the commonhighway of the Indian tribes, and while their war paths crossed it atfrequent intervals, none were so bold as to attempt exclusive dominionover it. 

As was once said in the senate of the United States, "You might as wellinhibit the fish from swimming down the western rivers to the sea, as toprohibit the people from settling on the new lands. " While the greatrevolution was opening, that should wrest our independence from GreatBritain, the stream of "long rifles" and hunting shirt men of Virginiaand Pennsylvania, who followed the valleys of the Allegheny and the BlueRidge from north to south, suddenly broke through the western mountainbarriers and flowed in diminutive rivulets into the basins of theTennessee, the Ohio and the Cumberland; afterwards forming, as TheodoreRoosevelt most strikingly says, "a shield of sinewy men thrust inbetween the people of the seaboard and the red warriors of thewilderness. " In 1774, James Harrod built the first log cabin inKentucky. On the 14th of June, 1775, the first fort of the white man waserected at Boonesborough. 

The situation of the first pioneers of Kentucky was indeed precarious. "They were posted, " says Mann Butler, "in the heart of the most favoritehunting ground of numerous and hostile tribes of Indians, on the northand on the south; a ground endeared to these tribes by its profusion ofthe finest game, subsisting on the luxuriant vegetation of this greatnatural park. * * * * It was emphatically the Eden of the red man. " Onthe waters of the Wabash, the Miamis and the Scioto, dwelt powerfulconfederacies of savages who regarded their intrusion as a menace and athreat. Behind these savages stood the minions of Great Britain, urgingwar on non-combatants and offering bounties for scalps. It was three orfour hundred miles to the nearest fort at Pittsburgh, and a wildernessof forest and mountain fully six hundred miles in extent, separated themfrom the capital of Virginia. 

But it is to the everlasting glory of these men that they knew no fear, and valiantly held their ground. Standing as they were, on the veryoutskirts of civilization, they looked on the perils of the wildernesswith unquailing eye, and with stout hearts and brawny arms they carriedforward the standards of the republic. The thin line of skirmishers thusthrown far out beyond the western ranges, was all that stood between thegrasping power of Great Britain, and the realization of her desire forabsolute dominion over the western country. The ambitious projects ofher rebel children must be defeated, and they must be driven back beyondthe great watershed which they had crossed. The western waters were tobe preserved for the red allies of England, who supplied her merchantswith furs and peltries. The great "game preserve, " as Roosevelt calledit, must not be invaded. Years before, a royal governor of Georgia hadwritten: "This matter, my Lords, of granting large bodies of land in theback part of any of his majesty's northern colonies, appears to me in avery serious and alarming light; and I humbly conceive, may be attendedwith the greatest and worst of consequences; for, my Lords, if a vastterritory be granted to any set of gentlemen, who really mean to peopleit, and actually do so, it must draw and carry out a great number ofpeople from Great Britain, and I apprehend they will soon become a kindof separate and independent people, who will set up for themselves; thatthey will soon have manufactures of their own; and in process of timethey will become formidable enough to oppose his majesty's authority. "This, "kind of separate and independent people, " had now in fact and inreality appeared, and were evincing a most decided inclination to "setup for themselves" on the king's domain. 

The task of faithfully portraying the heroic valour of this handful ofmen who defended their stockades and cabins, their wives and children, against British hate and savage inroad, is better left to those who havereceived the account from actual survivors. In 1777, the entire army ofKentucky amounted to one hundred and two men; there were twenty-two atBoonesborough, sixty-five at Harrodsburgh, and fifteen at St. Asaphs, orLogan's fort. Around these frontier stations skulked the Shawnees, hiding behind stumps of trees and in the weeds and cornfields. Theywaylaid the men and boys working in the fields, beset every pathway, watched every watering place, and shot down the cattle. "In the night, "says Humphrey Marshall, "they will place themselves near the fort gate, ready to sacrifice the first person who shall appear in the morning; inthe day, if there be any cover, such as grass, a bush, a large clod ofearth, or a stone as big as a bushel, they will avail themselves of it, to approach the fort, by slipping forward on their bellies, withingun-shot, and then, whosoever appears first, gets the fire, while theassailant makes his retreat behind the smoke from the gun. At othertimes they approach the walls, or palisades, with the utmost audacity, and attempt to fire them, or beat down the gate. They often make feints, to draw out the garrison, on one side of the fort, and if practicable, enter it by surprise on the other. And when their stock of provisionsis exhausted, this being an individual affair, they supply themselves byhunting; and again, frequently return to the siege, if by any means theyhope to get a scalp. " In this same year of 1777, St. Asaphs, or Logan'sfort, was besieged by the savages from the twentieth of May until themonth of September. "The Indians made their attack upon Logan's fortwith more than their usual secrecy. While the women, guarded by a partof the men, were milking the cows outside of the fort, they weresuddenly fired upon by a large body of Indians, till then concealed inthe thick cane which stood about the cabin. By this fire, one man waskilled and two others wounded, one mortally; the residue, with thewomen, got into the fort. When, having reached the protection of itswalls, one of the wounded men was discovered, left alive on the ground. Captain Logan, distressed for his situation, and keenly alive to theanguish of his family, who could see him from the fort, weltering in hisblood, exposed every instant to be scalped by the savages, endeavored invain for some time to raise a party for his rescue. The garrison was, however, so small, and the danger so appalling, that he met onlyobjection and refusal; until John Martin, stimulated by his captain, proceeded with him to the front gate. At this instant, Harrison, thewounded man, appeared to raise himself on his hands and knees, as ifable to help himself, and Martin withdrew, deterred by the obvioushazard; Logan, incapable of abandoning a man under his command, was onlynerved to newer and more vigorous exertions to relieve the wounded man, who, by that time, exhausted by his previous efforts, after crawling afew paces, had fallen to the ground; the generous and gallant captaintook him in his arms, amidst a shower of bullets, many of which struckthe palisades about his head, and brought him into the fort to hisdespairing family. "

Let another tale be related of this same Benjamin Logan and this samesiege. "Another danger now assailed this little garrison. 'There was butlittle powder or ball in the fort; nor any prospect of supply from theneighboring stations, could it even have been sent for, without the mostimminent danger. ' The enemy continued before the fort; there was noammunition nearer than the settlements at Holston, distant about twohundred miles; and the garrison must surrender to horrors worse thandeath, unless a supply of this indispensable article could be obtained. Nor was it an easy task to pass through so wily an enemy or the dangerand difficulty much lessened, when even beyond the besiegers; owing tothe obscure and mountainous way, it was necessary to pass, through a foescattered in almost every direction. But Captain Logan was not a man tofalter where duty called, because encompassed with danger. With twocompanions he left the fort in the night and with the sagacity of ahunter, and the hardihood of a soldier, avoided the trodden way ofCumberland Gap, which was most likely to be waylaid by the Indians, andexplored his passage over the Cumberland Mountain, where no man had evertraveled before, through brush and cane, over rocks and precipices, sufficient to have daunted the most hardy and fearless. In less thanten days from his departure, Captain Logan, having obtained the desiredsupply, and leaving it with directions to his men, how to conduct theirmarch, arrived alone and safe at his 'diminutive station, ' which hadbeen almost reduced to despair. The escort with the ammunition, observing the directions given it, arrived in safety, and the garrisononce more felt itself able to defend the fort and master its ownfortune. " The siege was at last raised, but on the body of one of thedetachment were found the proclamations of the British governor ofCanada, offering protection to those who should embrace the cause of theking, but threatening vengeance on all who refused their allegiance. Thus it was brought home to the struggling pioneers of Kentucky, thatthe British and the Indians were in league against them. 

Men like Daniel Boone, James Harrod and Benjamin Logan, fighting, bleeding, hunting game for the beleaguered garrisons, were theprecursors of George Rogers Clark. Clark possessed prescience. He knewthe British had determined on the extermination of the Kentuckysettlements, because these settlements thwarted the British plan ofpreserving the west as a red man's wilderness. He had been in the fightsat Harrodstown, in 1777, and doubtless knew that the British partisansat Detroit were paying money for scalps. Knowing that all the irruptionsof savages into Kentucky were encouraged and set on foot from Kaskaskia, Vincennes and Detroit, he suddenly resolved upon the bold project ofcapturing these strongholds. This would put the British upon thedefensive, relieve the frontiers of Kentucky, Virginia andPennsylvania, and in the end add a vast territory to the domain of therepublic. In the accomplishment of all these designs the soil ofKentucky was to be used as a base of operations. 

It is not the purpose of this work to give a history of the Clarkcampaigns, nor of the daring stratagems of that great leader ineffecting his purposes. Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes, each in turnfell into his hands, and when Henry Hamilton, the Britishlieutenant-governor at Detroit, received the astounding news that theFrench on the Mississippi and the Wabash had sworn allegiance to theAmericans, he abandoned his enterprise of capturing Fort Pitt and atonce entered upon a campaign to retrieve the lost possessions and"sweep" the Kentuckians out of the country. His scheme was formidable. With a thousand men, and with artillery to demolish the stockades anddestroy the frontier posts, he proposed to drive the settlers backacross the mountains. "Undoubtedly, " says Roosevelt, "he would havecarried out his plan, and have destroyed all the settlements west of theAlleghenies, had he been allowed to wait until the mild weather broughthim his host of Indian allies and his reinforcements of regulars andmilitia from Detroit. " How Clark with his Virginians and Kentuckians, and a few French allies from the western posts, anticipated his attack, swam the drowned lands of the Wabash, and surprised him at Vincennes, has been well told. Instead of "sweeping" Kentucky, the "hair-buyer"general was taken a prisoner to the dungeons of Virginia, and thenewborn possessions were erected into the county of Illinois. 

For a number of years following the revolution, there were those in theeast, and especially in New England, who suffered from myopia. Theyutterly failed to see the future of the republic, or the importance ofholding the western country. To them, such men as Harrod and Kenton, Logan and Boone, were "lawless borderers" and willful aggressors on therights of the red man. And yet, back of the crowning diplomacy of JohnJay, that placed our western frontiers on the banks of the Mississippi, and extended our northern lines to the thread of the lakes, lay thestern resolution of the men of Kentucky and the supreme audacity of themind of Clark. 

From this crucible of fire and blood a great people emerged, hardy, brave, chivalrous, quick to respond to the cries and sufferings ofothers, but with an iron hate of all things Indian and British stampedeternally in their hearts. Others might be craven, but they were not. Every savage incursion was answered by a counterstroke. The last red manhad not retreated across the Ohio, before the mounted riflemen ofKentucky, leaving old men and boys behind to supply the settlements, and with a little corn meal and jerked venison for their provision, sallied forth to take their vengeance and demolish the Indian towns. Federal commanders, secretaries of war, even Presidents mightremonstrate, but all in vain. They had come forth into the wilderness toform their homes and clear the land, and make way for civilization, andthey would not go back. In every family there was the story of amidnight massacre, or of a wife or child struck down by the tomahawk, orof a loving father burned at the stake. To plead with men whose soulshad been seared by outrage and horror was unavailing. All savagesappeared the same to them. They shot without discrimination, and shot tokill. They marched with Clark, they rode with Harmar, and they foughtwith Wayne and Harrison. In the war of 1812, more than seven thousandKentuckians took the field. It was, as Butler has aptly termed it, "astate in arms. " You may call them "barbarians, " "rude frontiersmen, " orwhat you will, but it took men such as these to advance the outposts ofthe nation and to conquer the west. Strongly, irresistibly, is the soulof the patriot moved by the story of their deeds. 

With all its bloody toil and suffering, Kentucky grew. After the springof 1779, when Clark had captured Vincennes, the danger of exterminationwas over. Following the revolution a strong and ever increasing streamof boats passed down the Ohio. The rich lands, the luxuriant pastures, the bounteous harvests of corn and wheat, were great attractions. JosiahHarmar, writing from the mouth of the Muskingum in May, 1787, reportsone hundred and seventy-seven boats, two thousand six hundred andeighty-nine men, women and children, one thousand three hundred andthirty-three horses, seven hundred and sixty-six cattle, and one hundredand two wagons, as passing that point, bound for Limestone and therapids at Louisville. On the ninth of December of the same year, hereports one hundred and forty-six boats, three thousand one hundred andninety-six souls, one thousand three hundred and eighty-one horses, onehundred and sixty-five wagons, one hundred and seventy-one cattle, andtwo hundred and forty-five sheep as on the way to Kentucky, between thefirst of June and the date of his communication. In 1790, the firstcensus of the United States showed a population of seventy-threethousand six hundred and seventy-seven. On June 1st, 1792, Kentuckybecame the fifteenth commonwealth in the federal union; the first of thegreat states west of the Alleghenies that were to add so much wealth, resource and vital strength to the government of the United States. 

CHAPTER X

THE BRITISH POLICIES

_--The British reluctant to surrender the control of theNorthwest--their tampering with the Indian tribes. _

The seventh article of the definitive treaty of peace between the UnitedStates and Great Britain in 1783, provided that "His Britannic Majesty, "should, with all convenient speed, "withdraw all his armies, garrisons, and fleets from the said United States, and from every port, place andharbour within the same, " but when demand was made upon GeneralFrederick Haldimand, the British governor of Canada, for the importantposts of Niagara, Oswego, Michillimacinac and Detroit, he refused tosurrender them up, alleging that he had no explicit orders so to do, andthat until he had received such commands, he conceived it to be his dutyas a soldier to take no step in that direction. This action of Haldimandwas cool and deliberate and received the full and entire approbation ofthe British cabinet. Tories, and apologists for Great Britain, havewritten much about a justification for this action, but there is no realjustification. Lord Carmarthen, the British secretary of state, afterwards said to John Adams that English creditors had met withunlawful impediments in the collection of their debts, but the realreason why England violated her treaty he did not state. She retainedthe posts to control the tribes. She looked with covetous eye on thelucrative fur-trade of the northwest territory upon which the commerceof Canada was in great measure dependent, and sooner than resist theentreaties of her merchants and traders, she was willing to embroil apeople of her own race and blood, in a series of long and merciless warswith murderous savages. For the fact remains, that if England hadpromptly surrendered up the posts; had not interfered with ournegotiations for peace with the Indian tribes; had refused to encourageany confederacy, and had instructed her commanders to keep their spiesand agents out of American territory, the murders on the Ohio, theslaughter of innocents, and the long, costly and bloody campaigns in theIndian country might have been avoided. 

Nothing can ever extenuate the conduct of England in keeping in heremploy and service such men as Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott andSimon Girty. The chief rendezvous of the tribes after the revolution wasat Detroit. Here were located a British garrison and a British Indianagency. This agency, while guarding the trade in peltries, also kept itseye on the fleets that descended the Ohio, on the growing settlements ofKentucky, and warned the Indians against American encroachment. In 1778, and while the revolution was in progress, the missionary JohnHeckewelder, noted the arrival at Goschochking on the Muskingum, ofthree renegades and fugitives from Pittsburg. They were McKee, Elliottand Girty. McKee and Elliott had both been traders among the Indiansand understood their language. All three had deserted the American causeand were flying into the arms of the British. They told the Delawaresand Wyandots, "That it was the determination of the American people tokill and destroy the whole Indian race, be they friends or foes, andpossess themselves of their country; and that, at this time, while theywere embodying themselves for the purpose, they were preparing finesounding speeches to deceive them, that they might with more safety fallupon and murder them. That now was the time, and the only time, for allnations to rise, and turn out to a man against these intruders, and noteven suffer them to cross the Ohio, but fall upon them where they shouldfind them; which if not done without delay, their country would be lostto them forever. " The same men were now inculcating the same doctrinesat Detroit. They pointed out to the Indians that the Americans were benton extinguishing all their council fires with the best blood of thenations; that despite all their fair promises and pretensions, theAmericans cared nothing for the tribes, but only for their lands. ThatEngland by her treaty had not ceded a foot of the Indian territory tothe United States. That all the treaties thus far concluded with thetribes by the Americans, were one-sided and unfair, made at the Americanforts, and at the cannon's mouth. 

A powerful figure now arose among the savages of the north. Joseph Brantwas a principal chief of the Mohawk tribe of the Six Nations of NewYork. His sister Molly was the acknowledged wife of the famous BritishIndian superintendent, Sir William Johnson. In his youth he had beensent by Johnson to Doctor Wheelock's charity school at Lebanon, Connecticut, where he learned to speak and write English and acquiredsome knowledge of history and literature. In the war of the revolutionthe Mohawks sided with England, and Brant was given a colonel'scommission. He remained after the war a pensioner of the Britishgovernment, and General Arthur St. Clair is authority for the statementthat he received an annual stipend of four hundred pounds sterling. 

The Mohawks had been terribly shattered and broken by the revolution, but they still retained that ascendency among the tribes that resultedfrom their former bravery and prowess. In the mind of Brant there nowdawned the grand scheme of forming a confederacy of all the northwesterntribes to oppose the advance of the American settlements. The firstarbitrary assumptions of the continental congress gave him a greatleverage. They had assumed to exercise an unlimited power of disposalover the Indian lands. The surveyors of the government were advancingwest of the Pennsylvania line and staking off the first ranges. Now wasthe opportune time to fan the flame of savage jealousy, and stand withunited front against the foe. 

It is probable that Brant took part in the grand council held atCoshocton in 1785, and reported to Captain John Doughty by AlexanderMcCormick. The account of McCormick relates that there "were present thechiefs of many nations, " and that "the object of this council was tounite themselves against the white people. " There was an excitedactivity on the part of McKee, Elliott, Caldwell and Girty and they wereendeavoring to keep the tribes away from the American treaties. Thenewspapers of London in speaking of Brant's arrival in England in thelatter part of the same year, gave accounts of his lately havingpresided over a "grand congress of confederate chiefs of the Indiannations in America, " and said that Brant had been appointed to the chiefcommand in the war which the Indians meditated against the UnitedStates. 

In the month of December, 1785, the distinguished warrior arrived at theBritish capital. In an age of less duplicity his coming might haveexcited some feeling of compassion. He had journeyed three thousandmiles across the seas, to see what the great English king could do torestore the broken fortunes of his people. The beautiful valley of theMohawk was theirs no longer. Their ancient castles and villages had beendestroyed, or were in the hands of strangers. All had been lost in theservice of the great "father" across the waters. What would that"father" now do for his ruined and sorrowing children? He reminded LordSidney of the colonial department, that in every war of England with herenemies the Iroquois had fought on her side; that they were struck withastonishment at hearing that they had been entirely forgotten in thetreaty of peace, and that they could not believe it possible that theycould be so neglected by a nation whom they had served with so much zealand fidelity. The Americans were surveying the lands north of the Ohio, and Brant now desired to know whether the tribes were still to beregarded as "His Majesty's faithful allies" and whether they were tohave that support and countenance such as old and true friends mightexpect. In other words, the blunt savage wanted to know whether Englandwould now support the Indian tribes in beginning hostilities against theUnited States. 

The conduct of the British was characteristic. The lands in controversyhad just been ceded by solemn treaty to the new republic. To openlyespouse the cause of Brant was to declare war. A little finesse must beresorted to in order to evade the leading question, and at the same timehold the tribes. They therefore wined and dined the American chief, andpresented him to the king and queen, but promised him nothing. LordSidney rained platitudes. He said the king was always ready to attend tothe future welfare of the tribes, and upon every occasion wherein theirhappiness might be concerned he was ready to give further testimony ofhis royal favor. He hoped that they might remain united and that theirmeasures might be conducted with temper and moderation. In the meantime, the arts of diplomacy must be employed. The barbarian chief must bebribed with a pension, and covertly used as a tool and instrument ofBritish design. 

The great chief then and afterwards entertained misgivings, but heproceeded to play the dupe. In November and December, 1786, he was backin America, and a great council of the northwestern tribes was convenedat the Huron village, near the mouth of the Detroit river. Present werethe Five Nations, the Hurons or Wyandots, the Delawares, Shawnees, Ottawas, Potawatomi, Miamis, and some scattering bands of the Cherokees. A letter was here formulated and addressed to the congress of the UnitedStates, which at once marks Joseph Brant and the British agents back ofhim as the originators of the idea that all the Indian lands were heldin common by all the tribes, and that no single tribe had the right toalienate. In answer to the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh, they alleged that congress had hitherto managed everything in their ownway, and had kindled council fires where they thought proper; that theyhad insisted on holding separate treaties with distinct tribes, and hadentirely neglected the Indian plan of a general conference. They held itto be "indispensably necessary" that any cession of Indian lands shouldbe made in the most public manner, "and by the united voice of theconfederacy;" all partial treaties were void and of no effect. Theyurged a full meeting and treaty with all the tribes; warned the UnitedStates to keep their surveyors and other people from crossing the Ohio, and closed with these words: "Brothers: It shall not be our fault if theplans which we have suggested to you should not be carried intoexecution. In that case the event will be very precarious, and iffarther ruptures ensue, we hope to be able to exculpate ourselves andshall most assuredly, with our united force, be obliged to defend thoserights and privileges which have been transmitted to us by ourancestors; and if we should be thereby reduced to misfortune, the worldwill pity us when they think of the amicable proposals which we now maketo prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood. These are our thoughtsand firm resolves, and we earnestly desire that you transmit to us, assoon as possible, your answer, be it what it may. "

Brant's whole scheme of a confederacy among savage tribes was, ofcourse, wild and chimerical. The same savage hate and jealousy which wasnow directed toward the Americans, would, at the first favorable moment, break out in fiery strifes and dissensions in the Indian camp, andconsume any alliance that might be formed. To imagine that the Miami andthe Cherokee, the Shawnee and the Delaware, the Iroquois and Wyandot, after centuries of war and bloodshed, could be suddenly brought togetherin any efficient league or combination, that would withstand the test oftime, was vain and foolish. The history of the Indian tribes in Americafrom the days of the Jesuit fathers down to the day of Brant, had shownfirst one tribe and then another in the ascendency. Never at any timehad there been peace and concord. Even within the councils of the sametribe, contentions frequently arose between sachems and chiefs. It iswell known that in his later days the Little Turtle was almostuniversally despised by the other Miami chieftains. A deadly hatredexisted between the Cornplanter and Joseph Brant. Tecumseh and Winamacwere enemies. Governor Arthur St. Clair, writing to the President of theUnited States, on May 2, 1789, reported that a jealousy subsistedbetween the tribes that attended the treaty at Fort Harmar; that theydid not consider themselves as one people and that it would not bedifficult, if circumstances required it, "to set them at deadlyvariance. "

Equally pretentious was Brant's claim of a common ownership of theIndian lands. The Iroquois themselves had never recognized any suchdoctrine. In October, 1768, at the English treaty of Fort Stanwix, theyhad sold to the British government by bargain and sale, a great strip ofcountry south of the Ohio river, and had fixed the line of that streamas the boundary between themselves and the English. At that time theyclaimed to be the absolute owners of the lands ceded, to the exclusionof all other tribes. At the treaty of Fort Wayne, in 1809, between theUnited States and the northwestern tribes, the Miamis claimed theabsolute fee in all the lands along the Wabash, and refused to cede anyterritory until a concession to that effect was made by William HenryHarrison. In the instructions of Congress, of date October 26th, 1787, to General Arthur St. Clair, relative to the negotiation of a treaty inthe northern department, which were the same instructions governing thenegotiations at Fort Harmar in January 1789, specific directions weregiven to defeat all confederations and combinations among the tribes, for congress clearly saw the British hand behind Brant's proposedleague, and knew how futile it was to recognize any such savagealliance. 

The British officials were well aware of the shortcomings of Brant'sleague, but they hailed its advent with delight. If the tribes could becollected together under the shadow of the British forts, and freelyplied by the British agents, they could be kept hostile to the Americanvanguard. If the government of the United States could not acquire afoothold north of the Ohio, the British forts were safe, and the tradein peltries secure. The result of this policy was of course foreseen. Itmeant war between the United States and the Indian tribes. But in themeantime England would hold the fur-trade. Thus in cold blood and withdeliberation did the British rulers pave the way to the cominghostilities. 

In November, 1786, Sir Guy Carleton, now Lord Dorchester, arrived atQuebec. Like most of the royal officers of that day he looked withdisdain upon the new republic of the United States. It was evident thatthe old confederation could not be held together much longer. There wasconstant strife and jealousy between the states. In Massachusetts Shays'rebellion was in progress, which seemed at times to threaten theexistence of the commonwealth itself. The courts were occluded, and theadministration of justice held in contempt. In the west, the people ofKentucky were embittered toward the states of the Atlantic seaboard. Their prosperity in great measure depended upon the open navigation ofthe Mississippi, and a free market at New Orleans. Spain had denied themboth, and in the eyes of the Kentuckians congress seemed disposed to letSpain have her own way. 

Under all these circumstances, which appeared to be so inauspicious forthe American government, Dorchester determined to keep a most diligenteye on the situation. Spain had the nominal control, at least, of thelands west of the Mississippi. She had designs on the western territoryof the United States, and was about to open up an intrigue with JamesWilkinson and other treasonable conspirators in Kentucky, who had inmind a separation from the eastern states. To hold the posts within theAmerican territory, was to be on the ground and ready to act, either inthe event of a dissolution of the old confederation, or in case of anattempt on the part of Spain to seize any portion of the westerncountry. Added to all this was the imperative necessity, as Dorchesterlooked at it, of maintaining a "game preserve" for the western tribes. If the Americans advanced, the Indian hunting grounds were endangered, and this would result in lessening the profits of the English merchants. 

Brant was impatient, but Dorchester, like Lord Sidney, proceededcautiously. On March 22, 1787, Sir John Johnson, the British Indiansuperintendent wrote to Brant, expressing his happiness that things hadturned out prosperously in the Indian country, and saying that he hopedthat the chief's measures might have the effect of preventing theAmericans from encroaching on the Indian lands. "I hope, " he writes, "inall your decisions you will conduct yourselves with prudence andmoderation, having always an eye to the friendship that has so longsubsisted between you and the King's subjects, upon whom you alone canand ought to depend. You have no reason to fear any breach of promise onthe part of the King. Is he not every year giving you fresh proofs ofhis friendship? What greater could you expect than is now about to beperformed, by giving an ample compensation for your losses, which is yetwithheld from us, his subjects? Do not suffer bad men or evil advisorsto lead you astray; everything that is reasonable and consistent withthe friendship that ought to be preserved between us, will be done foryou all. Do not suffer an idea to hold a place in your mind, that itwill be for your interests to sit still and see the Americans attemptthe posts. It is for your sakes chiefly, if not entirely that we holdthem. If you become indifferent about them, they may perhaps be givenup; what security would you then have? You would be left at the mercy ofa people whose blood calls aloud for revenge. " On May 29th of the sameyear, Major Matthews of the English army, who had been assigned to thecommand of the king's forces at Detroit, communicated with Brant fromFort Niagara, expressing the views of Dorchester as follows: "In thefuture his Lordship wishes them (the Indians) to act as is best fortheir interests; he cannot begin a war with the Americans, because someof their people encroach and make depredations upon parts of the Indiancountry; but they must see it is his Lordship's intention to defend theposts; and while these are preserved, the Indians must find greatsecurity therefrom, and consequently the Americans greater difficulty intaking possession of their lands; but should they once become masters ofthe posts, they will surround the Indians, and accomplish their purposeswith little trouble. From a consideration of all which, it thereforeremains with the Indians to decide what is most for their own interests, and to let his Lordship know their determination, that he may takemeasures accordingly; but, whatever their resolution is, it should betaken as by one and the same people, by which means they will berespected and become strong; but if they divide, and act one partagainst the other, they will become weak, and help to destroy eachother. This, my dear Joseph, is the substance of what his Lordshipdesired me to tell you, and I request that you will give his sentimentsthat mature consideration which their justice, generosity, and desire topromote the welfare and happiness of the Indians, must appear to all theworld to merit. " Thus did this noble lord, while refraining from makingan open and a manly declaration of war, secretly and clandestinely seton these savages; appealing on the one hand to their fear of Americanencroachment, and urging on the other the security the tribes must feelfrom the British retention of the frontier posts. In the meantime, hebided that moment, when the weakness of the states or their mutualdissensions would enable him to come out in the open and seize thatterritory which the king had lately lost. One is reminded of the remarksthat Tecumseh made to Governor William Henry Harrison in 1810. "He saidhe knew the latter (i. E. , the English) were always urging the Indiansto war for their advantage, and not to benefit his countrymen; and herehe clapped his hands, and imitated a person who halloos at a dog, to sethim to fight with another. "

Pursuant to the instructions of the continental congress heretoforereferred to, Governor Arthur St. Clair, in the year 1788, opened up acorrespondence with the tribes of the northwest in order to bring themto a treaty. The government, though suffering from a paucity of funds, had determined to enter into engagements looking to the fair andequitable purchase of the Indian lands. It was plainly to be seen thatunless an accommodation could be arrived at with the tribes that thegovernment either had to abandon the territory north of the Ohio, orlevy war. This they were reluctant to do. The treasury was practicallyempty and the people poor. The country had practically no standing army, nor was there the means to raise one. In fact, the new constitution hadnot as yet been ratified by an adequate number of states, and the firstpresident of the United States had not been elected. Again, somethingmust be done, if possible, to relieve the sufferings of the westernpeople. They were loudly complaining of the inattention and neglect ofthe government, and if they were left entirely without support infighting their way to the Spanish markets at New Orleans, and inrepelling the constant attacks of the Indian raiders urged on by Britishagents, grave doubts might justly be entertained of their continuedloyalty. In fact, during the month of November, in this same year of1788, the infamous Dr. John Connolly, arrived at Louisville. He came asa direct agent of Lord Dorchester, seeking to undermine the allegianceof the Kentuckians to their government, and offering them arms andammunition with which to attack the Spaniards. This inglorious missionended in Connolly's disgraceful and cowardly flight. 

In their efforts to negotiate a fair compact, the United States had somereason to anticipate a friendly disposition on the part of the Delawaresand Wyandots. Large numbers of the latter tribe had been won over to theprinciples of Christianity and were inclined towards peace, but theMiamis of the Wabash, the Shawnees and the Kickapoos were hostile. AtMiamitown were the Little Turtle and Le Gris; close by, were theShawnees under Blue Jacket; all were under the influence of the Girtys, George and Simon, and all had been engaged in the Indian raids. TheMiami confederates at Eel River, Ouiatenon and Tippecanoe all looked tothe head men at Miamitown for inspiration. Miamitown was in turnconnected with the British agency at Detroit. The confederates of theThree Fires, the Ottawas or Tawas, the Chippewas and Potawatomi, otherwise known as the "Lake Tribes, " were also under the influence ofthe British. On July 5th, 1788, General Arthur St. Clair, writing to theSecretary of War from Pittsburg, said that the western tribes, meaningthose under the influence of the Miami chiefs, had been so successful intheir depredations on the Ohio river, their settlements were so distantand "their country so difficult, " that they imagined themselves to beperfectly safe, and that as they were able by these incursions "togratify at once their passions of avarice and revenge, and their desirefor spirituous liquors, every boat carrying more or less of thatcommodity, few of them may be expected to attend; nor are they much tobe depended on should they attend generally. " He further remarked: "Oursettlements are extending themselves so fast on every quarter where theycan be extended; our pretensions to the country they inhabit have beenmade known to them in so unequivocal a manner, and the consequences areso certain and so dreadful to them, that there is little probability ofthere ever being any cordiality between us. The idea of being ultimatelyobliged to abandon their country rankles in their minds, and ourBritish neighbors, at the same time that they deny the cession of thecountry made by them, suffer them not to forget for a moment the claimthat is founded upon it. "

The first attempt of the government in 1788, to form a treaty ended indisaster. In order to mollify the tribes, it was proposed to hold thenegotiations at the falls of the Muskingum river, in what the Indianswere pleased to term "their own country" and "beyond the guns of anyfort. " General Josiah Harrnar was instructed to erect a council housethere, and appropriate buildings in which to house the goods to bedistributed among the Indians. On the night of July 12th, some Ottawasand Chippewas attacked the sentries and attempted to steal the goodsthey were guarding. Two soldiers were killed and two wounded. FriendlyDelawares who arrived identified an Indian who was slain in the fight, as an Ottawa. It was learned that both the Chippewas and Ottawas wereopposed to a treaty, "and in favor of war, unless the whites would agreeto the Ohio as a boundary line. " Who set on these wild tribes from thenorth may well be imagined. General St. Clair now determined to hold thetreaty at Fort Harmar at the mouth of the Muskingum, and sent a messageto the tribes now collecting on the Detroit river, to that effect. 

The machinations of the British agents at Detroit in the summer andautumn of 1788, while involved in some degree of mystery, seem to havebeen about as follows: Lord Dorchester was apprehensive that theAmericans contemplated the taking of the posts and thereby uprootingthe British influence. In order to avoid such action, it might be thesafer policy to make certain concessions and advise the Indians to giveup a small portion of the territory north of the Ohio, rather than tobring on an armed conflict. But all the tribes must be kept together, ifpossible, and under the direction of the authorities at Detroit. Nosingle tribe must be allowed to negotiate a separate treaty, for thatmight result in the cultivation of friendly relations with the UnitedStates, and if one tribe could be brought under the American influence, this might ultimately lead to the disintegration of the British powerover all. Therefore it was resolved that before any negotiations wereentered into with General St. Clair, that another grand council of thenorthwestern tribes should be held in the valley of the Miami of theLake, or Maumee, and that to that council should be summoned theprincipal sachems and warriors of all the tribes. Alexander McKee, theBritish Indian agent, was to be there, and Joseph Brant, and all actiontaken was to be under their supervision and control. 

On July 14th, General Richard Butler wrote to General St. Clair thatabout eighty chiefs were present at the Detroit river, awaiting thearrival of Brant. On August the 10th that chieftain reached Detroit, butinstead of meeting with unanimity of counsel, he found that the Wyandotswere for "a private and separate meeting with the Americans to settlematters for themselves, " while the warlike Miamis were against any peaceat all and in favor of open hostilities. After five weeks of waiting andcajolery, Brant got them all together in the Miami valley, and thecouncil started to deliberate. The Hurons, Chippewas, Ottawas, Potawatomi and Delawares stood with Brant, and in favor of surrenderingup a small portion of their country, rather than of entering headlonginto a destructive war. The Potawatomi, Ottawas and Chippewas were farto the north and were probably indifferent; the Wyandots and Delawareswere sincerely for peace. But insuperable objections were now offered bythe Miamis, Kickapoos and the Shawnees. Horse stealing was their "bestharvest, " and the plundering of the boats they would not forego. In vaindid the Wyandots urge a treaty. They presented the Miamis with a largestring of wampum, but this was refused. They then laid it on theshoulder of a principal Miami chieftain, but he turned to one side andlet it fall on the ground without making any answer. In the end theWyandots withdrew and the council broke up in confusion. It was plainthat if any agreement was entered into with the American government thatit would not be through any concerted action on the part of the tribes. Tribal jealousy and savage hate rendered that impossible. 

It has been related that when Brant perceived that his confederacy was afailure, and that he could not secure united action, that he said "thatif five of the Six Nations had sold themselves to the devil, otherwisethe Yankees, that he did not intend that the fierce Miamis, Shawnees andKickapoos should do so. " However this may be, it is evident that fromthe time of the breaking up of the Indian council on the Miami, thatBrant and the British agents did all that lay within their power tofrustrate the American negotiations with the Wyandots and Delawares atFort Harmar. According to reports reaching the ears of General St. Clair, stories were placed in circulation among the tribes that in casethey attended the treaty, that the Americans would kill them all, eitherby putting poison in the spirits, or by inoculating the blankets thatwould be presented to them, with the dreaded smallpox. Brant, aftercoming within sixty miles of the fort, turned back to Detroit, takingall the Mohawks with him, and urging back the oncoming tribes of theShawnees and Miamis. "It is notorious, " says President Washington, in aletter to governor Clinton, of New York on December 1st, 1790, "that he(Brant) used all the art and influence of which he was possessed toprevent any treaty being held; and that, except in a small degree, General St. Clair aimed at no more land by the treaty of Muskingum thanhad been ceded by the preceding treaties. "

Thus did the British government, through its duly authorized agents, itsgovernor and army officers, retain the posts belonging to the newrepublic, encourage the tribes in their depredations, and defeat thepacific intentions of the American people, and all from the sordidmotives of gain. On April 30th, 1789, when George Washington wasinaugurated as the first President, every savage chieftain along theWabash, or dwelling at the forks of the Maumee, was engaged in activewarfare against the people of the United States, largely through theinstrumentality of the British officials. 

CHAPTER XI

JOSIAH HARMAR

--_The first military invasion of the Northwest by the FederalGovernment after the Revolution. _

The treaty of Fort Harmar, on January 9th, 1789, so far as the Wabashtribes were concerned, was unavailing. The raids of the Miamis and theShawnees continued. Murders south of the Ohio were of almost dailyoccurrence. For six or seven hundred miles along that river theinhabitants were kept in a perpetual state of alarm. In Kentucky, killings and depredations took place in almost every direction; at CrabOrchard, Floyd's Fork and numerous other places. Boats were constantlyattacked on the Ohio and whole families slaughtered, and their goods andcattle destroyed. 

One hundred and forty-five miles northwest of the mouth of the Kentuckyriver were the Indian villages at Ouiatenon, on the Wabash river. On thesouth side of that stream and near the outlet of Wea creek, were thetowns of the Weas; across the river from these towns was a Kickapoovillage. About eighteen miles above Ouiatenon was the important tradingpost of Kethtipecanunck (Petit Piconne or Tippecanoe) near the mouth ofthe Tippecanoe river, commanded by the chieftain Little Face. About sixmiles above the present city of Logansport, and on the Eel river, wasthe Miami village of Kenapacomaqua or L'Anguille, commanded by "TheSoldier. " At the junction of the St. Marys and the St. Joseph, onehundred and sixty miles north of the Kentucky river, was the principalIndian village of Kekionga or Miamitown, commanded by Pecan and LeGris. All these towns were visited by the French and English traders whocommunicated with Detroit and all were under the domination and controlof the British. The savages in these various Indian villages were so faraway from the Kentucky settlements that they considered themselvesimmune from any attacks; they were taught by the English to look withcontempt upon the American government, and were given to understand thatas long as the British held the upper posts they would be fullyprotected. In war parties of from five to twenty they suddenly appearedupon the banks of the Ohio to pillage the boats of the immigrants andmurder their crews, or crossing that stream they penetrated thesettlements of the interior, to kill, burn and destroy, and lead awayhorses and captives to the Indian towns. Pursued, they were often lostin the almost impenetrable forests of the north, or the savage bandsscattered far and wide in thicket and swamp. 

In the winter of 1789-1790 strange things were happening in the Miamivillages on the St. Joseph and the Maumee. Henry Hay was there, theBritish agent of a Detroit merchant. Here are some of the facts that hehas recorded in his diary. LeGris, the Little Turtle, Richardville, andBlue Jacket, the Shawnee chief, were all in that vicinity. George Girtylived close by in a Delaware town. He had married an Indian woman andwas really a savage. On the twenty-sixth of December 1789, Girty cameto Miamitown to report to Hay. He said that the Delawares wereconstantly being told by the Miamis that the ground they occupied wasnot theirs; that the Delawares had answered that they were great foolsto fight for others' lands, and that they would war no longer againstthe Americans, but would remove to the Spanish territory beyond theMississippi. These facts Hay must report in writing to Alexander McKee, the British Indian agent. On the second of January, 1790, it wasreported that Antoine Laselle, a French trader who had resided atMiamitown for nineteen years, was a prisoner in the hands of the Weas. The crime charged against him was that he had written a letter to theAmericans at Vincennes apprising them of an Indian attack, and that as aconsequence of that letter the attacking party had been captured. One ofthem was the son of a Wea who had burned an American prisoner atOuiatenon the preceding summer, and the Weas now charged that this sonwould be burned by his American captors. Laselle was supposed to be inimminent peril, and all the French and English traders at Miamitowncalled on LeGris. LeGris said that he had always warned the tradersabout penetrating the lower Indian country, but that numbers of theFrench had gone to trade there without his knowledge. He had cautionedLaselle, but Laselle had gone without letting him know. If Laselle hadtold him of his intended trip, he would have sent along one of hischiefs with him, or given him a belt as a passport. LeGris said that notime must be lost, and that he would at once send forward three of hisfaithful warriors to put a stop to the business. On the fifth day ofJanuary, one Tramblai arrived from Ouiatenon, and said that all thereports concerning Laselle were false and that he was having a goodtrade. On the thirteenth, Laselle himself arrived with Blue Jacket and aFrenchman. He bore a letter from the Indians and the French-Canadians atTippecanoe to LeGris, certifying that "the bearer Antoine Laselle is agood loyalist and is always for supporting the King, " That was asatisfactory certificate of character along the Wabash in 1790. 

On the thirteenth of February, 1790, the Shawnees who live nearMiamitown, arrive at that village with the prisoner McMullen. His faceis painted black, as one who approaches death. In his hands he holds the"Shishequia" made of deer hoofs. He constantly rattles this device, andsings, "Oh Kentuck!" He thinks that the day of doom is at hand and thathe will be burned at the stake. Some Indian chief, however, has lost ason. The paint will be washed off and the feathers fastened in hisscalplock, and he will be adopted to take the place of the slain, but hedoes not know that now. The story of his capture is typical of thetimes. He was born in Virginia and came to Kentucky to collect a debt. With two companions he crosses the Ohio at the mouth of the Kentucky tohunt wild turkeys. They separate in the woods, and the Shawnees surroundhim, and cut off all means of escape to the canoe. He tries to breakthrough the encircling ring but is hit on the head with a war billet, and now he is here. The Shawnee band who captured him were out forrevenge. Last spring they had gone out to hunt. A party of Miamis whowere on the warpath returned by another route. The Kentuckians whofollowed them, fell in with the Shawnees, and slew some of their womenand children. Thus runs the tale of blood and reprisal of those savagedays. 

On the twelfth day of December, 1789, and shortly after his arrival atMiamitown, Hay relates that he saw the heart of a white prisoner, "driedlike a piece of dried venison, " and with a small stick "run from one endof it to the other. " The heart "was fastened behind the fellows bundlethat killed him, with also his scalp. " On Sunday, the twenty-first dayof March, 1790, and shortly before Hay's departure from Detroit, a partyof bloody Shawnees arrived with four prisoners, one of them a negro. Terrible havoc had been done on the Ohio. One boat had been attacked onwhich were one officer and twenty-one men. All had been killed, the boatsunk, and its contents hid in the woods. Nineteen persons had been takennear Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky. All were prisoners, save two orthree. John Witherington's family had been separated from him. He had awife "7 months gone with child" and seven children. In addition to allthe above outrages, information was gathered from time to time of allaffairs along the Ohio. The garrisons were numbered, the officers named, and every motion of governor St. Clair closely scrutinized. 

Thus in the very heart of the American country did British officers andagents control the Indian trade; heartlessly wink at or encourage thescalping parties of the savages, and keep a close and jealous watch onthe numbers and movements of the American forces. The diary of theEnglishman reveals the whole story. 

The spring of 1790 was one of horror. Says Judge Burnet: "The pioneerswho descended the Ohio, on their way westward, will remember while theylive, the lofty rock standing a short distance above the mouth of theScioto, on the Virginia shore, which was occupied for years by thesavages, as a favorite watch-tower, from which boats, ascending ordescending, could be discovered at a great distance. From that memorablespot, hundreds of human beings, men, women and children, whileunconscious of immediate danger, have been seen in the distance andmarked for destruction. " On the fourth of April, William W. Dowellwriting to the honorable John Brown of Kentucky, relates that aboutfifty Indians were encamped near the mouth of the Scioto. To decoy thepassing boats to the shore they made use of a white prisoner, who ranalong the bank uttering cries of distress and begging to be taken onboard. Three boats and a pirogue were captured, and several personsbrutally murdered. A boat belonging to Colonel Edwards of Bourbon, Thomas Marshall and others, was hailed by the same white prisoner whopleaded to be taken on board and brought to Limestone. The stratagemfailing to work the savages at once exposed themselves and began to fireon the boats, but without effect. They then pushed off from the shorewith a boat load of about thirty warriors and gave chase, and as theywere better supplied with oars than the white men, they would have soonovertaken them. The cool resolution and presence of mind of one ColonelGeorge Thompson now saved the day. He threw out all the horses in theboat he commanded, received Colonel Edward's crew into his own, andafter a frantic chase of fifteen miles, effected an escape. Seventeenhorses were lost, fifteen hundred pounds worth of dry goods, and aconsiderable quantity of household goods. 

The leading spirits in all these attacks at the mouth of the Scioto werethe Shawnees. The attacks became so frequent, that it was now determinedto organize a punitive expedition against them. Two hundred and thirtyKentucky volunteers under General Charles Scott crossed the river atLimestone and were joined by one hundred regulars under General Harmar. They struck the Scioto several miles up from its mouth and marched downthat stream, but the savages scattered in front of them and only fourIndians were slain. Harmar reported to the government that he might aswell have tried to pursue a pack of wolves. 

The movements of the federal government in 1789 and 1790 were extremelyslow. In the first place, a great many of the people of the easternseaboard regarded the Kentuckians and all ultra-montane dwellers withpositive distrust. This feeling crept into the counsels of thegovernment itself. On June 15th, 1789, in a report of Henry Knox, secretary of war, to President Washington, on the Wabash Indians, thesecretary says that since the conclusion of the war with Great Britain, "hostilities have almost constantly existed between the people ofKentucky and the said Indians. The injuries and murders have been soreciprocal, that it would be a point of critical investigation to knowon which side they have been the greatest. " It was probably just suchsentiments as these that led to the orders of July, 1789, withdrawingthe Virginia scouts and rangers who had helped to protect the frontiers, thus leaving the western people entirely dependent upon the limitedgarrisons stationed at the few and widely separated frontier posts. Inthe second place, the government neither had the men nor the money atcommand wherewith to undertake a successful expedition against thesavages. The number of warriors on the Wabash and its communicationswere placed by Secretary Knox at from fifteen hundred to two thousand. This was probably an over-estimate, but the Indians were formidable. Theregular troops stationed at the frontier posts were less than sixhundred. To organize and equip an army sufficient to extirpate theIndians and destroy their towns, would require the raising of nineteenhundred additional men, and an expenditure of two hundred thousanddollars. This was a sum of money, says the secretary, "far exceeding theability of the United States to advance, consistently with a due regardto other indispensable objects. " In the third place, the governmentvainly imagined that it was possible to effect a peace with the Wabashtribes. The views of Secretary of War Knox were very emphatic on thissubject. "It would be found, on examination, that both policy andjustice unite in dictating the attempt of treaty with the WabashIndians; for it would be unjust, in the present confused state ofinjuries, to make war on those tribes without having previously invitedthem to a treaty, in order amicably to adjust all differences. " Withthese views, Washington himself concurred, observing, "that a war withthe Wabash Indians ought to be avoided by all means consistently withthe security of the frontier inhabitants, the security of the troops, and the national dignity. "

Accordingly, about the first of January, 1790, Governor Arthur St. Clair, descended the river Ohio from Marietta, opposite Fort Harmar, toLosantiville, opposite the mouth of the Licking river. Here was locatedFort Washington. He changed the name of Losantiville to Cincinnati, organized the county of Hamilton, and proceeded to Fort Steuben orClarksville, at the Falls of the Ohio. There he dispatched a messengerto Major John Hamtramck, the commandant at Vincennes, with friendlyspeeches to be forwarded by him to the Indians of the Wabash. A sincereand honest effort was to be made to bring about peace, although St. Clair himself had but little faith in an amicable adjustment andexpressed the opinion that the Miamis and the renegade Shawnees, Delawares and Cherokees, lying near them, were "irreclaimable by gentlemeans. " The heart "dried like a piece of dried venison" was ample proofthat St. Clair was right. 

The first peace messenger sent by Hamtramck was Fred Gamelin, aFrenchman. He proceeded no farther than the Vermilion river, where hewas informed by an Indian that if he went any farther his life would betaken, and he returned to Vincennes. On the first of April, Hamtramcksent forward Antoine Gamelin, an intelligent French merchant. The firstvillage he arrived at was close to Vincennes, and was named Kikapouguoi. The Indians at this place were friendly, and he proceeded up the Wabash. He next arrived at a town of the Vermilion Piankeshaws. The first chiefof the village and all the warriors seemed to be pleased with the wordsof peace from the Americans, but said that they could not give a properanswer before consulting their "eldest brethren, " the Miamis. Theydesired that Gamelin should go forward to Kekionga or Miamitown, andbring back a report of what the head chiefs should say. Gamelin had nowfairly entered the sphere of British influence. He was told that thenations of the lake had a bad heart and were ill disposed toward theAmericans; that the Shawnees of Miamitown would never receive hisspeech. 

Gamelin now advanced to the large Indian village of the Kickapoos, situated on the Big Vermilion river, in what is now Vermilion County, Indiana. Their principal town was on the site of what is now known as"The Army Ford Stock Farm, " a few miles from the present village ofCayuga. This farm has been in the possession of the old Shelby familyfor years. The house contains two or three old fireplaces and has beenbuilt for about a century. It stands on a high bluff facing theVermilion river, and the view is very picturesque. In making recentexcavations for gravel along the roadway to the west of the buildings, an Indian skeleton was unearthed. It was in a fair state of preservationand the teeth in the skull were still perfect. There were also severalIndian arrowheads, remains of a leathern pouch with a draw-string, andparts of a grass-woven blanket. By the side of the skeleton of thesavage were the bones of a dog, and also a small copper bell, which wasprobably worn about the dog's neck. The Kickapoos held the dog inespecial veneration and at the time of the burial of the warrior, fullyequipped with arms and tobacco for the happy hunting ground, the dog wasprobably slain to accompany his master. 

No tribe of savages along the Wabash was more irreconcilable than theKickapoos. "They were, " says Beckwith, "pre-eminent in predatorywarfare. Small parties, consisting of from five to twenty or more, werethe usual number comprising their war parties. These would push outhundreds of miles from their villages, and swoop down upon a feeblesettlement, or an isolated pioneer cabin, and burn the property, killthe cattle, steal the horses, capture the women and children and be offagain before the alarm could be given. " They were always strongly on theBritish side, and numbers of them fought against the Americans atTippecanoe. 

Gamelin at once encountered opposition. The Kickapoos first found faultwith his speech and said that it contained a threat of war. Upon hiseliminating the objectionable words, they said he could go farther upthe river, but that they could not give a definite answer because someof their warriors were absent, and they had first to consult the Weas, who were the owners of their lands. They next found fault with Gamelinfor coming among them empty-handed. They said that they expected "adraught of milk from the great chief, and the commanding officer of thepost, for to put the old people in good humor; also some powder and ballfor the young men for hunting, and to get some good broth for theirwomen and children. " They promised to keep their young men fromstealing, and to send speeches to their nations in the prairies toprevent them from making expeditions. 

On the fourteenth of April, Gamelin held a council with the Weas andKickapoos at Ouiatenon. He found everything hostile. As a Frenchman hewas welcome, but was plainly told that nothing could be done without theconsent of the Miamis; that it was useless to ask them (the Indians) torestrain their young men, for they were "being constantly encouraged bythe British. " One of the chiefs said: "Know ye that the village ofOuiatenon is the sepulcher of all our ancestors. The chief of Americainvites us to go to him, if we are at peace. He has not his leg broke, having been able to go as far as the Illinois. He might come herehimself; and we should be glad to see him at our village. We confessthat we accepted the axe, but it is by the reproach we continuallyreceive from the English and other nations, which received the axefirst, calling us women; at the present time they invite our young mento war. "

On the eighteenth of April, Gamelin arrived at Kenapacomaqua orL'Anguille. The head chief was absent, and the tribesmen would give noanswer. However, they sent some of their men along to hear what theMiamis at Kekionga would say. On the twenty-third of April, Gamelinarrived at the head of the Maumee. The next day he got the Miamis, theShawnees and a few Delawares in council. He presented each tribe withtwo branches of wampum, and began his friendly speeches before theFrench and English traders who had been invited to be present. After hisspeeches were delivered he displayed the treaty of Fort Harmar. Thisgreatly displeased them. 

Nothing can better display the treachery of the Miamis on this occasionthan the statements of the principal chieftain, LeGris, made to Gamelinin a private conversation. After telling the Frenchman not to pay anyattention to the Shawnees, as they were the "perturbators of all thenations, " he said that he knew that the Miamis had a bad name on accountof mischief done on the Ohio, but that this mischief was not occasionedby his young men, but by the Shawnees; that his young men had only goneout to hunt. This glaring falsehood was told in the face of the factthat the Little Turtle himself had been out on the warpath only thewinter before, returning with captives and plunder. 

On the twenty-fifth of April, Gamelin held a conference with the famousShawnee chief, Blue Jacket. The chief was implacable. He informedGamelin that no answer could be given to the American peace messengerwithout hearing from the British at Detroit. That the Shawnees haddetermined to give the two branches of wampum back, and to send Gamelinto Detroit, or detain him twenty days until an answer could be receivedfrom the British. The chief also stated that he believed that theAmericans were guilty of deception. The next day after this conferencefive Potawatomi arrived at Miamitown with two captured negro slaves, which they openly sold to the British traders. 

A day or two after the interview with Blue Jacket, Gamelin was told byLeGris to call at a French trader's house and receive his answer. He wasthere told that he might go back to Vincennes when he pleased, and thatno definite answer could be given to his speeches "Without consultingthe commandant at Detroit. " LeGris professed to be pleased withGamelin's address, and said that it should be communicated to all theconfederates, but declared that the nations had resolved not to doanything without the unanimous consent of the tribes. 

"The same day, Blue Jacket, chief of the Shawnees, invited me to hishouse for supper; and, before the other chiefs, told me that, afteranother deliberation, they thought necessary that I should go myself toDetroit, for to see the commandant, who would get all his childrenassembled for to hear my speech. I told them I could not answer them inthe night; that I was not ashamed to speak before the sun. "

"The twenty-ninth of April, I got them all assembled. I told them that Iwas not to go to Detroit; that the speeches were directed to the nationsof the river Wabash and the Miami; and that, for to prove the sincerityof the speech, and the heart of Governor St. Clair, I have willinglygiven a copy of the speeches, to be shown to the commandant at Detroit;and, according to a letter wrote by the commandant of Detroit to theMiamis, Shawnees, and Delawares, mentioning to you to be peaceable withthe Americans, I would go to him very willingly, if it was in mydirections, being sensible of his sentiments. I told them I had nothingto say to the commandant; neither him to me. You must immediatelyresolve, if you intend to take me to Detroit, or else I am to go back assoon as possible. "

"Blue Jacket got up and told me, 'My friend, we are well pleased withwhat you say. Our intention is not to force you to go to Detroit: It isonly a proposal, thinking it for the best. Our answer is the same as theMiamis. We will send, in thirty nights, a full and positive answer, by ayoung man of each nation, by writing to Post Vincennes. ' In the evening, Blue Jacket, chief of the Shawnees, having taken me to supper with him, told me, in a private manner, that the Shawnee nation was in doubt ofthe sincerity of the Big Knives (Americans), so called, having beenalready deceived by them. That they had first destroyed their lands, putout their fire, and sent away their young men, being a hunting, withouta mouthful of meat; also, had taken away their women; wherefore, many ofthem would, with great deal of pain, forget the affronts. Moreover, thatsome other nations were apprehending that offers of peace would, maybe, tend to take away, by degrees, their lands; and would serve them as theydid before; a certain proof that they intend to encroach on our lands, is their new settlement on the Ohio. If they don't keep this side (ofthe Ohio) clear, it will never be a proper reconcilement with thenations Shawnees, Iroquois, Wyandots, and perhaps many others. "

On the journey back to Vincennes, every indication along the way wasthreatening. At L'Anguille, Gamelin was told that one of the Eel riverchieftains had gone to war with the Americans; that a few days beforehis arrival a band of seventy Indians, Chippewas and Ottawas fromMichillimacinac, and some Potawatomi, had passed through the village onthe way to the American frontier. At Ouiatenon, the Weas said that theEnglish commandant was their father, and that they could do nothingwithout his approbation. "On the eighth day of May, Gamelin returned toFort Knox, and on the eleventh, some traders arrived from the upperWabash, bringing the intelligence that war parties from the north hadjoined the Wabash Indians; that the whole force of the savages had goneto make an attack on the settlements, and that three days after Gamelinleft the Miamis, an American captive had been burned in their village. "

[Illustration: Map of the Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne Campaigns. Drawing by Heaton]

Reluctant as was the government of the United States to engage in warwith the Wabash Indians, no doubt now remained of their warlikeintentions. Every savage town from the Vermilion Piankeshaws to ancientKekionga, was under British control. On the first of May, 1790, GovernorArthur St. Clair transmitted to the war department a part of the reportof Antoine Gamelin, written from Tippecanoe, and observed as follows:"By this letter, you will perceive that everything seems to be referredto the Miamis, which does not promise a peaceable issue. The confidencethey have in their situation, the vicinity of many other nations notvery well disposed, and the pernicious counsels of the English traders, joined to the immense booty obtained by the depredations upon theOhio, will most probably prevent them from listening to any reasonableterms of accommodation, so that it is to be feared the United Statesmust prepare effectually to chastise them. " Shortly afterwards, St. Clair hastened to Fort Washington at Cincinnati, and there held amilitary conference with General Josiah Harmar. Being empowered to callupon Virginia, then including Kentucky, for one thousand militia, andupon the State of Pennsylvania for five hundred more, it was resolved toconcentrate three hundred of the Kentucky troops at Fort Steuben(Clarksville), to march from that place to Post Vincennes. From thencean expedition under Major John F. Hamtramck was to be directed againstthe villages on the lower Wabash, so as to prevent them from aiding theMiamis higher up. The remaining twelve hundred militiamen were to jointhe regulars at Fort Washington and strike directly across the countryto the principal Miami village at Kekionga. No permanent military postwas to be established, however, at the forks of the Maumee. Secretary ofWar Knox was fearful of results. While admitting that the Miami villagepresented itself "as superior to any other position, " for the purpose offixing a garrison to overawe the Indians at the west end of Lake Erie, on the Wabash and the Illinois, still, he was apprehensive that theestablishment of a post at this place would be so opposed to theinclinations of the Indians generally as to bring on a war of someduration, and at the same time render the British garrisons "so uneasywith such a force impending over them, as not only to occasion aconsiderable reinforcement of their upper posts, but to occasion theirfomenting, secretly, at least, the opposition of the Indians. " How anyofficial of the government with the report of Antoine Gamelin in hishands, could hope to soften the animosity of the tribes by the taking ofhalf measures, or to propitiate the British by a display of timidity, ishard to conceive. Four months later the hesitating secretary changed hiscourse. 

The army with which General Harmar marched out of Fort Washington in thelatter days of September, 1790, to strike the Indian towns, was a motleyarray. Pennsylvania had only partly filled her quota. She had sent forthsubstitutes, old and infirm men, and boys. The troops from Kentucky hadseemingly brought into camp every old musket and rifle in the districtto be repaired. There was a scarcity of camp kettles and axes. Thecommissariat was miserably deficient. To add to the confusion, theKentucky militia were divided in their allegiance between a certainColonel William Trotter and Colonel John Hardin. Hardin was fearless, but extremely rash; Trotter was wholly incompetent. In two or three daysthe Kentuckians were formed into three battalions, under Majors Hall, McMullen, and Ray, with Trotter at their head. Harmar, an old armyofficer of the revolution, who felt a contempt for all militia, was insore dismay, for the hasty muster was totally lacking in discipline, andimpatient of restraint. 

In numbers, as Colonel Roosevelt observes, this army was amplysufficient to do its work. It consisted of three battalions of Kentuckymilitia, one battalion of Pennsylvania militia, one battalion of lighttroops, mounted, and two battalions of the regular army under Major JohnPlasgrave Wyllys, and Major John Doughty; in all, fourteen hundred andfifty-three men. There was also a small company of artillery, with threesmall brass field pieces, under Captain William Ferguson. But to fightthe hardy and experienced warriors of the wilderness in their nativewoods, required something more than hasty levies, loose discipline, andinexperienced Indian fighters. Harmar was not a Wayne. The expeditionwas doomed to failure from the very beginning. 

The details of the march along Harmar's trace to the site of the presentcity of Fort Wayne it is not necessary to give. The army moved slowly, and gave the British agents under Alexander McKee plenty of time tofurnish the redskins with arms and ammunition. The star of the LittleTurtle was in the ascendant. He was now thirty-eight years of age, andwhile not a hereditary chieftain of the Miamis, his prowess and cunninghad given him fame. The Indians never made a mistake in choosing amilitary leader. He watched the Americans from the very time of theirleaving Fort Washington and purposed to destroy them at the Indian town. 

On the fourteenth of October the army reached the River St. Marys, described by Captain John Armstrong as a pretty stream, and Hardin wassent forward with a company of regulars and six hundred militia tooccupy Miamitown. He found the villages on both banks of the St. Josephdeserted by the foe. The English and French traders had fled from themain Indian town on what is now known as the Lakeside shore of the St. Joseph, and had carried away most of their valuables. John Kinzie andAntoine Laselle were among the refugees. The savages had burned thehouses in their main village to prevent their occupation by theAmericans, and had buried vast quantities of corn and vegetables inIndian caches. One hundred and eighty-five houses of the Delawares, Shawnees and Miamis, were still left standing in the neighboringvillages. All of these were destroyed by the torch after Harmar'sarrival. 

On Sunday the seventeenth, the main army crossed the Maumee river fromthe south and encamped on the point of land formed by the junction ofthe St. Joseph and the Maumee. It was a beautiful spot covered by theIndian corn fields and gardens. The Kentucky militia in parties ofthirty and forty, throwing aside all discipline, wandered about insearch of plunder. The Indians were wary. They lurked in the woods andthickets, biding the time when they might destroy the army in detail. Major McMullen now discovered the tracks of women and children in apathway leading to the northwest. Harmar resolved to locate the Indianencampment and bring the savages to battle. On the morning of theeighteenth, Colonel Trotter was given the command of three hundred men, equipped with three days' provisions, and ordered to scour the country. The detachment after pursuing and killing two Indian horsemen, marchedin various directions until nightfall, and returned to camp. ColonelHardin was now given command of the expedition for the two remainingdays. 

An event now took place that at once exhibited both the wily strategy ofthe Little Turtle as a military leader, and the blundering bravado ofColonel John Hardin. On the morning of the nineteenth, Hardin movedforward over the Indian trail leading to the northwest. At a distance ofsome five or six miles from the main army, the detachment came upon anabandoned Indian camp. Here a halt was made, probably to examine theground, when Hardin hurriedly ordered another advance, thinking he wasclose on the heels of fleeing red men. In the confusion attending thissecond movement, Captain Faulkner's company was left in the rear. Hardinnow proceeded about three miles, and had routed two Indians out of thethicket, when he suddenly discovered that he had left Faulkner behind. He now dispatched Major James Fontaine with a part of the cavalry tolocate that officer. About this time Captain John Armstrong, who was incommand of a little company of thirty regulars marching with themilitia, informed Hardin that a gun had been fired in front of themwhich he thought was an alarm gun, and that he had discovered the tracksof a horse that had come down the trail and had returned. Hardin with adare-devil indifference paid no attention. He moved rapidly on withoutscouts and without flankers. Armstrong now warned Hardin a second time. He said that he had located the camp fires of the Indians and that theymust be close at hand. Hardin rode on, swearing that the Indians wouldnot fight. 

All at once the army marched into the entrance of a narrow prairie, flanked on each side by heavy timber. At the far end of the prairie afire had been kindled and some trinkets placed in the trail. The frontcolumns came up to these baubles and halted--the whole detachment, saveFaulkner's company, was in the defile. To the right and left of them, concealed in the underbrush, were three hundred Miamis, led by theLittle Turtle. The Indians had divided and "back-tracked" the trail, andwere now watching the Americans enter the trap. At the moment the armyhalted, a furious fire was opened, and all but nine of the militia atonce fled, carrying Hardin along with them. The company of Faulkner, coming up in the rear, suddenly saw two horsemen approaching. Each ofthem had a wounded man behind him covered with blood. The fugitives wereyelling: "For God's sake retreat! You will all be killed! There areIndians enough to eat you all up!" The regulars, however, true totradition, stood their ground. All were stricken down in their tracksexcept five or six privates, and their captain and ensign. CaptainArmstrong sank to his neck in a morass, and the savages did not findhim. "The Indians remained on the field; and the ensuing night, held thedance of victory, over the dead and dying bodies of their enemies, exulting with frantic gestures, and savage yells, during the ceremony. "The captain was a witness of it all. The scene of this conflict was atwhat is now known as Heller's Corners, eleven miles northwest of FortWayne, at the point where the Goshen road crosses the Eel river. 

On the day of Hardin's defeat the main body of the army had moved downthe north bank of the Maumee about two miles and had occupied theShawnee village of Chillicothe. On the twentieth, Harmar ordered theburning and destruction of every house and wigwam in the town, andcensured the "shameful cowardly conduct of the militia who ran away, andthrew down their arms without firing scarcely a single gun. " He was in afury, and was now determined to march back to Fort Washington, and onthe twenty-first of October the whole army moved back for a distance ofseven miles and encamped at a point south and east of the present siteof Fort Wayne. 

Hardin was chagrined. He determined if possible to retrieve his owncredit and that of the Kentucky militia. In the night he approachedHarmar. He told the general that the Indians had probably returned totheir towns as soon as the army had left them. Now was the time for agrand surprise. Harmar, after much importunity, gave his consent to asecond expedition. Late in the night, three hundred and forty pickedmilitiamen and sixty regulars started back for Kekionga. The detachmentmarched in three columns, the federal troops in the center with CaptainJoseph Asheton, a brave officer and a good fighter at their head; themilitia were on both flanks. Major John P. Wyllys and Colonel Hardinrode at the front. 

The sun has risen, and the advance guards of the small army now ascendthe wooded heights overlooking the Maumee. Beyond lie the brown woods, the meadows, and the Indian corn fields. A few savages appear, digginghere and there for hidden treasures of corn. All are seemingly unawareof hostile approach. Wyllys now halts the regulars, with the militia inthe advance, and forms his plan of battle. Major Hall with his battalionis to swing around the bend of the Maumee, cross the St. Marys and comein on the western side of the Indian towns. There he is to wait for themain attack. Major McMullen's battalion, Major Fontaine's cavalry andWyllys with his regulars are to cross the ford in front, encompass thesavages on the south, east and north, and drive them into the St. Joseph. Hemmed in on all sides, exposed to a murderous crossfire, theirescape will be impossible. Strict orders are given that the troops areon no account to separate, but the battalions are to support each otheras the circumstances may require. 

What a terrible fate awaits the regulars. The Little Turtle had observedthat in Trotter's expedition on the morning of the eighteenth, the fourfield officers of the militia had left their commands to pursue a loneIndian on horseback. As the militia emerge on the northern bank of theMaumee a few warriors expose themselves, and the Kentuckiansdisregarding all orders, instantly give chase. The Indians fly in alldirections, the militia after them, and the regulars are left alone. This is the opportune moment. As the regulars cross the ford and climbthe opposite bank, the painted and terrible warriors of the Miami chiefarise from their hiding places and fire at close range. Wyllys falls, his officers fall, all but a handful are remorselessly mowed down, scalped and mutilated, and the day is won. Thus for the second time hasthe cunning Little Turtle completely outwitted his paleface antagonists. 

The remaining details of this disordered conflict are soon told. Theparties of militia under McMullen and Fontaine, sweeping up the eastside of the St. Joseph, drove a party of Indians into the river near thepoint of the old French fort. Fontaine was hit by a dozen bullets andfell forward in his saddle. The Indians were now caught between Hall'sbattalion on the west and McMullen's riflemen and Fontaine's cavalry onthe east. A brief massacre ensued, and Captain Asheton and two soldierskilled a number of the savages in the water with their bayonets. The redmen finally charged on Hall's battalion--it gave way--and they madetheir escape. 

Captain Joseph Asheton in commenting on this last battle at the Maumee, makes the following observation: "If Colonel (Major) Hall, who hadgained his ground undiscovered, had not wantonly disobeyed his orders, by firing on a single Indian, the surprise must have been complete. " Thequestion of whether there was any surprise at all or not, remains indoubt. The Fort Wayne Manuscript, which possesses some historical valueat least, says that about eight hundred Indians were present; threehundred Miamis under the Little Turtle, and a body of five hundred moresavages, consisting of Shawnees, Delawares, Potawatomi, Chippewas andOttawas. That the Shawnees were commanded by Blue Jacket, and theOttawas and Chippewas by an Ottawa chief named Agaskawak. The battleitself, was skillfully planned on the part of the savages. They musthave known that the militiamen were in the vanguard and would cross theMaumee first. They rightly calculated that the impetuosity of theKentuckians and their lack of discipline, would lead them at once into aheadlong charge. This would make the destruction of the regularscomparatively easy and lead to the demoralization of the wholedetachment. A plan so well designed as this, and so skillfully executed, is not formed on the instant. Besides, it is not probable that theLittle Turtle remained out of touch with the American army while it wasin the immediate vicinity of the Indian towns. 

On November sixth, Governor St. Clair wrote to the secretary of war thatthe savages had received "a most terrible stroke. " It is true that theyhad suffered a considerable damage in the burning of their cabins andthe destruction of their corn, but the total loss of warriors was onlyabout fifteen or twenty. The American army, on the other hand, had lostone hundred and eighty-three in killed, and thirty-one wounded. Amongthe slain were Major Wyllys and Lieutenant Ebenezer Frothingham, of theregular troops, and Major Fontaine, Captains Thorp, McMurtrey and Scott, Lieutenants Clark and Rogers, and Ensigns Bridges, Sweet, Higgins andThielkeld, of the militia. 

"The outcome of the campaign, " says B. J. Griswold, the Fort Waynehistorian, "considered from the most favorable angle, gave naught to theAmerican government to increase its hopes of the pacification of thewest. " On the other hand, the savages, their spirit of revenge arousedto the white heat of the fiercest hatred, assembled at the site oftheir ruined villages, and there, led to renewed defiance of theAmericans through the fiery speech of Simon Girty, set about the work ofpreparation to meet the next American force which might be sent againstthem. In a body, these savages, led by Little Turtle, LeGris and BlueJacket, proceeded to Detroit, where they "paraded the streets, utteringtheir demoniac scalp yelps while bearing long poles strung with thescalps of many American soldiers. "

Governor St. Clair expressed regret that a post had not beenestablished; it would be the surest means of obliging the Indians to beat peace with the United States. On December second, 1790, Major JohnHamtramck, writing from Vincennes, gave it as his opinion that "nothingcan establish peace with the Indians as long as the British keeppossession of the upper posts, for they are daily sowing the seed ofdiscord betwixt the measures of our government and the Indians. " Hefurther summed up the situation as follows: "The Indians never can besubdued by just going to their towns and burning their houses and corn, and returning the next day, for it is no hardship for the Indians tolive without; they make themselves perfectly comfortable on meat alone;and as for houses, they can build with as much facility as a bird doeshis nest. " Speaking of this campaign and of its effects on the Miamis, Roosevelt says that "the blow was only severe enough to anger and unitethem, not to cripple or crush them. All the other western tribes madecommon cause with them. They banded together and warred openly; andtheir vengeful forays on the frontier increased in number, so that thesuffering of the settlers was great. Along the Ohio people lived indread of tomahawk and scalping knife; the attacks fell unceasingly onall the settlements from Marietta to Louisville. "

The expedition of Hamtramck against the Kickapoo towns on the Vermilionriver was a failure. He destroyed the Indian village at the site of theold Shelby farm, near Eugene, but the warriors being absent, he returnedto Vincennes. Some local historian has written a bloodcurdlingdescription of the merciless massacre of old men, women and children byHamtramck's army, but this tale is an injustice both to the worthy Majorand the soldiers under him. The only truthful part of this sketch isthat "the adjoining terrace lands were filled with thousands of thegreatest varieties of plum bushes and grape vines and it was known asthe great plum patch. " Since General Harrison's march to Tippecanoe thecrossing at this river has been known as "the Army Ford. "

CHAPTER XII

SCOTT AND WILKINSON

--_The Kentucky raids on the Miami country along the Wabash in 1791. _

The effects of Harmar's campaign were soon apparent. In the closingmonths of 1790, the citizens of Ohio, Monongahela, Harrison, Randolph, Kanawha, Green-Briar, Montgomery, and Russel counties, in westernVirginia, sent an appeal for immediate aid to the governor of thatstate, stating that their frontier on a line of nearly four hundredmiles along the Ohio, was continually exposed to Indian attack; that theefforts of the government had hitherto been ineffectual; that thefederal garrisons along the Ohio could afford them no protection; thatthey had every reason to believe that the late defeat of the army at thehands of the Indians, would lead to an increase of the savage invasions;that it was better for the government to support them where they were, no matter what the expense might be, than to compel them to quit thecountry after the expenditure of so much blood and treasure, when allwere aware that a frontier must be supported somewhere. On the second ofJanuary, 1791, between "sunset and daylight-in, " the Indians surprisedthe new settlements on the Muskingum, called the Big Bottom, forty milesabove Marietta, killing eleven men, one woman, and two children. GeneralRufus Putnam, writing to President Washington, on the eighth of thesame month, said that the little garrison at Fort Harmar, consisting ofa little over twenty men, could afford no protection to the settlements. That the whole number of effective men in the Muskingum country wouldnot exceed two hundred and eighty-seven, and that many of them werebadly armed, and that unless the government speedily sent a body oftroops for their protection, they were "a ruined people. " Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, were all being sorely pressed by savageincursions. 

It was a fortunate circumstance for the future welfare of the greatwest, that George Washington was president of the United States. Greatnumbers of the people in the Atlantic states, according to Secretary ofWar Knox, were opposed to the further prosecution of the Indian war. They considered that the sacrifice of blood and treasure in such aconflict would far exceed any advantages that might possibly be reapedby it. The result of Harmar's campaign had been very disheartening, andthe government was in straitened circumstances, both as to men andmeans. But by strenuous efforts, President Washington induced Congressto pass an act, on the second day of March, 1791, for raising and addinganother regiment to the military establishment of the United States, "and for making further provision for the protection of the frontiers. "Governor Arthur St. Clair was appointed as the new commander-in-chief ofthe army of the northwest, and Colonel Richard Butler, of Pennsylvania, was promoted and placed second in command. St. Clair was authorized toraise an army of three thousand men, but as there were only "two smallregiments of regular infantry, " the remainder of the force was to beraised by special levies of six months' men, and by requisitions ofmilitia. In the meantime, the government, owing to the pressing demandsof the western people, had authorized the establishment of a local Boardof War for the district of Kentucky. This Board was composed ofBrigadier-General Charles Scott, leader of the Kentucky militia, HarryInnes, John Brown, Benjamin Logan and Isaac Shelby, and they were vestedwith discretionary powers "to provide for the defense of the settlementsand the prosecution of the war. " The government had now fully determinedon a definite plan of action. First, a messenger was to be dispatched tothe Wabash Indians with an offer of peace. This messenger was to beaccompanied by the Cornplanter, of the Seneca Nation, and such otherIroquois chiefs as might be friendly to the United States. Second, incase this mission of peace should fail, expeditions were to be organizedto strike the Wea, the Eel river and the Kickapoo towns, in order toprevent them from giving aid to the main Miami and Shawnee villages atthe head of the Maumee. Third, a grand expedition under the command ofSt. Clair himself, was to capture Kekionga, establish a military postthere, and check the activities of both the Indians and British in thevalleys of the Wabash and the Maumee. The instructions of the secretaryof war to General St. Clair with reference to Kekionga were specific. "You will commence your march for the Miami village, in order toestablish a strong and permanent military post at that place. In youradvance, you will establish such posts of communication with FortWashington, on the Ohio, as you may judge proper. The post at the Miamivillage is intended for the purpose of awing and curbing the Indians inthat quarter, and as the only preventive of future hostilities. Itought, therefore, to be rendered secure against all attempts and insultsby the Indians. The garrison which should be stationed there ought notonly to be sufficient for the defense of the place, but always to afforda detachment of five or six hundred men, either to chastise any of theWabash, or other hostile Indians, or to secure any convoy of provisions. The establishment of such a post is considered as an important object ofthe campaign, and is to take place in all events. "

First as to the mission of peace. In December, 1790, the Cornplanter andother chiefs of the Seneca tribe, being in Philadelphia, "measures weretaken to impress them with the moderation of the United States, as itrespected the war with the western Indians; that the coercive measuresagainst them had been the consequence of their refusal to listen to theinvitations of peace, and a continuance of their depredations on thefrontiers. " The Cornplanter seemed to be favorably impressed. On thetwelfth of March, Colonel Thomas Proctor, as the agent andrepresentative of the United States government, was sent forward to theSeneca towns. His instructions from the secretary of war were, to inducethe Cornplanter and as many of the other chiefs of the Senecas aspossible, to go with him as messengers of peace to the Miami and WabashIndians. They were first to repair to Sandusky on Lake Erie, and therehold a conference with the Delaware and Wyandot tribes who were inclinedto be friendly. Later they were to go directly to the Miami village atKekionga, there to assemble the Miami confederates, and induce them togo to Fort Washington at Cincinnati, and enter into a treaty of peacewith General St. Clair. 

On the twenty-seventh of April, Proctor arrived at Buffalo Creek, sixmiles from Fort Erie, situated on the north side of the lake, andtwenty-five miles distant from Fort Niagara on the south shore of LakeOntario. Both posts were held by the British. Here he found the Farmer'sBrother, Red Jacket, and practically all of the Iroquois chieftainsunder the influence of the British officers. The Farmer's Brother, "wasfully regimented as a colonel, red faced with blue, as belonging to someroyal regiment, and equipped with a pair of the best epaulets. " TheIndians had practically given up hunting and were being directly fed andsupported out of the English store-houses. From the very beginning, RedJacket and the Farmer's Brother questioned his credentials. Proctorlearned from a French trader, that about seven days prior to hisarrival, Colonel Butler of the British Indian department and JosephBrant had been in the village. They had told the Senecas to pay noattention to Proctor's talk, and to give him no aid in going to theMiamis, for they would all be killed. 

In two or three days Proctor succeeded in getting the Indians into acouncil. He argued that it was the duty of all men, red or white, towarn the Miamis to discontinue their thefts and murders, before adecisive blow should be "levelled at them" by the United States. Thelives of hundreds of their fellow men might thus be saved. He invitedthem to bring forward any gentleman of veracity to examine his papers, or to hear his speeches. In answer to this, Red Jacket proposed that thecouncil fire be removed to Fort Niagara, so that all proceedings mighttake place under the eyes of the British counsellors. Proctor would notassent to this course, but indicated that he had no objection to theBritish officers being present. They were accordingly sent for, but inthe meantime the Farmer's Brother and other British adherents weretelling the Indians that Proctor proposed taking them to the "verge ofthe ocean" and that the treaty grounds were twelve months' journey away. 

Shortly afterwards Colonel Butler with a staff of British army officerscame into camp. Butler was bold, and told the Indians in Proctor'spresence that Colonel Joseph Brant, of Grand River, and Alexander McKee, the British agent of Indian affairs at Detroit, were now preparing to goamong the Indians at war with the Americans, "to know what theirintentions were, whether for war or for peace;" that nothing must bedone until their return, for should any embassy be undertaken, thiswould certainly bring down the wrath of war upon themselves, and resultin the death of all, for the Miamis were angry with them already. 

A strange event now happened. The Iroquois women suddenly appeared inthe Indian councils and seconded the pleas of the American peacecommissioner. Seated with the Indian chiefs, they easily swung thescales, and carried the day. Red Jacket and other chiefs and warriorswere appointed to accompany Proctor to the west. But the English nowplayed their final trump card. On the fifth of May, Proctor had writtento Colonel Gordon, the British commandant at Niagara, to obtainpermission to freight one of the schooners on Lake Erie, to transportthe American envoy and such Indian chiefs as might accompany him, toSandusky. He now received a cold and insolent answer that at onceblasted all his hopes. Gordon refused to regard Proctor "in any otherlight than a private agent, " and peremptorily refused to let him charterany of the craft upon the lake. This made the contemplated missionimpossible. 

Let us now see what Alexander McKee and Joseph Brant were doing in thewest. Shortly before Proctor's arrival at Buffalo Creek, Brant hadreceived private instructions from British headquarters to set out forthe Grand River, and to go from thence to Detroit. It appears thatshortly after Harmar's defeat, the confederated nations of theChippewas, Potawatomi, Hurons, Shawnees, Delawares, Ottawas, and Miamis, together with the Mohawks, had sent a deputation of their chiefs to theheadquarters of Lord Dorchester at Quebec, to sound him on theproposition as to what aid or assistance they might expect in the eventof a continuance of the war. They also demanded to know whether theBritish had, by the treaty of peace, given away any of their lands tothe Americans. Dorchester, while hostile to the new republic, andfirmly resolved to hold the posts, was not ready as yet to come out inthe open. He informed the tribes that the line marked out in the treatyof peace, "implied no more than that beyond that line the King, theirfather, would not extend his interference;" that the king only retainedpossession of the posts until such time as all the differences betweenhim and the United States should be settled; that in making peace, theking had not given away any of their lands, "inasmuch as the King neverhad any right to their lands, other than to such as had been fairlyceded by themselves, with their own free consent, by public conventionand sale. * * * * In conclusion, he assured the deputation, thatalthough the Indians had their friendship and good will, the ProvincialGovernment, had no power to embark in a war with the United States, andcould only defend themselves if attacked. "

In strange contradiction to the Canadian governor's words, AlexanderMcKee came to the Rapids of the Miami in the month of April to hold acouncil with the Wabash confederates. Thither came Brant, summoned fromBuffalo Creek. McKee waited three months for the gathering of thetribes, but about July first they were all assembled. "Not only theShawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Potawatomis and others, " saysRoosevelt, "who had openly taken the hatchet against the Americans, butalso representatives of the Six Nations, and tribes of savages fromlands so remote that they carried no guns; but warred with bows, spears, and tomahawks, and were clad in buffalo-robes instead of blankets. McKeein his speech to them did not incite them to war. On the contrary, headvised them, in guarded language, to make peace with the United States;but only upon terms consistent with their "honor and interest. " Heassured them that, whatever they did, he wished to know what theydesired; and that the sole purpose of the British was to promote thewelfare of the confederated Indians. Such very cautious advice was notof a kind to promote peace; and the goods furnished the savages at thecouncil included not only cattle, corn and tobacco, but also quantitiesof powder and balls. " England was determined that the Miami chieftainsshould command the valleys of the Wabash and the Maumee, and whilebreathing forth accents to deceive the credulous, were arming the redmen with the instruments of war. 

On the sixteenth of May, the American prisoner, Thomas Rhea, captured bya party of Delawares and "Munsees" arrives at Sandusky. An Indiancaptain is there with one hundred and fifty warriors. Parties are comingin daily with prisoners and scalps. Alarm comes in on the twenty-fourthof May that a large body of American troops in three columns are movingtowards the Miami towns. The Indians burn their houses and move to Rochede Bout, on the Maumee. Here are Colonels Joseph Brant and AlexanderMcKee, with Captains Bunbury and Silvie, of the British troops. They areliving in clever cabins built by the Potawatomi and other Indians, eighteen miles above Lake Erie. They have great stores of corn, pork, peas and other provisions, which, together with arms and ammunition, they are daily issuing to the Indians. Savages are coming in in partiesof one, two, three, four and five hundred at a time, and receivingsupplies from McKee, and going up the Maumee to the Miami villages. Pirogues, loaded with the munitions of war are being rowed up the samestream by French-Canadians. They are preparing for an American attack. 

Rhea hears some things. While he is on the Maumee he tells Colonel McKeeand other British officers that he has seen Colonel Thomas Proctor onhis way to the Senecas and has talked with him. That Proctor told him hewas on his way to Sandusky and the Miami villages, and that he expectedthe Cornplanter to accompany him and bring about peace; that he(Proctor), expected to get shipping at Fort Erie, The British officerswho hear these things, say that if they were at Lake Erie, Proctor wouldget no shipping. The Mohawks and other Indians declare that if Proctor, or any other Yankee messenger, arrives, he will not carry back anymessage. Simon Girty and one Pat Hill assert, that Proctor should neverreturn, even if he had a hundred Senecas with him. 

On the ninth of March, 1791, the secretary of war issued orders toGeneral Charles Scott of Kentucky, to lead an expedition against the Weaor Ouiatenon towns on the Wabash. The expedition was not to proceeduntil the tenth day of May, as hopes were entertained that Proctor mightnegotiate a peace. The force to be employed was to consist of sevenhundred and fifty mounted volunteers, including officers. All Indianswho ceased to resist were to be spared. Women and children, and as manywarriors as possible, were to be taken prisoners, but treated withhumanity. 

The tenth day of May arrived, but Proctor was not heard from. Thehostility of the savages was daily increasing. Scott was delayed a fewdays longer in the hope that intelligence might arrive, but on thetwenty-third of May he crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Kentucky andplunged into the wilderness. Before him lay one hundred and fifty-fivemiles of forest, swamp and stream. The rain fell in torrents and everyriver was beyond its banks. His horses were soon worn down and hisprovisions spoiled, but he pressed on. On the morning of the first ofJune, he was entering the prairies south of the Wea plain andapproaching the hills of High Gap. He now saw a lone Indian horseman tohis right and tried to intercept him, but failed. He pushed on rapidlyto the Indian towns. 

On the morning of June first, 1791, the landscape of the Wea is a thingof beauty. To the north lies the long range of the Indian Hills, crownedwith forest trees, and scarped with many a sharp ravine. At the southernedge of these hills flows the Wabash, winding in and out with gracefulcurves, and marked in its courses by a narrow fringe of woodland. To theeast lies Wea creek, jutting out into the plain with a sharp turn, andthen gliding on again to the river. Within this enclosure of wood andstream lie the meadows of the Ouiatenons, dotted here and there withpleasant groves, and filled with the aroma of countless blossoms. 

"Awake from dreams! The scene changes. The morning breath of the firstday of summer has kissed the grass and flowers, but it brings no evilomen to the Kickapoo villages on this shore, nor to the five Wea townson the adjacent plain. High noon has come, but still birds and grass andflowers bask in the meridian splendor of a June sunshine, unconscious ofdanger or the trampling of hostile feet. One o'clock! And over High Gaphostile horsemen are galloping. They separate; one division wheels tothe left led by the relentless Colonel Hardin, still smarting from thedefeat of the last year by the great Miami, Little Turtle. But the maindivision, led by the noble Colonel Scott, afterward the distinguishedsoldier and governor of Kentucky, moves straight forward on toOuiatenon. "

Scott's advance since the morning has been swift and steady. He fearsthat the Indian horseman will give the alarm. At one o'clock he comesover High Gap, a high pass through the hills to the southwest of thepresent town of Shadeland. To the left he perceives two Indian villages. One is at a distance of two miles and the other at four. They wereprobably situated in the prairie groves. He now detaches Colonel JohnHardin with sixty mounted infantry and a troop of light horse underCaptain McCoy, and they swing to the left. Scott moves briskly forwardwith the main body for the villages of the Weas, at the mouth of Weacreek. The smoke of the camp fires is plainly discernible. 

[Illustration: Showing the Wea Plains and the Line of Scott's March, Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Drawing by Heaton Map]

As he turns the point of timber fringing the Wea, and in the vicinity ofwhat is now the Shadeland Farm, he sees a cabin to the right. CaptainPrice is ordered to assault it with forty men. Two warriors are killed. Scott now gains the summit of the eminence crowning the south bank ofthe Wabash. The Wea villages are below him and scattered along theriver. All is in confusion and the Indians are trying to escape. On theopposite shore is a town of the Kickapoos. He instantly orders hislieutenant-commandant, James Wilkinson, to charge the Weas with thefirst battalion, and the eager Kentuckians rush to the river's edge, just as the last of five canoes loaded with warriors, has pushed fromthe shore. With deadly and terrible aim the riflemen empty the boats tothe last man. 

In the meantime, a brisk fire has been kept up from the Kickapoo camp. Scott now determines to cross the river and capture the town, but therecent rains have swelled the stream and he cannot ford it. He ordersWilkinson to cross at a ford two miles above, and detaches King's andLogsdon's companies, under conduct of Major Barbee, to cross the riverbelow. Wilkinson fails, for the river is swift and very high. Barbee ismore successful. Many of the hardy frontiersmen breast the stream, andothers pass in a small canoe. But the instant the Kentuckians foot theopposite shore, the Indians discover them and flee. 

About this time Scott hears from Colonel Hardin. The redoubtable oldIndian fighter who was saved to die in the service of his country, haspushed on and captured the two villages observed from High Gap, and isencumbered with many prisoners. He now discovers a stronger villagefarther to the left, and proceeds to attack. This latter village isprobably in the neighborhood of the present site of Granville, andopposite the point where the Riviere De Bois Rouge, or Indian creek, enters the Wabash. Scott at once detaches Captain Brown and his companyto support the Colonel, but nothing can stop the impetuous Kentuckian, and before Brown arrives, "the business is done, " and Hardin joins themain body before sunset, having killed six warriors and taken fifty-twoprisoners. "Captain Bull, " says Scott, "the warrior who discovered me inthe morning, had gained the main town, and given the alarm a short timebefore me; but the villages to my left were uninformed of my approach, and had no retreat. "

The first day of fighting had been very encouraging. The next morningScott determined to destroy Kethtipecanunck, or Tippecanoe, eighteenmiles up the river. His knowledge of geography was poor, for he talksabout Kethtipecanunck being at the mouth of the Eel river, but hisfighting qualities were perfect. On examination, however, he discoversthat his men and horses are greatly worn down and crippled by the longmarch and the fighting of the day before. Three hundred and sixty menare at last selected to make the march on foot. At half after five inthe evening they start out under the command of lieutenant-commandantWilkinson and at one o'clock the next day they have returned, havingcompletely burned and destroyed what Scott denominated as "the mostimportant settlement of the enemy in that quarter of the federalterritory. " Wilkinson's detachment had reached the village neardaybreak. The advance columns of the Kentuckians charged impetuouslyinto the town just as the Indians were crossing the Wabash, and a briefskirmish ensued from the opposite shores, during which several Indianwarriors were killed and two Americans wounded. Many of the inhabitantsof Kethtipecanunck were French traders and lived in a state ofsemi-civilization. "By the books, letters, and other documents foundthere, " says Scott, "it is evident that place was in close connectionwith, and dependent upon, Detroit; a large quantity of corn, a varietyof household goods, peltry, and other articles, were burned with thisvillage, which consisted of about seventy houses, many of them wellfurnished. " Scott lamented that the condition of his troops preventedhim from sweeping to the head of the Wabash. He says he had the kind ofmen to do it, but he lacked fresh horses and provisions and was forcedto return to Kentucky. On the fourth of June, he released sixteen of theweakest and most infirm of his prisoners and gave them a written addressof peace to the Wabash tribes. It was written in a firm, manly tone, butwithout grandiloquence. He now destroyed the villages at Ouiatenon, thegrowing corn and pulse, and on the same day of the fourth, set out forKentucky. The grand old man, who was to fight with Wayne at FallenTimbers, had done well. Without the loss of a single man, and havingonly five wounded, he had killed thirty-two warriors "of size andfigure, " and taken fifty-eight prisoners. He took a receipt from CaptainJoseph Asheton of the First United States Regiment at Fort Steuben, forforty-one prisoners. 

On the twenty-fifth of June, governor St. Clair wrote to the KentuckyBoard of War to send a second expedition against the Wabash towns. Onthe fifth day of July the Board appointed James Wilkinson as thecommander. The troops were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Washington, bythe twentieth of July, "well mounted on horseback, well armed, andprovided with thirty days' provisions. " In certain instructions fromGovernor St. Clair to General Wilkinson, of date July thirty-first, Wilkinson's attention is called to a Kickapoo town "in the prairie, northward and westward of L'Anguille, " about sixty miles. This town willbe mentioned later. Wilkinson was directed also to restrain his commandfrom "scalping the dead. " With a Kentuckian, the only good Indian was adead one. 

On the first day of August, Wilkinson rode out of Cincinnati with fivehundred and twenty-five men. His destined point of attack was the Eelriver towns, about six miles above the present city of Logansport. Thecountry he had to pass through was mostly unknown, full of quagmires andmarshes, and extremely hard on his horses. He made a feint for the Miamivillage at Kekionga, but on the morning of the fourth, he turneddirectly northwest and headed for Kenapacomaqua, or L'Anguille, as theEel river towns were known. After some brief skirmishes, with smallparties of warriors and much plunging and sinking in the bogs, hecrossed the Wabash about four and one half miles above the mouth of theEel river, and striking an Indian path, was soon in front of the Indiantowns. He now dismounted and planned an attack. The second battalion wasto cross the river, detour, and come in on the rear of the villages. The first battalion was to lie perdue until the maneuver was executed, when a simultaneous charge was to be made on all quarters of the town. Before the plan could be executed, however, the troops were discovered, whereupon an instant charge was made by plunging into the river andattacking the town on the front. Six warriors were killed, "and in thehurry and confusion of the charge, two squaws and a child. "

Wilkinson found the towns of the Eel river tribes scattered along Eelriver for a distance of three miles. These villages were separated byalmost impassable bogs, and "impervious thickets of plum, hazel andblack-jack. " The head chief of the tribe, with his prisoners and anumber of families were out digging a root, which the Indianssubstituted for the potato. A short time before Wilkinson arrived, mostof the warriors had gone up the river to a French store to purchaseammunition. This ammunition had come from Kekionga on the same day. Several acres of green corn with the ears in the milk were about thetown. All of this was destroyed. Thirty-four prisoners were taken and acaptive released. 

After encamping in the town for the night, Wilkinson started the nextmorning for the Kickapoo town "in the prairie. " He considered hisposition as one of danger, for he says he was in the "bosom of theOuiatenon country, " one hundred and eighty miles from succor, and notmore than one and a half days' forced march from the Potawatomi, Shawnees and Delawares. This was, of course, largely matter ofconjecture. 

The Kickapoo town that Wilkinson was headed for was in fact about sixtymiles from Kenapacomaqua and in the prairie. But it was south and westof the Eel river villages instead of north and west. The imperfectgeographical knowledge of the times led Wilkinson to believe it was onthe Illinois river, but it was in fact on Big Pine creek, near thepresent town of Oxford, in Benton County, Indiana. Wilkinson was rightin one regard, however, for he knew that the village he sought was onthe great Potawatomi trail leading south from Lake Michigan. This trailpassed down from the neighborhood of what is now Blue Island, inChicago, south through Momence and Iroquois, Illinois, south and eastagain through Parish Grove, in Benton County, across Big Pine Creek andon to Ouiatenon and Kethtipecanunck, or Tippecanoe. It was a great furtrading route and of great commercial importance in that day. ThisKickapoo village "in the prairie, " was about twenty miles west of thepresent city of Lafayette, and about two and one-half miles from thepresent site of Oxford, at a place known in later years as "IndianHill. " It was well known to Gurdon S. Hubbard, who visited it in theearly part of the last century and had an interesting talk with theKickapoos there about the battle of Tippecanoe. Jesse S. Birch, ofOxford, an accurate local historian, has preserved an interestingaccount of this village as seen by the early settlers in the years from1830 to 1840. The Kickapoos had, at that time, moved on to other places, but bands of the Potawatomi were still on the ground. "Pits, " saysBirch, "in which the Indians stored their corn, were to be seen until afew years ago. The burying grounds were about half a mile northwest ofthe village and only a short distance west of the Stembel gravel pit. The Potawatomi were peaceful, John Wattles, who describes their winterhabitations, visited them often in his boyhood days. Pits, the sides ofwhich were lined with furs, were dug four or five feet deep, and theirtents, with holes at the top to permit the escape of smoke, were putover them. By keeping a fire on the ground in the center of the pit, they lived in comparative comfort, so far as heat and Indian luxurieswere concerned, during the coldest weather. There are evidences of whitemen having camped near this village. Isaac W. Lewis found an Englishsovereign while at play on his father's farm, but a short distance fromthe site of the village. In the early 30's, his father and eldestbrother, while plowing, found several pieces of English money. " Theglittering coins of "the great father, " had easily found their way intosavage hands. 

But Wilkinson was not destined to strike this main Kickapoo town. Heencamped the first night six miles from Kenapacomaqua, and the next dayhe marched west and then northwest passing between what are now thepoints of Royal Center and Logansport, and "launched into the boundlessprairies of the west with the intention to pursue that course until Icould strike a road which leads from the Potawatomi of Lake Michiganimmediately to the town I sought. " Here for eight hours he flounderedabout in an endless succession of sloughs and swamps, wearing out hishorses and exhausting his men. "A chain of thin groves extending in thedirection of the Wabash at this time presented to my left. " Wilkinsonnow extricated himself from the swamps and gained the Tippecanoe trail, and camped at seven o'clock in the evening. He had marched a distance ofabout thirty miles, and several of his horses were completely brokendown. 

At four o'clock the next morning this little army was in motion again. At eight o'clock signs were discovered of the proximity of an Indiantown. At twelve o'clock noon, he entered Kethtipecanunck, but thesavages had fled at his approach. They had returned since the expeditionof June and cultivated their corn and pulse. These were in a flourishingcondition. Having refreshed his horses and cut down the corn, he resumedhis march for the Kickapoo town "in the prairie, by the road which leadsfrom Ouiatenon to that place. " After proceeding some distance hediscovered some "murmurings" among the Kentuckians, and found onexamination that two hundred and seventy of his horses were lame, andthat only five days' provisions were left for his men. Under thesecircumstances, he abandoned the contemplated assault on the mainKickapoo town, and "marched forward to a town of the same nation, situated about three leagues west of Ouiatenon. " He destroyed the townof thirty houses and "a considerable quantity of corn in the hills, " andthe same day moved on to Ouiatenon, forded the Wabash, and encamped onthe margin of the Wea plains. At all the villages destroyed by Scott hefound the corn re-planted and in a state of high cultivation. Hedestroyed it all, and on the twelfth of August he fell in withGeneral Scott's return trace and marched to the Ohio, where hearrived on the twenty-first day of the month. He had traveled a distanceof four hundred and fifty-one miles in twenty-one days; a feat ofhorsemanship, considering the wild and difficult nature of the country, of no small degree of merit. 

[Illustration: Indian Hills on the Wabash River just below the oldsite of Fort Ouiatenon. Photo by Heaton]

The expedition had in all things been a success. He had captured anumber of prisoners, cut down four hundred and thirty acres of corn inthe milk, and destroyed at least two Indian towns. 

Some of the historians who have commented on these campaigns of Scottand Wilkinson and the Kentucky militia, have sought to minimize and evento discredit these expeditions. Says Albach: "The expeditions of Harmar, Scott and Wilkinson were directed against the Miamis and Shawnees, andserved only to exasperate them. The burning of their towns, thedestruction of their corn, and the captivity of their women andchildren, only aroused them to more desperate efforts to defend theircountry, and to harass their invaders. " The review of Secretary of WarKnox, communicated to President Washington on the twenty-sixth ofDecember, 1791, however, contains the following: "The effect of suchdesultory operations upon the Indians, will, by occupying them for theirown safety and that of their families, prevent them spreading terror anddestruction along the frontiers. These sort of expeditions had thatprecise effect during the last season, and Kentucky enjoyed more reposeand sustained less injury, than for any year since the war with GreatBritain. This single effect, independent of the injury done to theforce of the Indians, is worth greatly more than the actual expense ofsuch expeditions. "

Other effects produced were equally important. The brave Kentuckians, for the first time, were acting in conjunction with, and under thedirection and control of the federal authorities. The cement of a commoninterest, as Washington would say, was binding state and nationtogether. Not only were the soil and the long suffering people ofKentucky rendered more secure against Indian attack, but the hardydescendants of the pioneers were being trained for the eventful conflictof 1812, when seven thousand of the valorous sons of that commonwealthshould take the field in the defense of their country. 

CHAPTER XIII

ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT

_--The first great disaster to the Federal armies brought about by theMiamis. _

The objectives of General St. Clair have already been mentioned. He wasnow to take the village of Kekionga, establish a garrison there, anderect a chain of posts stretching from the new establishment to FortWashington at Cincinnati. 

The army with which St. Clair was expected to accomplish this taskconsisted of "two small regiments of regulars, two of six months'levies, a number of Kentucky militia, a few cavalry, and a couple ofsmall batteries of light guns. " In all there were fourteen hundred menand eighty-six officers. The Kentucky militia were under the command ofColonel Oldham, a brave officer who afterwards fell on the field ofbattle. The levies were "men collected from the streets and prisons ofthe city, hurried out into the enemy's country and with the officerscommanding them, totally unacquainted with the business in which theywere engaged. " Their pay was miserable. Each private received twodollars and ten cents a month; the sergeants three dollars and sixtycents. Being recruited at various times and places, their terms ofenlistment were expiring daily, and they wanted to go home. As they werereckless and intemperate, St. Clair, in order to preserve somesemblance of order, removed them to Ludlow's Station, about six milesfrom Fort Washington. Major Ebenezer Denny, aide to St. Clair, says thatthey were "far inferior to the militia. " On the morning of Octobertwenty-ninth, when St. Clair's army was penetrating the heart of theIndian country, this disorderly element was keeping up a constant firingabout the camp, contrary to the positive orders of the day. 

In the quartermaster's department everything "went on slowly and badly;tents, pack-saddles, kettles, knapsacks and cartridge boxes, were all'deficient in quantity and quality. '" The army contractors werepositively dishonest, and the war department seems to have beenfearfully negligent in all of its work. Judge Jacob Burnet records that"it is a well authenticated fact, that boxes and packages were socarelessly put up and marked, that during the action a box was openedmarked 'flints, ' which was found to contain gun-locks. Several mistakesof the same character were discovered, as for example, a keg of powdermarked 'for the infantry, ' was found to contain damaged cannon-powder, that could scarcely be ignited. "

St. Clair was sick, and so afflicted with the gout that he was unable tomount or dismount a horse without assistance. On the night before hisgreat disaster he was confined to his camp bed and unable to get up. Born in Edinburgh, in Scotland, in 1734, he was now fifty-seven years ofage, and too old and infirm to take command of an army in a hazardousIndian campaign. Besides, he had had no experience in such a contest. Hewas, however, a man of sterling courage. He had been a lieutenant inthe army of General Wolfe at Quebec. He espoused the cause of thecolonies, and had fought with distinguished valor at Trenton andPrinceton. Under him, and second in command, was General Richard Butler, of Pennsylvania. Butler was a man of jealous and irritable temperamentand had had a bitter controversy with Harmar over the campaign of theyear before. A coolness now sprang up between him and St. Clair, which, as we shall see, led to lamentable results. The mind of General Harmarwas filled with gloomy forebodings. Taking into consideration thematerial of which the army was composed and the total inefficiency ofthe quartermaster and the contractors, "it was a matter of astonishmentto him, " says Denny, "that the commanding general * * * * should thinkof hazarding, with such people, and under such circumstances, hisreputation and life, and the lives of so many others, knowing, too, asboth did, the enemy with whom he was going to contend; an enemy broughtup from infancy to war, and perhaps superior to an equal number of thebest men that could be taken against them. "

Owing to delays the army which was to rendezvous at Fort Washington notlater than July tenth, did not actually start into the wilderness untilthe fourth day of October. On the seventeenth of September, a halt hadbeen made on the Great Miami, and Fort Hamilton erected. Twenty milesnorth of this place, a light fortification known as Fort St. Clair, wasbuilt. About six miles south of the present town of Greenville, in Darkecounty, Ohio, the army threw up the works of Fort Jefferson, and thenmoved forward at a snail's pace into the forests and prairies. Everyfoot of the road through the heavy timber had to be cleared. Rains wereconstant. The troops were on half rations and terribly impatient. Parties of militia were daily deserting. On the twenty-seventh ofOctober, Major Denny entered in his diary the following: "The season sofar advanced it will be impracticable to continue the campaign. Forageentirely destroyed; horses failing and cannot be kept up; provisionsfrom hand to mouth. " The Little Turtle was again on the watch. A hostilearmy was entering the sacred domain of the Miamis. Indian scouts andrunners were constantly lurking on the skirts of the army. In afteryears, a woman heard the great chief say of a fallen enemy: "We met; Icut him down; and his shade as it passes on the wind, shuns my walk!"This terrible foe, like a tiger in his jungle, was waiting for themoment to spring on his prey. It soon came. On the thirty-first ofOctober, a party of militia, sixty or seventy in number, deserted thecamp and swore that they would stop the packhorses in the rear, ladenwith provisions. St. Clair sent back after them the First United StatesRegiment under Major John Hamtramck, the most experienced Indianfighters in the whole army. These were the men the Indians most feared. The savage chieftain determined to strike. 

Later than usual, and on the evening of November third, the tired andhungry army of St. Clair emerged on the headwaters of the river Wabash. "There was a small, elevated meadow on the east banks of this stream, while a dense forest spread gloomily all around. " A light snow was onthe ground, and the pools of water were covered with a thin coat ofice. The Wabash at this point was twenty yards wide. The militia werethrown across the stream about three hundred yards in advance of themain army. As they took their positions, a few Indians were routed outof the underbrush and fled precipitately into the woods. The main bodyof troops was cooped up in close quarters. The right wing was composedof Butler's, Clark's, and Patterson's battalions, commanded by MajorGeneral Butler. These battalions formed the first line of theencampment. The left wing, consisting of Bedinger's and Gaither'sbattalions, and the Second United States Regiment of regulars, under thecommand of Colonel William Darke, formed the second line. An intervalbetween these lines of about seventy yards "was all the ground wouldallow. " St. Clair thought that his right flank was fairly well securedby a creek, "while a steep bank, and Faulkner's corps, some of thecavalry, and their picquets, covered the left flank. " No works whateverwere thrown up to protect the army, but the great camp-fires of thesoldiers illumined the whole host. In the circumjacent forests, and alittle in advance of the position occupied by the militia, was a camp ofover eleven hundred Indians, composed of Miamis, Shawnees, Potawatomi, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas and Wyandots, with a number of Britishadherents from Detroit, waiting for the first hours of dawn of thecoming day. 

What strange sense of security lulled the vigilance of the Americanleaders will never be known. During the night the frequent firing of thesentinels disturbed the whole camp, and the outlying guards reportedbands of savages skulking about in considerable numbers. "About teno'clock at night, " says Major Denny, "General Butler, who commanded theright wing, was desired to send out an intelligent officer and party tomake discoveries. Captain Slough, with two subalterns and thirty men, Isaw parade at General Butler's tent for this purpose, and heard thegeneral give Captain Slough very particular verbal orders how toproceed. " Slough afterwards testified before a committee of Congress, that he was sent out during the night with a party of observation andthat he saw a force of Indians approaching the American camp, with aview to reconnoitering it, whereupon, he hastened to the camp of themilitia and reported to their leader. "I halted my party, " says Slough, "near Colonel Oldham's tent, went into it, and awakened him, I believeabout twelve o'clock. I told him that I was of his opinion, that thecamp would be attacked in the morning, for I had seen a number ofIndians. I proceeded to the camp, and as soon as I had passed the campguards, dismissed the party, and went to General Butler's tent. As Iapproached it, I saw him come out of the tent, and stand by the fire. Iwent up to him, and took him some distance from it, not thinking itprudent that the sentry should hear what I had seen. I also told himwhat Colonel Oldham had said, and that, if he thought proper, I would goand make a report to General St. Clair. He stood some time, and after apause, thanked me for my attention and vigilance, and said, as I must befatigued, I had better go and lie down. " Fatuous and unexplainableconduct in the face of certain peril!

At a half hour before sunrise on the morning of November fourth, 1791, the army of St. Clair is at parade. The soldiers have just beendismissed and are returning to their tents, when the woods in front ringwith the shots and yells of a thousand savages. On the instant thebugles sound the call to arms, but the front battalions are scarce inline, when the remnants of the militia, torn and bleeding, burst throughthem. The levies, firing, check the first mad rush of the oncomingwarriors, but the Indians scattering to right and left, encircle thecamp. The guards are down, the army in confusion, and under the pall ofsmoke which now settles down to within three feet of the ground, themurderous red men approach the lines. The yelling has now ceased, butfrom behind every tree, log and stump a pitiless fire rains on thetroops. The officers shout, the men discharge their guns, but they seenothing. The artillery thunders with tremendous sound, but soldiers arefalling on every hand. 

St. Clair is valorous, but what can valor do in a tempest of death? Hetries to mount a horse, but the horse is shot through the head, and thelad that holds him is wounded in the arm. He tries to mount a second, but horse and servant are both mowed down. The third horse is brought, but fearing disaster, St. Clair hobbles to the front lines to cheer histroops. He wears no uniform, and out from under his great three corneredhat flows his long gray hair. A ball grazes the side of his face andcuts away a lock. The weight of the savage fire is now falling on theartillery in the center. The gunners sink beneath their guns. Theherculean lieutenant-colonel, William Darke, who has fought atYorktown, is ordered to charge on the right front. The troops rushforward with levelled bayonets, the savages are routed from theircoverts, are visible a moment, and then disappear. As the levies advancethe savages close in behind. Darke is surrounded on all sides--his threehundred men become thirty, and he falls back. 

In the absence of Darke, the left flank of the army is now pressed in. Guns and artillery fall into the hands of the foe. Every artillery-manis killed but one, and he is badly wounded. The gunners are beingscalped. St. Clair leads another charge on foot. The savages skip beforethe steel, disappear in the smoke and underbrush, and fire on thesoldiers from every point as they make retreat. Charge after charge ismade, but all are fruitless. The regulars and the levies, out in theopen, unable to see the enemy, die by scores. The carnage is fearful. 

The troops have fought for about three hours, and the remnants of thearmy are huddled in the center. The officers are about all down, for thesavages have made it a point to single them out. Butler is fatallywounded and leaning against a tree. The men are stupefied and give up indespair. Shouts of command are given, officers' pistols are drawn, butthe men refuse to fight. The wounded are lying in heaps, and thecrossfire of the Indians, now centering from all points, threatens utterextermination. There is only one hope left--a desperate dash through thesavage lines, and escape. "It was past nine o'clock, " says Denny, "whenrepeated orders were given to charge towards the road. * * * Bothofficers and men seemed confounded, incapable of doing anything; theycould not move until it was told that a retreat was intended. A fewofficers put themselves in front, the men followed, the enemy gave way, and perhaps not being aware of the design, we were for a few momentsleft undisturbed. "

[Illustration: Another view of the Wabash, a land of great beauty. Photo by Heaton]

In after years it was learned that Captain William Wells was in chargeof a party of about three hundred young Indian warriors, who were postedbehind logs and trees, immediately under the knoll on which theartillery stood. They picked off the artillery-men one by one, until ahuge pile of corpses lay about the gun wheels. As the Indians swarmedinto the camp in the intervals between the futile charges of theregulars, the artillery-men were all scalped. Wells belonged to aKentucky family and had been captured by the Miamis when a child twelveyears of age, and is said to have become the adopted son of LittleTurtle. He had acquired the tongue and habits of a savage, but after thebattle with St. Clair he seems to have been greatly troubled with thethought that he might have slain some of his own kindred. Afterwardswhen Wayne's army advanced into the Indian country he bade the LittleTurtle goodbye, and became one of Wayne's most trusty and valuablescouts. After Fallen Timbers he returned to his Indian wife andchildren, but remained the friend of the United States. In GeneralHarrison's day he was United States Indian agent at Fort Wayne, but waskilled in the massacre of Fort Dearborn, in 1812, by the faithless bandsof Potawatomi under the chief Blackbird. 

The retreat of St. Clair's army was very precipitate. "It was, in fact, a flight. " The fugitives threw away their arms and accouterments andmade a mad race for the walls of Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles away, arriving there a little after sunset. The loss of the Americans wasappalling, and recalled the disaster of Braddock's defeat on theMonongahela. Out of an army of twelve hundred men and eighty-sixofficers, Braddock lost seven hundred and twenty-seven in killed andwounded. St. Clair's army consisted of fourteen hundred men andeighty-six officers, of whom eight hundred and ninety men and sixteenofficers were killed or wounded. The slaughter of officers of the linehad been so disastrous, that in the spring of the next year, AnthonyWayne, the new commander, found it extremely difficult to train the newtroops. He had first to impart the military tactics to a group of youngofficers. "Several pieces of artillery, and all the baggage, ammunition, and provisions, were left on the field of battle, and fell into thehands of the Indians. The stores and other public property, lost in theaction, were valued at thirty-two thousand eight hundred and ten dollarsand seventy-five cents. " The loss of the Indians was trifling. As nearas may be ascertained, they had about thirty killed and fifty wounded. 

The field of action was visited by General James Wilkinson about thefirst of February, 1792. An officer who was present relates thefollowing: "The scene was truly melancholy. In my opinion thoseunfortunate men who fell into the enemy's hands, with life, were usedwith the greatest torture--having their limbs torn off; and the womenhad been treated with the most indecent cruelty, having stakes, as thickas a person's arm, drove through their bodies. " In December, 1793, General Wayne, having arrived at Greenville, Ohio, sent forward adetachment to the spot of the great defeat. "They arrived on the ground, on Christmas day, and pitched their tents at night; they had to scrapethe bones together and carry them out to make their beds. The next dayholes were dug, and the bones remaining above ground were buried; sixhundred skulls being found among them. "

The whole nation was terribly shocked by the news of the defeat. Thebordermen of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky were immediatelyexposed to a renewal of Indian attacks and the government seemedpowerless. St. Clair came in for severe censure, more severe in fact, than was justly warranted. The sending back of Hamtramck's regiment, theunfortified condition of the camp on the night before the attack, theposting of the militia in advance of the main army, and the utter lackof scouts and runners, were all bad enough, but on the other hand, thedelay and confusion in the quartermaster's department, the derelictionof the contractors, and the want of discipline among the militia and thelevies, were all matters of extenuation. To win was hopeless. Tounjustly denounce an old and worthy veteran of the Revolution, who actedwith so much manly courage on the field of battle, ill becomes anAmerican. A committee of Congress completely exonerated him. 

The administration itself and the department of war, were sharplycriticized. But the representatives of the people themselves were moreto blame than the government. Thousands had deprecated the attempt ofthe President to protect the frontiers and to sustain the arm of thewestern generals. The mean and niggardly support accorded thecommander-in-chief, was largely instrumental in bringing about thelamentable result. The jealous and parsimonious states of the east, hadregarded only their own selfish ends, to the utter exclusion of thenational interest. 

CHAPTER XIV

WAYNE AND FALLEN TIMBERS

--_Final triumph of the Government over Indians and British. _

The great soul of Washington was sorely tried, but he did not falter. The first thing to do was to raise an efficient army, and that was done. Early in the year 1792, the forces of the United States were put on anew footing. The military establishment was now to consist of "fivethousand one hundred and sixty-eight non-commissioned officers, privatesand musicians. " Enlistments were to be made for a period of three years, and the pay of the soldiers increased. General Anthony Wayne wasappointed commander and instructed by Washington to spare neither powdernor ball, 'so that his men be made marksmen. '

Wayne was a fighter of fearless courage and daring brilliancy. He wasnow forty-seven years of age and had entered the revolution as a Colonelin the Continental Army. He had fought with Washington at Brandywine andGermantown, and had driven the Hessians at the point of the bayonet. "AtMonmouth he turned the fortunes of the day by his stubborn andsuccessful resistance to the repeated bayonet charges of the Guards andGrenadiers. " The storming of Stony Point is ranked by Lossing as one ofthe most brilliant achievements of the Revolutionary war. He fought atYorktown and later drove the English out of Georgia. His favorite weaponof offense was the bayonet. General William Henry Harrison, who was aideto Wayne at the battle of Fallen Timbers, said to him: "General Wayne, Iam afraid you will get into the fight yourself, and forget to give methe necessary field orders. " "Perhaps I may, " replied Wayne, "and if Ido, recollect the standing order of the day is, 'Charge the damnedrascals with the bayonets!'"

In the month of June, 1792, Wayne arrived at Pittsburgh to take chargeof his new command. Most of the new army were ignorant of militarytactics, and without discipline, but the General at once enteredvigorously upon his great task. On the twenty-eighth of November, thearmy left Pittsburgh and encamped at Legionville, twenty-two miles tothe south. Here the great work of training the raw recruits proceeded. "By the salutary measures adopted to introduce order and discipline, thearmy soon began to assume its proper character. The troops were dailyexercised in all the evolutions necessary to render them efficientsoldiers, and more especially in those maneuvers proper in a campaignagainst savages. Firing at a mark was constantly practiced, and rewardsgiven to the best marksmen. To inspire emulation, the riflemen and theinfantry strove to excel, and the men soon attained to an accuracy thatgave them confidence in their own prowess. On the artillery the Generalimpressed the importance of that arm of the service. The dragoons hetaught to rely on the broadsword, as all important to victory. Theriflemen were made to see how much success must depend on theircoolness, quickness and accuracy; while the infantry were led to placeentire confidence in the bayonet, as the certain and irresistible weaponbefore which the savages could not stand. The men were instructed tocharge in open order; each to rely on himself, and to prepare for apersonal contest with the enemy. " The orders and admonitions of Waynefell not on deaf ears. The Legion of the United States became a thing oflife. In the battle at the Miami Rapids a soldier of the Legion met asingle warrior in the woods and they attacked each other, "the soldierwith his bayonet, the Indian with his tomahawk. Two days after, theywere found dead; the soldier with his bayonet in the body of theIndian--the Indian with his tomahawk in the head of the soldier. "

About the first of May, 1793, the army moved down the Ohio in boats andencamped near Fort Washington, Cincinnati, at a place which was named"Hobson's Choice. " At this place the main body of the troops was halteduntil about the seventh of October, to await the outcome of the repeatedattempts of the government to make peace with the Indian tribes. 

The difficulties that beset the pathway of President Washington at theopening of the year 1792, seemed insurmountable. On the one hand, thepeople of the east regarded the westerners as the real aggressors in theborder conflicts, and were extremely loath to grant aid to thegovernment. The debates in Congress reflected their attitude. On theother hand, the people of Kentucky regarded the efforts of thegovernment to secure to them the navigation of the Mississippi, asprocrastinating and futile. They even suspected the good faith ofWashington himself, but in this they erred, for negotiations were onfoot that finally secured to them the desired end. Moreover the failureof Harmar and the disaster of St. Clair had filled the backwoodsmen withmisgivings and they had no faith in the regular army or its generals. The extreme poverty of the government, the utter lack of support fromall sections, would have brought dismay to the heart of any man butWashington. He, however, remained firm. Forced by what Roosevelt hastermed as the "supine indifference of the people at large, " hedetermined to make one more effort to secure peace, but failing in that, the army of Anthony Wayne should be made ready for the final appeal toarms. 

On the seventh of April, 1792, Freeman and Gerrard, two messengers ofpeace, were sent forward to the Maumee, but both were killed. About thetwentieth of May, Major Alexander Trueman, of the First United StatesRegiment, and Colonel John Hardin, of Kentucky, left Fort Washingtonwith copies of a speech from President Washington to the Indians. ThePresident expressed his desire to impart to the tribes all the blessingsof civilized life; to teach them to cultivate the earth and to raisecorn and domestic animals; to build comfortable houses and to educatetheir children. He expressly disaffirmed any intention to seize anyadditional lands, and promised that compensation should be made to alltribes who had not received full satisfaction. The threat of SimonGirty against Proctor, was now made good as against both Hardin andTrueman. Hardin was to go among the Wyandots at Sandusky, while Truemanproceeded to the Rapids of the Maumee. Months after they had departed, one William May, who had been captured by the Indians, testified that hesaw the scalp of Trueman dangling on a stick, and that Trueman's papersfell into the hands of Alexander McKee, who forwarded them to Detroit. Later he saw another scalp said to be the brave Colonel Hardin's, andHardin's papers fell into the hands of Matthew Elliott. This was theanswer of the savage allies to the flag of truce. 

In May, 1792, General Rufus Putnam, of Ohio, and the Reverend JohnHeckewelder, of the Moravian missions, were sent to the Wabash tribes tomake a treaty. The instructions to Putman were of the most pacificnature. He was told to renounce on the part of the United States, "allclaim to any Indian land which shall not have been ceded by fairtreaties, made with the Indian nations. " "You will make it clearlyunderstood, that we want not a foot of their land, and that it istheirs, and theirs only; that they have the right to sell, and the rightto refuse to sell, and the United States will guarantee to them the saidjust right. " Putnam carried forward with him about one hundred women andchildren captured by Scott and Wilkinson, and a number of presents forthe Wea and other chiefs. A treaty was finally made with a small numberof Weas, Kickapoos, and other Wabash and Illinois tribes at Vincennes onthe twenty-seventh of September, but all attempts to induce the Miamisto join in the negotiations were unavailing. Pricked on by Elliott, theGirtys and McKee, the chiefs at Kekionga were threatening the Potawatomiand the tribes of the lower Wabash with the destruction of theirvillages, if they failed to oppose the advances of the Americans. Thetreaty at Vincennes had little, if any, effect, upon the posture ofaffairs. 

Still other efforts were made by the government. Joseph Brant, theMohawk chieftain, was induced to come to Philadelphia in June, 1792, andhe received the most "marked attention, " at the hands of the governmentofficials. He remained at the capital some ten or twelve days, and itwas sincerely hoped that he could be persuaded to undertake the officeof a messenger of peace, but he was a pensioner of the British andthoroughly under their control. The next summer we find him urging thenorthwestern tribes to arms, and offering the aid of his tomahawk toAlexander McKee. The government next turned to Cornplanter and thechiefs of the more friendly Iroquois. In March, 1792, about fiftyheadmen of these tribes visited the city of Philadelphia and communed onterms of amity with the American officers. The Cornplanter, withforty-eight chiefs of the Six Nations, were now deputed to a grandcouncil of the Miami confederates held at Au Glaize on the Maumee in thefall of 1792. "There were so many nations, " says the Cornplanter, "thatwe cannot tell the names of them. There were three men from the GoraNations; it took them a whole season to come, and twenty-seven nationsfrom beyond Canada. " Joseph Brant, who detested the Cornplanter, was notpresent, but Blue Jacket and the Shawnees were there filled with hate. They accused the Iroquois with speaking 'from the outside of theirlips, ' and told their chiefs that they came with the 'voice of theUnited States folded under their arm. ' Every word was haughty, proud anddefiant, but in the end the Iroquois wrung a promise from them tosuspend hostilities until the ensuing spring, when a council of peaceshould be held with the Americans. This promise was not kept. Warparties of Shawnees constantly prowled along the Ohio stealing horsesand cattle, burning cabins, and leading away captives to the Indiantowns. On the morning of the sixth of November, an army of three hundredIndians composed of Miamis, Delawares, Shawnees and Potawatomi, commanded by the Little Turtle, attacked a party of about one hundredKentucky militia under the walls of Fort St. Clair, situated on the lineof march from Fort Washington to the Miami villages. They were under thecommand of Major John Adair, afterwards governor of the State ofKentucky. Little Turtle's object was to wipe out a white settlement atthe mouth of the Little Miami, but capturing two men near Fort Hamilton, he learned that the Kentuckians were escorting a brigade of packhorseson their way to Fort Jefferson, and he determined to waylay them. Theattack occurred just before daybreak and was opened by a hideous chorusof Indian yells, but the Kentuckians bravely stood their ground andrepelled the assault. Six men were killed, including Lieutenant JobHale, and five men wounded. The camp equipment and about one hundredand forty horses were lost. The Indians had two killed. 

The spring of 1793 came, the time for the proposed council. The Britishhad promised to give their aid and co-operation in the forming of afriendly compact. Full credence seems to have been given to theirstatements. The President appointed Benjamin Lincoln, of Massachusetts, Beverly Randolph, of Virginia, and Timothy Pickering, of Pennsylvania, as commissioners. The basis of their negotiations was to be the treatyof Fort Harmar, of 1789, which the government considered "as having beenformed on solid grounds--the principle being that of a fair purchase andsale. " They were to ascertain definitely the Indian proprietorsnorthward of the Ohio and south of the Lakes; to secure a confirmationof the boundary established at Fort Harmar, and to guarantee to thetribes the right of the soil in all their remaining lands. Liberalpayment was to be made for all concessions, and annuities granted. Thecommissioners were to be accompanied by the Reverend John Heckewelder, who had gone with Putnam to Vincennes, and who was thoroughly conversantwith the Delaware language. Some Quakers were also in the party. 

The commissioners left Philadelphia in April, and arrived at FortNiagara on the southern shore of Lake Ontario in the month of May. Niagara was then in command of Colonel Simcoe, of the British army, whoinvited them to take up quarters at Navy Hall. This invitation wasaccepted, and the commissioners now awaited the termination of thepreliminaries of a grand council of the northwestern tribes which wasbeing held at the Rapids on the Maumee. On the seventh of June, thecommissioners addressed a note to Simcoe, suggesting the importance ofthe coming conference, their wish to counteract the deep-rootedprejudices of the tribes, and their desire for a full co-operation onthe part of the English officers. Among other things, they called theColonel's attention to a report circulated by a Mohawk Indian to theeffect that "Governor Simcoe advised the Indians to make peace, but notto give up any lands. " The Colonel promptly replied, tendering hisservices in the coming negotiations, appointing certain officers toattend the treaty, and particularly denying the declaration of theMohawk. But in his reply he used these words: "But, as it has been, eversince the conquest of Canada, the principle of the British government, to unite the American Indians, that, all petty jealousies beingextinguished, the real wishes of the tribes may be fully expressed, andin consequence all the treaties made with them, may have the mostcomplete ratification and universal concurrence, so, he feels it properto state to the commissioners, that a jealousy of a contrary conduct inthe agents of the United States, appears to him to have been deeplyimpressed upon the minds of the confederacy. " In view of the subsequentresults, the story of the Mohawk may not have been wholly withoutfoundation. 

On the fifth day of July, Colonel John Butler, of the British Indiandepartment, Joseph Brant, and about fifty Indians from the council ofthe tribes on the Maumee, arrived at Niagara. On the seventh, thecommissioners, and a number of the civil and military officers of thecrown being present, Brant addressed the American envoys and said insubstance that he was representing the Indian nations who owned all thelands north of the Ohio "as their common property;" that the treaty hadbeen delayed on account of the presence of the American army north ofthe Ohio; that the tribes wanted an explanation of these warlikeappearances, and desired to know whether the commissioners wereauthorized "to run and establish a new boundary line between the landsof the United States, and of the Indian nations. " On the next day, thecommissioners gave full answer. They informed the Indian deputation thatthe purposes of the United States were wholly peaceful; that the GreatChief, General Washington, had strictly forbidden all hostilities, andthat the governors of the states adjoining the Ohio had issued orders tothe same effect. However, to satisfy the tribes, they would immediatelydispatch a messenger on horseback to the seat of the government, with arequest that the "head warrior, " General Wayne, be instructed to remainquietly at the posts until the event of the treaty could be known. Thiswas faithfully done. With reference to the running of a new boundaryline, the commissioners expressly stated that they were vested with fullauthority to that end, but that mutual concessions were necessary to areconcilement, and that this should be plainly understood by both sides. On the ninth of July, Brant gave assurance that the answer of thecommissioners had been satisfactory, "Brothers: We think, from yourspeech, that there is a prospect of our coming together. We, who are thenations at the westward are of one mind; and, if we agree with you, asthere is a prospect that we shall, it will be binding and lasting. Brothers; Our prospects are the fairer, because all our minds are one. You have not spoken before to us unitedly. Formerly, because you did notspeak to us unitedly, what was done was not binding. Now you have anopportunity of speaking to us together; and we now take you by the hand, to lead you to the place appointed for the meeting. " In explanation ofthis peaceful language and his subsequent conduct, Brant afterwardswrote that, "for several years (after the peace of 1783), we wereengaged in getting a confederacy formed, and the unanimity occasioned bythese endeavors among our western brethren, enabled them to defeat twoAmerican armies. The war continued without our brothers, the English, giving any assistance, excepting a little ammunition; and they seemingto desire that a peace might be concluded, we tried to bring it about ata time when the United States desired it very much, so that they sentcommissioners from among their first people, to endeavor to make peacewith the hostile Indians. We assembled also, for that purpose, at theMiami River, in the summer of 1793, intending to act as mediators inbringing about an honorable peace; and if that could not be obtained, weresolved to join with our western brethren in trying the fortunes ofwar. But to our surprise, when on the point of entering on a treaty withthe Commissioners, we found that it was opposed by those acting underthe British government, and hopes of further assistance were given toour western brethren, to encourage them to insist on the Ohio as aboundary between them and the United States. " Whatever the truth may beas to Brant's peaceful intentions on the ninth of July, his attitude wascertain on the fourth of the succeeding August. On that date, accordingto Roosevelt, the treacherous pensioner wrote to Alexander McKee that"we came here not only to assist with our advice, but other ways, * * *we came here with arms in our hands. " Following the advice of hisBritish counsellors, he advised the northwestern Indians not to yield aninch, and to stand on the Ohio as their southern boundary. 

The Commissioners of the United States were doomed to meet with a suddenand unexpected interruption of their proceedings. On the twenty-first ofJuly they arrived at the mouth of the Detroit river. They immediatelyaddressed a note to McKee informing him of their arrival, and expressinga desire to meet with the confederated tribes. On the twenty-ninth ofJuly a deputation of over twenty Indians, among whom was the Delawarechief, Buck-ong-a-he-las, arrived with Captain Matthew Elliott. On thenext day, and in the presence of the British officers, the Wyandotchief, Sa-wagh-da-wunk, after a brief salutation, presented to theCommissioners a paper writing. It contained this ultimatum, dictatedbeyond doubt by the British agents: "Brothers: You are sent here by theUnited States, in order to make peace with us, the confederate Indians. Brothers: You very well know that the boundary line, which was runbetween the white people and us, at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, was theriver Ohio. Brothers: If you seriously design to make a firm andlasting peace, you will immediately remove all your people from our sideof that river. Brothers: We therefore ask you, are you fully authorizedby the United States to continue, and firmly fix on the Ohio river, asthe boundary between your people and ours?" This document was signed bythe confederated nations of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Mingoes, Potawatomi, Ottawas, Connoys, Chippewas and Munsees, at theMaumee Rapids on the twenty-seventh of July, 1793. 

The remaining passages between the Commissioners and the Indian alliesare briefly told. In vain did the Commissioners urge that settlementsand valuable improvements had been made on the faith of past treaties;that it was not only impracticable but wholly impossible to consider theOhio as the boundary; that the treaty of Fort Harmar had been made ingood faith and with the very tribes who professed to own the landsceded. In vain did they admit the former mistakes of the government insetting up a claim to the whole country south of the Great Lakes. Thejealous and apprehensive chieftains, spurred on and encouraged byBritish promise of support, refused to listen to all appeals, contemptuously rejected all offers of money or compensation, andinsisted to the last on the Ohio as the boundary. 

That the full responsibility for this action on the part of the tribesmust be laid at the door of the British, goes without successfulchallenge. If at the beginning they had only furnished a littleammunition, as Brant says, they were now fast becoming openly hostile. The French Revolution had opened, and England and France were battlingfor supremacy. In order to cut off supplies of food from the Frenchpeople, England had seized all cargoes of corn, flour and meal bound forFrench ports, and had purchased them for the benefit of his majesty'sservice. This action had greatly irritated the American merchants andhad led to serious remonstrance on the part of the government. Englandhad also asserted the right to board neutral vessels and impress Britishseamen whenever found. Many an American ship had been hailed on the highseas, and forced to submit to a humiliating search. It was claimed thatmany American sailors had been seized and forced to enter the Britishservice. Added to all this, the Citizen Genet had, in the early part ofthe year 1793, arrived in America. As the representative of the FrenchRepublic he was armed with numerous blank commissions for privateers, tobe delivered "to such French and American owners as should apply for thesame. " An attack was to be launched on British commerce. Before hearrived at Philadelphia the British minister had laid before thePresident a list of complaints "founded principally on the proceedingsof Mr. Genet, who, at Charleston, undertook to authorize the fitting andarming of vessels, enlisting men, and giving commissions to cruise andcommit hostilities on nations with whom the United States were atpeace. " Washington did everything in his power to preserve neutrality. On the twenty-second of April, 1793, and twenty-three days before Genetarrived at Philadelphia, the President issued a proclamation, declaringthat "the duty and interest of the United States required that theyshould, with sincerity and good faith, adopt and pursue a conductfriendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers. " But the vastmajority of the people of the United States, including many high inpublic life, were in open sympathy with the French and utterly detestedEngland. These sentiments were particularly marked in the westerncountries, for there the people had suffered from all the cruelty andsavagery of the Indian warfare, and they fiercely denounced the Britishagents. 

Under all these circumstances the relations between Great Britain andthe United States had become tense and strained. The provincial officersat Quebec and the Indian partisans at Detroit quickly echoed the mood ofthe home government. In the event of a new war, England could againcommand the savage allies and ravage the frontiers as she had doneduring the revolution. The Indians would not only prove to be a usefulbarrier in the event of an American invasion of Canada, but they mighthelp England to regain in part the territory she had lost. "Hence, instead of promoting a pacification, the efforts of the Canadiangovernment were obviously exerted to prevent it. " This, no doubt, accounts for what Brant has noted concerning the exchanges with theAmerican commissioners at the mouth of the Detroit river. The westerntribes were suddenly given assurance by the British that England wouldcome to their aid, and were told to insist on the Ohio as the limit ofconcession. This put an effectual stop to all further measures forpeace. 

Wayne was now free to go forward with his campaign again, but so muchtime had been consumed by the commissioners, and the militia were soslow in arriving from Kentucky that the army did not take up its marchfrom Hobson's Choice until the seventh of October. The general now hadabout twenty-six hundred effective men, including officers, thirty-sixguides and spies, and about three hundred and sixty mounted volunteers. With these he determined to push forward to a position about six milesin advance of Fort Jefferson, and about eighty miles north ofCincinnati. He would thus excite a fear on the part of the savages forthe safety of their women and children, and at the same time protect thefrontiers. He expected resistance, for the Indians were "desperate anddetermined, " but he was prepared to meet it. The savages constantly hungon his flanks, making attacks on his convoys of provisions, and pickingoff the packhorses. On the morning of the seventeenth of October, aforce of ninety non-commissioned officers and men under Lowry and Boyd, who were escorting twenty wagons loaded with grain, were suddenlyassaulted about seven miles north of Fort St. Clair. Fifteen officersand men were killed, seventy horses killed or carried away, and thewagons left standing in the road. Nothing daunted, Wayne pushed on. Onthe twenty-third of October, he wrote to the Secretary of War that, "thesafety of the western frontiers, the reputation of the Legion, thedignity and interests of the nation, all forbid a retrograde maneuver, or giving up one inch of ground we now possess, until the enemy arecompelled to sue for peace. "

In the meantime General Charles Scott had arrived from Kentucky withabout one thousand mounted infantry and had camped in the vicinity ofFort Jefferson, but the season was so far advanced, that Wayne nowdetermined to send the Kentuckians home, enter into winter quarters, andprepare for an effectual drive in the spring. Unlike his predecessors, Wayne entertained no distrust of the frontiersmen, but determined toutilize them with telling force. The hardy riflemen were quick torespond to a real leader of men. They looked on the wonderful bayonetpractice, the expert marksmanship of the Legion, and the astonishingmaneuvers of the cavalrymen with great admiration. When they went totheir homes for the winter they were filled with a new confidence in thegovernment, and in its ability to protect their firesides. Thevigilance, the daring, and the unflinching discipline of the continentalgeneral, gave them assurance. Fort Greenville was now erected on abranch of the Big Miami, and here Wayne established his headquarters. InDecember, eight companies of infantry and a detachment of artilleryerected Fort Recovery, on the spot made memorable by St. Clair's defeat. 

At the opening of the year 1794, "the relations between Great Britainand the United States had become so strained, " says Roosevelt, "thatopen war was threatened. " On the tenth of February, Lord Dorchesteraddressed a deputation of prominent chiefs of the northwestern tribes asfollows: "Children: I was in the expectation of hearing from the peopleof the United States what was required by them: I hoped that I should beable to bring you all together, and make you friends. Children: I havewaited long, and listened with great attention, but I have not heardone word from them. Children: I flattered myself with the hope that theline proposed in the year eighty-three, to separate us from the UnitedStates, which was immediately broken by themselves as soon as the peacewas signed, would have been mended, or a new one drawn, in an amicablemanner. Here, also, I have been disappointed. Children: Since my return, I find that no appearance of a line remains; and from the manner inwhich the people of the United States rush on, and act and talk, on thisside; and from what I learn of their conduct toward the sea, I shall notbe surprised, if we are at war with them in the course of the presentyear; and if so, a line must then be drawn by the warriors. " Copies ofthis speech were circulated everywhere among the tribes. AlexanderMcKee, Lieutenant-Colonel John Butler, of the British army, and JosephBrant were active. Large presents were sent up from Quebec, ammunitionand arms were distributed, and the Ottawas and Chippewas summoned fromthe far north. In April, 1794, Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, of Canada, openly advanced into the American territory, built a fort at the MiamiRapids, and garrisoned it with British redcoats. Massive parapets wereconstructed on which were mounted heavy artillery. The outer walls weresurrounded by a deep fosse and "frasing" which rendered it secure fromescalade. The Indians, thus buttressed, as they supposed, by Britishsupport, were openly defiant and refused to make peace. 

The indignation of the American people may well be imagined. To a longtrain of secret machinations the British now added open insult. Washington, justly aroused by England's long course of treachery anddouble-dealing, wrote to Jay concerning Simcoe's action as follows: "Canthat government, or will it attempt, after this official act of one oftheir governors, to hold out ideas of friendly intentions toward theUnited States, and suffer such conduct to pass with impunity? This maybe considered the most open and daring act of the British agents inAmerica, though it is not the most hostile or cruel; for there does notremain a doubt in the mind of any well-informed person in this country, not shut against conviction, that all the difficulties we encounter withthe Indians--their hostilities, the murder of helpless women andinnocent children along our frontiers--result from the conduct of theagents of Great Britain in this country. In vain is it, then, for itsadministration in Britain to disavow having given orders which willwarrant such conduct, whilst their agents go unpunished; whilst we havea thousand corroborating circumstances, and indeed almost as manyevidences, some of which cannot be brought forward, to know that theyare seducing from our alliance, and endeavoring to move over the line, tribes that have hitherto been kept in peace and friendship with us atheavy expense, and who have no causes of complaint, except pretendedones of their creating; whilst they keep in a state of irritation thetribes who are hostile to us, and are instigating those who know littleof us or we of them, to unite in the war against us; and whilst it is anundeniable fact that they are furnishing the whole with arms, ammunition, clothing, and even provisions to carry on the war; I mightgo farther, and if they are not much belied, add men also in disguise. "The President also called on the British minister, Mr. Hammond, for anexplanation. Hammond, while admitting the authenticity of Dorchester'sspeech and the construction of the British fort on the Maumee, pointedto pretended acts of hostility on the part of the United States. Thiswas the insolent tone assumed toward a government considered to be tooweak to defend its lawful rights. 

The British were now busy in assembling a savage army to oppose Wayne'sadvance. Two Potawatomi captured on the fifth of June, said that amessage had been sent to their tribe to join in the war against theUnited States; that the British were at Roche de Bout on the Maumee withabout four hundred troops and two pieces of artillery, exclusive of theDetroit militia, and that they "had made a fortification around ColonelMcKee's house and store at that place, in which they had deposited alltheir stores and ammunition, arms, clothing and provisions with whichthey promised to supply all the hostile Indians in abundance, providedthey would join and go with them to war; that about two thousandwarriors had been assembled, and that Governor Simcoe had promised thatfifteen hundred British troops and militia would join them in the attackon the Americans. " They further related that this same Governor Simcoehad sent them four different invitations to join in the war, promisingthem arms, ammunition, provisions and clothing, and everything that theywanted. "All the speeches, " said these Potawatomi, "that we receivedfrom him, were as red as blood; all the wampum and feathers werepainted red; the war pipes and hatchets were red; and even the tobaccowas red. " The evidence furnished by two Shawnees, captured on thetwenty-second of June, corroborated the Potawatomi. They testified thatthe British were always setting the Indians on, like dogs after game, pressing them to go to war, and kill the Americans, "but did not helpthem; that unless the British would turn out and help them, they weredetermined to make peace; that they would not be any longer amused bypromises only. " Asked about the number of warriors collected along theMaumee, they put the number of the Shawnees at three hundred eighty, theDelawares at four hundred and eighty, the Miamis at one hundred, and theWyandots at about one hundred and fifty. The Chippewas, however, wouldfurnish the greatest number of fighting men, and they were on the way tothe council. That the question of whether there would be a fight or notdepended upon the British; "that the British were at the foot of therapids, and had fortified at Roche de Bout; that there was a greatnumber of British soldiers at that place; that they told the Indiansthey were now come to help them to fight; and if the Indians wouldgenerally turn out and join them, they would advance and fight theAmerican army; that Blue Jacket had been sent by the British to theChippewas and northern Indians, a considerable time since, to invitethem, and bring them to Roche de Bout, there to join the British andother hostile Indians in order to go to war. "

On the last day of June, 1794, the premeditated blow fell on FortRecovery, the scene of St. Clair's disaster in 1791. The garrison wasunder the command of Captain Alexander Gibson, of the Fourth Sub-Legion. Under the walls of the fort were a detachment of ninety riflemen andfifty dragoons under the command of Major McMahon, who had escorted atrain of packhorses from Fort Greenville on the day before, and who werenow about to return. The Indians were, according to some authorities, under the command of the Bear chief, an Ottawa; others assign theirleadership to the Little Turtle. That they had planned a coup de mainand a sudden re-capture of the position is certain. Their army consistedof about fifteen hundred men; they had advanced in seventeen columns, with a wide and extended front, and their encampments were perfectlysquare and regular. They were attended by "a captain of the Britisharmy, a sergeant, and six matrosses, provided with fixed ammunition, suited to the calibre of two field pieces, which had been taken fromGeneral St. Clair, and deposited in a creek near the scene of his defeatin 1791. " They expected to find this artillery, which had been hidden bythe Indians, and turn it on the fort, but the guns had been recovered bytheir legitimate owners and were now used for defense. A considerablenumber of white men accompanied the savages, disguised as Indians andwith blackened faces, and three British officers, dressed in scarlet, were posted in the rear and encouraged the Indians in their repeatedassaults. 

The first attack on Major McMahon was successful. Nineteen officers andprivates and two packhorsemen were killed and about thirty men wounded. Packhorses to the number of two hundred were quickly taken. But theIndians now made a fatal mistake. In a spirit of rashness, they rushedon the fort. The determined legionaries, aided by McMahon's men, pouredin a murderous fire, and they fell back. Again they attacked, and againwere they repulsed. All day long they kept up a constant and vigorousfire but it availed nothing. During the succeeding night, which was darkand foggy, they carried off their dead. 

On the next morning the attack was renewed, but great numbers of thesavages were now becoming disheartened. The loss inflicted by theAmerican garrison had been severe, and was mourned for months by theIndian tribes. Forty or fifty red men had bit the dust and over ahundred had been wounded. Disgraced and crestfallen the savage horderetired to the Maumee. The first encounter with Wayne's army had proveddisastrous. 

On the twenty-sixth of July, Wayne was joined by sixteen hundred mountedvolunteers from Kentucky under the command of Major-General CharlesScott. Scott was a man of intrepid spirit and his men knew it. Moreover, the Kentuckians now looked forward to certain victory, for they trustedWayne. On the twenty-eighth of July, the whole army moved forward to theIndian towns on the Maumee. No finer body of men ever went forth intothe wilderness to meet a savage foe. Iron drill and constant practice atmarksmanship had done their work. Officers and men, regulars andvolunteers, were ready for the work at hand. Unlike Harmar and St. Clair, Wayne had in his service some of the most renowned scouts andIndian fighters of the day. Ephraim Kibby, William Wells, RobertMcClellan, Henry and Christopher Miller, and a party of Chickasaw andChoctaw warriors, constantly kept him posted concerning the number andwhereabouts of the enemy, and the nature of the ground which he was totraverse. "The Indians who watched his march brought word to the Britishthat his army went twice as far in a day as St. Clair's, that he kepthis scouts well out and his troops always in open order and ready forbattle; that he exercised the greatest precaution to avoid an ambush orsurprise, and that every night the camps of the different regiments weresurrounded by breastworks of fallen trees so as to render a suddenassault hopeless. " "We have beaten the enemy twice, " said Little Turtle, "under separate commanders. We cannot expect the same good fortunealways to attend us. The Americans are now led by a chief who neversleeps. The night and the day are alike to him; and, during all the timethat he has been marching upon our villages, notwithstanding thewatchfulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something whispers me, it would be prudent tolisten to his offers of peace. "

On the eighth of August Wayne reached the junction of the Au Glaize andthe Maumee, and began the erection of Fort Defiance. The whole countrywas filled with the Indian gardens and corn fields which extended up theMaumee to the British fort. On the thirteenth of August, the Generaldispatched the scout, Christopher Miller, with the last and finaloverture of peace. In the event of a refusal, there must be a finalappeal to arms. "America, " said Wayne, "shall no longer be insulted withimpunity. To the all-powerful and just God I therefore commit myself andgallant army. " Impatient of a reply, Wayne moved forward again on thefifteenth, and met Miller returning. The Indians requested a delay often days to debate peace or war. Wayne gave orders to march on. At eighto'clock on the morning of the twentieth of August, 1794, the armyadvanced in columns and in open order to meet the enemy. The Indianforces consisted of Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Miamis, Potawatomi, Chippewas and Mohawks, numbering from fifteen hundred to twothousand warriors. Added to these were two companies of Canadian militiafrom Amherstburg and Detroit, commanded by Captain Caldwell. AlexanderMcKee was present, and Matthew Elliott and Simon Girty, but they keptwell in the rear and near the river. The whole mixed force of Indiansand Canadians were encamped on the north bank of the Maumee, "at andaround a hill called 'Presque Isle, ' about two miles south of the siteof Maumee City, and four south of the British Fort Miami. "

The order of march was as follows: The Legion was on the right, itsflank covered by the Maumee. On the left hovered a brigade of mountedKentucky volunteers under Brigadier-General Todd. In the rear wasanother brigade of the same kind of troops under Brigadier-GeneralBarbee. In advance of the Legion rode a select battalion of mountedKentuckians under Major Price. These were to be on the lookout and togive timely notice to the regulars in case of attack. The army hadadvanced about five miles and were entering an area covered with fallentimber and high grass, when the advance corps under Price received sucha sudden and terrible fire from the hidden enemy that they werecompelled to retreat. "The savages were formed in three lines, withinsupporting distance of each other, and extending for two miles, at rightangles with the river. " The fallen trunks of the trees, blown down by atornado, made a fine covert for the red men and prevented any favorableaction by the cavalry. Wayne was instantly alert. He formed the Legioninto two lines, one a short distance behind the other, and began thefight. He soon perceived from the weight of the savage fire and theextent of their lines that they were trying to turn his left flank anddrive him into the river. He now ordered the second line to advance andsupport the first; directed Major-General Scott to take all the mountedvolunteers and turn the right flank of the enemy, while he issued ordersto Mis Campbell who commanded the legionary cavalry, to gallop in at theright and next to the river and turn the Indian left. The front line wasordered to charge with trailed arms and rouse the Indians from theircoverts at the point of the bayonet, "and when up, to deliver a closeand well directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so asnot to give them time to load again. " The mounted volunteers underScott, Todd and Barbee, and the second line of the Legion, had onlygained their positions in part, when the battle was over. The first lineof the federal infantry, charging with that impetuosity imparted tothem by their gallant commander, drove savages and Canadians in headlongrout for a distance of two miles and strewed the ground with manycorpses. The legionary cavalry, blowing their trumpets and dashing inupon the terrified Indians, slew a part of them with broadswords, andput the remainder to instant retreat. "This horde of savages, " saysWayne, "with their allies, abandoned themselves to flight and dispersedwith terror and dismay, leaving our victorious army in full and quietpossession of the field of battle. " The British, with their usualtreachery, closed the gates of the fort in the face of the fleeing redmen and refused them refuge. Lured and encouraged into a hopelesscontest, they found themselves abandoned by that very power that hadurged them to reject all offers of peace. The Americans lostthirty-three in killed, and had one hundred wounded. The savage loss wasmuch heavier. 

Immediately after the battle of Fallen Timbers the American army moveddown the river and encamped within view of the British garrison. FortMiami occupied a well fortified position on the north bank of the Maumeenear the present Maumee City. There were four nine-pounders, two largehowitzers, and six six-pounders, mounted in the fort, and two swivels. The entire fortification was surrounded by a wide, deep ditch abouttwenty feet deep from the top of the parapet. The forces withinconsisted of about two hundred and fifty regulars and two hundredmilitia. All were under command of Major William Campbell, of theTwenty-fourth Regiment. The rout of the Indian allies had beenhumiliating enough, but at sight of the victorious ranks of theAmerican army Campbell became furious. On the next day after the battlehe could contain himself no longer. He addressed a note to Waynecomplaining that the army of the United States had taken post on thebanks of the Maumee and within range of his majesty's fort, for upwardsof twenty-four hours, and he desired to inform himself as speedily aspossible, in what light he was to view so near an approach to thegarrison. Wayne made immediate reply. He said that without questioningthe authority or the propriety of the major's question, he thought thathe might without breach of decorum observe, that if the major wasentitled to an answer, that a most full and satisfactory one had beenannounced to him from the muzzles of his (Wayne's) small arms on theprevious day, in an action against a horde of savages in the vicinity ofthe British post, which had terminated gloriously to the American arms. He further declared that if said action had continued until the Indianswere driven under the influence of the British guns, that these gunswould not have much impeded the progress of the victorious army underhis command, "as no such post was established at the commencement of thepresent war between the Indians and the United States. " On the next daythe incensed major wrote another note, threatening Wayne with war if hecontinued to approach within pistol shot of the fort with arms in hishands. To this Wayne replied by inviting the major to return with hismen, artillery and stores to the nearest post "occupied by his BritannicMajesty's troops at the peace of 1783. " Campbell wrote another replyrefusing to vacate the fort and warning Wayne not to approach withinreach of his cannon. "The only notice taken of this letter, " says Wayne, "was by immediately setting fire to and destroying everything withinview of the fort, and even under the muzzles of the guns. " For threedays and nights the American troops continued to destroy the houses andcorn fields of the enemy both above and below the British post, whilethe garrison looked on and dared not sally forth. One of the severestsufferers from this devastation was the notorious renegade, AlexanderMcKee, who had done so much to inflame the war between the tribes andthe United States. His houses, stores and property were utterlyconsumed. 

The army now retired by easy marches to Fort Defiance, laying waste thevillages and corn fields for about fifty miles on each side of theMaumee. On the fourteenth of September the march was taken up for theMiami villages at the junction of the St. Joseph and the St. Marys, andthe troops arrived there on the seventeenth. On the eighteenth, Wayneselected a site for a fort. On the twenty-second of October the newfortification was completed, and a force of infantry and artillerystationed there under command of Colonel John F. Hamtramck. The new postwas named Fort Wayne. On the twenty-eighth of October, the main body ofthe troops started back on the trace to Fort Greenville, and here, onthe second day of November, 1794, General Wayne re-established hisheadquarters. 

The victory of Wayne was complete and final. It brought peace to thefrontiers, and paved the way for the advance of civilization. In 1802, Ohio became a state of the Union. His triumph did more. It made thename and the power of the United States respected as they never werebefore, and gave authority and dignity to the federal arms. The Indiantribes were sorely dispirited. Not only had the British abandoned themin their final hour of defeat, but their fields and cabins had been laidwaste and their supplies of food destroyed. There was much sufferingamong them, during the ensuing winter. The establishment of the post atFort Wayne put a new obstacle in the path of the British in the valleysof the Wabash and the Maumee, and led the way to the final abandonmentof the northwest by their troops and garrisons. 

The administration of Washington was also vindicated. In the face of twodisheartening defeats, a lack of confidence in the west, and almost openopposition in the east, a fighting general had at last been found, anarmy trained, and led forth to splendid victory. The great northwestowes a debt of eternal gratitude to the first president of the republic, George Washington. 

The administration was further successful. While General Wayne waspreparing for his campaign, the Chief Justice of the United States, JohnJay, had been sent to England to effect a treaty of peace. Feeling washigh in both countries and the danger of war was imminent, but theprudence and moderation of Washington led him to see that what thenation needed most was peace and repose and a chance for development. Onthe nineteenth of November, 1794, Mr. Jay and Lord Grenville "concludeda treaty of amity, commerce and navigation between the United Statesand Great Britain, " by the terms of which the latter country, amongother things, agreed to surrender the western posts. On the eleventh dayof July, 1796, at the hour of noon, the Stars and Stripes floated overthe ramparts of the British fort at Detroit. 

CHAPTER XV

THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE

--_The surrender of the Ohio lands of the Miamis and their finalsubmission to the Government. _

Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, Joseph Brant and Alexander McKee did allthat lay within their power to stem the tide of savage defection. Simcoeadvised the tribes not to listen to any American overtures of peace, butto simply propose a truce and make ready for further hostilities. Hetried to secure a deed of trust for the Indian lands from each nation, promising them that England would guarantee the land thus ceded. Ageneral attack was to be made on all the frontiers in the spring. Branttold them "to keep a good heart and be strong; to do as their fatheradvised. " In the spring he would return with a large party of warriorsto fight, kill and pursue the Americans. He had always been successfuland victory was assured. McKee was active distributing clothing andprovisions. He made an especial appeal to the Shawnees who were known tobe the most hostile of all the tribes. In a private conferenceafterwards held with Wayne, the Shawnee chief, Blue Jacket, told thegeneral that McKee had invited him to his house and had strongly urgedhim to keep away from the council with the Americans. Seeing that hisentreaties were of no avail, he said: "The commission you received fromJohnson was not given you to carry to the Americans. I am grieved tofind that you have taken it to them. It was with much regret I learnedthat you have deserted your friends, who have always caressed you, andtreated you as a great man. You have deranged, by your imprudentconduct, all our plans for protecting the Indians, and keeping them withus. They have always looked up to you for advice and direction in thewar, and you have now broke the strong ties which held them alltogether, under your and our direction. You must now be viewed as theenemy of your people, and the other Indians whom you are seducing intothe snares of the Americans have formed for their ruin, and the massacreand destruction of their people by the Americans must be laid to yourcharge. " Massas, a Chippewa chieftain, told Wayne that when he returnedfrom the treaty of Muskingum (Fort Harmar), that McKee threatened tokill him. "I have not now less cause to fear him, as he endeavored toprevent my coming hither. "

The importunities of the British agents, however, failed of theirobject. The Indians had lost all confidence in British promises andWayne had filled them with a wholesome respect for the American arms. Numbers of their leading chieftains, including Tarhe, of the Wyandots, and Little Turtle of the Miamis, thought all further resistance useless. No doubt many of them entertained the views that Brant long afterwardsopenly expressed to Sir John Johnson. "In the first place, " said thegreat Mohawk, "the Indians were engaged in a war to assist theEnglish--then left in the lurch at the peace, to fight alone until theycould make peace for themselves. After repeatedly defeating the armiesof the United States, so that they sent Commissioners to endeavor to getpeace, the Indians were so advised as prevented them from listening toany terms, and hopes were given them of assistance. A fort was evenbuilt in their country, under pretense of giving refuge in case ofnecessity; but when that time came, the gates were shut against them asenemies. They were doubly injured by this, because they relied on it forsupport, and were deceived. Was it not for this reliance of mutualsupport, their conduct would have been different. "

The first to come to Greenville to consult with Wayne, were the Wyandotsof Sandusky. "He told them he pitied them for their folly in listeningto the British, who were very glad to urge them to fight and to givethem ammunition, but who had neither the power nor the inclination tohelp them when the time of trial came; that hitherto the Indians hadfelt only the weight of his little finger, but that he would surelydestroy all the tribes in the near future if they did not make peace. "During the winter of 1794-1795 parties of Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippewas, Potawatomi, Sacs, Miamis, Delawares and Shawnees came in, and onFebruary 11th, 1795, the preliminaries of a treaty were agreed uponbetween the Shawnees, Delawares and Miamis, and the Americans. Arrangements were also made for a grand council with all the Indiannations at Fort Greenville, on or about the fifteenth of the ensuingJune. 

[Illustration: General Anthony Wayne and Little Turtle at Greenville. From an old painting by one of Wayne's staff. By Courtesy The ChicagoHistorical Society]

The assemblage of Indian warriors and headmen that met with AnthonyWayne on the sixteenth of June, and continued in session until thetenth day of August, 1795, was the most noted ever held in America. Present, were one hundred and eighty Wyandots, three hundred andeighty-one Delawares, one hundred and forty-three Shawnees, forty-fiveOttawas, forty-six Chippewas, two hundred and forty Potawatomi, seventy-three Miamis and Eel Rivers, twelve Weas and Piankeshaws, andten Kickapoos and Kaskaskias, in all eleven hundred and thirty savages. Among the renowned fighting men and chiefs present, was Tarhe, of theWyandots, known as "The Crane, " who had fought under the Cornstalk atPoint Pleasant, and who had been badly wounded at the battle of FallenTimbers. He now exercised a mighty influence for peace and remained thefirm friend of the United States. Of the Miamis, the foremost was theLittle Turtle, who was probably the greatest warrior and Indian diplomatof his day or time. He had defeated Harmar and destroyed St. Clair, buthe now stood for an amicable adjustment. Next to Little Turtle wasLeGris. Of the Shawnees, there were Blue Jacket and Catahecassa, or theBlack Hoof. The latter chieftain had been present at Braddock's defeatin 1775, had fought against General Andrew Lewis at Point Pleasant in1774, and was an active leader of the Shawnees at the battles withHarmar and St. Clair. Blue Jacket had been the principal commander ofthe Indian forces at Fallen Timbers. Buckongahelas, of the Delawares, Au-goosh-away, of the Ottawas, Mash-i-pinash-i-wish, of the Chippewas, Keesass and Topenebee, of the Potawatomi, Little Beaver, of the Weas, and many other distinguished Indian leaders were among the hosts. Thechief interpreters were William Wells, Jacques Laselle, M. Morins, SansCrainte, Christopher Miller, Abraham Williams and Isaac Zane. 

The basis of the negotiations, steadfastly maintained by Wayne, was thetreaty of Fort Harmar of 1789. The general boundary established was tobegin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, run thence up the same to theportage between the Cuyahoga and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing place above old Fort Laurens, thence westwardly to a fork of that branch of the great Miami riverrunning into the Ohio, where commenced the portage between the St. Marysof the Maumee and the Miami of the Ohio, thence westwardly to FortRecovery, thence southwesterly, in a direct line to the Ohio, so as tointersect that river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky. The land westof the Miami, and within the present limits of western Ohio and easternIndiana, was cut off of the domain of the Miamis, and included the lineof posts extending from Fort Washington to Fort Wayne. It was highlyprized by the Indians as a hunting ground, and its cession caused a loudremonstrance from the Little Turtle. "You pointed out to us the boundaryline, " said the great Miami leader, "which crossed a little belowLoramie's store, and struck Fort Recovery, and run from thence to theOhio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river. Elder Brother; You havetold us to speak our minds freely, and we now do it. This line takes inthe greater and best part of your brothers' hunting ground; therefore, your younger brothers are of opinion, you take too much of their landsaway, and confine the hunting of our young men within limits toocontracted. Your brothers, the Miamis, the proprietors of these lands, and all your younger brothers present, wish you to run the line as youmentioned, to Fort Recovery, and to continue it along the road fromthence to Fort Hamilton, on the Great Miami river. " This, however, Waynerefused to do. The ground had been hardly won, and the United States, although willing to pay a fair remuneration, was determined to protectthe outposts and inhabitants of the Ohio country. 

Another controversy arose with the Little Turtle concerning the portageat Fort Wayne. The government insisted on reservations of from two tosix miles square at Fort Wayne, Fort Defiance, Ouiatenon, Chicago, andother important trading places. A large tract was reserved near Detroit, and another near the Post of Michillimacinac. Clark's Grant was alsospecially reserved by the United States. But when Wayne insisted on atract two miles square on the Wabash river, "at the end of the portagefrom the Miami of the Lake (Maumee), and about eight miles westward fromFort Wayne, " the Little Turtle claimed that this was a request thatneither the English nor the French had ever made of them; that thisportage had in the past yielded them an important revenue, and hadproved, "in a great degree, the subsistence of your younger brothers. "The valiant old warrior made a stout defense of his claims, and foughtto the last for all that was dear to him about Fort Wayne, but wasforced to bow to the superior genius and commanding influence of theAmerican general. 

Wayne had on his side two powerful factors. The first, was thetreachery of the English, which he dilated upon with telling effect. Thesecond, was the commanding influence of Tarhe and the Wyandots ofSandusky, who were addressed with deference by the other tribes, and whothrew all their influence on the side of the treaty. At last the severalarticles were agreed upon, and General Wayne, calling upon the separatetribes in open council for a confirmation of the pact, met with a fulland unanimous response of approval. One of the originals of the treatywas deposited with the Wyandots as the custodians of all the nations. Atthe last arose Tarhe to make this touching and final appeal: "Father:Listen to your children, here assembled; be strong, now, and take careof all your little ones. See what a number you have suddenly acquired. Be careful of them, and do not suffer them to be imposed upon. Don'tshow favor to one, to the injury of any. An impartial father equallyregards all his children, as well those who are ordinary, as those whomay be more handsome; therefore, should any of your children come to youcrying, and in distress, have pity on them, and relieve their wants. "

The tribes were satisfied. A fair price had been paid to them for theirlands, and satisfactory annuities had been granted. Practically all ofthe leading chiefs remained loyal to the government, and true to thepeace. Wayne had proved himself not only successful at war, butproficient in diplomacy. 

CHAPTER XVI

GOVERNOR HARRISON AND THE TREATY

--_Purchase of the Miami lands known as the New Purchase which led tothe strengthening of Tecumseh's Confederacy, --the final struggle atTippecanoe. _

In the year 1800, William Henry Harrison was appointed by President JohnAdams as Governor of Indiana Territory, and he arrived at Vincennes onthe tenth day of January, 1801, and immediately entered upon thedischarge of his duties. At that time he was twenty-eight years of age, but notwithstanding his youth he had seen hard duty as a soldier andofficer on the frontier and as we have seen, had served as aide-de-campto General Wayne at the battle of Fallen Timbers. In that struggle hehad distinguished himself for gallant conduct. At a time when adetachment of the troops were wavering under the murderous fire of thesavages, and hesitating as to whether they would advance or retreat, hehad galloped to the front of the line, and with inspiring words hadcheered the soldiers on to victory. The report of General Wayne saysthat he "rendered the most essential services by communicating hisorders in every direction, and by his bravery in exciting the troops topress for victory. "

In personal appearance, Harrison "was commanding, and his mannersprepossessing. He was about six feet high, of rather slender form, straight, and of a firm, elastic gait, even at the time of his electionto the presidency, though then closely bordering on seventy. He had akeen, penetrating eye, denoting quickness of apprehension, promptnessand energy. "

Though descended from an old and aristocratic family of Virginia, andhaving been reared amid surroundings of luxury and elegance, theyouthful soldier never shrank from the most arduous duty and theseverest hardships of camp or field. At the time of his first arrival atFort Washington (Cincinnati), after the defeat of St. Clair's army, hehad been placed in command of a company of men who were escortingpackhorses to Fort Hamilton. The forest was full of hostile savages, andthe winter season was setting in with cold rains and snow. The companywas ill provided with tents and Harrison had nothing to shelter him fromthe weather but his uniform and army blanket. He not only eluded theattacks of the Indians and convoyed his charge through in safety, butmade no complaint whatever to his commanding general, and received St. Clair's "public thanks for the fidelity and good conduct he displayed. ""During the campaign on the Wabash, the troops were put upon a halfpound of bread a day. This quantity only was allowed to officers ofevery rank, and rigidly conformed to in the general's own family. Theallowance for dinner was uniformly divided between the company, and notan atom more was permitted. In the severe winter campaign of 1812-13, heslept under a thinner tent than any other person, whether officer orsoldier; and it was the general observation of the officers, that hisaccommodations might generally be known by their being the worst in thearmy. Upon the expedition up the Thames all his baggage was contained ina valise, while his bedding consisted of a single blanket, over hissaddle, and even this he gave to Colonel Evans, a British officer, whowas wounded. His subsistence was exactly that of a common soldier. Onthe night after the action upon the Thames, thirty-five British officerssupped with him upon fresh beef roasted before the fire, without eithersalt or bread, and without ardent spirits of any kind. Whether upon themarch, or in the camp, the whole army was regularly under arms atdaybreak. Upon no occasion did he fail to be out himself, however severethe weather, and was generally the first officer on horseback of thewhole army. Indeed, he made it a point on every occasion, to set anexample of fortitude and patience to the men, and share with them everyhardship, difficulty and danger. "

Of his personal courage in the presence of great danger and peril, therecan be no question. Judge Law says: "William Henry Harrison was as bravea man as ever lived. " At Tippecanoe, after the first savage yell, hemounted on horseback and rode from line to line encouraging his men, although he knew that he was at all times a conspicuous mark for Indianbullets. One leaden missile came so close as to pass through the rim ofhis hat, and Colonel Abraham Owen, Thomas Randolph and others werekilled at his side. "Upon one occasion, as he was approaching an angleof the line, against which the Indians were advancing with horribleyells. Lieutenant Emmerson of the dragoons seized the bridle of hishorse and earnestly entreated that he would not go there; but theGovernor, putting spurs to his horse, pushed on to the point of attack, where the enemy was received with firmness and driven back. "

To these traits, his fearless courage and willingness to share in theburdens and hardships of the common soldier, may be attributed his greatand lasting hold on the affections of the old Kentucky and southernIndiana Indian fighters. To them he was not only a hero, but somethingalmost approaching a demi-god. It is pleasing to remember that when theexpedition against the Prophet was noised abroad, that Colonel Joseph H. Daviess, then one of the most eloquent and powerful advocates at theKentucky bar, offered in a personal letter to the General, to join theexpedition as a private in the ranks; that Colonel Abraham Owen, one ofthe most renowned Indian fighters of that day, joined the armyvoluntarily as an aide to its leader, and that Governor Scott, ofKentucky, sent two companies of mounted volunteer infantry underCaptains Funk and Geiger, to participate in the campaign. It is alsopleasing to remember that the warm affection of the pioneers of thatearly day was transmitted to another and younger generation who grew uplong after the Indian wars were over, and who gave a rousing support tothe old general that made him the ninth president of the United States. 

On his arrival at Vincennes in 1801, the population of that town wasabout seven hundred and fourteen persons. The surrounding countrycontained about eight hundred and nineteen more, while fifty-fivefur-traders were scattered along the Wabash, who carried on a trafficmore or less illicit with the Indians. A large part of the inhabitantsof Vincennes belonged to that class of French-Canadians, who producedthe La Plantes, the Barrens, and the Brouillettes of that time, some ofthem renowned Indian interpreters and river guides, who figuredprominently in the scenes and contests that followed. The remaining partof the population consisted of settlers from the states, the moreconspicuous being the Virginians, who were afterwards denominated as the"aristocrats, " but who in reality contributed more to the growth andprosperity of the frontier posts than any other element. From this classof Virginians, some of them men of learning and attainment, Harrisonselected his retainers and henchmen. Chief among them was BenjaminParke, one of the commanders at Tippecanoe, and the founder of the Statelaw library in after years; and also Waller Taylor and Thomas Randolph, two of his aides in the Wabash campaign and of his immediate militaryfamily. These men, together with Harrison, comprised the "inner circle, "who administered the affairs of Knox County and Vincennes, and at thattime Knox County held the lead and control in public transactionsthroughout the Territory. That they favored the suspension of the sixtharticle of the Ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery in the NorthwestTerritory, is now established history. But they also organized thecourts and the representative assemblies of that day; enacted andenforced the public laws, and set about to establish institutions oflearning. Harrison in particular was a friend of the schools. Besidesthat, these men and their followers organized the militia, gave thewoodsmen a training in the manual of arms, and exercised a wide-awakeand eternal vigilance for the safety of the frontier. The militaryinstinct of the early Virginian was one of the great factors thatdetermined the conquest and established the permanent peace of the newland. 

Probably no magistrate was ever invested with greater powers in a newcountry than was General Harrison in the first years of hisgovernorship. "Amongst the powers conferred upon him, were those, jointly with the judges, of the legislative functions of the Territory;the appointment of all the civil officers within the territory, and allthe military officers of a grade inferior in rank to that of general, commander in chief of the militia--the absolute and uncontrolled powerof pardoning all offenses--sole commissioner of treaties with theIndians, with unlimited powers, and the power of confirming, at hisoption, all grants of land. " That he was left in control of these powersboth under the administrations of President Jefferson and PresidentMadison is sufficient confirmation of the trust and confidence theyreposed in him. In the years to follow, he was to conduct a great numberof difficult negotiations with the chiefs and head warriors of theDelawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Potawatomi, Kickapoos and other tribes, butin all these treaties he was pre-eminently fair with the savages, neverresorting to force or treachery, or stooping to low intrigue or fraud. We have a statement from his own pen as to his manner of conducting anIndian treaty. In a letter from Vincennes on the third day of March, 1803, to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, we have the following: "Ishould have passed over without an observation, if he had not hinted atthe use of unfair means in procuring the consent of the Indians to thetreaties I have made with them, and as I have never before, that Irecollect, informed you of my mode of proceeding on these occasions Ihave thought it proper to do so at the present moment. Whenever theIndians have assembled for any public purpose the use of ardent spiritshas been strictly interdicted until the object for which they wereconvened was accomplished, and if in spite of my vigilance it had beenprocured, a stop was immediately put to all business until it wasconsumed and its effects completely over. Every conference with theIndians has been in public. All persons who chose to attend wereadmitted, and the most intelligent and respectable characters in theneighborhood specially invited to witness the fairness of thetransaction. No treaty has ever been signed until each article wasparticularly and repeatedly explained by the most capable andconfidential interpreters. Sketches of the tract of country about to beceded have always been submitted to the Indians, and their own roughdelineations made on the floor with a bit of charcoal have proved theirperfect comprehension of its situation and extent. " Copies of the oldWestern Sun, amply testify to the fact that prior to the importanttreaties of 1809, at Fort Wayne and Vincennes, he issued a publicproclamation at the latter place, prohibiting any traffic in liquor withthe Indians, so that their judgment might not be perverted; that heconstantly inveighed against this illegal commerce with the tribes, andthat he at various times attempted to restrain the violence of thesquatters and settlers who sought to appropriate the lands of their redneighbors. The language of his first message to the territoriallegislature reads thus: "The humane and benevolent intentions of thegovernment, however, will forever be defeated, unless effectual measuresbe devised to prevent the sale of ardent spirits to those unfortunatepeople. The law which has been passed by Congress for that purpose hasbeen found entirely ineffectual, because its operation has beenconstrued to relate to the Indian country exclusively. In calling yourattention to this subject, gentlemen, I am persuaded that it isunnecessary to remind you that the article of compact makes it your dutyto attend to it. The interests of your constituents, the interests ofthe miserable Indians, and your own feelings, will urge you to take itinto your most serious consideration and provide the remedy which is tosave thousands of our fellow creatures. So destructive has been theprogress of intemperance, that whole villages have been swept away. Amiserable remnant is all that remains to mark the homes and situation ofmany numerous and warlike tribes. "

Again, at Fort Wayne, on the seventeenth of September, 1809, preliminaryto the famous treaty of that year, this entry appears in the journal ofthe official proceedings: "The Potawatomis waited on the Governor andrequested a little liquor, which was refused. The Governor observed thathe was determined to shut up the liquor casks until all the businesswas finished. " This is the conduct throughout of a wise and humane mandealing with an inferior race, but determined to take no advantage oftheir folly. 

It was the steady and uniform policy of the United States government toextinguish the Indian titles to the lands along the Wabash andelsewhere, so that they might be opened up to the increasing tide ofwhite settlers. Contrary to the practices of most governments, however, in their dealings with aborigines, the United States had established theprecedent of recognizing the right of the red men to the occupancy ofthe soil and of entering into treaties of purchase with the varioustribes, paying them in goods and money for their land, while allowingthem the privilege of taking wild game in the territory ceded. PresidentJefferson had always insisted on the payment of annuities in thesepurchases, instead of a lump sum, so that a fund might be created forthe continual support of the tribes from year to year, and so that theymight be enabled to purchase horses, cattle, hogs and the instruments ofhusbandry and thus gradually enter upon the ways of civilization. Thatthe dream of Jefferson was never realized; that the North Americansavages never adopted the manners and pursuits of their white brethren, does not bespeak any the less for the humane instincts of his heart. 

In the negotiation of these treaties in the northwest, Governor Harrisonacted as the minister plenipotentiary of the government, and thenumerous Indian treaties of that day were conducted under expressauthority and command from the City of Washington. The series ofnegotiations finally terminated in the Treaty of Fort Wayne on September30, 1809, by which the United States acquired the title to about2, 900, 000 acres, the greater part of which lay above the old Vincennestract ceded by the Treaty of Grouseland, and below the mouth of BigRaccoon Creek in Parke County. "At that period, 1809, " says Dillon, "thetotal quantity of land ceded to the United States, under treaties whichwere concluded between Governor Harrison and various Indian tribes, amounted to about 29, 719, 530 acres. "

As the consummation of that treaty was the principal and immediate causewhich led up to the great controversy with Tecumseh, and the stirringevents that followed, including the Battle of Tippecanoe, and as thecharge was subsequently made by Tecumseh that it was brought aboutthrough the threats of Winamac, the Potawatomi chief, it may rightfullybe said to be the most important Indian treaty ever negotiated in thewest, outside of General Wayne's Treaty of Greenville, in 1795. We willnow enter into the details of that transaction. 

That part of the lands acquired by the United States Government by theTreaty of Fort Wayne, and being situated in the valley of the Wabash andits tributaries may be thus described: It lay south of a line drawn fromthe mouth of the Big Raccoon Creek, in what is now Parke county, andextending southeast to a point on the east fork of White River aboveBrownstown. This line was commonly called The Ten O'clock Line, becausethe direction was explained to the Indians as toward the point wherethe sun was at ten o'clock. The whole territory acquired in the Wabashvalley and elsewhere embraced about 2, 900, 000 acres and in the Wabashregion was to be not less than thirty miles in width at its narrowestpoint. It will thus be seen that the tract lay directly north of, andadjoining the white settlements in and about Vincennes. It wasafterwards known as the New Purchase. 

There had been frequent and bitter clashes between the settlers and theWea and Potawatomi Indians of this part of the territory for years. Justice and right was not always on the side of the white man. Anaccurate commentator, speaking of the early frontiersmen, says: "Theyeagerly craved the Indian lands; they would not be denied entrance tothe thinly-peopled territory wherein they intended to make homes forthemselves and their children. Rough, masterful, lawless, they wereneither daunted by the powers of the red warriors whose wrath theybraved, nor awed by the displeasure of the government whose solemnengagements they violated. "

The Treaty of Greenville had given the undisputed possession andoccupancy of all the lands above Vincennes and vicinity, and embracedwithin the limits of the territory ceded by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, tothe Indians. They were given the authority by that pact to drive off asquatter or "punish him in such manner as they might think fit, "indulging, however, in no act of "private revenge or retaliation. " Notrader was even allowed to enter this domain unless he was licensed bythe government. 

It is needless to say that no fine sense of right and justice existedeither in the mind of the white land-grabber or in that of his redantagonist. Many unlawful invasions of the Indian lands were made. Moreover, many of the fur traders along the Wabash were of the lowesttype of humanity. They employed any and all means to cheat and defraudthe Indians by the barter and sale of cheap trinkets and bad whiskey andoften violated every principle of honesty and fair-dealing. This kind ofconduct on the part of settlers and traders furnished amplejustification in the minds of the ignorant savages for the making ofreprisals. Many horses were stolen by them, and often foul murders werecommitted by the more lawless element. This horse-stealing andassassination led in turn to counter-attacks on the part of the whites. In time, these acts of violence on the part of the vicious element inboth races spread hate and enmity in every direction. This kind ofhistory was made. "A Muskoe Indian was killed in Vincennes by an Italianinn-keeper without any just cause. The governor ordered that themurderer should be apprehended, but so great was the antagonism to theIndians among all classes, that on his trial the jury acquitted thehomicide almost without any deliberation. About the same time, two WeaIndians were badly wounded near Vincennes by some whites without theslightest provocation. Such facts exasperated the Indians, and led totheir refusal to deliver up Indians who had committed like offensesagainst the white man. " These things occurred shortly prior to theTippecanoe campaign, but a condition similar to this had existed forsome time before the Treaty of Fort Wayne. The Governor was notinsensible to the true state of affairs. He once said: "I wish Icould say the Indians were treated with justice and propriety on alloccasions by our citizens, but it is far otherwise. They are oftenabused and maltreated, and it is rare that they obtain any satisfactionfor the most unprovoked wrongs. " But he also recognized the fact, thatthe two races, so incompatible in habits, manners, customs and tastes, could not dwell in peace together; that the progress of the whitesettlements ought not to and could not on that account be stayed; thatit was up to him as the chief magistrate of the western country and asCommissioner of Indian Affairs, to solve if he could, the troublousproblem before him, and he accordingly instructed Mr. John Johnston, theAgent of Indian Affairs, to assemble the tribes at Fort Wayne for thepurpose of making a new treaty. 

[Illustration: Governor William Henry Harrison]

There were many false sentimentalists of that day, who not unlike theirmodern brethren, wept many crocodile tears over the fate of the "poorIndian. " They charged that the Governor, in the ensuing negotiations, resorted to trickery, and that he availed himself of the threats andviolence of Winamac, the Potawatomi chief, in order to bring thehesitating tribes to the terms of the purchase. In the face of therevealed and undisputed facts of history, these facts were and areentirely false, and were evidently put in motion by the disgruntledoffice seekers at Vincennes as food for the foolish. 

The position of Governor Harrison during the whole course of hisadministration seems to have been this: he sought to ameliorate themiserable condition of the savages at all times; sought by all meanswithin his power to bring to punishment those who committed outragesagainst them; constantly demanded that the illegal traffic in liquor bestopped. However, neither Governor Harrison nor any other man, howeverpowerful, could stop the hand of fate, or abrogate the eternal law ofthe survival of the fittest. After every endeavor to put a stop toabuses, and to quiet the impending storm on the frontier, he resorted tothe next, and seemingly only available means of putting an end to thedifficulty. That is, he provided for the separation of the two races asfar as possible so as to prevent the conflicts between them; he providedfor the payment of annuities for their support and so that they mightpurchase horses and cattle and implements of husbandry, and thus entergradually upon the pursuits of peace. That the plan was not feasibledoes not detract from the fairness and benevolence of the proposer. Hewas but following the uniform custom which the government had at thattime adopted and which the best minds of that age endorsed. He could notforesee, in the light of that day, that the red men of the forest wouldnot accept the ways of civilization, and that all attempts of thegovernment, however charitable, would be wasted and in vain. 

The Governor set out for the council house at old Fort Wayne on thefirst day of September, 1809, on horseback, and accompanied only byPeter Jones, his secretary; a personal servant; Joseph Barron, a famousIndian interpreter; a Frenchman for a guide, and two Indians, probablyDelawares of the friendly White River tribes. He travelled eastwardlytoward the western borders of Dearborn county, and thence north to thePost. Joseph Barron, the interpreter, is thus spoken of by Judge Law:"He knew the Indian character well; he had lived among them many years;spoke fluently the language of every tribe which dwelt on the upperWabash, understood their customs, habits, manners and charlatanry well, and although but imperfectly educated, was one of the most remarkablemen I ever knew. "

The Governor arrived at the Post on the fifteenth of the month, at thesame time with the Delawares and their interpreter, John Conner. 

To appreciate properly the hazard of this journey of two weeks throughan untamed wilderness, across rivers and through dense forests, campingat night in the solitude of the woods, and exposed at all time to theattacks of the savages, one must take into consideration that alreadyTecumseh and the Prophet were forming their confederacy and preaching anew crusade at Tippecanoe; that they were fast filling the minds oftheir savage hearers with that fierce malice and hatred which was tobreak forth in the flame of revolt in a little over two years hence;that the British agents at Maiden were loading the Indians with presentsand filling their ears with falsification as to the intentions ofHarrison; that they were already arming them with guns, bullets, knivesand tomahawks, and that there were those among them who would nothesitate at assassination, if they might hope to reap a British reward. Notwithstanding these facts, Harrison did not hesitate. 

The scene about to be enacted was a memorable one. On the one hand werearrayed the Governor, with his servant and secretary, four Indianinterpreters and a few officers of the Post; on the other, the paintedand feather-bedecked warriors and sachems of the Miamis, the Potawatomi, the Delawares and the Weas. On the third day of the council, eighthundred and ninety-two warriors were present; on the day of the actualsigning of the treaty, thirteen hundred and ninety. No such body of redmen had been assembled to meet a commissioner of the United States sincethe treaty with Anthony Wayne in 1795. Even at that assemblage therewere present only eleven hundred and thirty. 

There were chiefs of the Mississinewa, loud and defiant, who openlydeclared their connection with the British. There was Winamac, thePotawatomi, who afterwards slaughtered the surrendered garrison at FortDearborn, and boasted of his murder. There were Silver Heels and Pecan, Five Medals and The Owl. But above them all stood Little Turtle, theMiami. He had been present at the defeat of Harmar and the slaughter ofSt. Clair's army. He had fought against Wayne at Fallen Timbers. In 1797he had visited the great white father at Philadelphia, PresidentWashington, and had been presented with a brace of elegantly mountedpistols by the Baron Kosciusko. There were braves present whose handshad been besmeared with the blood of innocent women and children--whohad raised the savage yell of terror while setting firebrands to thecabin and tomahawking its inmates. 

During the days that were to follow there were many loud and violentharangues; parties of warriors arrived with presents of the Britishemissaries in their hands, and saying that they had been advised neverto yield another foot of territory; at one time, on Septembertwenty-sixth, the Potawatomi, in open assembly, raised a shout ofdefiance against the Miamis, poured out torrents of abuse on the headsof their chieftains and withdrew from the council declaring that thetomahawk was raised. Amid all this loud jangling and savage quarrelingthe Governor remained unperturbed and steady to his purpose. Notwithstanding frequent demands, he constantly refused to deal out anyliquor except in the most meager quantities--he restrained thePotawatomi and made them smoke the pipe of peace with their offendedallies--he met and answered all the arguments suggested by the Britishagents--and after fifteen days of constant and unremitting effort wonover the chiefs of the Mississinewa and gained the day. 

The official account of the proceedings as made by Peter Jones, secretary to the Governor, and now reposing in the archives of theUnited States government, shows that instead of attempting to make anypurchase of Indian lands when only a small number of representatives ofthe tribes were present, that the Governor on the eighteenth ofSeptember, dispatched messengers to Detroit to summon certain Delawaresand Potawatomi who were absent; that on the same day he also directedJoseph Barron to go to the Miami villages along the Wabash to call inRichardville, one of the principal chiefs of that tribe. The recordsalso show that while the Governor had some private conferences with someof the principal chiefs for the purpose of urging their support to hisplans, that he addressed all his principal remarks to the tribes in opencouncil of all the warriors, and at a time when four interpreters werepresent, to-wit: William Wells, Joseph Barron, John Conner and AbrahamAsh, to translate his observations. 

The first of these great councils was on September 22. The arguments ofthe Governor, so interesting at this day, are set forth: "He urged thevast benefit which they (the Indians) derived from their annuities, without which they would not be able to clothe their women and children. The great advance in the price of goods and the depression in the valueof their peltries from the trouble in Europe, to which there was noprobability of a speedy determination. The little game which remained intheir country, particularly that part of it which he proposed topurchase. The usurpation of it by a banditti of Muscoes and othertribes; that the sale of it would not prevent their hunting upon it aslong as any game remained. But that it was absolutely necessary thatthey should adopt some other plan for their support. That the raising ofcattle and hogs required little labor, and would be the surest resourcesas a substitute for the wild animals which they had so unfortunatelydestroyed for the sake of their skins. Their fondness for hunting mightstill be gratified if they would prevent their young men from hunting atimproper seasons of the year. But to do this effectually, it would benecessary that they should find a certain support in their villages inthe summer season. That the proposed addition to their annuities wouldenable them to purchase the domestic animals necessary to commenceraising them on a large scale. He observed also that they were too aptto impute their poverty and the scarcity of game to the encroachments ofthe white settlers. But this is not the true cause. It is owing to theirown improvidence and to the advice of the British traders by whom theywere stimulated to kill the wild animals for their skins alone, when theflesh was not wanted. That this was the cause of their scarcity isevident from their being found in much greater quantity on the souththan on the north shore of the Wabash, where no white men but traderswere ever seen. The remnant of the Weas who inhabit the tract of countrywhich was wanted, were from their vicinity to the whites, poor andmiserable; all the proceeds of their hunts and the great part of theirannuities expended in whiskey. The Miami Nation would be morerespectable and formidable if its scattered members were assembled inthe center of their country. "

The reasoning of the Governor was cogent. The motive that had promptedthe British to hold the frontier posts for so many years after therevolution, was to secure a monopoly of the fur trade. Their tradersconstantly urged the tribes to bring in peltries, and this led to amerciless slaughter of animals for their hides alone. These measuresinvolved the ultimate destruction of the food supply of the tribes. Itwas also true that the tribes along the Wabash were exhausting thesupply of wild game. The plan of inducing them to accept annuities andto purchase cattle, hogs and other domestic animals for the purpose ofreplenishing their food supply, seemed highly plausible to the minds ofthat day. That the Weas on the lower Wabash would be better off ifremoved from the immediate neighborhood of the white settlements wherethey could purchase fire-water and indulge their vices, did not admit ofdoubt. It was possibly the only plan of bringing relief from thetroubles which were daily augmenting between the two races of men. 

From the first, however, the appeal of the Governor met with a coldreception at the hands of the Mississinewa chiefs. That their feelingsin the matter were prompted by their jealousy of the other tribespresent, and their claim to the sole disposal of any of the lands alongthe Wabash, there can be no doubt. Little Turtle was soon won over, butthe younger and more aggressive chiefs of the Miami villages werehostile to him and openly expressed their disapproval of his conduct. The Mississinewa chiefs were also violently opposed to the pretensionsof Winamac and the Potawatomi. They claimed that the Potawatomi were newcomers and usurpers and had no right to a voice in the sale of lands inthe Wabash valley. The Mississinewa chiefs prevailed. On thetwenty-fourth the Miamis, "declared their determination not to sell afoot of land, observing that it was time to put a stop to theencroachments of the whites who were eternally purchasing their landsfor less than the real value of them. That they had also heard that thegovernor had no instructions to make any purchase, but was making itupon his own authority to please the white people whom he governed. " Onthe twenty-fifth, the Governor, to overcome their opposition, madeanother long appeal in open council, declaring that the British alonewere responsible for the feeling between the races. On that occasion hegave expression to certain ideas that Tecumseh afterwards eagerly seizedupon as an argument in favor of the communistic ownership of all theIndian lands, and as an argument against the sale of 1809. The governorsaid: "Potawatomis and Miamis, look upon each other as brothers, and atthe same time look upon your grandfathers, the Delawares. I love to seeyou all united. I wish to hear you speak with one voice the dictates ofone heart. All must go together. The consent of all is necessary. Delawares and Potawatomis, I told you that I could do nothing with theMiamis without your consent. Miamis, I now tell you that nothing can bedone without your consent. The consent of the whole is necessary. "

This second appeal met with the same reception as the first. On thetwenty-sixth, the Miamis, again declared that they would never consentto the sale of any more of their lands. "That they had been advised bytheir Father, the British, never to sell another foot. " At this momentit was that the Potawatomi started a violent altercation, setting up ashout of open defiance in the council house and threatening to resort toforce. On repairing to the Governor's headquarters, however, andreporting their conduct, Harrison, "blamed them for their rashness andmade them promise not to offer the Miamis any further insults. "

On the evening of the same day, the Governor held another extendedconference with the Miami chiefs, and explained to them that the Britishwere to blame for all their troubles. His remarks were prophetic. Hesaid: "In case of a war with the latter (the Americans), the Englishknew that they were unable to defend Canada with their own force; theywere therefore desirous of interposing the Indians between them anddanger. " The death of Tecumseh in the British ranks was part of thefulfillment of this prediction. 

All the conferences proved in vain. On the twenty-seventh, Silver Heels, a Miami chief, was won over and spoke in favor of the treaty, andHarrison succeeded on the twenty-eighth in reconciling the Miamis andPotawatomi, but in full council on the twenty-ninth, The Owl, a Miamichief, flatly refused to sell an acre; made a bitter and sarcasticspeech, and among other things said; "You remember the time when wefirst took each other by the hand at Greenville. You there told us wherethe line would be between us. You told us to love our women and childrenand to take care of our lands. You told us that the Spanish had a greatdeal of money, the English, and some of your people likewise, but thatwe should not sell our lands to any of them. In consequence of whichlast fall we put our hands upon our hearts and determined not to sellour lands. " Harrison answered in a speech of two hours length, and endedby saying, "that he was tired of waiting and that on the next day hewould submit to them the form of a treaty which he wished them to signand if they would not agree to it he would extinguish the councilfire. "

We now come to a circumstance which refutes much that Tecumsehafterwards claimed. In his famous meeting with the Governor at Vincennesin August, 1810, and speaking of the treaty of 1809, he said: "Brother, this land that was sold, and the goods that were given for it were onlydone by a few. The treaty was afterwards brought here, and the Weas wereinduced to give their consent because of their small numbers. The treatyat Fort Wayne was made through the threats of Winnemac; but in thefuture we are prepared to punish those chiefs who may come forward topropose to sell the land. " The record of the official proceedings, madeat the time, show, however, that immediately upon the close ofHarrison's last speech of September twenty-ninth, that Winamac arose toreply, but upon noting that fact all the Mississinewa Miamis left thecouncil house in contempt. Not only was the treaty of 1809 concluded bya larger number of Indians than were present at Greenville, Ohio, in1795, but the influence of Winamac with the Miamis seems to have been ofa very negligible quantity. 

The truth is that the final consummation of the pact of 1809 was broughtabout by the ready tact and hard common sense of Harrison himself. Onthe morning of the thirtieth of September, the very day the treaty wassigned, it was thought by all the officers and gentlemen present thatthe mission of the Governor was fruitless. No solution of the obstinacyof the Mississinewa chiefs had been discovered. Nothing daunted, Harrison resolved to make one more attempt. He took with him hisinterpreter, Joseph Barron, a man in whom he had the utmost confidence, and visited the camps of the Miamis. He was received well and told themthat he came, not as a representative of the President, but as an oldfriend with whom they had been many years acquainted. "That he plainlysaw that there was something in their hearts which was not consistentwith the attachment they ought to bear to their great father, and thathe was afraid that they had listened to bad birds. That he had come tothem for the purpose of hearing every cause of complaint against theUnited States, and that he would not leave them until they laid openeverything that oppressed their hearts. He knew that they could have nosolid objection to the proposed treaty, for they were all men of senseand reflection, and all knew that they would be greatly benefited byit. " Calling then, upon the principal chief of the Eel River tribe, whohad served under him in General Wayne's army, he demanded to know whathis objections to the treaty were. In reply, the chief drew forth a copyof the Treaty of Grouseland and said: "Father, here are your own words. In this paper you have promised that you would consider the Miamis asthe owners of the land on the Wabash. Why then, are you about topurchase it from others?"

"The Governor assured them that it was not his intention to purchase theland from the other tribes. That he had always said, and was ready nowto confess that the land belonged to the Miamis and to no other tribe. That if the other tribes had been invited to the treaty, it was at theirparticular request (the Miamis). The Potawatomi had indeed taken higherground than either the Governor or the Miamis expected. They claimed anequal right to the land in question with the Miamis, but what of this?Their claiming it gave them no right, and it was not the intention ofthe Governor to put anything in the treaty which would in the leastalter their claim to their lands on the Wabash, as established by theTreaty of Grouseland, unless they chose to satisfy the Delawares withrespect to their claim to the country watered by the White river. Thateven the whole compensation proposed to be given for the lands would begiven to the Miamis if they insisted upon it, but that they knew theoffense which this would give to the other tribes, and that it wasalways the Governor's intention so to draw the treaty that thePotawatomi and Delawares would be considered as participating in theadvantages of the treaty as allies of the Miamis; not as having anyrights to the land. "

The Governor's resourcefulness saved the day. There was an instantchange of sentiment and a brightening of the dark faces. The claim ofthe Miamis acknowledged; their savage pride appeased, and their title tothe land verified, they were ready for the treaty. Pecan, the chief, informed the Governor that he might retire to the fort and that theywould shortly wait upon him with good news. The treaty was immediatelydrafted, and on the same day signed and sealed by the headmen and chiefswithout further dissent. 

Thus was concluded the Treaty of Fort Wayne of September 30, 1809. Thearticles were fully considered and signed only after due deliberation ofat least a fortnight. The terms were threshed out in open council, before the largest assembly of red men ever engaged in a treaty in thewestern country up to that time. No undue influence, fraud or coercionwere brought to bear--every attempt at violence was promptly checked bythe Governor--no resort was had to the evil influence of bribes orintoxicants. When agreed upon, it was executed without question. 

CHAPTER XVII

RESULTS OF THE TREATY

_--Harrison's political enemies at Vincennes rally against him in theopen, and are defeated in the courts. _

The Treaty of Fort Wayne having been consummated and certain disputesrelative to horse-stealing and other depredations having been arrangedbetween the two races, the Governor, on the fourth of October, 1809, setout on his return to Vincennes. He travelled on horseback, accompaniedby his secretary and interpreter, passing through the Indian villages atthe forks of the Wabash and striking the towns of the Miamis at themouth of the Mississinewa. Here dwelt John B. Richardville, or Peshewah, a celebrated chief of that tribe, who was later chosen as principalsachem on the death of Little Turtle. Richardville had not beenpersonally present at Fort Wayne, but he now received the Governorcordially, and gave his unqualified approval to the previousproceedings. 

The day before his arrival at Peshewah's town, the Governor met with asingular experience, which not only served to illustrate the advancingravages of liquor among the tribes but Harrison's intimate knowledge ofIndian laws, customs and usages. On coming into the camp of Pecan, aMississinewa chieftain, he discovered that one of the warriors hadreceived a mortal wound in a "drunken frolic" of the preceding evening. The chiefs informed him that the slayer had not been apprehended, whereupon the Governor recommended that if the act "should appear tohave proceeded from previous malice, " that the offender should bepunished, "but if it should appear to be altogether accident, to let himknow it, and he would assist to make up the matter with the friends ofthe deceased. " The payment of wergild or "blood-money" among the Indiantribes in compensation of the loss of life or limb, is strongly inaccord with the ancient Saxon law, yet it seems to have prevailed as farback at least as the time of William Penn, for in one of his lettersdescribing the aborigines of America, he says: "The justice they (theIndians) have is pecuniary; in case of any wrong or evil fact, be itmurder itself, they atone by feasts and presents of their wampum, whichis proportioned to the offense, or person injured, or of the sex theyare of; for, in case they kill a woman, they pay double, and the reasonthey render, is that she can raise children, which men cannot do. " Lateron, at Vincennes, the Governor had another and similar experience whichaffords additional proof that the custom above mentioned was stillprevalent. A Potawatomi chieftain from the prairies came in attended bysome young men. He found there about one hundred and fifty of theKickapoos, who were receiving their annuity, and he immediately madecomplaint to the Governor as follows: "My Father, " said he, "it is nowtwelve moons since these people, the Kickapoos, killed my brother; Ihave never revenged it, but they have promised to cover up his blood, but they have not done it. I wish you to tell them, my father, to payme for my brother, or some of them will lose their hair before they gofrom this. " The Governor accordingly advised the chief of the Kickapoosto satisfy the Potawatomi. On the following day the latter again calledupon the Governor, and said: "See there, my father, " showing threeblankets and some other articles, "see what these people have offered mefor my brother, but my brother was not a hog that I should take threeblankets for him, " and he declared his intention of killing some of themunless they would satisfy him in the way he proposed. The Governor, uponinquiry, finding that the goods of the Kickapoos were all distributed, directed, on account of the United States, that a small addition be madeto what he had received. 

At the villages on Eel river the Governor met with certain of the Weasof the lower region, and dispatched them to summon their chiefs to meetwith him at Vincennes and ratify the treaty. He arrived at the latterplace on the twelfth of October, having been absent for a period ofabout six weeks, and found that the complete success of his mission hadrestored in a large measure that popularity which he had beforetime loston account of his advocacy of slavery. The acquisition was heralded farand wide as a measure calculated in all respects to forward theinterests of the Territory. Not only was the total domain acquired, vastin acreage, (being computed at about 2, 900, 000 acres), but it wasconsidered extremely fertile, well watered, and as containing saltsprings and valuable mines. Once the Weas and other tribes were removedfrom close proximity to the settlements, it was confidently expectedthat the old clashes would cease and that the new territory would bespeedily surveyed and opened up for entry and purchase to within twelvemiles of the mouth of the Vermilion. The Indians also, seemed wellsatisfied. The Potawatomi had been urgent; Richardville, Little Turtleand all the Miamis had given their consent; the Weas and Kickapoos wereabout to ratify. 

Nothing was then heard of the pretensions of the Shawnee Prophet or hisabler brother. In a message to the territorial legislature in 1810, reviewing the events of this period, Harrison said: "It was not untileight months after the conclusion of the treaty, and after his design offorming a combination against the United States had been discovered anddefeated, that the pretensions of the Prophet, in regard to the land inquestion, were made known. A furious clamor was then raised by theforeign agents among us, and other disaffected persons, against thepolicy which had excluded from the treaty this great and influentialcharacter, as he is termed, and the doing so expressly attributed to thepersonal ill-will on the part of the negotiator. No such ill-will did infact exist. I accuse myself, indeed, of an error in the patronage andsupport which I afforded him on his arrival on the Wabash, before hishostility to the United States had been developed. But on no principleof propriety or policy could he have been made a party to the treaty. The personage, called the Prophet, is not a chief of the tribe to whichhe belongs, but an outcast from it, rejected and hated by the realchiefs, the principal of whom was present at the treaty, and not onlydisclaimed on the part of his tribe any title to the land ceded, butused his personal influence with the chiefs of the other tribes toeffect the cession. "

The "principal chief" of the Shawnees above alluded to was undoubtedlyBlack Hoof, or Catahecassa, who at this time lived in the first town ofthat tribe, at Wapakoneta, Ohio. Being near to Fort Wayne he had nodoubt attended the great council at that place. He had been a renownedwarrior, as already shown, and had been present at Braddock's Defeat, atPoint Pleasant, and at St. Clair's disaster, but when Anthony Wayneconquered the Indians at Fallen Timbers, Black Hoof had given up, and hehad afterwards remained steadfast in his allegiance to the United Statesgovernment. When Tecumseh afterwards attempted to form his confederacy, he met with a firm and steady resistance from Black Hoof, and hisinfluence was such that no considerable body of the Shawnees ever joinedthe Prophet's camp. Black Hoof died in 1831 at the advanced age of onehundred and ten years, and tradition says that like Moses, "his eye wasnot dim; nor his natural force abated. " The fact that Black Hoof, whowas of great fame among his tribe, as both orator and statesman, made noclaim to any of the lands sold below the Vermilion, is strong cumulativeproof of the assertion afterwards made by Harrison to Tecumseh, that anyclaims of his tribe to the lands on the Wabash were without foundation. 

The personal admirers and intimate associates of Harrison, were, ofcourse, overjoyed. They were no doubt influenced to some extent by thefact that another long lease of power was in sight. Their leader'svictory would inure to their own benefit. Still, there were no cravensamong them. A banquet followed, participated in by a number of theleading citizens of the town and adjacent country. Judge HenryVanderburgh, of the Territorial Court, presided, and toasts were drankto the treaty, Governor Harrison, his secretary, Peter Jones, and the"honest interpreter" Joseph Barron. Of those present on that occasion, some were afterwards officers at Tippecanoe, and one, Thomas Randolph, fell at the side of his chief. 

There were those, however, who were not to be silenced by the Governor'striumph. The political battles of that time were extremely vitriolic, and the fights over territorial politics had been filled with hate. Certain foes of the Governor not only appeared in Knox county, buteventually in the halls of the national congress, and there were thosewho did not hesitate to question the Governor's integrity. Among thosewho bitterly opposed Harrison was one William McIntosh, "a Scotchman oflarge property at Vincennes, who had been for many years hostile to theGovernor, and who was not believed to be very partial to the governmentof the United States. " Harrison terms him as a "Scotch Tory. " One JohnSmall made an affidavit before Judge Benjamin Parke that prior to theyear 1805, McIntosh had been on good terms with Harrison, but thatHarrison's advocacy of a representative government for the territory, orits advancement to the second grade, had turned him into an enemy. However this may be, Harrison and his friends, in order to vindicatehis fame at home and abroad, now resolved to bring an action fordamages in the territorial courts against McIntosh, "for having assertedthat he had cheated the Indians, in the last treaty which had been madewith them at Fort Wayne. " The suit being brought to issue, it was foundthat of the territorial judges then on the bench, one, probably JudgeParke, was a personal friend of the Governor, and one a personal friendof McIntosh. These gentlemen, therefore, both retired, and the HonorableWaller Taylor, who had recently come into the territory assumed theermine. A jury was selected by the court naming two elisors, who in turnselected a panel of forty-eight persons, from which the plaintiff anddefendant each struck twelve, and from the remaining twenty-four thejury was drawn by lot. With this "struck jury, " the cause proceeded to ahearing. The following account, given in _Dawson's Harrison_, will proveof interest: "Before a crowded audience, this interesting trial wascontinued from ten A. M. , till one o'clock at night. Every personconcerned in the Indian Department, or who could know anything of thecircumstances of the late treaty at Fort Wayne, was examined, and everylatitude that was asked for, or attempted by the defendant, in theexamination, permitted. Finding that the testimony of all the witnesseswent to prove the justice and integrity of the Governor's conduct inrelation to everything connected with the Indian Department, thedefendant began to ask questions relating to some points of his civiladministration. To this the jury as well as the court objected, thelatter observing that it was necessary that the examination should beconfined to the matter at issue. But at the earnest request of theGovernor the defendant was permitted to pursue his own course andexamine the witnesses upon every point which he might think proper. Thedefendant's counsel, abandoning all idea of justification, pleaded onlyfor a mitigation of damages. After a retirement of one hour the juryreturned a verdict of $4, 000 damages. To pay this sum, a large amount ofthe defendant's lands were exposed for sale, and in the Governor'sabsence in the command of the army the ensuing year, was bought in byhis agent. Two-thirds of his property has since been returned toMcIntosh and the remaining part given to some of the orphan children ofthose distinguished citizens who fell a sacrifice to their patriotism inthe last war. "

The head chief of the Weas at this time was Lapoussier, whose name wouldindicate that he was of French extraction. He arrived at Vincennes onthe fifteenth day of October, with fifteen warriors and was laterfollowed by Negro Legs, Little Eyes and Shawanoe, who came in with othercompanies of the tribe. On the twenty-fourth, the Governor assembledthem for the purpose, as he stated, of ascertaining whether they "werein a situation to understand the important business he had to lay beforethem. " He said that he had shut up the liquor casks, but that he foundthat his proclamation prohibiting the sale of liquor had been disobeyed. He was glad to find however, that they were sober, and expressed a wishthat they would not drink any more while the deliberations were inprogress. On the twenty-fifth he explained fully all the provisions ofthe Treaty of Fort Wayne, the benefit the Weas would derive from anincrease in their annuity, and the removal from the vicinity of thesettlements to the neighborhood of their brothers, the Miamis, who livedfarther up the river. He also told them that they would be granted thesame amount of goods in hand received by the larger tribes, on accountof the inconvenience they would suffer by moving from their presenthabitations. The Governor's conduct in refusing to negotiate while anyevidences of liquor were manifest was in strict keeping with hisattitude at Fort Wayne, and his generous treatment of a smaller andweaker tribe certainly redounds to his credit. The Treaty of Fort Waynewas duly ratified and approved on the twenty-sixth day of October, 1809, and the convention was signed by Lapoussier and all the Wea chieftainswithout a single dissent. 

Only one tribe now remained who had any manner of claim to any of thelands in the Wabash valley. This tribe was the Kickapoos, who lived atthe mouth of the Vermilion river and in that part of Indiana nowcomprising practically all of Vermilion county and parts of Warren andParke. Accordingly a treaty was concluded with them at Vincennes on theninth of December, 1809, whereby they fully ratified all the proceedingsat Fort Wayne, and further ceded to the United States "all that tract ofland which lies above the tract above ceded (the north line of which wasRaccoon creek), the Wabash, the Vermilion river, and a line to be drawnfrom the north corner of said ceded tract, so as to strike the Vermilionriver at a distance of twenty miles in a direct line from its mouth. "Among the interesting names attached as witnesses to the articles isthat of Hyacinthe Laselle. 

CHAPTER XVIII

THE SHAWNEE BROTHERS

--_The Prophet as an Indian Priest and Tecumseh as a politicalorganizer--The episode of the eclipse of 1806--Tecumseh's personalappearance described. _

The confederacy of Tecumseh was established upon a priesthood. Let usregard the priest. He was a character remarkable enough to invite theattention of all the leading men of that day, including Jefferson. Hewas subtle and crafty enough to delude Harrison into the belief that hemight be a friend instead of a foe. 

The account related by Simon Kenton, and vouched for by John Johnstonand Anthony Shane, is that Tecumseh, Laulewasikaw, the Prophet, and athird brother, Kumskaukau, were triplets; that Tecumseh was the youngestor last born of the three; that "this event so extraordinary among theIndian tribes, with whom a double birth is quite uncommon, struck themind of the people as supernatural, and marked him and his brothers withthe prestige of future greatness--that the Great Spirit would directthem to the achievement of something great. " The date of thisextraordinary event is given by most authors as 1768, making Tecumsehand the Prophet some five years the seniors of General Harrison. "Theywere born in a cabin or hut, constructed of round saplings chinked withsticks and clay, near the mouth of Stillwater, on the upper part of itsjunction with the Great Miami, then a pleasant plateau of land, with afield of corn not subject to overflow. "

Of the early life of the Prophet not much is known. "According to oneaccount he was noted in his earlier years for stupidity andintoxication; but one day, while lighting his pipe in his cabin, he fellback apparently lifeless and remained in that condition until hisfriends had assembled for the funeral, when he revived from his trance, quieted their alarm, and announced that he had been conducted to thespirit world. " As an orator, he is said to have been even more powerfulthan Tecumseh himself, and his great influence in after years among thevarious tribes would seem to bear that statement out. However, he wasboastful, arrogant, at times cruel, and never enjoyed the reputation forhonesty and integrity that his more distinguished brother did. Inpersonal appearance he was not prepossessing. He had lost one eye, "which defect he concealed by wearing a dark veil or handkerchief overthe disfigured organ. " It has been related that he was dominated to someextent by his wife, who was regarded by the squaws at the Prophet's Townas a queen. 

Whole nations are at times moved with a sort of religious fervor orfrenzy which extends to all ranks and stations. During these periodsstrange mental phenomena are at times apparent, great social andpolitical movements are inaugurated, and the whole complexion of affairsseems to undergo a rapid and sometimes radical change. Such a movementoccurred among the Indian tribes of Ohio and those along the Wabashabout the beginning of the year 1806. At this time a part of thescattered and broken remnants of the Shawnee tribe had been gatheredtogether under the Prophet and Tecumseh at Greenville, Ohio. In Novemberof the year before the Prophet had "assembled a considerable number ofShawnees, Wyandots, Ottawas and Senecas, at Wapakoneta, on the Auglaizeriver, when he unfolded to them the new character with which he wasclothed, and made his first public effort in that career of religiousimposition, which in a few years was felt by the remote tribes of theupper lakes, and on the broad plains which stretched beyond theMississippi. " The appearance of the Prophet was not only highly dramaticbut extremely well-timed. The savage mind was filled with gloomyforebodings. The ravages of "fire-water, " the intermixture of the races, the trespassing of the white settlers on the Indian domain, and therapid disappearance of many of the old hunting grounds, all betokened asad destiny for the red man. Naturally superstitious, he was preparedfor the advent of some divine agency to help him in his distress. No oneunderstood this better than the Prophet. He may have been the dupe ofhis own imposture, but impostors are generally formidable. He was nolonger Laulewasikaw, but Tenskwatawa, "The Open Door. " "He affectedgreat sanctity; did not engage in the secular duties of war or hunting;was seldom in public; devoted most of his time to fasting, theinterpretation of dreams, and offering sacrifices to spiritual powers;pretended to see into futurity and to foretell events, and announcedhimself to be the mouth-piece of God. "

The first assemblage at Wapakoneta, was later followed by a series ofpilgrimages to Greenville, which shortly spread alarm among the whitesettlers. Hundreds of savages flocked around the new seer from therivers and lakes of the northwest and even from beyond the Mississippi. In May of 1807 great numbers passed and re-passed through Fort Wayne. Ina letter of date August 20th, 1807, from William Wells, the UnitedStates Indian agent at the last named place, to Governor Harrison atVincennes, Wells relates that the lake Indians from the vicinity ofMackinac are flocking to Greenville; that the Prophet is instilling thedoctrine that in a few years the Great Spirit will destroy every whiteman in America, and that the inhabitants of Detroit are fortifyingthemselves against attack. To all these savage gatherings the Prophetpreached the new propaganda. He denounced drunkenness, and said that hehad gone up into the clouds and had seen the abode of the Devil; thatthere he saw all the drunkards and that flames of fire continuallyissued from their mouths, and that all who used liquor in this worldwould suffer eternal torment in the next; he advocated a return topristine habits and customs, counseling the tribes "to throw away theirflints and steels, and resort to their original mode of obtaining fireby percussion. He denounced the woolen stuffs as not equal to skins forclothing; he commended the use of the bow and arrow. As tointer-marriage between the races, all this was prohibited. The two raceswere distinct and must remain so. Neither could there be any separate orindividual ownership of any of the Indian lands; these were the commonheritage of all. The weak, aged and infirm were to be cherished andprotected; parental authority was to be obeyed. In conclusion, he neverfailed to proclaim that the Great Spirit had gifted him with the divinepower to 'cure all diseases and to arrest the hand of death, insickness, or on the battlefield'. "

The happening of these events soon attracted the attention of theBritish agents at Malden, just below Detroit, and on the Canadian side. McKee was there and Matthew Elliott. The old hatred of all thingsAmerican still burned in their bosoms. "England and France, " saysRidpath, "were now engaged in deadly war. The British authorities struckblow after blow against the trade between France and foreign nations;and Napoleon retaliated. The plan adopted by the two powers was, asalready narrated, to blockade each others' ports, either with paperproclamations or with men-of-war. By such means the commerce of theUnited States was greatly injured. Great Britain next set up herpeculiar claim of citizenship, that whosoever is born in England remainsthrough life the subject of England. English cruisers were authorized tosearch American vessels for persons suspected of being British subjects, and those who were taken were impressed as seamen in the English navy. On the twenty-second of June, 1807, the frigate Chesapeake was hailednear Fortress Monroe by a British man-of-war called the Leopard. Britishofficers came on board and demanded to search the vessel for deserters. The demand was refused and the ship cleared for action. But before theguns could be charged the Leopard poured in a destructive fire, andcompelled a surrender. Four men were taken from the captured ship, threeof whom proved to be American citizens. Great Britain disavowed thisoutrage and promised reparation; but the promise was never fulfilled. "

In the event of a renewal of hostilities between the United States andGreat Britain, it would evidently be the mission of McKee and Elliott tobrighten the bond of friendship between the Indian tribes and the king;re-establish, so far as possible, the old savage confederacy, and use itboth as a barrier against any attempted invasion of Canada, and as aweapon of offense against the western states and settlements. TheShawnees were wholly in the interest of the British. The Potawatomi, Ottawas and Chippewas who resided in the neighborhood of Detroit were, as Harrison says, "the most perfidious of their race, " and Wellsreported to Harrison, that in case of war, the Indian tribes would beagainst the United States. In a letter of July eleventh, 1807, Harrisonwrote to the Department of War that a respectable trader from Detroithad informed him "that McKee, the British Indian agent, was lately seento pass up the Miami of the Lake to Greenville where the Prophetresided, and where there has been a considerable collection of Indiansfor many weeks. " The frontiers were generally alarmed, and in Septemberthe Governor dispatched the interpreter, John Conner, with a talk to theShawnees requiring the immediate removal of the "impostor" from theterritory, and the dispersion of the warriors he had collected abouthim. "The British, " he writes, "could not have adopted a better plan toeffect their purpose of alienating from our government the affections ofthe Indians than employing this vile instrument. It manifests at oncetheir inveterate rancour against us and their perfect acquaintance withthe Indian character. "

But to return to the Prophet. His fame, bruited far and wide, soonaroused the jealousy of many of the neighboring chiefs and medicine men. They saw their power dwindling away and their authority diminishing. They took steps to check the advancing tide of fanaticism, but were atonce adroitly met by the introduction of an inquisition into witchcraft, which had been almost universally believed in by the tribes, but againstwhich the Prophet now hurled the most direful anathemas. He declaredthat anyone who dealt in magic or "medicine juggleries" should nevertaste of future happiness, and must be instantly put to death. Hisdeluded and awe-struck followers promptly began a systematic searchingout and persecution of "witches, " and all under his personal direction. The finger of the seer often pointed at a prominent warrior orchieftain, or some member of their household. The Prophet's meredenunciation was proof enough. The victim went to the torture of deathby fire, or some other fate equally revolting. Among the Delawares, especially, the most shocking cruelty ensued, and finally these thingscame to the ears of the Governor at Vincennes. He immediately sent a"speech" by special messenger to the headmen and chiefs of the Delawaretribe beseeching them to cast aside all fallacious doctrines, todenounce the Prophet and to drive him out of their midst. In the courseof this "speech" he said: "Demand of him some proof at least, of hisbeing the messenger of the Deity. If God has really employed him, He hasdoubtless authorized him to perform miracles that he may be known andreceived as a prophet. If he is really a prophet, ask of him to causethe sun to stand still, the moon to alter its course, the rivers tocease to flow, or the dead to rise from their graves. "

The language of the Governor proved to be unfortunate. On June sixteen, 1806, there was a total eclipse of the sun in northern latitudes for aperiod of about five minutes, at about a half an hour before midday, andthis event had long been heralded by the astronomers of that time, andhad come to the ears of the Prophet through intercourse with some whitefriends. The crafty savage was not slow to act. He told his followersthat on a certain fixed day, and at a time when the sun was at theheight of its power, he would place the same under his feet, and causedarkness to come over the face of the earth. On the day announced, theProphet stood among his fearful band, awaiting the hour. The day waswholly clear and without clouds, but at the appointed time the terrifiedsavages saw a disc of blackness gradually pass over the face of the sun;the birds became agitated and flew to cover; the skulking dogs drew neartheir masters; almost absolute darkness fell on all about; the stars ofheaven appeared in the zenith, and in the midst of it all, the Prophetexclaimed: "Did I not testify truly? Behold! Darkness has shrouded thesun!" The account of that day, faithfully set forth by J. FennimoreCooper, then a youth, is filled with strange relations of the unnaturalappearance of all earthly things; of the sudden awe and fear that cameinto the minds of all; how women stood near their husbands in silenceand children clung to their mothers in terror, and if these were theemotions experienced in a civilized community, made fully aware of thecoming event, what must have been the impression produced on thesuperstitious mind of the savage, wholly unenlightened in the ways ofscience? From that day, the power of the savage Prophet was secure untilthe spell of his magic was forever broken by Harrison's soldiers atTippecanoe. 

It is not certain at what precise period in his career, whether in 1806or 1807, or later, the Prophet was tempted by British gold and Britishovertures. President Jefferson once wrote to John Adams as follows: "Ithought there was little danger in his making proselytes from the habitsand comforts they had learned from the whites, to the hardships andprivations of savagism, and no great harm if he did. But his followersincreased until the British thought him worth corrupting, and found himcorruptible. " Neither is it certain at what precise period Tecumseh puthis brother-priest behind him and assumed the lead. That he hadcunningly pretended to have great respect and reverence while theProphet was practicing on the superstition of the tribes; that he tookno steps to stop the inquisitions which were destroying the influence ofthe chiefs and medicine men; that he stood ready at the opportune momentto push the brother-priest into the back-ground and form a confederacywith himself as the recognized head, will not now admit of controversy. 

In 1806 Tecumseh was about thirty-eight years of age, a finishedathlete, a renowned hunter, and of great reputation as a bold andfearless orator. Probably no red man ever born had a better knowledge ofthe various treaties that had been consummated between the races. "Forall those qualities which elevate man far above his race; for talent, tact, skill, bravery as a warrior; for high-minded, honorable andchivalrous bearing as a man; in fine, for all those elements ofgreatness which place him a long way above his fellows in savage life, the name and fame of Tecumseh will go down to posterity in the west, asone of the most celebrated of the aborigines of this continent. " This isthe estimate of Judge Law, of Vincennes. 

In his youth he had been under the tutelage of his elder brother, Cheeseekau, who taught him "a love for the truth, a contempt ofeverything mean and sordid, and the practice of those cardinal Indianvirtues, courage in battle and fortitude in suffering. " In one of theearly Shawnee raids along the Ohio he had witnessed the burning of awhite man at the stake; the scene was so horrifying to him that he madehis associates promise never to torture another person. The spoils ofthe hunt he divided with the aged and unfortunate. At the time of theProphet's rise he had already matched his prowess in battle against suchmen as Simon Kenton and his associates and had proven both his skill asa tactician and his courage as a fighter. 

An illustration of Tecumseh's chivalry toward his foes, is pleasinglyset forth in Smith's _Historical Sketches of Old Vincennes_; "Early inthe year 1811, Governor Harrison, with a view to ascertaining the causeof the dissatisfaction of the Prophet, and, if possible, pacify him, deputed one of his most sagacious and trusty advisers with a competentinterpreter to hold a council with him and his chiefs, including hisbrother warrior chief, Tecumseh. It is learned from history that thesegentlemen arrived at the village one evening and were received in anapparently friendly manner by the Prophet and assigned a tent for thenight with an appointment for a council the next morning. It is said theProphet's wife was considered a queen among the Indian women, as well asby her husband. Before retiring for the night the interpreter observedan unusual stir among the squaws, and motions made toward their tent, and caught menacing glances and gestures toward them, and so told theambassador, but he made light of the matter and the interpreter'ssuspicions that treachery was intended, and when night came on he wassoon asleep in peace and quiet. But not so with the vigilantinterpreter, who kept awake and had his guns near at hand. Aboutmidnight a tap was heard at the door and his name, in the Shawneelanguage, was called. He found Tecumseh at the door. He had called towarn him of impending assassination by the queen and squaws, who hadheld a council and determined on their death in spite of the protests ofhimself and others who told them it would be base treachery to killmessengers of peace who were their visitors. He told the visitors torise and go with him. They went silently through the village and downinto a wooded ravine near the river, where a noise was made as if tocall wild turkeys, sounds well recognized by all hunters in early days;an answer was returned, and soon two men appeared with the ambassador'shorses, which they speedily mounted and rode swiftly away, accompaniedby two guides furnished by Tecumseh, and were soon well on their returntrip to Vincennes. "

No true portrait of this celebrated Indian is in existence. Thefollowing graphic description of him, however, is given by StanleyHatch, who had a personal acquaintance with him in times of peace: "Thegeneral appearance of this remarkable man was uncommonly fine. Hisheight was about five feet nine inches, judging him by my own heightwhen standing close to him, and corroborated by the late Col. JohnJohnston, for many years Indian agent at Piqua. His face oval ratherthan angular; his nose handsome and straight; his mouth beautifullyformed, like that of Napoleon I, as represented in his portraits; hiseyes clear, transparent hazel, with a mild, pleasant expression when inrepose, or in conversation; but when excited in his orations or by theenthusiasm of a conflict, or when in anger, they appeared like balls offire; his teeth beautifully white, and his complexion more of a lightbrown or tan than red; his whole tribe as well as their kindred theOttawas, had light complexions; his arms and hands were finely formed;his limbs straight; he always stood very erect and walked with a brisk, elastic, vigorous step; invariably dressed in Indian tanned buckskin; aperfectly well fitting hunting frock descending to the knee, and overhis under clothes of the same material; the usual cape and finish ofyellow fringe about the neck; cape, edges of the front opening andbottom of the frock; a belt of the same material in which were his sidearms (an elegant silver-mounted tomahawk and a knife in a strong leathercase); short pantaloons connected with neatly fitting leggings andmoccasins, with a mantle of the same material thrown over his leftshoulder, used as a blanket in camp and as a protection in storms. Suchwas his dress when I last saw him, on the seventeenth of August, 1812, on the streets of Detroit; mutually exchanging tokens of recognitionwith former acquaintances in years of peace, and passing on, he, to seethat his Indians had all crossed to Malden, as commanded, and to counselwith his white allies in regard to the next movement of the now reallycommenced War of 1812. He was then in the prime of life, and presentedin his appearance and noble bearing one of the finest looking men I haveever seen. "

The striking circumstances of his birth, the ascendency of his brother, the Prophet, his burning hatred of the white race; his skill as a hunterand valor as a warrior; above all his wonderful eloquence and thoroughknowledge of all the Indian treaties of the past, gave Tecumseh aninfluence and authority among the tribes far beyond that of any of thebraves or sachems of that day. If at the first his imagination had notdared to scale the heights of power, he later boldly threw aside alldisguise, and by his powerful advocacy of a communistic ownership of allthe Indian lands by the tribes in common, he aimed both a blow at theancient authority claimed by the Indian chieftains, and at the validityof every treaty ever negotiated between the two races of men. The sumand substance of Tecumseh's doctrine is thus succinctly stated by JudgeLaw: "That the Great Spirit had given the Indians all their lands incommon to be held by them as such and not by the various tribes who hadsettled on portions of it--claiming it as their own. That they weresquatters having no 'pre-emption right, ' but holding even that on whichthey lived as mere 'tenants in common' with all the other tribes. Thatthis mere possession gave them no title to convey the land without theconsent of all. That no single tribe had the right to sell, that thepower to sell was not vested in their chiefs, but must be the act of thewarriors in council assembled of all the tribes, as the land belonged toall--no portion of it to any single tribe. "

If these tenets were to hold, it was clear that any authority claimed bythe chiefs to represent their respective tribes in the sale or barter ofany of the Indian domain was without foundation; that any treaty notnegotiated and ratified by a common council of all the warriors of allthe tribes, was null and void; that Wayne's Treaty of 1795 was nullumpactum; that the claim of the white settlers to any of the lands northof the Ohio was without force, and that they were trespassers and merelicensees from the beginning. The doctrine thus enunciated was notentirely new. Joseph Brant had claimed that the land was the commonproperty of the tribes, but he had never declared that the sanction ofall the warriors was necessary to a conveyance. But the plausibleeloquence of Tecumseh, coming at a time when the star of the red man wassetting; when every passing day witnessed the encroachment of the whitesettlers, gave a new ray of hope to the fainting tribes. The warriors, carried away by the dreams and incantations of the Prophet, andsustained by the burning words of a new leader, who promised them arestoration of their former glory, cast aside with contempt all thearticles and solemn agreements of the past, and were ready to take upthe tomahawk in patriotic defense of their lands and homes. Thus didTecumseh look forward to the establishment of "a great and permanentconfederation--an empire of red men, of which he should be the leaderand emperor. "

CHAPTER XIX

PROPHET'S TOWN

--_The capital of the Shawnee Confederacy in the heart of the Miamicountry. _

Before entering upon the final details of the struggle between Harrisonand Tecumseh, it may not be uninteresting to recur to a point of timejust before the Treaty of Fort Wayne, when the two Indian leadersremoved from the neighborhood of the white settlements at Greenville, Ohio, and established the Prophet's Town on the Wabash river in themonth of June, 1808. This was to be the spot from whence should emanateall those brilliant schemes of the brothers to merge the broken tribesinto a confederacy; to oppose the further advance of the white settlers, and with the aid of the British power in Canada, to drive them backbeyond the waters of the Ohio. It was, as General Richard P. DeHart hasaptly remarked, "the seat of Indian diplomacy and strategy for manyyears. "

In leading their followers to this new field, the brothers were guidedby certain lines of policy which were both remarkable in theirconception, and signal for their farsightedness. The rendezvous atGreenville had been marked by intense enthusiasm, hundreds of red menflocking thither to imbibe the new faith and to commune with theProphet; so many in fact, that Governor Harrison had ordered them to besupplied from the public stores at Fort Wayne in order to avert trouble. But it was evident to the new leaders that all this congregating did notturn aside starvation; that warriors could not be held together who werehungry and who lacked corn; that the proximity of white traders wasconducive to drunkenness; that if back of outward appearances anywarlike exercises were to be indulged, or the emissaries and arms of theBritish were to be received, that these things would require secrecy andseclusion until the plot was ripe; that some strategic position must besecured on one of the great waterways of the interior, within quickstriking distance of the settlements and easily accessible to theBritish posts. 

Such a spot was the site of the old French and Indian trading post onthe right bank of the Wabash and about ten miles above the present cityof Lafayette. To the west about one and one-quarter miles is the marbleshaft of the Battleground, and going from thence east across the fieldsand open woodlands you come to the fringe of woods that still lines theriver. You have walked over the old Indian corn fields and are nowstanding on the exact location of the old Prophets's Town. The scene isone of great beauty even at this day, when the forest has been despoiledand nature ravished of her choicest charms. Here, the river extends inan almost unbroken line for three or four miles, bordered by sycamoresand maples, and with a wealth of clinging vines, crab-apple blossoms andblooming flowers on either bank. The old trading post of Petit Piconnewas located on a series of high cliffs, crowned with huge forest trees, and commanding the river through vistas of foliage. The face of thesecliffs is frequently broken by sharp ravines, that extend on back amongthe hills with many devious windings. At the foot of the steep slopes, extends a long, narrow tableland of forest bordering directly upon theriver; this is interspersed with springs of fresh water that burst fromthe hillsides. On the cliffs stood the camps and cabins of the warriorsand their followers; below, and on the tableland and next to the water, the horses were tethered, and canoes were drawn up out of the river. 

Thither the Prophet and his brother now turned their eyes. The wholeupper valley, including the basins of the Tippecanoe and the Wildcat, was the rightful possession of the Miamis and the Weas, but the brothersnow secured a pretended right or license from the Kickapoos and thePotawatomi to establish a camp. The Miamis of the north, and theDelawares of the south, were alike alarmed. The Delawares in particularhad been the friends of the white people and adherents of the Governor. They divined, and divined truly, that the Prophet's plans ultimatelyinvolved mischief. To avoid a possible war they sent a deputation ofchiefs to the Prophet, who refused to see them, but deputed Tecumseh toanswer their remonstrances. On this mission he was entirely successful. By threats and persuasion he turned them back, although they hadreceived strict instructions from their tribe to oppose a newsettlement. On a visit shortly afterwards by John Conner, interpreterfor the Delawares, on a search for stolen horses, he found the Prophetsafely ensconced in his chosen position, with a following of thirty orforty Shawnees, and about ninety others, consisting of Potawatomi, Chippewas, Ottawas and Winnebagoes. 

The location selected was certainly ideal. "By a short portage theIndians could go by canoe to Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, or by theWabash reach all the vast system of watercourses to the north and west. It was only twenty-four hours' journey by canoe, at a favorable stage ofwater, down stream to Vincennes, the capital of the white man'sterritory;" the British post at Malden was only a few days distant. Asto the Indian tribes, the Prophet's Town was almost centrally located inthe Miami confederacy; to the north as far as the post of Chicago andLake Michigan extended the realm of the Potawatomi; on the Vermilionbelow, and to the west of the main stream, lay the villages of theKickapoos, whose hardy warriors, second only to the Wyandots, hadaccepted the new faith; the Sacs and Foxes, the Winnebagoes, Ottawas, Chippewas and Wyandots, were all within easy reach, and secret embassiesand negotiations might be carried on without much fear of detection. 

The brothers now resolved to pursue the following course--to wean theirfollowers entirely away from the use of whiskey, which was fastdestroying their military efficiency; to teach them, if possible, theways of labor, so that they might raise corn and other products of theearth, and thus supply their magazines against a time of war; to dupethe Governor into the belief that their mission was one of peace, andundertaken solely for the moral uplift and betterment of the tribes--inthe meantime, by the constant practice of religious ceremonies andrites, to work on the superstition of the warriors; win them, if needbe, from the chieftains who might counsel peace, and by a series ofwarlike sports and exercises, hold together the young bucks and trainthem for the inevitable conflict between the races. 

What strange mysticism did the Prophet practice to make the Indians ofthe Wabash "abandon whiskey, discard textile clothing, return to skins, throw away their witch-bags, kill their dogs, and abandon the whiteman's ways, even to giving up flint and steel for making fires?" That hehad gained fame and ascendency among the neighboring tribes since theepisode of the eclipse in 1806, is testified to by the fact that whenRichard McNemar, the Shaker, visited him in 1807, at Greenville, Ohio, he found a temple of worship one hundred fifty feet in length, surrounded by wigwams and cottages, and the Indians then told McNemarthat they all believed implicitly in the Prophet and that he could"dream to God. " The Prophet had at that time also gone so far as toinstitute the confessional, and all sinful disclosures were made tohimself and four accompanying chiefs. The question was asked: "Do theyconfess all the bad things they ever did?" Answer: "All from seven yearsold. And cry and tremble when they come to confess. " A sort of nature orsun worship had already been introduced. McNemar thus describes asalutation to the lord of the day: "Next morning, as soon as it was day, one of their speakers mounted a log, near the southeast corner of thevillage, and began the morning service with a loud voice, inthanksgiving to the Great Spirit. He continued his address for near anhour. The people were all in their tents, some at the distance offifteen or twenty rods; yet they could all distinctly hear, and gave asolemn and loud assent, which sounded from tent to tent, at every pause. While we stood in his view, at the end of the meeting house, on risingground, from which we had a prospect of the surrounding wigwams, and thevast open plain or prairie, to the south and east, and which looked overthe big fort, toward the north, for the distance of two miles, we feltas if we were among the tribes of Israel, on their march to Canaan. "

By weird incantations, symbolic ceremonies, and practice of the blackart, the Prophet had gone far. He was now regarded as invulnerable, andhis person sacred. But that which gave point to his oracles, andauthority to his imposture, was his Shawnee hatred of the pale face. Toincite their growing jealousy and malice, he told his dupes, that thewhite man had poisoned all their land, and prevented it from producingsuch things as they found necessary to their subsistence. The growingscarcity of game, the disappearance of the deer and buffalo before thewhite settlements, were indisputable proofs of his assertions. SaysHarrison: "The game which was formerly so abundant, is now so scarce asbarely to afford subsistence to the most active hunters. The greaterpart of each tribe are half the year in a state of starvation, andastonishing as it may seem, these remote savages have felt their fullshare of the misfortunes which the troubles in Europe have brought uponthe greater part of the world. The exclusion of the English from thecontinent of Europe, where they were accustomed to dispose of thegreater part of the peltries imported from Canada, has reduced the priceof those articles almost to nothing; the Indians can scarcely procurefor them the necessary ammunition, and they are often induced to foregothe purchase of this necessary article to gratify their passion forwhiskey. " All these evils were attributed by the Prophet to theextension of the American settlements. To drive back these invaders whopolluted the soil and desecrated the graves of their fathers--what morewas needed to incite the savage warriors to a crusade of blood andextermination? About this time it was noticed that the Potawatomi of theprairies, who were under the influence of the Prophet, were frequentlyholding religious exercises, but that these exercises were alwaysconcluded with "warlike sports, shooting with bows, throwing thetomahawk, and wielding the war-club. "

In the meantime, the relation of these religious ceremonies at theProphet's Town and their seemingly good effect upon the red man, completely disarmed the Governor for the time being. He now entertainedthe idea that the great Indian leader might be "made a useful instrumentin effecting a radical and salutary change in the manners and habits ofthe Indians. " To stop the use of ardent spirits and to encourage thecultivation of corn, were two important steps, as the Governor thought. Events which succeeded but added to Harrison's deception. In June, 1808, messengers appeared at Vincennes, and one of them stated that he hadlistened to the Prophet for upwards of three years, and had never heardanything but good advice. "He tells us we must pray to the Great Spiritwho made the world and everything in it for our use. He tells us that noman could make the plants, the trees, and the animals, but they must bemade by the Great Spirit, to whom we ought to pray, and obey in allthings. He tells us not to lie, to steal, or to drink whiskey; and notto go to war, but to live in peace with all mankind. He tells us also towork and to make corn. "

In August of the same year, the crafty Prophet himself appeared andremained at Vincennes for more than two weeks. The Governor wassurprised at the great address and ease with which he handled hisfollowers, and had the pleasure of listening to a speech, in which theProphet professed the most pacific intentions, constantly haranguing hisretinue upon the evils of war and liquor, and holding out to them theadvantages of temperance and peace. It seems that the Governor even madea few personal experiments to determine whether the Indians were inearnest about their pretensions, but could induce none of them to touchfire-water. The interview closed to the entire satisfaction of theGovernor, the Prophet promising to keep him fully informed as toanything that might be inimical to the settlements, and receiving inreturn many presents from the Governor in the way of implements ofhusbandry, arms, powder and other things which the Indians claimed thatthey were in sore need of. On the first of September, 1808, in acommunication to Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, the Governor wrote asfollows: "The celebrated Shawnee Prophet has just left me after a visitof more than two weeks. He is rather possessed of considerable talents, and the art and address with which he manages the Indians is reallyastonishing. I was not able to ascertain whether he is as I at firstsupposed, a tool of the British or not. His denial of being under anysuch influence was strong and apparently candid. He says that his solepurpose is to reclaim the Indians from the bad habits they havecontracted, and to cause them to live in peace and friendship with allmankind, and declares that he is particularly instructed to that effectby the Great Spirit. He frequently harangued his followers in mypresence, and the evils attendant upon war and the use of ardent spiritswas his constant theme. I cannot say how successful he may be inpersuading them to lay aside their passion for war, but the experimentmade to determine whether their refusal to drink whiskey proceeded fromprinciple, or was only empty profession, established the former beyondall doubt. Upon the whole, Sir, I am inclined to think the influencewhich the Prophet has acquired will prove rather advantageous thanotherwise to the United States. "

How vain this trust! Scarcely had the Prophet returned to his town, before he was entertaining an emissary and spy of the Britishgovernment, who urged war on the United States. In the following springof 1809, the Chippewas, Ottawas and Potawatomi were being urged by theProphet to take up arms against the inhabitants of Vincennes, and todestroy the settlers along the Ohio, as far up as Cincinnati. Reports ofthese proceedings were confirmed by Michael Brouillette, an Indiantrader, and by Touissant Dubois, a confidential agent of the Governor. Harrison probably averted an Indian attack, by promptly organizing twoadditional companies of militia and throwing them into the vicinity ofFort Knox, to guard the approaches to the capital by land and water. TheIndians, however, seeing this prompt action, deserted the Prophet andreturned to their homes. The Governor was not fooled a second time. TheProphet again visited him in the summer of 1809, and made the same oldpretensions of peace. But the Governor forced him to admit that he hadentertained the British the fall before, and that he had been invited, as he said, to join a league of the Sacs and Foxes against the whites inthe early spring, and he could make no satisfactory explanation as towhy he had not imparted these facts to the government, when he had beensolemnly enjoined so to do. From this time on, the Prophet was regardedwith a just suspicion, and Harrison diligently regarded every movementof the new faith. 

CHAPTER XX

HARRISON'S VIGILANCE

--_His personal courage and activities save the frontier capital. _

The spring of 1810 opened with peril to Vincennes. The eternal vigilanceof Harrison alone saved the day. The fall before had witnessed themaking of the Treaty of Fort Wayne and the acquisition of the NewPurchase; this had strengthened the claims of the Prophet and Tecumsehfor a closer union of the tribes, and had given added force to theirargument in favor of a communistic ownership of all the land. What righthad the old village chiefs to dispose of the common domain without theconsent of the warriors who had fought to maintain it? The Great Spiritgave the soil in common to all the tribes; what single tribe couldalienate any particular portion of it?

Reliable word came to the Governor in April that the Prophet hadassembled one thousand souls at the Prophet's Town, with probably threehundred fifty or four hundred men among them, consisting principally ofKickapoos and Winnebagoes, "but with a considerable number ofPotawatomis and Shawnees and a few Chippewas and Ottawas;" that theFrench traders along the Wabash had been warned by the Prophet'sfollowers to separate themselves from the Americans at Vincennes fortrouble was brewing; that the Indians at Tippecanoe had refused to buyammunition of the traders, saying that they had a plenty, and could getplenty more without paying for it; that Matthew Elliott, the Britishagent at Malden, was busy with plot and intrigue against the UnitedStates. But Harrison was surrounded by some of the best scouts andconfidential agents that a frontier official ever commanded--among themTouissant Dubois, Joseph Barron and Michael Brouillette. He kept awakeand on the alert. 

Tecumseh now assumed a more active leadership. The day had arrived forthe statesman and warrior to sound the alarm, form an active league andconfederacy of all the tribes, and with tomahawk in hand, resist anyfurther advancement on the part of the whites. As Harrison afterwardsremarked, he appeared today on the Wabash, a short time later on theshores of Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, and then upon the Mississippi. Everywhere he was masterful, eloquent, convincing, and "made animpression favorable to his purpose. " At one time during the earlysummer it is known that he was at Detroit, and he was probably in closecommunication with his British allies, although he professed to hatethem. 

About May, 1810, a council of all the tribes of the Wabash and those tothe north was called at the river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. The wholesituation was fraught with danger, for Harrison had reason to believethat many of the tribes had already received the tomahawk and weremeditating a combined attack on the settlements. Subsequent eventsproved that his fears were well founded. He immediately dispatched JohnConner to the Delawares and "pointed out to them the unavoidabledestruction which awaited all the tribes which should dare to take upthe hatchet against their fathers, and the great danger that thefriendly tribes would incur, if war should be kindled, from thedifficulty of discriminating friend from foe. "

A messenger was dispatched in haste after the deputies of the tribesdeputed to the council, with full instructions dictated by the Governor, to urge these facts upon the assembled tribes. In addition, the Governorin response to the demand of a company of officers, merchants, andothers at Vincennes, at once called two companies of militia into activeservice, established alarm posts upon the frontier, and used allavailable means at hand to put himself in readiness for war. Fortunately, the Delawares remained faithful. If Winamac is to bebelieved, the Prophet in person urged upon the council an immediatesurprise of Detroit, Fort Wayne, the post at Chicago, St. Louis andVincennes, and a junction with the tribes of the Mississippi, but the"forcible representations" of the Delaware deputies, who were lookedupon as "grandfathers, " prevented the adoption of his plans. It seemsthat the younger men and some of the war lords of the smaller bands wereready to go to war, but the sachems and older village chieftains who hadparticipated in the treaty of the year before held aloof. The Chippewas, Ottawas and Potawatomi refused to take up arms, the council broke upwithout any concerted action, and Winamac and the Potawatomi were sentto the Governor to make report of the proceedings. When Winamac arrivedat Vincennes in the latter part of June, he reported that as he passedthrough the Prophet's Town an attempt was made to assassinate him--soenraged was the Prophet at his failure on the St. Joseph. Winamacfurther told the Governor that about the time of the council the Prophethad proposed to the younger warriors that the principal chiefs of allthe tribes should be murdered; that they were the ones who had broughtabout a sale of the Indian lands, and that their, the warriors' hands, would never be untied until they were rid of them. The brothers werebaffled in another mission. Tecumseh urged the Shawnees at Wapakoneta, Ohio, to join the league. A letter of John Johnston, Indian agent atFort Wayne, informed the Governor that, the Shawnees refused even toenter into council with him. 

The ugly temper into which the Indians had now worked themselves is wellillustrated by the episode of the salt. Shortly prior to the fifteenthof June, a boat came up the Wabash to the Prophet's Town laden with saltfor the use of the tribes, according to the terms of a former treaty. The men in charge of the boat reported that the Prophet, and someKickapoos with him at the time, refused to receive it, and he wasdirected to leave the salt on the bank of the river until Tecumsehshould return; Tecumseh being reported as at Detroit. On his return triphome the master of the boat was directed to re-load the salt; that theIndians would have nothing to do with it. "Whilst the hands were rollingin the barrels, the brother of the Prophet seized the master and severalothers by the hair, and shaking them violently, asked them if they wereAmericans. They, however, were all young Frenchmen. They also insultedMr. Brouillette, and called him an American dog, and a young Potawatomichief directed his men to plunder his house, which was immediately done, depriving him of all his provisions, tobacco, etc. " Michael Brouillettewas the French trader heretofore referred to, and was the personal agentand scout of General Harrison. He kept on hand a few Articles of tradeto disguise his real character. 

On one of their embassies, however, the brothers were successful. One ofthe most influential of the tribes in council was the Wyandots orHurons, now greatly reduced in numbers, but still of great prestige andpower among the red men. Harrison always ranked their warriors among thebest, and General Wayne at Greenville had delivered to them the originalduplicate of the treaty. In a speech by Massas, a Chippewa chief, toGeneral Wayne, he referred to this tribe as "our uncles, the Wyandots, "and this was the designation generally employed by all the tribes. Itwas plain that if the Wyandots could be won over to the new cause, agreat diplomatic victory would be gained and the influence of the newmovement greatly augmented. The Prophet accordingly sent a deputation tothe Wyandots, "expressing his surprise that the Wyandots, who haddirected the councils of the other tribes, as well as the treaty withthe white people, should sit still, and see the property of the Indiansusurped by a part, " and he expressly desired to see the treaties andknow what they contained. The Wyandots were greatly flattered by theseattentions, and answered "that they had nothing nearer their hearts, than to see all the various tribes united again as one man--that theylooked upon everything that had been done since the treaty ofGreenville as good for nothing--and that they would unite theirexertions with those of the Prophet, to bring together all the tribes, and get them to unite to put a stop to the encroachments of the whitepeople. " It seems that the Wyandots were also the keepers of the greatbelt, which had formerly been a symbol of the union of the tribes at thetime of the war with Anthony Wayne. They now came in deputation to theProphet's Town, carrying this great belt with them, and producing itamong the clans of the Miami at the villages of the Mississinewa, accused them of deserting their Indian friends and allies. The tribes atMississinewa sent for the Weas and accompanied the deputation toTippecanoe. 

Though thwarted on the St. Joseph and among the Shawnees, it was plainthat a strict espionage would have to be maintained over the proceedingsat the Prophet's Town, and especially over the Prophet himself. Theheart of this priest was filled with plots of assassination and murder. Grosble, an old Indian friend of the Governor, informed him that theProphet had at one time planned a wholesale slaughter at Vincennes, andthat it had been arranged that the Prophet should enter the Governor'shouse with ten or twelve of his followers and slay him. To the Prophetmay be attributed most of the horse-stealing expeditions, the insults tomessengers and agents, and the plans for the murder of the older Indianchiefs. While Tecumseh either countenanced these transactions, or elsewas unable to control them, he seems, with strange sagacity for asavage, to have at all times realized that the assassination ofHarrison, the stealing of a few horses, or the slaughter of a few whitemen on the border, would really never accomplish anything save tointensify the feeling between the races. While never comprehending thegreat forces of civilization and of the government which he wasresisting, he seems to have steadily kept in mind that a handful ofnaked savages at the Prophet's Town would avail him nothing; that inorder to effectively strike he must have back of him a substantial bodyof warriors recruited from all the confederated tribes, well victualled, armed and equipped, and equal in number to the armies of his adversary. He knew the Indian character well enough to know that they would neverlong resist a superior force. If he could keep his rash and impulsivebrother in leash long enough to form a permanent and powerful league, then he had hopes of ultimate success. But there was the great danger, in fact, the very peril that finally engulfed him. The Prophet with thatfatal egotism of the fanatic, vainly imagined that he was more than amatch for the Governor, and in the absence of his brother, let hisvindictive hate and malice destroy the last dream of empire. 

In the latter part of the month of June, Harrison sent Dubois andBrouillette to the Prophet's Town to take note of what was going on. They reported that while the tribes of the Mississinewa, the Weas andKickapoos were living in expectation of trouble, that there was noimmediate danger, as the defection of the tribes at the St. Joseph hadupset the plans of the brothers. Dubois requested the Prophet to statethe grounds of his complaint, if he had any, against the United States. The Prophet answered in the language of Brant, that the Indians had beencheated of their lands and that no sale was good unless made by all thetribes. On the fourth of July, four canoes, filled with the Prophet'sfollowers, passed the Wea village at Terre Haute, and Harrison sent outthe militia to discover what had become of them. One of these canoescame down the river to a Shaker settlement sixteen miles aboveVincennes. The Indians there attended meeting on Sunday, the Prophetprofessing to believe in the Shaker creed, (without, however, practicingcelibacy), and then finished the day's proceedings by stealing fivehorses. They made no attempt to cover their tracks, but the Governorstopped any pursuit, as he "had been informed some time before, that oneof their plans to bring on the war, was to send out parties to stealhorses, and, if they were pursued, to kill their pursuers. " This wasplainly the work of the Prophet. More alarming stories came in. It wassaid that the Sacs and Foxes were awaiting the signal from the Prophetto take up arms; that a party of them had visited the Britishsuperintendent, and that Elliott had said to a Miami at Maiden "My son, keep your eyes fixed on me--my tomahawk is now up--be you ready, but donot strike till I give the signal. " Harrison in the light of all theseevents, determined to send Barron, his trusted interpreter, to theProphet's Town. The reception of Barron is thus dramatically related;"He was first conducted ceremoniously to the place where the Prophet, surrounded by a number of Indians, was seated. Here he was left standingat a distance of about ten feet from the Indian prophet. 'He looked atme, ' said Barron, 'for several minutes, without speaking or making anysign of recognition, although he knew me well. At last he spoke, apparently in anger. 'For what purpose do you come here?' said he, 'Brouillette was here; he was a spy. Dubois was here; he was a spy. There is your grave; look on it!' The Prophet then pointed to the groundnear the spot where I stood. "

No harm was done him, however. Tecumseh interceded and the Governor'smessenger was finally received with respect. Barron delivered a speechof Harrison's to the Prophet in the presence of Tecumseh. The purport ofthis address was, that while the Governor said he believed that therehad been an attempt to raise the tomahawk, that the old chain offriendship between the Indians and whites might still be renewed; thatthere were two roads open, one leading to peace, and the other to miseryand ruin; that it was useless to make war against the Seventeen Fires, as their blue-coats were more numerous than the sands of the Wabash;that if complaint was made as to the purchase of the Indian lands, thatthe Governor was willing to send the principal chiefs to Washington tomake this complaint to the President in person; that everythingnecessary for the journey should be prepared and a safe returnguaranteed. 

On this visit Barron held much personal converse with Tecumseh andlodged with him in a cabin. He professed to be much pleased withHarrison's speech, observing that he had not seen him since he was ayoung man seated at the side of General Wayne. He disclaimed anyintention of trying to make war, but said that it would be impossible toremain on friendly terms with the United States unless they abandonedthe idea of trying to make settlements farther to the north and west, and unless they acknowledged the principle that all the lands were heldby the tribes in common. Said he: "The Great Spirit gave this greatisland to his red children; he placed the whites on the other side ofthe big water; they were not contented with their own, but came to takeours from us. They have driven us from the sea to the lakes, we can gono further. They have taken upon themselves to say this tract belongs tothe Miamis, this to the Delawares, and so on, but the Great Spiritintended it as the common property of all the tribes, nor can it be soldwithout the consent of all. Our father tells us, that we have nobusiness upon the Wabash, the land belongs to other tribes, but theGreat Spirit ordered us to come here and here we shall stay. "

Tecumseh now resolved on that famous meeting with the Governor atVincennes. Harrison had long known that there were those in his midstwho were inimical to his plans and who had opposed his purpose of thefall before, but he did not learn until afterwards the full extent oftheir treachery. It seems that Tecumseh had been given to understandthat about half of the population of Vincennes were friendly to hiscause. An American had visited him during the winter of 1809-10 whoinformed him that Harrison had no authority whatever from the governmentto make the purchase; that the Governor had only two years more toremain in office, and that if Tecumseh could prevail upon the Indians torefuse their annuities under the treaty until the Governor "wasdisplaced, as he would be, and a good man appointed as his successor, hewould restore to the Indians all the lands purchased from them. " How farthese representations may have deceived Tecumseh into the belief that hewas dealing with a man who was tottering to the fall, is not certainlyknown. He determined at any rate, to make a show of force. If theGovernor was a weakling who sat insecurely in his seat, and was fearfulof public clamor, here was an opportunity to display that fact. As heremarked to Barron, he had not seen the Governor since he was "a veryyoung man, " sitting at the side of General Wayne. The Governor wasyounger in years than Tecumseh, and no doubt the Shawnee was disposed toregard him with contempt. To appear suddenly at the capital of the whiteman with a band of armed warriors; to openly and haughtily declare hispurpose of resisting the pretensions of the Governor and to pour out hisinsolence upon the heads of the chieftains who had dared to sell thelands--what a grand culmination of all his plans this would be, if ithad the desired effect! There was nothing to lose, everything to gain. He resolved to try it. Accordingly, on the 12th day of August, thereswept down the river to Fort Knox, eighty canoes, filled with nakedsavages painted in the most terrific manner. All of them were armed andready for attack. At their head was the great war chief, described byMajor George R. Floyd, commandant at the fort, as "about six feet high, straight, with large, fine features, and altogether a daring, boldlooking fellow. " The conference with the Governor was appointed for themorrow. 

CHAPTER XXI

THE COUNCIL AT VINCENNES

--_The dramatic meeting between Harrison and Tecumseh. --Tecumsehannounces his doctrine of the common ownership of the Indian lands. _

The great house of the Governor at Vincennes is situated inland from theWabash river about six hundred feet, and there formerly stood in frontof this house and next to the river a grove of walnut trees whichafforded a gracious shade. It was here, that on a bright, sunshiny dayin August, the dramatic meeting occurred between the Shawnee chief andGovernor Harrison. Local tradition has preserved a tale that theGovernor had secreted in the great parlor of his house a company of onehundred well-armed soldiers to provide against any treachery on the partof the red men, and computations, have been made to show that the roomwould accommodate that number of infantry, but this story must beregarded with suspicion. 

Tecumseh and his party seem to have arrived at the place of rendezvousin canoes and by way of the river. He appeared on the scene with aretinue of forty warriors accoutered in the elaborate costume of theceremonial, with painted bodies and feathered headdress, and fully armedwith war clubs and tomahawks. The chief himself, invariably wore asimple dress of Indian tanned buckskin, with a mantle of the samematerial thrown over the left shoulder. In his belt he carried anelegant silver mounted tomahawk and a hunting knife in a leathern case. "Tall, athletic and manly, dignified, but graceful, " he stood as thechosen exponent of his people's wrongs, ready to voice their plaints inthe "musical and euphonious" accents of the Shawnee tongue. 

A close observer of the savages of that day has stated that, "those whohave been familiar with the Indians of the northwest, when they wereIndians, and took sufficient interest in them as a race to study withcare their customs, laws and usages, are aware that when attendingcouncils with other nations or tribes, or with our agents, that theywere always acting a part, a kind of diplomatic drama. " To Tecumseh themoment appeared propitious. The time had arrived to put the youthfulGovernor of thirty-seven years to the test. Harrison was attended by thejudges of the supreme court; General Gibson, the secretary; Major G. R. Floyd, and other officers of the regular army, and a guard of twelve menfrom the garrison under the command of Lieutenant Jennings; there wasalso a large assemblage of citizens present, who had been invitedthither to hear what Tecumseh had to present. The stage was well set, and the bold and insolent heart of the savage rose high. "As he came infront of the dais, an elevated portion of the place upon which theGovernor and the officers of the territory were seated, the Governorinvited him, through his interpreter, to come forward and take a seatwith him and his counsellors, premising the invitation by saying 'Thatit was the wish of the Great Father, the President of the United States, that he should do so'. The chief paused for a moment, as the words wereuttered and the sentence finished, and raising his tall form to itsgreatest height, surveyed the troops and the crowd around him. Then withhis keen eyes fixed on the Governor for a single moment, and turningthem to the sky above, with his sinewy arms pointed toward the heavens, and with a tone and manner indicative of supreme contempt, for thepaternity assigned him, said in a voice whose clarion tones were heardthroughout the whole assembly: 'My Father?--The sun is my father--theearth is my mother--and on her bosom I will recline!"

Thus the council opened. The Governor, with a short sword at his side, seated on the platform with his officers and advisers; the Indians infront of him seated on the grass; to the left, the Potawatomi chief, Winamac, with one of his young men, extended on the green, and all aboutthe eager and curious faces of the crowd, now wrought up to a high stateof tension by the sarcastic retort of the Indian chieftain. The speechthat followed, "was full of hostility from beginning to end. " Tecumsehbegan in a low voice and spoke for about an hour. "As he warmed with hissubject his clear tones might be heard, as if 'trumpet-tongued' to theutmost limits of the assembled crowd who gathered around him. " Theinterpreter Barron, was an illiterate man and the beauty and eloquenceof the chief's oration was in great part lost. He denounced with passionand bitterness the cruel murder of the Moravian Indians during theRevolutionary War, the assassination of friendly chieftains and otheroutrages, and said that he did not know how he could ever be a friend ofthe white man again; that the tribes had been driven by the Americans"toward the setting sun, like a galloping horse, " and that they wouldshortly push them into the lakes where they could neither stand norwalk; that the white people had allotted each separate tribe a certaintract of land so as to create strife between them, and so that theymight be destroyed; that he and his brother had purposed from thebeginning to form a confederation of all the tribes to resist anyfurther encroachment of the whites; that the Great Spirit had given allthe land in common to the Indians, and that no single tribe had a rightto alienate any particular portion of it. He declared that the Treaty ofFort Wayne had been made with the consent of only a few; that it waslargely brought about by the threats of Winamac, and that a reluctantconsent had been wrung from the Weas because they were few in number. Sofierce and vitriolic became his abuse of Winamac that that chieftainprimed his pistols and seemed ready at any moment to take Tecumseh'slife. The speaker went on to declare: "that if the government would notgive up the lands that were purchased from the Miamis, Delawares, Potawatomis, etc. , that those who were united with him, were determinedto fall upon those tribes and destroy them. That they were determined tohave no more chiefs, but in the future to have everything under thedirection of the warriors;" that the Governor would see what would bedone to the village chiefs who had sold the land, and unless he restoredit he would be a party to the killing of them. 

The bold and defiant attitude of the speaker, and the tone of insolencethat pervaded all his words, astonished even the Governor. A weak orcorrupt man would have trembled in his place and been at a loss how toanswer. Not so with Harrison. All who knew him, says John Law, werewilling to acknowledge his courage, both moral and physical. He knewthat the treaty of Fort Wayne had been concluded under the instructionsof government; that his dealings with the tribes had been open-handedand fair, even with the insignificant Weas of the lower waters; that the"unwarranted and unwarrantable" pretensions of Tecumseh were madelargely for their effect upon the audience, and after Tecumseh's remarkshad been openly interpreted by Barron, he arose without tremor orhesitation to deny the chief's assertions. He spoke no doubt with somedegree of force, for he undoubtedly understood by now that Tecumsehwould never have given utterance to many of his charges, withoutentertaining a belief that they would meet the approval of sometraitorous faction of the assembly. He answered: "That the charges ofbad faith against our government, and the assertion that injustice hadbeen done the Indians in any treaty ever made, or any council ever heldwith them by the United States, had no foundation in fact. That in alltheir dealings with the red men, they had ever been governed by thestrictest rules of right and justice. That while other civilized nationshad treated them with contumely and contempt, ours had always acted ingood faith with them. That so far as he individually was concerned, hecould say in the presence of the "Great Spirit" who was watching overtheir deliberations, that his conduct, even with the most insignificanttribe, had been marked with kindness, and all his acts governed byhonor, integrity and fair dealing. That he had uniformly been the friendof the red men, and that it was the first time in his life that hismotives had been questioned, or his actions impeached. It was the firsttime in his life that he had ever heard such unfounded claims put forth, as Tecumseh set up, by any chief, or any Indian, having the least regardfor truth or the slightest knowledge of the intercourse between theIndians and the white men, from the time this continent was firstdiscovered. That as to the claim of Tecumseh that all the Indians werebut one nation, and owned the lands in common, that this could not bemaintained; that at the time the white men arrived on the continent theyhad found the Miamis in possession of the Wabash; that the Shawnees werethen residents of Georgia, from which they had been driven by theCreeks; that the lands in question had been purchased from the Miamiswho were the original owners of it; that if the Great Spirit hadintended that the tribes should constitute but one nation, he would nothave put different tongues in their heads, but taught them all to speaka language that all could understand; that the Miamis had been benefitedby the annuities of the government and that the Seventeen Fires hadalways been punctual in the payment of them; that the Shawnees had noright to come from a distant country and control the Miamis in thedisposal of their own property. "

An event now took place, that but for the quick presence of mind anddecisive action of the Governor, might have terminated in bloodshed. Harrison had taken his seat and Barron had interpreted his reply to theShawnees, and was turning to the Miamis and Potawatomi, when Tecumsehexcitedly sprang to his feet and told Barron to tell the Governor thathe lied. Barron, who as a subordinate in the Indian department, hadgreat respect for his superiors, was seeking to mollify the harshness ofthis language, when he was again interrupted by Tecumseh, who said: "No!No! Tell him he lies!" The Governor noticed Tecumseh's angry manner, butthought he was seeking to make some explanation, when his attention wasdirected to Winamac, who was cocking his pistol, and a moment later, General Gibson, who understood the Shawnee language, said to LieutenantJennings: "Those fellows intend mischief; you had better bring up theguard. " In an instant all was confusion. The warriors on the grasssprang to their feet brandishing their war clubs and tomahawks; Harrisonextricated himself from his chair and drew his sword to defend himself;Major Floyd drew a dirk, and the Methodist minister Winans ran to theGovernor's house, got a gun, and stood by the door to protect thefamily. Such of the citizens as could, armed themselves with brickbats. In the midst of this turmoil the guard came running up and were about tofire on the Indians, when Harrison quickly interposed and commanded themnot to do so. He now demanded a full explanation, and when theintemperate words of Tecumseh were explained, told him he was a bad manand that he would hold no further communication with him; that as he hadcome there under the protection of the council fire, he might go insafety, but that he must immediately leave the neighborhood. The firmstand and commanding attitude of the Governor at once quieted the storm, and Tecumseh and his followers leisurely withdrew and retired to theircamp. That night two companies of militia were brought in from thecountry, but no trouble occurred, and the time passed quietly untilmorning. 

[Illustration: Raccoon Creek, Parke County, Indiana. The north line ofthe New Purchase. Photo by Heaton]

It was a part of the local tradition of later years, that when Tecumsehcalled the Governor a liar, that quick as a flash he arose to his feet, drew his sword and was about to resent the insult, when his friendsinterfered and prevented the blow. This story seems improbable, from thefact that the Governor was aware that many unarmed citizens werepresent, and that any rash or inconsiderate action on his part wouldprecipitate a conflict that could only end in blood and carnage. Heknew, moreover, that Tecumseh, by all the rules of civilizedintercourse, even among open belligerents, was entitled to protectionwhile engaged in council, and it is not probable that as brave a man asHarrison would violate these rules by becoming the aggressor. Instead, by quick word of command, he recalled the excited chief to his senses, dismissed him at once, and averted a catastrophe. 

In the solitude of his camp that evening Tecumseh was forced toacknowledge defeat. The young Governor instead of quailing had remainedfirm--it was plain that he was the chosen plenipotentiary of hisgovernment in all the treaties that had been effected. Moreover, in hisreply, the Governor had not only emphatically repudiated allinsinuations of unfairness toward the red man, but he had put the chiefhimself on the defensive by showing that he was an interloper who soughtto control the rightful possessions of others. At last, it was thestolid savage who lost his self control, and the Governor, who by hisrespect for the laws of the council fire had brought the flush of shameto the chieftain's cheek. That night, as he afterwards admitted at FortMeigs, he felt a rising respect in his breast for the first magistrateof the territory. He was doomed in after years to associate with thecowardly and contemptible Proctor, whom he called a "miserable oldsquaw, " but from the day of this council he paid the involuntary tributeto Harrison that one brave man always pays to another, though ranged ona hostile side. 

Thoroughly convinced that his conduct of the day previous had beenhighly impolitic, the chieftain, at the dawn of day, sent for Barron, and said that he desired a further interview, declaring that he had nointention of attacking the Governor on the day before, and that he hadbeen advised to pursue the course he did on the counsel of certain whitemen; disclosing to Barron the circumstances heretofore related as to thevisit of certain persons at the Prophet's Town, who had said that theGovernor had no right to make the purchase of the lands on the Wabash;that he was unpopular and would be removed from office, and that thenthe lands would be restored. The Governor would not receive Tecumseh, however, until due apology had been made through the interpreter, andample provision had been made for the protection of the citizens byordering the local company of Captain Jones to parade morning andevening, and hold themselves ready for instant action. The Governor alsotook the precaution to be well armed, as did several of his friends. 

At this second council, Tecumseh's whole demeanor was changed. Whileremaining "firm and intrepid, he said nothing that was in the leastinsolent. " He now disclosed in open council what he had theretofore toldBarron as to the visits of the white men, and again declared that he hadno intention of harming the Governor. Harrison now informed the chiefthat he was about to cause a survey to be made of the New Purchase, andhe desired to know whether this process would be attended with anydanger. Tecumseh at once replied that he and those affiliated with himwere determined "that the old boundary line should continue, and thatthe crossing it would be attended with bad consequences. " His words wereseverally confirmed by a Wyandot, a Kickapoo, a Potawatomi, an Ottawa, and a Winnebago, who each openly avowed that their tribes had enteredinto the Shawnee confederacy, and that Tecumseh had been chosen as theirleader and chief. 

This second council does not seem to have been of great length. In it, Tecumseh entirely abandoned any attempt at bluster, but firmly andpositively stated to the Governor that he would not consent to the saleof the Indian lands, and that any attempt to survey them would be metwith resistance. This frank and open statement, elicited a responseequally frank from the Governor. He told Tecumseh that his claims wouldbe transmitted in full to the President of the United States, and thereply of the President at once communicated to him when received, butthat he was convinced that the President would never admit "that thelands on the Wabash, were the property of any other tribes, than thosewho had occupied and lived upon them, " and as these lands had beenfairly and openly purchased at Fort Wayne, that the right of the UnitedStates would be "supported by the sword. " With these words the interviewterminated. 

That night the Governor reflected. If the words of Tecumseh as utteredin council, were sincere and genuine, they amounted to an opendeclaration of war--the government must either entirely recede from theground it had taken, and restore the lands, or prepare for the comingconflict. Concerning this issue there must be no doubt. The Governortherefore resolved to repair to the headquarters of Tecumseh in person, and there, removed from the atmosphere of a council, hold privateintercourse with the chieftain and read his intentions. He had hit uponthis expedient once before in the proceedings at Fort Wayne, and theexperiment had proven successful. Accordingly, the following morning, throwing aside all considerations of personal danger, he suddenlyappeared at the tent of Tecumseh, accompanied only by the interpreterBarron. He was most politely received. Proceeding at once to the mainpoint, he asked the chief if the declarations he had made in his twopublic interviews were his real sentiments. Tecumseh answered that theycertainly were; that he had no grievance against the United Statesexcept the matter as to the purchase of the Indian lands, and that hewould go to war with very great reluctance; that if Harrison wouldprevail upon the President to give back the lands, and promise never toconsummate any more purchases, without the consent of all the tribes, that he would be the faithful ally of the Americans and assist them inall their wars with the British. "He said he knew the latter were alwaysurging the Indians to war for their own advantage, and not to benefithis countrymen; and here he clapped his hands, and imitated a person whohalloos at a dog, to set him to fight with another, thereby insinuatingthat the British thus endeavored to set the Indians on the Americans. "He said further that he had rather be a friend of the Seventeen Fires, but if they would not accede to his demands that he would be forced tojoin the English. The memory of Wayne, the commanding figure anddauntless courage of the present Governor, had had their effect;compared to the vile and sneaking agents of the British government, who, in the security of their forts, had formerly offered bounties forAmerican scalps, and urged the Indians to a predatory warfare, theAmerican leaders stood out in bold relief as both men and warriors. Tecumseh recognized this, but the die was cast and his purposes wereunchangeable. Stripped of all its savage propensities, the heart of theShawnee was really of heroic mould. Concerning that great principle ofthe survival of the fittest, he knew nothing; of the onrushing forces ofcivilization and progress he had no just comprehension; but as therising sun of the new republic appeared, he saw the light of his racefading into obscurity, and patriotically resolved to stand on his landsand resist to the last. Misinformed, misguided, he sought an alliancewith the British to stem the tide; instead of delaying, this butaccelerated the decline of the tribes. Tecumseh, when it was too late, discovered that the promises of the British agents were false, and soonafter his death the feeling engendered against the tribes, on account oftheir alliance with the English and the many atrocities they hadcommitted, drove them beyond the Mississippi. But he who fights for hisnative land and from devotion to principle, however wrong, must alwaysbe entitled to the respect of the brave. 

If coolness and courage had had their effect on the one hand, the candorand honesty of his adversary, when met face to face, had also moved theGovernor. In after years, in an address before the Historical Society ofOhio, Harrison said: "I think it probable that Tecumseh possessed moreintegrity than any other of the chiefs who attained to muchdistinction. " He now repeated again that he would forward to thegovernment all the propositions of the chief, but that there was littleprobability that they would be accepted. "Well, " said Tecumseh, "as thegreat chief is to determine the matter, I hope the Great Spirit will putsense enough into his head, to induce him to direct you to give up thisland. It is true, he is so far off, he will not be injured by the war;he may still sit in his town and drink his wine, whilst you and I willhave to fight it out. " The conference ended with an appeal by Harrison, that in the event of war, no outrages should be committed on women andchildren and those who were unable to resist. This, the chief manfullyacceded to, and said he would adhere to his promise. 

Thus ended this remarkable conference participated in by the twogreatest figures then in the western world. The one representing theadvancing tide of immigration that was to build the cities and plow thefields of a new empire; the other representing the forlorn hope of afast decaying race that was soon to be removed from the pathways ofcivilization. 

Those who have vainly sought to make it appear that Harrison afterwardswrongfully passed over the northern boundary line of the New Purchase toprovoke a fight and bring on a conflict, have certainly scanned therecords of this council at Vincennes with but little care. The truth is, that the two principal figures in that affair parted each other'scompany fully realizing that hostilities were at hand. To say thatHarrison was bound to sit helplessly in his capital while his enemiesgathered a force sufficient to overwhelm him, and all without a move onhis part to avert a calamity, but illustrates the foolishness of thewhole contention. Immediately on the breaking up of the council, Tecumseh departed with a portion of his braves to organize and cement afederation of the tribes; Harrison, in the meantime, ordering anadditional body of troops under Captain Cross at Newport, Kentucky, tocome to the relief of the settlements, and redoubling his vigilance toavoid the surprise of a sudden attack. Without hesitation however, hewrote the surveyor-general to make a survey; the lines to be run underthe protection of the militia. 

The Governor was informed by the Weas, that during the progress of theproceedings, they had been urged by four persons at Vincennes, whosenames they furnished, to join the Prophet and insist upon a return ofthe lands. False representations were also made to the chiefs of thistribe that the purchase at Fort Wayne was made without the consent orknowledge of the President, and that a council of the Miamis had beencalled on the Mississinewa, to make full inquiry. The treasonabledesigns of this coterie came to naught. Whether British agencies wereactually at work within the town, or whether the actions of this cliquewere prompted by the jealousy of the Governor's political enemies, willprobably never be fully known. Be that as it may, like all cravens oftheir kind when the danger became imminent they slunk out of view, andHarrison found himself surrounded by the brave and valorous of everysettlement, both in the vicinity of Vincennes and on the borders ofKentucky. 

Much conjecture had been indulged in, as to whether Tecumseh actuallymeditated an attack at the time of the first council. That his impulsiveaction might well have led to disastrous consequences, but for the cool, quick command of the Governor, may well be conceded, but that he formedany premeditated design before coming to the council, must admit of somedoubt. The reasoning of Drake possesses cogency. He states thatTecumseh's probable purpose in attending the meeting with a considerableforce was to "make a strong impression upon the whites as to the extentof his influence among the Indians, and the strength of his party. Hismovement in the council may have been concerted for the purpose ofintimidating the Governor; but the more probable suggestion is that inthe excitement of the moment, produced by the speech of the Governor, helost his self-possession and involuntarily placed his hand upon his warclub, in which movement he was followed by the warriors around him, without any previous intention of proceeding to extremities. Whatevermay have been the fact, the bold chieftain found in Governor Harrison afirmness of purpose and an intrepidity of manner which must haveconvinced him that nothing was to be gained by any effort atintimidation, however daring. "

CHAPTER XXII

THE SECOND AND LAST COUNCIL

--_The last meeting between the two leaders before Harrison marched intothe Indian country. _

What strange fatality directed the minds of the Shawnee brothers torepel all friendly advances on the part of the American government, andto listen to the poisonous council of Matthew Elliott and the otherBritish agents who had so often deceived their race, may not easily bedivined. Brant had been bribed, Little Turtle and the Blue Jacket baselydeserted in the hour of defeat, and two English treaties negotiatedwithout a line in either to the advantage of the red man, butnotwithstanding all these facts, both Tecumseh and the Prophet were nowin full and constant communication with Malden, Canada. 

Rapid strides were made by the brothers in the closing months of 1810. Not only were the village chiefs and sachems shorn of all their old-timeauthority, and the power of determination lodged in the hands of thewarriors, but the belt of union circulated by the Prophet among thetribes "to confine the great water and prevent it from overflowingthem, " brought many accessions both to the confederacy and to theShawnee influence. It was reported that when this belt was exhibited toElliott and he saw that so many tribes had united against the UnitedStates that he danced with joy. About the first of November, Tecumsehhimself arrived at Malden on a visit to the British agency. He remainedthere until some time after the twenty-fourth of December. The nature ofhis conferences with Elliott may be inferentially arrived at from thefollowing. An Indian council had, during the preceding autumn, beenconvened at Brownstown, near Detroit. A resolution had there beenentered into to prevent the sale of any more lands to the United Statesand this step had been taken at the suggestion of Elliott. According tothe report of the Wea chiefs, the British agent had informed the tribesthat England and France had now made peace, and would soon unite theirarms "to dispossess the Americans of the lands they had taken from theIndians. " The Shawnee land doctrine had become popular. "The Indians, "writes Harrison, "appear to be more uneasy and dissatisfied than I everbefore saw them, and I believe that the Prophet's principle, that theirland should be considered common property, is either openly avowed orsecretly favored by all the tribes west of the Wabash. " The tribes ofthe Lakes looked upon the Wabash as the land of promise. The Winnebagoeswere already present in considerable numbers at the Prophet's Town, andthe Wyandots had formed a camp in close proximity to that place. The SixNations were reported to be in motion and demanding the privilege ofsettling in the Wabash valley. Could all these tribes be assembled inthe face of the advancing American settlements, they would serve thedouble purpose of checking this advance and furnishing a protectivebarrier to Canada in case of a war between Great Britain and the UnitedStates. Tecumseh and Elliott were joined in the fellowship of a mutualinterest. 

The Miami chiefs looked upon this presumptuous conduct of the Shawneeleaders with high disapproval. Their tribes were the rightfulproprietors of the soil, and the establishment of the Prophet had beeneffected without their consent. But much of their ancient authority hadpassed away. Many of their young warriors were carried away by the madfanaticism of the Prophet and vainly imagined that they could drive thewhite man back across the Ohio. Unless the hands of the Miami leaderswere upheld, they could not long resist the pressure of the surroundingtribes and must give their sanction to the Prophet's scheme. 

Harrison was fully convinced that the old village chiefs would willinglyplace themselves under the protection of the government, and surrendertheir claims for a suitable annuity, rather than submit to anydomination on the part of their neighbors. The Governor was plainly infavor of forming an alliance with the Miamis, of dispersing thefollowers of the Prophet, and paving the way for further extinguishmentof the Indian title. He urged that the narrow strip on the west side ofthe Greenville cession, in the eastern part of the Indiana territory, would soon be filled with new settlers; that the backwoodsmen were notmen "of a disposition to content themselves with land of an inferiorquality when they see in their immediate neighborhood the finest countryas to soil in the world occupied by a few wretched savages;" that theTerritory was fast advancing to statehood, and that the members of theTerritorial legislature were heartily in favor of smoothing the way tofurther purchases. 

The Governor also earnestly pressed the government to establish a strongpost on the Wabash in the upper portion of the New Purchase. Thecitizens of Vincennes had been thoroughly alarmed by the presence of solarge a gathering of red men at the council in August. Murders werefrequent, and horse-stealing was an everyday occurrence. To adopt apolicy of vacillation with a savage was to confess weakness. The Prophetwas openly declaring to Brouillette, the Governor's agent, that nosurvey of the new lands would be permitted. Immigration was ebbing, andthe selling and settling of the newly acquired territory was wholly outof the question so long as the purchasers could not be assured ofprotection. The display of a strong force of regulars and mountedmilitia, the establishment of a strong position on the borders of theIndian country, would not only dishearten the followers of the Prophetand discourage further accessions to his banner, but strengthen thehands of those Miami chieftains who still preserved their allegiance tothe United States. Any expeditionary force to be employed was to beheaded by the Governor himself, who had taken a very active part in thetraining of the frontier militiamen, and who now offered his servicesvoluntarily and without compensation. 

The Federal authorities moved slowly. It was evident that the oldindifference as to the welfare of the western world still prevailed. Some strange hallucination led the Washington authorities to believethat friendly relations might be sustained with a band of savages whowere carried away by a religious frenzy, and who were daily giving earto British whisperings. The consequences were that a party of mounteddragoons organized by Judge Benjamin Parke to protect Vincennes and whomade a demand for pistols and swords, did not receive their equipmentuntil late in the following spring, and then the swords were found to beof iron; that no orders were issued to form a friendly alliance with theMiami chiefs, and hold them steadfast; that the small detachment of onehundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty regulars under CaptainCross did not arrive until the third of October, and that noinstructions were received from the government, until all forage for thehorses had disappeared from the woods, and it was too late in the seasonto undertake an expedition. 

With the opening of the spring of 1811, the insolence and effrontery ofthe Shawnee leaders measurably increased. About the first of Apriltwelve horses were stolen from the settlement of Busseron, about twentymiles above Vincennes. The pillaging bands of the Potawatomi, directlyunder the influence of the Prophet, were committing robberies andmurders on the Illinois and Missouri frontiers. In the issue of August18th, 1810, of the _Western Sun_, of Vincennes, appeared this paragraph:"Extract of a letter from a gentleman at St. Louis, to his friend inthis place, dated August 3rd, 1810. 'On my return from the garrison upthe Missouri, I stayed at Captain Cole's, who just returned from thepursuit of some Indians that had stolen horses from thesettlement--they came in view of the Indians on the prairie, and pursuedon until night, and encamped, made fires, etc. , in the woodland, and notapprehending any danger from the Indians, lay down to sleep--some timeafter midnight, they were fired upon by the Indians, and four menkilled. "

What had happened was this: There is a grove about three or four milessouthwest of Morocco, in Newton County, Indiana, named Turkey Footgrove, and another of the same name about forty miles south of it, andtwo or three miles southeast of the town of Earl Park. In this regiondwelt Turkey Foot, at the head of a lawless band of the prairiePotawatomi. They had kept the frontiers of Illinois in terror for monthsand had caused considerable anxiety both to Governor Harrison and toGovernor Ninian Edwards of the Illinois Territory. In a spirit ofdevilish mischief and led on by the hope of plunder, the chief and hisfollowers had ridden hundreds of miles across the grand prairies ofIndiana and Illinois, had forded the Mississippi, and pierced to theoutposts of Loutre island in the Missouri river, below the present townof Hermann, and from fifty to seventy miles west of St. Louis, hadstolen a bunch of horses there, and made good their escape, aftercommitting one of the foulest murders recorded in the early history ofthat territory. 

As soon as the theft of the horses was discovered, great excitementprevailed, as horses were very valuable to the early pioneer. A rescueparty was organized, composed of Samuel Cole, and William T. Cole, Temple, Patton, Murdock and Gooch, and after pursuing the Indians allday, they came in sight of them on a large prairie, but the horses ofCole's party were so tired that Cole had to give up the chase, and anencampment was made in a small woodland. After midnight, and when allwere in slumber, the stealthy savages returned, surrounded the camp, andon the first attack killed Temple, Patton and Gooch. Murdock soughtshelter under the bank of a creek near by, but William T. Cole wasattacked by two savages, one in front and one in the rear. In therencounter Cole was stabbed in the shoulder, but wrenched a knife fromone of his assailants and killed him. The other Indian escaped in thedarkness. 

This murder and larceny combined, was brought to the attention ofGovernor Harrison by the then acting governor of the LouisianaTerritory. Later, documentary proof was furnished by Governor Howard. Harrison sent William Wells and John Conner to Tippecanoe to demandrestitution of the stolen property. Four horses were delivered up, and apromise made by the Shawnee leaders to procure the remainder, but thiswas never done. Wells found out that the Potawatomi banditti who hadcommitted these murders were directly under the influence of Tecumsehand the Prophet, but he was given to understand that the murderers hadfled to the Illinois river, and that no attempt would be made toapprehend them. Tecumseh boldly attempted to excuse all these outragesin a subsequent conference with the Governor. 

Wells had much conversation at this time with Tecumseh, who "openly andpositively avowed his determination to resist the encroachments of thewhite people. " Wells told the Shawnee chief that he would never be ableto accomplish his designs, but Tecumseh replied that Wells would live tosee the contrary. About this time a friendly Kickapoo chief arrived atVincennes and told the Governor that he was determined to put him on hisguard against the Prophet and his brother. "He said that their pacificprofessions were not to be relied upon; that he had heard them speakingto the Indians for several years and in that time he had never heardanything that they said but war and hatred against the United States. That the delivering up of the horses which were occasionally stolen wasmerely intended to lull our vigilance and to prevent us from discoveringtheir designs until they were ripe for execution. That they frequentlytold their young men that they would defeat their plans by theirprecipitancy. That in their harangues to the Indians they frequentlyrequested those who would not join their confederacy, to keep theirsecret. That they always promised them a rich harvest of plunder andscalps, declaring that the first stroke would put them in possession ofan ample supply of arms, ammunition and provisions. "

On the second of May, General William Clark, of St. Louis, wrote to theGovernor informing him that the Prophet had sent the belt to theMississippi tribes, inviting them to join in a war against the UnitedStates, and declaring that the war would be begun by an attack onVincennes. About the same time word was brought that the Sacs hadacceded to the hostile confederacy, and that the Potawatomi in theregion of Chicago were on the warpath. A party of surveyors employed bythe surveyor-general to divide the New Purchase into townships, wereseized and bound by a party of Weas, their arms taken from them, and theengineers driven in terror to Cincinnati. In the fore part of June, apirogue sent up the Wabash with the annual supply of salt for the Indiantribes was seized by the Prophet and every barrel taken. The excusegiven was, that the Prophet had two thousand warriors to feed, and thathe had taken none on the previous year. Pierre La Plante, Harrison'sagent at the Prophet's Town, reported that only about one hundredwarriors were present at the time, but that Tecumseh was shortlyexpected to arrive with a considerable reinforcement from the lakes. About the twentieth of June, five Shawnees and ten Winnebagoes of theProphet's party invaded Vincennes bringing a number of rifles andtomahawks to be repaired. They were boldly accused by some Potawatomi ofTopenebee's faction to be meditating war against Harrison and to bemaking observations on the situation of affairs within the town. 

So threatening and warlike were the actions of the Shawnee leaders thatthe Governor now addressed a communication to the Secretary of War, demanding that the Fourth United States Regiment at Pittsburgh, underthe command of Colonel John Parke Boyd, be sent forward immediately forthe defense of the frontiers. The government was in part aroused fromits state of lethargy. Recent advices from Governor Edwards hadannounced a series of murders and depredations on the Illinois frontier, and the citizens of Vincennes were in constant dread and apprehension. The Governor said that he could not much longer restrain his people, andthat there was danger of them falling on the Indians and slaying friendand foe alike, from their inability to discriminate the various tribes. By a letter of the seventeenth of July, the Governor received word thatthe aforementioned regiment, with a company of riflemen, had beenordered to descend the Ohio, and that Colonel Boyd was to act under theadvice and command of the Governor himself. If necessary, this force wasto be employed in an attack upon the Prophet, but the Governor was givenpositive orders not to march them up the river or to begin hostilities, until every other expedient had failed. Hedged about by timidrestrictions and foolish admonitions, the course of the Governor wasrendered extremely difficult. One thing, however, he had firmly resolvedto do. The Prophet's forces must soon be scattered. 

In the meantime, Harrison had dispatched Captain Walter Wilson, of theTerritorial militia, with a speech to the Prophet's Town. The Captainwas well received by Tecumseh. Harrison's talk was plain and to thepoint. He informed the Shawnee brothers that he was well aware of theirdesign to unite the tribes, murder the Governor, and commence a war uponhis people. That their seizure of the salt sent up the Wabash was ampleproof of their hostile intention. That they had no prospect of success, for his hunting shirt men were as numerous as the mosquitoes on theshores of the Wabash. That if they were discontented with the sale ofthe lands at Fort Wayne, that he (the Governor) would furnish them themeans to visit the President of the United States, and they might thenstate their claims in full and receive justice, but that they must notcome to Vincennes with a large retinue, as this would not be permitted. If they came they must only be attended by a few of their young men. This last proposition, Tecumseh promptly acquiesced in and sent word tothe Governor that he expected to be in Vincennes in about eighteen days, and that all matters would then be settled in "peace and happiness. "

Harrison was vigilant. He determined to watch the river with a party ofscouts, and in the meantime to muster the militia and make a show ofmilitary force. He was convinced that if his wily antagonist found himoff his guard that he would not hesitate to "pick a quarrel, " and launcha general attack. The Governor's letter to the war department of July10th, 1811, is interesting. "With them (i. E. , the Indians) the surpriseof an enemy bestows more eclat upon a warrior than the most brilliantsuccess obtained by other means. Tecumseh has taken for his model thecelebrated Pontiac and I am persuaded that he will bear a favorablecomparison in every respect with that far famed warrior. If it is hisobject to begin with the surprise of this place, it is impossible that amore favorable situation could have been chosen than the one heoccupies. It is just so far off as to be removed from our immediateobservation, and yet so near as to enable him to strike us when thewater is high in twenty-four hours, and even when it is low their lightcanoes will come fully as fast as the journey could be performed onhorseback. The situation is in other respects admirable for the purposesfor which he has chosen it. It is nearly central with regard to thetribes which he wishes to unite. The water communication with Lake Erieby means of the Wabash and Miami, with Lake Michigan and the Illinoisby the Tippecanoe, is a great convenience. It is immediately in thecenter of the back line of that fine country which he wishes to preventus from settling, and above all, he has immediately in his rear acountry that has been but little explored, consisting principally ofbarren thickets, interspersed with swamps and lakes, into which ourcavalry could not penetrate, and our infantry only by slow and laboriousmarches. "

Tecumseh did not keep his word. At the very time he was promising Wilsonto bring only a few men he was sending word in every direction tocollect his people. On the twenty-fourth of July he was within a fewmiles' march of Vincennes with one hundred twenty or thirty warriors, and the Weas under Lapoussier were coming on in the rear. The peoplewere greatly alarmed and irritated and there was danger of their firingon the savage bands. Brouillette was kept in the saddle riding from campto camp. On the twenty-fifth, Harrison sent Captain Wilson twenty milesup the river to demand of Tecumseh his reason for approaching the townwith so large a force, despite the Governor's injunction and his ownprevious agreement. The savage after some equivocation, said that he wasonly attended by twenty-four men and that the remainder had come "ontheir own accord. " Parties of savages were then lurking about thesettlements on every hand, and "upwards of one hundred were within twomiles of the town northwest of the Wabash. " Some sinister design wasmoving the chieftain's mind. 

On the twenty-seventh the main body of savages arrived by canoe, and onthe next day came those who marched by land. Three hundred red men werepresent, including twenty or thirty women and children. What wasTecumseh's object? Harrison's spies reported to him that it was theintention of the Shawnee to peremptorily demand a retrocession of thelate purchase, and if it was not obtained, to seize some of the chiefswho were active in making the treaty, and in the presence of theGovernor put them to death. If the Governor interfered he was to sharethe same fate. However this may be, the great chief abandoned anyhostile design he may have entertained on a view of Harrison's forces. On the day of his arrival a review of the neighboring militia was held, at which were present seven or eight hundred men under arms. "The twoinfantry companies on duty were increased to three, and these beingrelieved on different days by some management in marching and changingquarters, it appeared to the Indians that four or five companies were onconstant duty. The elegant troop of dragoons commanded by Captain Parke(who is also one of our supreme judges) were exhibited to the greatestadvantage, and nightly patrols both of horse and foot announced avigilance which defied surprise. The Indians were in astonishment andterror and I believe most of them went off impressed with the beliefthat Vincennes was not as easily to be taken as their chief would haveconvinced them. " The promptitude and foresight of the Governor probablyprevented a massacre. 

Harrison sought an immediate interview, but was not able to bringTecumseh into council, until Tuesday the thirtieth of July. An arbor hadbeen erected in front of the executive mansion. An hour before the timeof the appointed meeting Tecumseh sent a messenger to learn whether theGovernor would be attended by an armed force. In that event he announcedthat he would come armed also. The Governor gave him his choice, butinformed the chief that in case his warriors left their guns at theircamp, that he (Harrison) would only be attended by twenty-five or thirtydismounted dragoons. Tecumseh preferred the latter arrangement, "andcame attended by about one hundred and seventy or one hundred and eightymen without guns, but all of them having knives and tomahawks or warclubs, and some with bows and arrows. " The Governor opened the councilby mentioning the great alarm which had been occasioned by the latemurders in Illinois and the assembling of so large a body of savages, and declared that he was ready to listen to anything that the chiefsmight have to say, but that he would enter into no negotiationconcerning the late purchase. That affair was in the hands of thePresident who had not sent any answer to the claim that Tecumseh hadlast year set up on behalf of all the tribes on the continent. He alsodeclared that Tecumseh might, if he so desired, make a visit to thePresident and hear his determination from his own mouth. The Governorconcluded by demanding an explanation of the seizure of the salt. 

Tecumseh in his short reply adverted to the matter of the salt first. Hesaid that he had not been at home on either occasion when the salt boatshad arrived, but that it was impossible to please the Governor, for lastyear he was angry because the salt was refused, and now he was angrybecause it was taken. After some further unimportant observations, aviolent storm came on and the council was adjourned. 

At two o'clock the next day the council again convened, when Lapoussier, the Wea chieftain, who was now the firm friend of Tecumseh, arose andmade a long speech on the treaties that had been entered into betweenthe Governor and the Indian tribes. He closed by stating that the Miamishad been forced by the Potawatomi to make the late treaty of Fort Wayne, and that it would be proper to make an inquiry as to the person who hadheld the tomahawk over their heads, and punish him. This was, of course, an allusion to Winamac. Harrison immediately called on the Miami chiefspresent for a contradiction of this statement, and then turning toTecumseh, told him that it lay within his power to manifest the truth ofhis professions of friendship towards the United States and his desireto preserve peace, by delivering up the two Potawatomi who had murderedthe four white men on the Missouri last fall, and who were then in hiscamp. 

The reply of Tecumseh is given in Harrison's own language. "He said thatafter much trouble and difficulty he had at length brought all thenorthern tribes to unite and place themselves under his direction. Thatthe white people were unnecessarily alarmed at his measures--that theyreally meant nothing but peace--the United States had set him theexample of forming a strict union amongst all the fires that composetheir confederacy. That the Indians did not complain of it--nor shouldhis white brothers complain of him for doing the same thing with regardto the Indian tribes. As soon as the council was over he was to set outon a visit to the southern tribes to get them to unite with those of thenorth. To my demand of the murderers, he observed that they were not inhis town, as I believed them--that it was not right to punish thosepeople--that they ought to be forgiven, as well as those who latelymurdered our people in the Illinois. That he had set us an example offorgiveness of injuries which we ought to follow. The Ottawas hadmurdered one of his women, and the Osages one of his relations, and yethe had forborne to revenge them--that he had even taken the tomahawksout of the hands of those who were ready to march against the Osages. Tomy inquiry whether he was determined to prevent the settlement of theNew Purchase, he replied that he hoped no attempt would be made tosettle until his return next spring. That a great number of Indians werecoming to settle at his town this fall, and who must occupy that tractas a hunting ground, and if they did no further injury, they might killthe cattle and hogs of the white people, which would producedisturbance. That he wished every thing to remain in its presentsituation until his return--our settlements not to progress further--andno revenge sought for any injury that had been or should be received bythe white people until his return--that he would then go and see thePresident and settle everything with him. That the affairs of all thetribes in this quarter were in his hands and that nothing could be donewithout him--that he would dispatch messengers in every direction toprevent them from doing any more mischief--that he had made fullatonement for the murders which had been committed by the wampum whichhe delivered. "

The reply of the Governor was short and pithy. It was now evening andthe moon was shining. He told the assembled tribesmen that the moonwhich they beheld would sooner fall to the earth "than the Presidentwould suffer his people to be murdered with impunity, and that he wouldput his warriors in petticoats sooner than he would give up a countrywhich he had fairly acquired from the rightful owners. " The meeting wasthen broken up. 

We have said that the promptitude and foresight of the Governor probablyaverted a massacre. It was the opinion of all the neutral Indians on theground that Tecumseh meditated a stroke. His manner throughout thecouncil was embarrassed, and it was evident to all that the speech heactually delivered was not the one he had prepared for the occasion. Ifhe had found the Governor unprepared and the town defenseless, hisfierce hatred of the paleface and his boundless ambition as a warrior, would probably have prompted him to resort to violence, for it is a wellknown fact, observed by all Indian writers, that a savage will alwaysact upon the advantage of the moment, regardless of future consequences. Besides, it is probable that Tecumseh now felt himself powerful enoughto deal a telling blow. Many accessions had been made to his confederacyand the daring depredations in the Illinois country had gone unpunished. Like all savages, he had nothing but contempt for a government that didnot promptly revenge its wrongs. But when, on approaching the town, heobserved the great military array, and saw bodies of armed men andmounted riflemen moving to and fro, his resolution was shaken and heexperienced a more wholesome respect for his adversary's strength. "Heedless of futurity, " says Harrison, "it is only by placing the dangerbefore his eyes, that a savage is to be controlled. Even the gallantTecumseh is not insensible to an argument of this kind. No courtiercould be more complaisant, than he was upon his last visit. To haveheard him, one would have supposed that he came here for the purpose ofcomplimenting me. This wonderful metamorphosis in manner was entirelyproduced by the gleaming and clanging of arms; by the frowns of aconsiderable body of hunting shirt men, who accidentally lined a road bywhich he approached to the council house. "

The body of savages again melted away, and the Miami chieftains who hadaccompanied the expedition returned to their homes. On the fifth ofAugust, Tecumseh, with a retinue of twenty chiefs, including the famousPotawatomi, Shaubena, passed down the Wabash to visit the nations of thesouth and more firmly cement the bonds of his confederacy. The daybefore he departed he called on the Governor and labored hard toconvince him that he had no object in view other than to unite thetribes in a league of peace. After visiting the Creeks and Choctaws, hewas to pass through the land of the Osages and return by the Missouririver. Before his return, the last hope of the red man was to be forevercrushed, and the old dream of Pontiac forever dispelled. 

The Governor has paid a just and worthy tribute to his savage foe. In aletter of August seventh, 1811, he writes to the department of war asfollows: "The implicit confidence and respect which the followers ofTecumseh pay to him is really astonishing, and more than any othercircumstance bespeaks him one of those uncommon geniuses, which springup occasionally to produce revolutions and overturn the establishedorder of things. If it were not for the vicinity of the United States, he would perhaps be the founder of an empire that would rival in glorythat of Mexico or Peru. No difficulties deter him. His activity andindustry supply the want of letters. For four years he has been inconstant motion. You see him today on the Wabash, and in a short timeyou hear of him on the shores of Lake Erie or Michigan, or on the banksof the Mississippi, and wherever he goes he makes an impressionfavorable to his purposes. "

While these stirring events were happening at the frontier capital, andon the thirty-first of July, a considerable body of the citizens ofVincennes, both English and French, met at the seminary building, andafter selecting Ephraim Jordan as president and one James Smith assecretary, certain resolutions were "fallen into, " which vividly portraythe emotions of the frontiersmen of that day and their dire apprehensionof impending danger. The resolutions stated in substance that the safetyof the persons and property of the inhabitants could never beeffectively secured, but by the breaking up of the combination formed onthe Wabash by the Shawnee Prophet; that the inhabitants regarded thiscombination as a British scheme; that but for the prompt measures ofGovernor Harrison, it was highly probable that the town would have beendestroyed and the inhabitants massacred. The Rev. Samuel T. Scott, theRev. Alexander Devin, Colonel Luke Decker, Francis Vigo and others, wereappointed as a committee to draft an address to the President of theUnited States, setting forth their situation and praying for relief. Onthe same day this address was duly formulated and signed by thecommittee above mentioned, and forwarded to the chief executive of thenation. In it, the citizens breathed forth their terrors and fear of theWabash banditti, and their alarm at the constant depredations committedon the frontier. One passage is significant. "The people have becomeirritated and alarmed, and if the government will not direct theirenergies, we fear that the innocent will feel the effects of theirresentment, and a general war be the consequence. " A temper of this kindcould not long be disregarded. Temporizing must cease. 

CHAPTER XXIII

THE MUSTER AND THE MARCH

--_The rally of the Kentuckians and their clansmen in southern Indiana, to Harrison's support--The coming of the support of the Fourth UnitedStates Regiment--The march to the Tippecanoe battlefield. _

In the summer and early autumn of the year 1811, the British were againdistributing arms and ammunition among the tribes of the northwest andrallying them for that second and final struggle with the United States. In August of that year a Potawatomi chief informed Harrison that he waspresent when a message from the British agent was delivered to theProphet, "telling him that the time had arrived for taking up arms, andinviting him to send a party to Malden to receive the necessarysupplies. " A statement made by Captain Benjamin Parke of the lightdragoons of Vincennes, to the Governor on the thirteenth of September, was to the effect that the Indians of the Wabash and the Illinois hadrecently visited Elliott at Malden; "that they are now returning fromthence with a larger supply of goods than is known ever to have beendistributed to them before; that rifles or fusees are given to those whoare unarmed, and powder and lead to all. " A similar communication madeby the Hon. Waller Taylor, a judge of the supreme court of theTerritory, stated that, "The spirit of hostility manifested by theProphet and his followers (who, it is said, are daily increasing); thethefts and murders committed within a few months past, and the unusualquantities of arms, ammunition, etc. , which not only these, but theIndians generally have received from the British agent at Fort Malden, strongly evidence a disposition to commence war as soon as a fitopportunity occurs. "

In this same month of September, Touissant Dubois, a French-Canadianagent of the Governor's, reported to him that all the Indians along theWabash had been, or were then, on a visit to the British agency. "He(Dubois) has been in the Indian trade thirty years and has never known, as he thinks, more than one-fourth as many goods given to the Indians asthey are now distributing. He examined the share of one man (not achief) and found that he had received an elegant rifle, 25 pounds ofpowder, 50 of lead, 3 blankets, 3 strouds of cloth, 10 shirts, andseveral other articles. He says that every Indian is furnished with agun (either rifle or fusil), and an abundance of ammunition. A trader ofthis country was lately at the King's stores at Malden. He saw 150 kegsof powder (supposed to contain about 60 pounds each), and he was toldthat the quantity of goods for the Indian Department which had been sentover this year exceeded that of common years by twenty thousand poundssterling. It is impossible to ascribe this profusion to any other motivethan that of instigating the Indians to take up the tomahawk. It cannotbe to secure their trade, for all the peltries collected on the watersof the Wabash in one year, if sold in the London market, would not paythe freight of the goods which have been given to the Indians. " Thecontagion of unrest, thus encouraged and cultivated, was, as CaptainParke observed, rapidly spreading to all the tribes of the Wabash, thelakes and the Mississippi, and the influence of the Prophet was dailyincreasing. Unless the nest of banditti at Tippecanoe was broken up, theaxe would quickly fall on all the settlements. 

The plans of the Governor were speedily formed and most energeticallycarried forward. His purposes were, to call upon the tribes toimmediately deliver up any and all of their people who had beenconcerned in the murders on the frontier; to require them to fulfill"that article of the Treaty of Greenville which obliges them to giveinformation and to stop any parties passing through their districts withhostile intentions;" to further require them to cause such of theirwarriors as had joined the Prophet to immediately return to theirtribes, or be put out of their protection. Of the Miamis he would demandan absolute disavowal of all further connection with the Prophet, and adisapprobation of his continued occupancy of their lands. All the tribeswere to be reminded of the lenity, justice and continued considerationof the United States, and the efforts of the government to civilize themand promote their happiness, and warned that in case they took up thetomahawk against their fathers, no further mercies might be expected. Toenforce these requirements, spread terror among the recalcitrant, andgive strength to the wavering, he proposed to move up to the upper lineof the New Purchase with two companies of regulars, fourteen or fifteencompanies of militia, and two troops of dragoons. He hoped thus todissolve the Prophet's bands without the effusion of blood, but in caseof a continued defiance he proposed to march into the Indian country andenforce his demands with sword in hand. 

Immediately after the conference with Tecumseh the Governor had sent amessage to the Miami chiefs who had accompanied the Shawnee leader, requiring their return to Vincennes, that he might confer with them onmeasures of peace. To this demand they returned an insolent reply andrefused to come. He then dispatched Touissant Dubois with a writtenspeech to the Miami, Eel river and Wea tribes. 

"My children: My eyes are open and I am now looking toward the Wabash. Isee a dark cloud hanging over it. Those who have raised it intended itfor my destruction, but I will turn it upon their heads. "

"My children: I hoped that you would not be injured by this cloud. Youhave seen it gathering. You had timely notice to keep clear of it. Thethunder begins to roll; take care that it does not burst upon yourheads. "

"My children: I now speak plainly to you. What is that great collectionof people at the mouth of the Tippecanoe intended for? I am not blind, my children. I can easily see what their object is. Those people haveboasted that they will find me asleep, but they will be deceived. "

"My children: Do not suppose that I will be foolish enough to sufferthem to go on with their preparations until they are ready to strike mypeople. No. I have watched their motions. I know what they wish to do, and you know it also. Listen, then, to what I say. I will not sufferany more strange Indians to settle on the Wabash. Those that are there, and do not belong there, shall disperse and go to their own tribes. "

"My Children: When you made the treaty with General Wayne you promisedthat if you knew of any parties of Indians passing through your countrywith hostile intentions toward us, that you would give us notice of itand endeavor to stop them. I now inform you that I consider all thosewho join the Prophet and his party as hostile, and call upon you tofulfill your engagements. I have also sent to the tribes who have any oftheir warriors with the Prophet, to withdraw them immediately. Those whodo not comply, I shall consider to have let go the chain of friendshipwhich united us. "

"My Children: Be wise and listen to my voice. I fear that you have goton a road that will lead you to destruction. Have pity upon your womenand children. It is time that my friends should be known. I shall draw aline. Those who keep me by the hand must keep on one side of it, andthose that adhere to the Prophet on the other. "

"My children: Take your choice. My warriors are in arms but they shalldo you no hurt unless you force me to it. But I must have satisfactionfor the murder of my people and the war pole that has been raised on theWabash must be taken down. "

When Dubois arrived at the Miami town with the above message, thechieftains were all preparing to go to Malden. The words of the Governorcalled them to a sudden halt. They must now determine whether theywould further listen to the counsel of the Prophet and accept presentsfrom the British, or remain on terms of friendship with the UnitedStates. No further wavering or delay would be tolerated. 

In the council which followed, Lapoussier was insolent and told Duboisthat the Miamis had received no notice whatever of any hostile intentionon the part of the Prophet; that they (the Miamis) would defend theirlands to the last man, and that the Governor was making himselfcontemptible in the eyes of all. These bold declarations were approvedby Pecan, the Big Man, Negro Legs, Osage, and Sa-na-mah-hon-ga, or TheOne That Eats Stones, commonly known as the Stone Eater. The words ofLittle Turtle were of a different tone. He then and afterwards, affirmedhis allegiance to the United States. While he prayed the Governor toavoid if possible the shedding of blood, he still proclaimed that thelands on the Wabash were the property of the Miamis; that they hadendeavored to stop the Prophet from going there, and that his settlementwas made without their consent. "I told my people when they were goingto see the Governor not to say anything respecting the land; that thetreaty was made and it was a fair one. They had signed the paper whichbound the sale of the lands, and that nothing further should be said onthe subject. I also charged them whatever they did, to have nothing todo with the Prophet; that the Prophet was an enemy of GovernorHarrison's and Governor Harrison's of his; that if they formed any kindof connection with the Prophet it would make the Governor an enemy oftheirs. "

While these events were going forward, the Governor was makingpreparations for his expedition up the Wabash. The noise of the comingstorm soon reached the ears of the Kentuckians. On the twenty-fourth ofAugust, Joseph Hamilton Daviess wrote to the Governor offering himselfas a volunteer. He had been instrumental in checking the treasonabledesigns of Aaron Burr, was Master of the Grand Lodge of Free Masons ofthe state of Kentucky, and was one of the most eloquent advocates at thebar of his state. His coming was hailed with eager joy by the roughmilitiamen of the frontier. In the latter part of the month Harrison wasin Louisville asking for volunteers. His call, says Pirtle, "was metwith a prompt and ample response. He was very popular, his voicestirring the people like a bugle call. Old Indian fighters like MajorGeneral Samuel Wells and Colonel Abraham Owen, of the Kentucky militia, instantly started for the field. " Captain Frederick Geiger raised acompany, and Captain Peter Funk, who was in command of a company ofmilitia cavalry, at once hastened to Governor Charles Scott of Kentucky, to obtain permission to raise a company of mounted riflemen. In a fewdays his men were enrolled and early in September joined the forces ofColonel Joseph Bartholomew on their march to Vincennes. 

On the third of September, the regular troops of the Fourth UnitedStates Regiment of infantry, under Colonel John Parke Boyd, arrived inkeel boats at the Falls of the Ohio. The Governor was there to meetthem. Boyd was a soldier of fortune and one of the most strikingmilitary adventurers of that day. A short sketch of him as given byBenson J. Lossing is as follows: "John Parke Boyd was born inNewburyport, Massachusetts, December 21, 1764. His father was fromScotland, and his mother was a descendant of Tristam Coffin, the firstof that family who emigrated to America. He entered the army in 1786, asensign in the Second Regiment. With a spirit of adventure, he went toIndia in 1789, having first touched the Isle of France. In a letter tohis father from Madras, in June, 1790, he says: 'Having procuredrecommendatory letters to the British consul residing at the court ofhis highness, the Nizam, I proceeded to his capital, Hyberabad, 450miles from Madras. On my arrival, I was presented to his highness inform by the British consul. My reception was as favorable as my mostsanguine wishes had anticipated. After the usual ceremony was over, hepresented me with the command of two kansolars of infantry, each ofwhich consists of 500 men. ' His commission and pay were in accordancewith his command. He describes the army of the Nizam, which had takenthe field against Tippoo Sultan. It consisted of 150, 000 infantry, 60, 000 cavalry, and 500 elephants, each elephant supporting a 'castle'containing a nabob and servants. He remained in India several years in asort of guerrilla service, and obtained much favor. He was in Parisearly in 1808 and at home in the autumn of that year, when he wasappointed (October 2) Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of the U. S. Army. "This tall, handsome and courteous officer, who had fought with thehordes of India on the other side of the world, was shortly to encounterthe eagle-feathered chiefs of the Winnebagoes on the banks of theWabash. 

On the night of the 19th of September the regulars of the FourthRegiment arrived at Vincennes by way of the Wabash. They were under theimmediate command of Colonel James Miller, of "I'll try, Sir, " fame inthe War of 1812. The Governor and Colonel Boyd had already traveledoverland on horseback from Louisville. The sight which greeted the eyesof the old French residents on the morning of the twentieth, was a novelone. The American infantry of that period wore a uniform consisting of"blue, brass-buttoned tail-coats, skin-tight pantaloons, and 'stove-pipehats, ' with red, white and blue cockades. " One pictures them marching inthe brown October woods, their bayonets gleaming in the sunshine, andtheir bugles awakening strange echoes from headland and bluff. Theregiment, though small, was made up of a formidable array of men. Whilenot disciplined in Indian warfare, the rank and file were composed ofbrave, resolute soldiers, and such officers as Captains W. C. Baen, Josiah Snelling, Robert C. Barton, Return B. Brown, George W. Prescottand Joel Cook, were of the best of that time. The gallant Baen was onhis last march, and his bones were destined to repose in a savagewilderness. 

A military conference was now held, participated in by GovernorHarrison, Colonel Boyd, and two judges of the supreme court, BenjaminParke and Waller Taylor, both of whom were officers in the localmilitia. It was determined to ascend the river with a respectable force, which would not only defy attack, but impress the tribesmen, ifpossible, with a due respect for the power and authority of the UnitedStates. The Prophet, though not a warrior, was known, as Harrison says, to be, "daring, presumptuous and rash. " He was now reinforced by aconsiderable body of Winnebago warriors, and the Potawatomi of theprairies and the Illinois were coming to his support. A small expeditionwould not only excite contempt, but might lead to a disaster. 

Accordingly, on the morning of the twenty-sixth of September, an army ofabout one thousand men, including one hundred and forty dragoons andsixty mounted riflemen, commenced its march to the upper end of the NewPurchase. The cavalry had been sent forward two days before to thesettlement of Busseron, where forage for the horses could more easily beprocured. Just before the departure of the army, a deputation ofwarriors arrived from the Prophet's Town, led by a war chief of thehostile Kickapoos. He expressed his astonishment at seeing such warlikepreparations, said that his women and children were all in tears, andfalsely asserted that the hearts of all the Prophet's party were warmtowards the United States. The Governor peremptorily informed theKickapoo that the army was about to march, and that nothing but animmediate surrender of the Indian murderers and horse-thieves wouldsatisfy the government. The mount of Captain William Piatt, chiefquartermaster of the expedition, and four horses from Busseron had justbeen stolen, and all further dissimulation on the part of the savageswas without avail. 

The account of the march, as recorded by Captain John Tipton, isexceedingly interesting. The militiamen of southern Indiana and Kentuckyassembled from the frontier settlements, were men of simple habits, rough, unlettered, hard to teach the intricacies of military evolutions, but as General John C. Black has stated, they were also "insensible tofatigue, watchful as a catamount, resolute as men, heroic as martyrs. "Some of their favorite sports were wrestling, shooting at a mark, andhorse-racing. All were inured to an active, outdoor life. Most of themwere without tents and few had blankets, but they did not complain. Asthe army advanced through the wilderness, the cutting down of bee trees, the shooting of squirrels, raccoon and deer were everyday occurrences;horses strayed away and were recovered; the provision boats lodged onthe sand bars in the river and were launched again; stories of adventureand midnight massacre were told about the great camp fires. All camefrom families who had suffered from savage outrage; all hated bothBritish and Indians "with a holy hate, " and all were determined that theforces of civilization should not recede. They were eager for battle andunafraid. 

On the second of October the army arrived at Terre Haute or "high land, "said to be the scene of a bloody battle between the ancient tribe of theIllinois and the Iroquois. The place was designated by the old Frenchtraders and settlers as "Bataille des Illinois. " A few old apple andpeach trees still marked the site of an ancient Indian village. Abouttwo miles from this location was a town of the Weas. Harrisonimmediately began the erection of a quadrangular stockaded fort, with ablockhouse at three of the angles. This fortification, amid muchcelebrating, was, on Sunday, the twenty-seventh of October, christened as Fort Harrison. An oration was delivered on the occasion byJoseph Hamilton Davis. 

[Illustration: The Line of Harrison's March to Tippecanoe and the NewPurchase of 1809. Drawing by Heaton]

All doubt of the Prophet's hostility was now dispelled. He had committedopen acts of war on the United States. While the army was on the marchto Terre Haute a party of the Prophet's raiders, in open daylight, tookeight horses from a settlement in the Illinois Territory about thirtymiles above Vincennes. At eight o'clock, on the evening of the tenth ofOctober, a sentinel belonging to the Fourth United States Regiment wasfired on and badly wounded by savages prowling about the camp. "The armywas immediately turned out, " says Harrison, "and formed in excellentorder in a very few minutes. Patrols were dispatched in every direction, but the darkness was such that pursuit was impracticable. Other alarmstook place in the course of the night, probably without good cause, butthe troops manifested an alertness in taking their positions which washighly gratifying to me. " On the evening of the eleventh, John Connerand four of the Delaware chiefs came into camp. Before leavingVincennes, Harrison had sent a request that some of their chiefs mightmeet him on the march, for the purpose of undertaking embassies of peaceto the different tribes. On the sixth of October, many of them had setout from their towns, but were met on the way by a deputation from theProphet's Town. This deputation declared that the followers of theProphet had taken up the tomahawk against the United States, "and thatthey would lay it down only with their lives. " They were confident ofvictory and required a categorical answer from the Delawares to thequestion of whether they would or would not join them in the comingwar. Conner and the four chiefs were immediately sent to report toHarrison, and another party ordered forward to Tippecanoe to remonstratewith the Prophet. On the twenty-seventh the latter party reported to theGovernor at Fort Harrison. They had been insulted and badly treated bythe Prophet and were dismissed with contempt. During their stay with theShawnee leader, the warriors arrived who had fired on the sentinel atTerre Haute. They were Shawnees and the Prophet's nearest friends. 

Harrison now resolved to immediately march to Tippecanoe and demandsatisfaction. To return to Vincennes with his troops without effecting adispersion or humiliation of the Prophet's party would be attended withthe most fatal consequences. "If he is thus presumptuous upon ouradvance, " writes the Governor, "our return without chastising him, orgreatly alarming his fears and those of his followers, would give him aneclat that would increase his followers, and we would have to wagethrough the winter a defensive war which would greatly distress ourfrontiers. " The Governor's display of force on the Wabash had not hadthe desired effect. While some of the Weas were returning to theirvillages, and the Wyandots were reported to be urging the tribes to fallaway from the Prophet, still the spirit of treachery was abroad in thewhole Wabash country. The Miami chiefs arrived for an apparentlyfriendly council, but the Stone Eater was vacillating, and already underthe influence of the Prophet. Winamac, who had made so many professionsof friendliness towards the government, was now rallying his forces onthe side of the Shawnee. Reinforcements of savage Kickapoos andPotawatomi from the Illinois river were beating down the great trails onthe way to Tippecanoe. The constant and continued influence of theBritish, the "ridiculous and superstitious pranks" of the Shawneeimpostor, and the natural fear and jealousy of all the tribesmen, onaccount of their lands, had at last cemented the savage union. The youngmen and braves of all the clans were ranged in either open or secrethostility against the United States. 

The forces at the Prophet's Town were estimated at about six hundred. Ata council of the officers it was decided to send for a reinforcement offour companies, but without waiting for their return, to at once take upthe march, as all forage for the horses would soon disappear. On thetwenty-ninth of October the army moved forward. It consisted of aboutsix hundred and forty foot and two hundred and seventy mounted men. Twohundred and fifty of these were regulars, about sixty were Kentuckians, and the remainder were Indiana militia, raised at Corydon, Vincennes, and points along the Wabash and Ohio rivers. "The militia, " saysHarrison, "are the best I ever saw, and Colonel Boyd's regiment is afine body of men. " Along with the army rolled nineteen wagons and onecart to transport the supplies, as the winding course of the river andthe nature of the ground near it, rendered their further transportationby boats impracticable. The Governor at the last moment sent forward amessage to the Prophet's Town requiring the immediate disbandment of theWinnebago, Potawatomi and Kickapoo followers of the Shawnee, thesurrender of all murderers, and the delivery up of all stolen horses. "I am determined, " wrote Harrison to Governor Scott of Kentucky, "todisperse the Prophet's banditti before I return, or give him the chanceof acquiring as much fame as a warrior, as he now has as a saint. "

On Thursday, the thirty-first, the army crossed the northern line of theNew Purchase at Raccoon Creek, and a few hours later forded the Wabashat Montezuma. The water was very deep and the troops and wagons werethree hours in making the passage. The east bank of the river had beenreconnoitered for several miles up and a feint made as though to cut awagon road, but the country on the left bank afforded too manyopportunities for an ambuscade, and Harrison now resolved to strike theopen prairies toward the state line. On the first of November the armyencamped on the west side of the Wabash about two or three miles belowthe mouth of the Big Vermilion, and as it had been determined to takeforward the provisions from this point in wagons, a small blockhouse, twenty-five feet square was here erected, with a breastwork at eachcorner next to the river, to receive supplies from the boats. Remnantsof the old landing were still to be seen in 1914. Logs and brush werenow employed to level down the great horse weeds that filled thelowlands, and corduroy roads made for the passage of the wagons to theuplands at the west. Major General Samuel Wells, Colonel Abraham Owenand Captain Frederick Geiger had now arrived with some of the Kentuckyvolunteers, and the army, after leaving a guard of eight men at theblockhouse, at once crossed the Big Vermilion at the site of the oldKickapoo village and entered upon Sand Prairie at the north. 

Harrison was now in the heart of the hostile Kickapoo country. Like hisold commander Wayne, he maintained a most diligent lookout. The army wasmoving forward with mounted men in advance, in the rear and on bothflanks. The infantry marched in two columns of files, one on either sideof the road. The heavy army wagons drawn by oxen, and the beeves and ledanimals were in the center. A company of twelve scouts under the commandof Captain Touissant Dubois closely scanned every place of danger andpointed out the army's way. 

Late on the third of November, the frontiersmen saw for the first timethe great prairies of the west, stretching north to Chicago and west tothe Mississippi. They camped that night in Round Grove, near the presenttown of Sloan. An abundance of blue grass carpeted the sheltered groundand a fine spring of water supplied fresh drink. All the next day thegreat wheels of the lumbering baggage wagons cut through the sod of theWarren prairies, leaving a long trail over the plains that was plainlytraceable for a half century afterwards. Night found the army encampedon the east bank of Pine creek, above the site of the old Brier milldam. An old bayonet of the revolutionary type was long years afterward pickedup in an adjoining wheat field and is now lodged in the Babcock museumat Goodland. The dangerous passes to the south had been avoided andscouts were Posted far down the stream to avoid the danger of a nightattack. 

Wednesday the sixth, it was very cold. Indian signs were now observedfor the first time, the scouts caught four Indian horses, and parties ofsavages were constantly lurking on the skirts of the advancing forces. Every effort to hold conversation with them, however, was in vain. At adistance of about four miles from the Prophet's Town the army was formedin order of battle, and moved forward with great caution. The scouts hadevidently picked out a poor path, for the army now found itself ondangerous ground, and Harrison was obliged to change the position of theseveral corps three times in the distance of a mile, to avoid the perilof an ambuscade. 

At half past two o'clock in the afternoon the troops crossed Burnet'sCreek at a distance of one and one-half miles from the town, and againformed in order of battle. Captain Dubois, now offering to go to theIndian camp with a flag, was sent forward with an interpreter to requesta conference. The savages knew Dubois well, but they now appeared oneither flank and attempted to cut him off from the army. Harrisonrecalled him and determined to encamp for the night. 

In the meantime, the impatient Major Daviess had advanced to the Indiancorn fields along the river with a party of dragoons. He now returnedand reported that the Indians were very hostile and had answered everyattempt to bring them to a parley with insolence and contempt. He, together with all the officers, advised an immediate attack. Harrisonwas mindful of the President's injunctions. He did not wish to bring ona conflict until all efforts for peace had failed. He ordered the armyto advance, but placed the interpreters at the front, with directionsto invite a conference with any Indians that they might meet with. 

After proceeding about four hundred yards, the advance guard wasapproached by three Indians who expressed a wish to see the Governor. One of them was a chief closely connected with the Prophet. He toldHarrison that they were surprised at his rapid advance upon them; thatthey had been given to understand by a party of Delawares and Miamiswhom the Governor had sent forward, that he would not march on theirtown until an answer had been made to his demands; that Winamac had beendetailed two days before to meet the Governor and arrange terms, butthat he had proceeded down the south side of the Wabash. Thesestatements were all false, but the General answered that he had nointention of attacking them until he was convinced that they would notcomply with his demands, and that he would now go forward and encamp onthe river. In the morning, an interview would be held and he wouldcommunicate to them the determination of the President. The march wasthen resumed. 

The Indian corn lands extended for a great distance along the river andthe ground was so broken and uneven, and the timber had been clearedaway to such an extent, that no suitable place could be found for acamp. The troops were now almost upon the town, when fifty or sixtysavages sallied forth and with loud cries called upon the cavalry andmilitia to halt. The Governor immediately pressed to the front, anddirected the interpreter to request some of the chiefs to come near. Harrison now informed them that his only object for the present was tosecure a camp, where he might find wood and water. The chiefs informedhim that there was a creek to the northwest that would suit his purpose, and after mutual promises of a suspension of hostilities until thefollowing day, the interview was brought to an end. 

Majors Waller Taylor and Marston G. Clark, aides to the Governor, werenow detailed to select a site for an encampment. The ground chosen wasthe destined battlefield of Tippecanoe. "It was a piece of dry oak landrising about ten feet above the level of a marshy prairie in front, (towards the Indian town), and nearly twice that height above a similarprairie in the rear, through which, and near to this bank, ran a smallstream clothed with willows and brush wood. Towards the left flank thisbench of high land widened considerably, but became gradually narrowerin the opposite direction, and at the distance of one hundred and fiftyyards from the right flank, terminated in an abrupt point. "

[Illustration: Smith Pine Creek in Warren County, Indiana, a few milesbelow the place where Harrison crossed. Photo by Lawrence]

CHAPTER XXIV

THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE

_--The night attack on Harrison's forces. --The destruction of Tecumseh'sConfederacy. _

An inverted flatiron pointing to the east of south--that is the battleground of Tippecanoe. The western edge is the sheer bank of Burnet'sCreek. A savage would have some difficulty in climbing there. Back ofthe creek is a low marsh, filled with cat-tails and long grass. Thesurface of the flatiron is a sandy plain with scattering oaks, andsloping towards the east. At the north the plain widens, but comes to anabrupt point at the southern end. To the east and in the direction ofthe Prophet's Town is a wet prairie. The Kickapoos said that Harrison'schoice of a camping place was excellent. 

Late in the evening the army arrives and takes up its position. Axes arescarce and there is no time to erect a breastwork of trees. Firewoodmust be cut to warm the shivering troops. The militia have no tents andblankets are scarce. Low scudding clouds betoken a cold November rain. The regulars are split into two battalions of four companies each. Oneis placed on the left front facing the east. This is under the commandof Major George Rogers Clark Floyd. Under him are the companies of Baen, Snelling and Prescott, and a small company of United States riflemenarmed with muskets. On his right are two companies of Indiana militiacommanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bartholomew. The secondbattalion of regulars is placed in the left rear and is commanded byCaptain William C. Baen, acting as major. To the right of this battalionare four companies of Indiana militia, commanded by Captains JosiahSnelling, Jr. , John Posey, Thomas Scott and Jacob Warrick, all of whomare under the leadership of Lieutenant-Colonel Luke Decker. Warrick'scompany is in the southwestern corner of the camp, and next to themounted riflemen under Spencer. The left flank is filled up by twocompanies of mounted riflemen under the command of Major-General SamuelWells, of the Kentucky militia, acting as major. Back of these riflemenare two troops of dragoons under Major Joseph Hamilton Daviess, and inthe rear of the front lines are the Light Dragoons of Vincennes, led byCaptain Benjamin Parke. The right flank is made up of the famous YellowJackets of Harrison county, Indiana. They wear yellow flannel huntingshirts with a red fringe and hats with red plumes. Their officers areCaptain Spier Spencer, sheriff of his county; First-Lieutenant RichardMcMahan, Second-Lieutenant Thomas Berry, and Ensign John Tipton. Spenceris of a Kentucky family, his mother has been an Indian captive when agirl, and his fourteen year old son accompanies him on the expedition, bearing a rifle. The distance between the front and rear lines on theleft flank is about one hundred and fifty yards, and something more thanhalf that distance on the right flank. In the center of the camp are theheadquarters of the Governor, the wagons and baggage, and the beefcattle. 

Night is now coming on apace and the great camp fires of the army sheda cheerful glow on men and horses, arms and accouterments. Harrison iswatchful. While neither he nor his officers expect a night attack, stillhe bears in mind that he is in the heart of the Indian country and onlya mile and a quarter from the Prophet's village. A council of theofficers is held and all placed in readiness for instant action. Thecamp, in form, is an irregular parallelogram, and troops may be rushedto at once reinforce any point assailed. The troops are formed in singlerank and maneuver easily--extension of the lines is readilyaccomplished. The order of encampment is the order of battle. Every manmust sleep opposite his post. In case of attack the soldiers are toarise, step to the rear of the fires, and instantly form in line. Theline thus formed is to hold its ground until further relieved. Thedragoons are to parade dismounted, with their pistols in their belts, and to act as a corps de reserve. The whole camp is surrounded by twocaptains' guards, each consisting of four non-commissioned officers andforty-two men, and two subalterns' guards, of twenty non-commissionedofficers and privates. The regulars retire with accouterments on, andtheir arms by their sides. The tired militia, having no tents, sleepwith their arms under them to keep them dry. Captain Cook, of the FourthRegiment records that he slept with his boots and great coat on, andwith his trusty rifle clasped in his arms. The infantry bear cartridgeseach loaded with twelve buckshot. These are intended for a rain ofdeath. 

In the meantime, the fearful Prophet is filled with doubt. Now that thehour of destiny is at hand, his heart fails him. He counsels cautionand a postponement of the fight. He urges that a treaty be entered into;a compliance made with the demands of the Governor, and that thePotawatomi murderers be surrendered up. The army must be thrown off itsguard and a treacherous attack made on its return home. But the youngmen and warriors think otherwise. Has not the Prophet told them that thewhite man's bullets are harmless, and that his powder will turn to sand?Why hesitate? The army is now asleep and will never awake. Let the MagicBowl be produced, the sacred torch and the "Medean fire. " Let there bedeath to all!

At a quarter past four o'clock in the morning the Governor arises topull on his boots. The moon is now obscured, and a drizzly rain isfalling. The camp fires are still burning, but beyond the lines ofsleeping men, all is darkness and gloom. The sentinels out there in thenight are listening to strange sounds. Through the tall grass of theswamp lands terrible forms are creeping, like snakes on their bellies, towards the camp. The painted and feather-bedecked warriors of theProphet are surrounding the army. 

In two minutes more an aide is to awake the drummer and have him readyby the fire to beat the reveille, when all at once the attack begins. Asentinel, standing on the bank of Burnet's Creek near the northwesternangle of the camp, sees an object crawling on the ground. He fires andruns toward the line--the next moment he is shot down. With demon yellsthe savages burst upon the ranks of Captain Barton's company andGeiger's riflemen. 

In an instant the camp is alive and the men spring to arms, but there isno disorder or confusion. In Barton's company a sergeant and twoprivates are up renewing the fires, and immediately give the alarm. Twosavages penetrate the camps but are killed within twenty yards of theline. A corporal in Barton's company is shot as he steps to the door ofhis tent. Another corporal and a private are killed and a sergeantwounded as the lines are forming, but immediately afterwards a heavyfire is opened and the charging red skins are driven back. The attack onthe Kentuckians is particularly ferocious. A hand to hand fight ensues. One of Geiger's men loses his gun and the captain runs to his tent toget him another. He finds some savages there "ransacking its contents, and prodding their knives into everything. " One of them attempts to killthe captain with a tomahawk, but is immediately slain. 

At the first alarm the Governor calls for his white horse, but the shotsand yells terrify that animal and he breaks his tether. Harrison nowmounts a bay and rides to the first point of attack, Colonel AbrahamOwen at his side. Owen is killed, a lock of the Governor's hair is cutaway by a bullet, but he brings up Wentworth's company under LieutenantGeorge P. Peters, and Captain Joel Cook's from the rear line, and formsthem across the angle in support of Barton and Geiger. 

Nothing like this fury has ever been witnessed before. The rattling ofdried deer hoofs and the shrieks of the warriors resound on every hand. In a few moments the fire extends along the whole front, both flanks, and a part of the rear line. The fierce Winnebagoes, with tall eaglefeathers in their scalp locks, rush upon the bayonets, attempt to pushthem aside, and cut down the men. It avails them nothing. The irondiscipline of the regulars holds them firm. On every hand the soldierskick out the fires, re-load their guns and settle down to the fight. 

In the first mad rushes, the company of David Robb posted on the leftflank, gives way, or through some error in orders, retires to the centerof the camp. Harrison sees the mistake on the instant and ordersSnelling to cover the left flank. Snelling is alert, and at the firstgun seizes his sword and forms his company into line. The dangerous gapis at once filled, and the companies close up. But a murderous fire nowassails them on the front from behind some fallen logs and trees. Daviess with his dragoons is behind the lines, and impatient ofrestraint. Twice he asks the Governor for orders to charge--the thirdtime a reluctant consent is given. The regulars open up, the brave Majorwith eight of his men pass through the ranks, and the next moment he ismortally wounded. Snelling's company with levelled bayonets clear thefield. 

Prodigies of valor are being performed on the right flank. Spencer isthere and his famous Yellow Jackets. If the regulars have been valorous, the mounted riflemen of Harrison County have been brilliant. Harrisonrides down and calls for the Captain. A slip of a boy answers: "He isdead, sir. " "Where is your lieutenant?" "He is dead. " "Where is yoursecond lieutenant?" "He is dead. " "Where is your ensign?" The answercame, "I am he. " The General compliments him and tells him to hold theline. Spencer is wounded in the head, but exhorts his men to fight. Heis shot through both thighs and falls, but from the ground encourageshis men to stand. They raise him up, but a ball puts an immediate end tohis brave career. To the rear of Spencer is the giant Warrick. He isshot through the body and taken to the surgery to be dressed. His woundsbound up, he insists on going back to the head of his company, althoughhe has but a few hours to live. Thus fought and died these bravemilitiamen of the southern hills. Harrison orders up the company of Robband the lines hold until the coming of the light. 

Throughout the long and trying hours of darkness the Governor remainscool. Mounted on his charger, he appears at every point along the line, and his calm and confident tones of command give reassurance to all hismen. If the formation can be held intact until the coming of the dawn, the bayonets of the regulars and the broadswords of the dragoons shallbe brought into play. He remembers the example of the illustrious Wayne. 

As the morning approaches the fight narrows down to the two flanks. Herethe savages will make their last stand. Harrison now draws the companiesof Snelling, Posey and Scott from the front lines, and the company ofCaptain Walter Wilson from the rear, and forms them on the left flank. At the same time he orders Baen's company from the front and Cook's fromthe rear, to form on the right. The infantry are to be supported by thedragoons. But as soon as the companies form on the left, Major SamuelWells orders a charge, the Indians flee in front of the cold steel, andare pursued into the swamps by the dragoons. At the same moment thetroops on the right dislodge the savages from behind the trees, anddrive them headlong into the wet prairie in front. The battle is over. Along and deafening shout from, the troops proclaims the victory. 

Thus ended the battle of Tippecanoe, justly famed in history. Theintrepidity of the officers, the firm resolution of the regulars, thedaring brilliancy of the militiamen, all brought about the desired end. The conflict had been severe. One hundred and eighty-eight men andofficers were either killed or wounded. The officers slain were, ColonelAbraham Owen, Major Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Captain Jacob Warrick, Captain Spier Spencer, Captain William C. Baen, Lieutenant RichardMcMahan, Lieutenant Thomas Berry, Corporal James Mitchell and CorporalStephen Mars. The loss of the savages in killed alone was nearly forty. The number of their wounded could never be ascertained. They were led inbattle by the perfidious Winamac, who had always professed to be thefriend of the Governor, and by White Loon and the Stone Eater. 

In the weeks that followed the battle much censure of Harrison washeard, and much of the credit for the victory was at first accorded tothe United States regulars and Colonel Boyd. This was so manifestlyunfair to General Harrison, that Captains Cook, Snelling and Barton, Lieutenants Adams, Fuller, Hawkins and Gooding, Ensign Burchstead andSurgeons Josiah D. Foster and Hosea Blood, all of the Fourth UnitedStates Regiment, signed an open statement highly laudatory of theGovernor's talents, military science and patriotism. They declared thatthroughout the whole campaign the Governor demeaned himself both as a"soldier and a general, " and that any attempt to undermine theirconfidence in and respect for the commander-in-chief, would be regardedby them as an "insult to their understandings and an injury to theirfeelings. " The legislatures of Indiana and Kentucky passed resolutionshighly commendatory of the Governor's military conduct and skill. 

The Indian confederacy was crushed. Tecumseh returned about the first ofthe year to find the forces at the Prophet's Town broken up andscattered, and his ambitious dreams of empire forever dissipated. Nothing now remained for him to do but openly espouse the British cause. He became the intimate and associate of the infamous Proctor and died inthe battle at the River Thames. 

The battle of Tippecanoe gave great impetus to the military spirit inthe western world and prepared the way for the War of 1812. Harrisonbecame the leader of the frontier forces and thousands of volunteersflocked to his standard. The tales of valor and heroism, the stories ofthe death of Daviess and Owen, Spencer and Warrick, and of the long, terrible hours of contest with a savage foe, were recounted for yearsafterward around every fireside in southern Indiana and Kentucky, andbrought a thrill of patriotic pride to the heart of every man, womanand child who heard them. The menace of the red skin was removed. Duringthe following winter the frontier reposed in peace. 

The battle did more. Many of those who followed Harrison saw for thefirst time the wonderful valley of the upper Wabash and the boundlessprairies of the north. In the wake of the conflict followed the forcesof civilization, and in a few years afterward both valley and plain werefilling up with a virile and hardy race of frontiersmen who laid thefoundations of the new commonwealth. In 1816, Indiana became a member ofthe federal union. 

CHAPTER XXV

NAYLOR'S NARRATIVE

_--A description, of the battle by one of the volunteers. _

An excellent portrait of Judge Isaac Naylor now hangs in the court roomat Williamsport, Indiana. He was one of the first judges of theMontgomery circuit which formerly embraced both Warren and Benton. Naylor was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, in 1790, and removed toClark county, Indiana, in 1805. In 1810 he made a journey to New Orleanson a flatboat. While preparing for college the Tippecanoe campaign cameon, and he joined Harrison's army at Vincennes. His account of thebattle is as follows:

 "I became a volunteer member of a company of riflemen, and on the 12th of September, 1811, we commenced our march toward Vincennes, and arrived there in about six days, marching about 120 miles. We remained there about a week and took up the march to a point on the Wabash river, sixty miles above, on the east bank of the river, where we erected a stockade fort, which we named Fort Harrison. This was three miles above where the city of Terre Haute now stands. Col. Joseph H. Daviess, who commanded the dragoons, named the fort. The glorious defense of this fort nine months after by Captain Zachary Taylor was the first step in his brilliant career that afterwards made him President of the United States. 

A few days later we took up the march again for the seat of Indianwarfare, where we arrived on the evening of November 6th, 1811. 

 "When the army arrived in view of the Prophet's Town, an Indian was seen coming toward General Harrison with a white flag suspended on a pole. Here the army halted, and a parley was had between General Harrison and an Indian delegation, who assured the General that they desired peace, and solemnly promised to meet him next day in council, to settle the terms of peace and friendship between them and the United States. 

 "General Marston G. Clark, who was then brigade major, and Waller Taylor, one of the judges of the General Court of the Territory of Indiana, and afterwards a Senator of the United States from Indiana (one of the General's aides), were ordered to select a place for the encampment, which they did. The army then marched to the ground selected about sunset. A strong guard was placed around the encampment, commanded by Captain James Bigger and three lieutenants. The troops were ordered to sleep on their arms. The night being cold, large fires were made along the lines of encampment and each soldier retired to rest, sleeping on his arms. 

 "Having seen a number of squaws and children at the town I thought the Indians were not disposed to fight. About ten o'clock at night Joseph Warnock and myself retired to rest, he taking one side of the fire and I the other, the other members of our company being all asleep. My friend Warnock had dreamed, the night before, a bad dream which foreboded something fatal to him or to some of his family, as he told me. Having myself no confidence in dreams, I thought but little about the matter, although I observed that he never smiled afterwards. 

 "I awoke about four o'clock the next morning, after a sound and refreshing sleep, having heard in a dream the firing of guns and the whistling of bullets just before I awoke from my slumber. A drizzling rain was falling and all things were still and quiet throughout the camp. I was engaged in making a calculation when I should arrive home. 

 "In a few moments I heard the crack of a rifle in the direction of the point where now stands the Battle Ground House, which is occupied by Captain DuTiel as a tavern. I had just time to think that some sentinel was alarmed and fired his rifle without a real cause, when I heard the crack of another rifle, followed by an awful Indian yell all around the encampment. In less than a minute I saw the Indians charging our line most furiously and shooting a great many rifle balls into our camp fires, throwing the live coals into the air three or four feet high. 

 "At this moment my friend Warnock was shot by a rifle ball through his body. He ran a few yards and fell dead on the ground. Our lines were broken and a few Indians were found on the inside of the encampment. In a few moments they were all killed. Our lines closed up and our men in their proper places. One Indian was killed in the back part of Captain Geiger's tent, while he was attempting to tomahawk the Captain. 

 "The sentinels, closely pursued by the Indians, came to the lines of the encampment in haste and confusion. My brother, William Naylor, was on guard. He was pursued so rapidly and furiously that he ran to the nearest point on the left flank, where he remained with a company of regular soldiers until the battle was near its termination. A young man, whose name was Daniel Pettit, was pursued so closely and furiously by an Indian as he was running from the guard line to our lines, that to save his life he cocked his rifle as he ran and turning suddenly around, placed the muzzle of his gun against the body of the Indian and shot an ounce ball through him. The Indian fired his gun at the same instant, but it being longer than Pettit's, the muzzle passed by him and set fire to a handkerchief which he had tied around his head. The Indians made four or five most fierce charges on our lines, yelling and screaming as they advanced, shooting balls and arrows into our ranks. At each charge they were driven back in confusion, carrying off their dead and wounded as they retreated. 

 "Colonel Owen, of Shelby County, Kentucky, one of General Harrison's volunteer aides, fell early in action by the side of the General. He was a member of the legislature at the time of his death. Colonel Daviess was mortally wounded early in the battle, gallantly charging the Indians on foot with his sword and pistols, according to his own request. He made this request three times of General Harrison, before he was permitted to make the charge. The charge was made by himself and eight dragoons on foot near the angle formed by the left flank and front line of the encampment. Colonel Daviess lived about thirty-six hours after he was wounded, manifesting his ruling passions in life--ambition, patriotism and an ardent love of military glory. During the last hours of his life he said to his friends around him that he had but one thing to regret--that he had military talents; that he was about to be cut down in the meridian of life without having an opportunity of displaying them for his own honor, and the good of his country. He was buried alone with the honors of war near the right flank of the army, inside of the lines of the encampment, between two trees. On one of these trees the letter 'D' is now visible. Nothing but the stump of the other remains. His grave was made here, to conceal it from the Indians. It was filled up to the top with earth, and then covered with oak leaves. I presume the Indians never found it. This precautionary act was performed as a mark of peculiar respect for a distinguished hero and patriot of Kentucky. 

 "Captain Spencer's company, of mounted riflemen composed the right flank of the army. Captain Spencer and both his lieutenants were killed. John Tipton was elected and commissioned as captain of this company in one hour after the battle, as a reward for his cool and deliberate heroism displayed during the action. He died at Logansport in 1839, having been twice elected Senator of the United States from the State of Indiana. 

 "The clear, calm voice of General Harrison was heard in words of heroism in every part of the encampment during the action. Colonel Boyd behaved very bravely after repeating these words: "Huzza! My sons of gold, a few more fires and victory will be ours!"

 "Just after daylight the Indiana retreated across the prairie toward their town, carrying off their wounded. This retreat was from the right flank of the encampment, commanded by Captains Spencer and Robb, having retreated from the other portions of the encampment a few minutes before. As their retreat became visible, an almost deafening and universal shout was raised by our men. 'Huzza! Huzza! Huzza!' This shout was almost equal to that of the savages at the commencement of the battle; ours was the shout of victory, theirs was the shout of ferocious but disappointed hope. 

 "The morning light disclosed the fact that the killed and wounded of our army, numbering between eight and nine hundred men, amounted to one hundred and eighty-eight. Thirty-six Indians were found near our lines. Many of their dead were carried off during the battle. This fact was proved by the discovery of many Indian graves recently made near their town. Ours was a bloody victory, theirs a bloody defeat. 

 "Soon after breakfast an Indian chief was discovered on the prairie, about eighty yards from our front line, wrapped in a piece of white cloth. He was found by a soldier by the name of Miller, a resident of Jeffersonville, Indiana. The Indian was wounded in one of his legs, the ball having penetrated his knee and passed down his leg, breaking the bone as it passed. Miller put his foot against him and he raised up his head and said: 'Don't kill me, don't kill me. ' At the same time five or six regular soldiers tried to shoot him, but their muskets snapped and missed fire. Major Davis Floyd came riding toward him with dragoon sword and pistols and said he would show them how to kill Indians, when a messenger came from General Harrison commanding that he should be taken prisoner. He was taken into camp, where the surgeons dressed his wounds. Here he refused to speak a word of English or tell a word of truth. Through the medium of an interpreter he said that he was a friend to the white people and that the Indians shot him while he was coming to the camp to tell General Harrison that they were about to attack the army. He refused to have his leg amputated, though he was told that amputation was the only means of saving his life. One dogma of Indian superstition is that all good and brave Indians, when they die, go to a delightful region, abounding with deer and other game, and to be a successful hunter he should have all his limbs, his gun and his dog. He therefore preferred death with all his limbs to life without them. In accordance with his request he was left to die, in company with an old squaw, who was found in the Indian town the next day after he was taken prisoner. They were left in one of our tents. 

[Illustration: Judge Isaac Naylor. From old portrait in Court Room atWilliamsport, Indiana. ]

 "At the time this Indian was taken prisoner, another Indian, who was wounded in the body, rose to his feet in the middle of the prairie and began to walk towards the woods on the opposite side. A number of regular soldiers shot at him but missed him. A man who was a member of the same company with me, Henry Huckleberry, ran a few steps into the prairie and shot an ounce ball through his body and he fell dead near the margin of the woods. Some Kentucky volunteers went across the prairie immediately, and scalped him, dividing his scalp into four pieces, each one cutting a hole in each piece, putting the ramrod through the hole, and placing his part of the scalp just behind the first thimble of his gun, near its muzzle. Such was the fate of nearly all of the Indians found on the battle ground, and such was the disposition of their scalps. 

 "The death of Owen, and the fact that Daviess was mortally wounded, with the remembrance also that a large portion of Kentucky's best blood had been shed by the Indians, must be their apology for this barbarous conduct. Such conduct will be excused by all who witnessed the treachery of the Indians, and saw the bloody scenes of this battle. 

 "Tecumseh being absent at the time of the battle, a chief called White Loon was the chief commander of the Indians. He was seen in the morning after the battle, riding a large white horse in the woods across the prairie, where he was shot at by a volunteer named Montgomery, who is now living in the southwest part of this state. At the crack of his rifle the horse jumped as if the ball had hit him. The Indian rode off toward the town and we saw him no more. During the battle the Prophet was safely located on a hill, beyond the reach of our balls, praying to the Great Spirit to give victory to the Indians, having previously assured them that the Great Spirit would change our powder into ashes and sand. 

 "We had about forty head of beef cattle when we came to the battle. They all ran off the night of the battle, or they were driven off by the Indians, so that they were all lost. We received rations for two days on the morning after the action. We received no more rations until the next Tuesday evening, being six days afterwards. The Indians having retreated to their town, we performed the solemn duty of consigning to their graves our dead soldiers, without shrouds or coffins. They were placed in graves about two feet deep, from five to ten in each grave. 

 "General Harrison having learned that Tecumseh was expected to return from the south with a number of Indians whom he had enlisted in his cause, called a council of his officers, who advised him to remain on the battlefield and fortify his camp by a breastwork of logs, about four feet high. This work was completed during the day and all the troops were placed immediately behind each line of the work, when they were ordered to pass the watchword from right to left every five minutes, so that no man was permitted to sleep during the night. The watchword on the night before the battle was 'Wide-awake, wide-awake. ' To me, it was a long, cold, cheerless night. 

 "On the next day the dragoons went to Prophet's Town, which they found deserted by all the Indians, except an old squaw, whom they brought into the camp and left her with the wounded chief before mentioned. The dragoons set fire to the town and it was all consumed, casting up a brilliant light amid the darkness of the ensuing night. I arrived at the town when it was about half on fire. I found large quantities of corn, beans and peas, I filled my knapsack with these articles and carried them to the camp and divided them with the members of our mess, consisting of six men. Having these articles of food, we declined eating horse flesh, which was eaten by a large portion of our men. "

(THE END. )

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 8. Birch, Jesse S. _History of Benton County, Indiana. _ In manuscript. Accurate and interesting. 

 9. Bradford, Thomas G. _An illustrated Atlas of the United States. _ Historical, and with excellent maps. 1838. Presented by the late Judge Edwin P. Hammond, of Lafayette, Indiana, to the writer. 

 10. _Bureau of American Ethnology. _ _Handbook of American Indians. _ Parts I and II. (Indiana State Library. )

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 15. Cox, Sanford C. _Old Settlers. _ 1860. (Lafayette and Indiana Public Libraries. )

 16. _Croghan's Journal. _ By George Croghan, British Agent. In Appendix to Mann Butler's History of Kentucky. A description of the conditions in the Wabash Valley in 1765. (Indiana State Library. )

 17. Dawson, Moses. _Life of Harrison. _ Cincinnati, 1834. Esarey ranks this as the best biography of the General. It was prepared under the direction of Harrison himself. (Indiana State Library. )

 18. DeHart, Gen. Richard P. _Address at Tippecanoe Battlefield. _ In Report of Tippecanoe Monument Commission, 1908. Compiled by Alva O. Reser, Lafayette, Indiana. 

 19. De Hart, Gen. Richard P. _Past and Present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana. _ 1909. (Indiana State Library. )

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 23. Dunn, Jacob Piatt. _True Indian Stories. _ Indianapolis, 1908. A charming book. (Indiana State Library. )

 24. Drake, Benjamin. _Life of Tecumseh. _ Cincinnati, 1841. (Indiana State Library. )

 25. Eggleston, Edward. _Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet. _

 26. _Eminent Americans. _ Lossing. 

 27. Esarey, Professor Logan. _History of Indiana. _ Excellent work, and accurate. (Indiana State Library. )

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 29. _Fort Wayne Manuscript. _ Fergus Historical Series, Vol. IV, No. 26. Edited and annotated by Hiram W. Beckwith. (Indiana State Library. )

 30. Griswold, B. J. _History of Fort Wayne, Indiana. _

 31. Hall, James. _Legends of the West. _ (Indiana State Library. )

 32. Hall, James. _Romance of Western History. _ 1869. (Indiana State Library. )

 33. Hall, James. _The West. _ Cincinnati, 1848. (Chicago Public Library. )

 34. Harrison, Gen. William Henry. _A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Ohio Valley. _ Cincinnati, 1839. (Indiana State Library. )

 35. _Harrison Letters, Papers and Correspondence With War Department. _ 1805 to 1812. A valuable addition to history. Collected and annotated by Prof. Logan Esarey, Indiana University, and furnished to writer. The letters of Harrison quoted in this work are photographic reproductions from the originals at Washington, D. C. (Indiana University. )

 36. Harvey, Henry. Member of the Society of Friends. _History of the Shawnee Indians. _ Cincinnati, 1855. (Indiana State Library. )

 37. Hatch, William Stanley. _A Chapter of the History of the War of 1812. _ (Indiana State Library. )

 38. _Hay's Journal. A Narrative of Life on the Old Frontier. _ Edited by M. M. Quaife. Wisconsin Historical Society, 1914. (Indiana State Library. )

 39. Heckewelder, Rev. John. _An Account of the History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations. _ Philadelphia, 1819. (Indiana State Library. )

 40. Heckewelder, Rev. John. _Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren. _ Philadelphia, 1820. (Indiana State Library. )

 41. _History of DeKalb County, Indiana. _ B. F. Bowen. (Indiana State Library. )

 42. _History of Vigo and Parke Counties, Indiana. _ Beckwith. (Indiana State Library. )

 43. Hornaday, William T. _The Extermination of the American Bison. _ In Annual Report of Smithsonian Institution, 1887. 

 44. Howe, Henry. _Historical Collections of Ohio. _ 1856. (Indiana State Library. )

 45. Hubbard, Gurdon S. _Recollections and Autobiography. _ A fine review of the early fur trade under John Jacob Astor. (Indiana State Library. )

 46. Hutchins, Thomas. _A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. _ 1778. Hutchins was geographer to the King, and later geographer to the Continental Congress. He possessed valuable information concerning the west, and especially of the Wabash valley. (Indiana State Library. )

 47. _Indiana Magazine of History. _ Volumes 11, 12, 13 and 14. 

 48. _Jasper and Newton Counties, Indiana. _ Edited by Louis H. Hamilton, of Rensselaer, Indiana, and Judge William Darroch, of Kentland, Indiana. 1916. 

 49. _Journals of Old Continental Congress. _ 1775 to 1788. These journals contain the proceedings relative to early Indian affairs, and show the early policy of the old Congress with reference to the Indian tribes, in the years just prior to Washington's administration. (Indiana State Library. )

 50. _Journal of the Treaty of Fort Wayne, of 1809. _ This is the official account of the transaction written by Peter Jones, Secretary to Governor Harrison. (Indiana State Library. )

 51. Kent, James. _Commentaries on American Law_, Vol. I, Tenth Edition, 1860. Page 280, and note to page 281. 

 52. Law, John. _History of Vincennes. _ Throws much light on events at Vincennes during the Harrison and Tecumseh Period. (Indiana State Library. )

 53. Lindley, Harlow. _Indiana as Seen by Early Travelers. _ 1916. A fine reference book. (Indiana State Library. )

 54. Lossing, Benson J. _Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812. _ New York, 1869. Illustrated, and an excellent work. 

 55. Marshall, Chief Justice John. _Opinion in Johnson and Graham's Lessee, vs. William, McIntosh. _ Eight Wheaton's Reports, 543. Found in United States Statutes at Large. Indian Treaties. Pages 1 to 8, both inclusive. 1856. 

 56. Marshall, Humphrey. _The History of Kentucky. _ Frankfort, Ky. , 1824. (Indiana State Library. )

 57. _Marshall County History_, Indiana. McDonald. (Indiana State Library. )

 58. Matson, N. _Memories of Shaubena. _ Chicago, 1878. (Chicago Public Library. )

 59. _Michigan Pioneer and Historical Recollections. _ XIV and XXX. (Indiana State Library. )

 60. McMaster, John Bach. _A History of the People of the United States. _ New York, 1896. 

 61. McNemar, Richard. _The Kentucky Revival-Shakerism. _ (Indiana State Library. )

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 63. Montgomery, H. _The Life of Major-General William H. Harrison, Ninth President of the United States. _ 1852. 

 64. _Me-won-i-toc. _ By Solon Robinson. A peculiar work published in 1867, but giving some faithful sketches of conditions on the early prairies. The author shows some familiarity with the Battle of Tippecanoe, and the machinations of the British. It could not be counted, however, as a standard historical work, for the author has interwoven a fantastic tale with his recitals of history. 

 65. Naylor, Judge Isaac. _Narrative of the Battle of Tippecanoe. _ In report of Tippecanoe Monument Commission of 1908, compiled by Alva O. Reser. 

 66. Pirtle, Capt. Alfred. _Battle of Tippecanoe. _ Louisville, 1900. (Indiana State Library. )

 67. Powell, Alexander E. _Gentlemen Rovers. _ 1913. 

 68. Quaife, M. M. _Fort Wayne in 1790. _ Indiana Historical Society Publications, No. 7, Vol. 7. This valuable pamphlet contains Henry Hay's Journal, first published by the Wisconsin Historical Society. (Indiana State Library. )

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 70. Reynolds, Gov. John. _My Own Times. _ 1855. (Chicago Public Library. )

 71. Ridpath, John Clark. _History of the United States. _

 72. Roosevelt, Theodore. _The Winning of the West. _ New York, 1889. A splendid narrative of western history. 

 73. Schoolcraft, H. R. _Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge. _ (Indiana State Library. )

 74. Schoolcraft, H. R. _History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. _ 1847. Part V. (Indiana State Library. )

 75. Smith, Col. James. _An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences, etc. , During His Captivity With the Indians, etc. _ Lexington, Ky. , 1799. (Indiana State Library. )

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 77. Sparks, Jared. _The Life and Writings of George Washington. _ 1838. (Indiana State Library. )

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 79. _St. Clair Papers. _ Edited by William Henry Smith. Cincinnati, 1882. St. Clair's correspondence very valuable. (Indiana State Library. )

 80. Stone, William L. _Life of Joseph Brant-Thayendanegea. _ New York, 1838. (Indiana State Library. )

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 83. _Vincennes Western Sun. _ A newspaper of the time of Harrison and Tecumseh, and later. Its old files are now in the Indiana State Library. A valuable source of information. 

 84. _Wan-Bun, the Early Day in the Northwest. _ Mrs. J. H. Kinzie, 1855. (Indiana State Library. )

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 86. _White County History_, Indiana. W. H. Hammelle. (Indiana State Library. )

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 89. Young, Calvin M. _Little Turtle. _ Greenville, Ohio, 1917. This book gives some local coloring to important historical events around Greenville and Fort Wayne. 

INDEX

(References are to pages. )

 --A--

 Adams, John, 126, 245, 288

 Adams, Lieut. , 378

 Adair, Major John, 213

 Agaskawak, Ottawa Chief, 169

 Albach, James R. , Historian, 193

 American Fur Company, 12

 Arrowheads, 33, 154

 "Army Ford Stock Farm", 154

 Armstrong, Capt. John, 163, 165, 166

 "Army Ford, " Eugene, Indiana, 172

 "Aristocrats", 249

 Ash, Abraham, Interpreter, 262

 Asheton, Capt. Joseph, 167, 169, 187

 Ash-cake, 38

 Ashley, Ill. , 22

 Astor, John Jacob, 12, 13

 Attica, Ind. , 73

 Atwater, Caleb, Historian, 14

 Au Glaize, River of, 42, 45, 230, 282

 An Glaize, Town of, 212

 Au-goosh-away, Ottawa Chief, 241

 Au Sable Grove, Ill. , 23

 --B--

 Babcock's Museum, Goodland, Indiana, 367

 Badger, 13

 Baen, Capt. Wm. C. , 360, 371, 372, 377, 378

 Bancroft, George, Historian, 92

 Barbee, Major, (Ky. ), 185, 231, 232

 Barron, Joseph, Interpreter, 249, 258, 259, 261, 262, 267, 276, 306, 312, 313, 314, 318, 320, 321, 322, 324, 325, 326

 Barron's Interview with Tecumseh, 313, 314

 Barton, Capt. Robert C. , 360, 374, 375, 378

 Bartholomew, Col. Joseph, 358, 372

 "Bataille des Illinois", 362

 Bateaux, 49

 Beans, 37, 389

 Bears, 12, 13, 16, 27, 51, 114

 Bear Chief (Ottawa), 228

 Beckwith, Hiram, Historian, 18, 46, 47, 72, 76, 155

 Belle Riviere, Ohio River, 113

 Benton County, Indiana, 22, 24, 32, 74, 190, 381

 Berry, Second Lieutenant Thomas, 372, 378

 Beaver, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 51

 Beaver City, Indiana, 18

 Beaver Creek, Indiana, Illinois, 18

 Beaver Lake, Indiana, 11, 13, 18

 Beaver Township, Newton County, Indiana, 18

 Beaverville, Illinois, 18

 Big Bottom, Ohio, Massacre at, 173

 Bigger, Captain James, 382

 Big Man, (Miami Chief), 357

 Birch, Jesse S. , 190

 Black, General John C. , 362

 Blackbird, Potawatomi Chief, 203

 Black Hawk War, 78

 Black Hoof (Catahecassa), Shawnee Chief, 57, 275

 Blood, Hosea, Surgeon, 379

 Blue Grass, 37, 367

 Blue Jacket, Shawnee Chief, 62, 140, 146, 148, 157, 158, 159, 169, 171, 213, 227, 238, 241, 332

 Blue Stem, 22

 "Board of War, " (Ky. ), 175, 188

 Boone, Daniel, 56, 70, 120, 122

 Boonesborough, Kentucky, 115, 117

 Boyd, John Parke, Sketch by Lossing, 359

 Boyd, John Parke, Colonel U. S. Army 340, 341, 358, 359, 360, 365, 378, 385

 Boyd's Bravery at Tippecanoe, 385

 Braddock's Defeat, 14, 60, 63, 67, 204, 241

 Bradford, Thomas G. , Maps of, 53, 55

 Brant, Game Bird, 37

 Brant, Joseph, Mohawk Chief, 60, 80, 81, 96, 110, 128, 129, 130 131, 132, 133, 134, 136, 137, 138, 142, 143, 144, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 212, 213, 215, 216, 217, 218, 221, 224, 238, 293, 332

 Bridges, Ensign, Killed, 170

 Brier's Mills, 20, 367

 British Agents, 4, 50, 99, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 127, 132, 134, 139, 141, 143, 144, 149, 163, 221, 225, 239, 259, 261, 266, 274, 284, 296, 304, 327, 332, 352, 353, 365

 British Northwest Company, 12

 British Posts, 6, 84, 87, 90, 126, 127, 134, 135, 137, 138, 141, 144, 146, 171, 180, 237, 263

 British Traders, 16, 50, 147, 157, 158, 160, 163

 Brouillette, Michael, Trader and Scout, 249, 303, 306, 308, 309, 311, 313, 335, 343

 Brown, Captain (Ky. ), 186

 Brown, John, (Ky. ), 150, 175

 Brown, Captain Return B. , 360

 Brownstown, Michigan, Council at, 333

 Buckongahelas, Delaware Chief, 218, 241

 Buffalo, 2, 12, 16, 20, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 48, 82, 86, 114, 300

 Buffalo Creek (N. Y. ), 177, 179

 Buffalo Robes, Trade Ceased in, 29

 Buffalo Wallows, 32

 Bull, Captain, Indian Warrior, 186

 Bunkum, Town of, (Ill. ), 13

 Burchstead, Ensign, 379

 Burnet, Jacob, Historian, 31, 64, 150, 196

 Burnet's Creek, Indiana, 368, 371, 374

 Busseron, Indiana, 336, 361

 Butler, Col. John, British Indian Agent, 177, 178, 215, 224

 Butler, Mann, Historian, 27, 65, 70, 115, 122, 124

 Butler, General Richard, 96, 97, 99, 142, 174, 197, 199, 200, 202

 --C--

 Cahokia, Illinois, 121

 Caldwell, Captain, British Agent, 107, 130, 231

 Campbell, Mis, Legionary Cavalry, 232

 Campbell, William, British Officer at Fort Miami, 233, 234

 Cannehous, Jean, French Trader, 11

 Capt. Pike, Delaware Chief, 98

 Carleton, Sir Guy (Lord Dorchester), 135, 136, 137, 223

 Carmarthen, Lord, British Secretary of State, 126

 Cass, General Lewis, 75

 Catahecassa, Black Hoof, Wyandot Chief, 57, 241, 275

 Caton, John D. , 23

 Caughnawaga Indians, 14

 Cayuga, Indiana, 154

 Cession, Deed of, by Virginia, 84, 86, 92

 Cheeseekau, Brother of Tecumseh, 289

 Cherokees, Tribe of, 58, 65, 114, 132, 153

 Cherokee, River of (Same as Tennessee), 58

 Chesapeake and Leopard, 284, 285

 Chickasaws, Tribe of, 58, 230

 Chicago Road, 24, 25

 Chicago, Post of, 9, 13, 46, 72, 78

 Chillicothe, Shawnee Village, 167

 Chippewas, Tribe of, 44, 53, 54, 55, 65, 71, 98, 108, 140, 141, 143, 160, 169, 179, 199, 219, 224, 227, 231, 240, 241, 285, 298, 303, 305, 307

 Choctaws, Tribe of, 230, 349

 Cincinnati, Ohio, 31, 109, 153, 161, 177, 188, 195, 209, 222, 246, 303, 340

 Citizen Genet, 220

 Clarendon, Lord, 81

 Clark, Lieutenant, Killed, 170

 Clark, George Rogers, 6, 12, 83, 84, 91, 97, 99, 120, 121, 122, 124

 Clark, Major Marston G. , 370, 382

 Clark, General William, 339

 Clark's Grant, 243

 Cole, Captain, Theft of Horses From by Potawatomi, 336, 337, 338

 Confessional, Introduced by Prophet, 299

 Connecticut Cession to General Government, 84, 85

 Conner, John, Delaware Interpreter, 259, 262, 285, 297, 306, 338, 363, 364

 Connolly, Dr. John, British Agent, 139

 Connoys, Tribe of, 219

 Cook, Captain Joel, 360, 373, 375, 377, 378

 Corn, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 48, 49, 69, 78, 124, 164, 167, 170, 181, 187, 189, 190, 192, 193, 230, 235, 298, 369, 389

 Cornplanter, Seneca Chief, 96, 133, 175, 176, 182, 212, 213

 Cornstalk, Shawnee Chief, 241

 Corydon, Indiana, 365

 Coshocton, Ohio, 107, 127, 129

 Council at St. Joseph River in 1810, 306, 307, 308

 Coustan, Jean, French Trader, 11

 Crab Orchard, Kentucky, 145

 Craik, Doctor, Friend of Washington, 85

 Crainte, Sans, Interpreter at Treaty of Greenville, 242

 Cranes, Game, 12

 Crawford, William, Friend of Washington, 85

 Creeks, Tribe of, 57

 Croghan, George, British Agent, 27, 31, 37, 38, 42, 49, 53

 Cucumbers, 37

 Cuyahoga, River of, 8, 10, 45, 87, 98, 242

 --D--

 Danville, Illinois, 21

 Darke, Colonel William, 199, 202

 Darke County, Ohio, 197

 "Dark and Bloody Ground", 113, 114

 Daviess, Joseph Hamilton, 248, 358, 363, 368, 372, 376, 378, 379, 381, 384, 385, 388

 Daviess, Major Joseph Hamilton, Death of, 376, 384, 385

 Daviess, Charge With Dragoons, 384, 385

 "Dawson's Harrison, ", 277

 Dearborn, Henry, Secretary of War, 251, 302

 De Bois Blanc, Island of, 53

 Decatur, Illinois, 21

 Decker, Colonel Luke, 351, 372

 Deer, 2, 12, 13, 27, 30, 37, 41, 48, 51, 86, 114, 300

 Deer Hoofs, Dried, at Tippecanoe, 62, 375

 De Hart, General Richard P. , 295

 Delawares, Tribe of 29, 32, 44, 45, 55, 57, 65, 95, 97, 98, 100, 107, 108, 110, 128, 132, 139, 141, 143, 147, 153, 156, 157, 158, 164, 169, 177, 179, 180, 181, 189, 199, 213, 219, 227, 231, 240, 241, 250, 258, 259, 260, 261, 265, 269, 286, 297, 307, 319, 363, 369

 Denny, Major Ebenezer, 196, 197, 198, 200, 202

 Detroit, Town of, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 16, 34, 41, 42, 46, 49, 50, 51, 55, 87, 90, 98, 99, 106, 120, 121, 122, 126, 127, 128, 137, 140, 141, 142, 144, 146, 149, 157, 158, 159, 171, 179, 187, 199, 211, 237, 243, 261, 263, 283, 284, 285, 292, 306, 307

 Detroit, River of, 4, 218, 221

 Devin, Rev. Alexander, 351

 Dillon, John B. , Historian, 254

 Dorchester, Lord, (Sir Guy Carleton), 135, 136, 137, 139, 141, 179, 223, 226

 Doughty, Captain John, 106, 107, 129, 163

 Dowell, William W. (Ky. ), 150

 Dragoons, Light, of Vincennes, 38, 336, 344, 352, 372

 Dramatic Effect, Indian Speeches, 317

 "Dried Heart of Captive at Kekionga", 149

 Drinking Club, of Indians, 17, 18

 Dubois, Captain Touissant, Interpreter and Scout for Harrison 303, 306, 311, 353, 355, 356, 357, 367, 368

 Ducks, Game, 12, 15, 37

 Duke of York, 81

 Dumay, Jacques, French Trader, 11

 Dunmore, Governor of Province of Virginia, 57

 Du Tiel Tavern, Tippecanoe, 383

 --E--

 Earl Park, Benton County, Indiana, 25, 337

 Eclipse of Sun in 1806 and the Prophet, 287, 288

 Edgewater, Avenue in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 48

 Edwards, Colonel (Ky. ), 150, 151

 Edwards, Governor Ninian of Illinois, 337, 340

 Eel River, Indiana, 38, 140, 145, 166, 188, 190, 273

 Eel River Indians, 44, 140, 160, 175, 188, 189

 Elk, Game, 12, 82, 114

 Elliott, Matthew, British Agent, 107, 127, 128, 130, 211, 212, 218, 231, 284, 285, 306, 312, 332, 333, 334, 352

 English Treaty of Fort Stanwix (N. Y. ), 134, 218

 English Traders, 2, 3, 10, 113

 Estel's Station (Ky. ), 70

 Eugene, Vermilion County, Indiana, 172

 --F--

 Fallen Timbers, Description of Battle, 231, 232, 233

 Fallen Timbers, Battle of References to, 3, 42, 54, 62, 63, 208, 231, 232, 233, 241, 245

 Farmer's Brother, Iroquois Chief, in British Uniform, 177, 178

 Father Hennepin, 26

 Father Marquette, 26

 Faulkner, Captain (Ky. ), 165, 166

 Ferguson, Captain William, 163

 "Fire-water", 282

 Five Medals, Potawatomi Chief, 260

 Floyd, Major George Rogers Clark, 315, 317, 322, 371

 Floyd, Major Davis, 386, 387

 Floyd's Fork (Ky. ), 145

 Fontaine, Major James (Ky. ), 165, 168, 169, 170

 Ford, Harmar's, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, 48

 Fort Dearborn, Illinois, 203, 260

 Fort Defiance, Ohio, 43, 230, 235, 243

 Fort Erie, 177, 182

 Fort Greenville, Ohio, 223, 228, 235, 240

 Fort Hamilton, Ohio, 197, 213, 243, 246

 Fort Harmar, Treaty of, 55, 58, 104, 108, 109, 110, 133, 134, 138, 139, 140, 141, 144, 145, 157, 214, 219, 239, 242

 Fort Harrison, Vigo County, Indiana, 76, 363, 364, 381

 Fort Jefferson, Ohio, 197, 204, 213, 222, 223

 Fort Knox (at Vincennes), 160, 304, 315

 Fort Laurens, Ohio, 98, 242

 Fort McIntosh, Treaty of, 97, 98, 99, 103, 105, 107, 110, 132

 Fort Miami, Ohio (British Fort), 231, 233

 Fort Niagara (N. Y. ), 177, 178, 179, 214, 215

 Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), 39, 60, 121, 140

 Fort Recovery, Ohio, 223, 228, 242, 243

 Fort Recovery, Battle of, Description, 228, 229

 Fort Stanwix, Treaty of, 96, 97, 103, 104, 105, 107, 132

 Fort Steuben (Clarksville) Indiana, 153, 161, 187

 Fort St. Clair, Ohio, 197, 213, 222

 Fort St. Clair, Battle of, Description, 213, 214

 Fort Washington (Cincinnati), 153, 161, 162, 163, 167, 176, 177, 188, 195, 196, 197, 209, 210, 213, 242, 246

 Fort Wayne, Indiana, Town of, 3, 10, 32, 37, 40, 43, 47, 48, 52, 163, 166, 167, 235, 236, 242, 243, 257, 258, 283, 296, 307, 308

 "Fort Wayne Manuscript", 169

 Fort Wayne, Treaty of, 45, 134, 251, 252, 254, 255, 256, 257, 260, 261, 262, 263, 267, 269, 271, 273, 277, 278, 279, 305, 319, 346, 357

 Foster, Josiah D. , Surgeon, 379

 Fourth United States Regiment (of Tippecanoe Fame), 340, 341, 358, 359, 363, 378, 379

 Fourth United States Regiment, Uniform of, 360

 Fowler, Indiana, Town of, 25

 Fox, Game, 13, 114

 Fox, Silver Gray, 13

 Freeman, Death of, 210

 French Brandy, 17

 French Revolution, Opening of, Effect on Indian Affairs, 219, 220, 221

 French Traders, Indian Country, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, 37, 49, 50, 51, 69, 75, 146, 147, 157, 158, 163, 177, 187, 249, 305

 Frothingham, Lieutenant Ebenezer, Death of, 170

 Fuller, Lieutenant, 378

 Funk, Captain Peter (Ky. ), 248, 358

 Fur Trade With Indians, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 34, 37, 39, 41, 50, 51, 52, 87, 101, 106, 116, 127, 135, 149, 190, 249, 256, 263

 --G--

 Game, Scarcity of in Harrison's Time, 300, 301

 Gamelin, Antoine, French Agent of U. S. , 58, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 162

 Gamelin, Fred, 153

 Gardens of Indiana at Kekionga, 48

 Geese, Game, 12, 14, 15, 37

 Geiger, Captain Frederick (Ky. ), 248, 358, 366, 374, 375, 383

 Georgian Bay, 55

 Gerrard, U. S. Agent to Indians, Death of, 210

 Gibson, Captain Alexander, 228

 Gibson, John, Secretary of Territory, 317, 322

 Girty, George, 140, 146, 147, 212

 Girty, Simon, British Agent, 107, 127, 128, 130, 140, 171, 182, 211, 212, 231

 Gooding, Lieutenant, 378

 Gordon, Colonel (British Officer), 179

 "Grandfathers, " Term Applied to Delawares, 45, 307

 Grand Glaize, Ohio, 42

 Granville, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 186

 Grand Prairie, Indiana, Illinois, 20, 21, 22, 26, 28

 Grand, River of, 13, 52, 55

 Grapes at Vincennes, 41

 Grayson, Wm. , Virginia Statesman, 85

 "Great Plum Patch, " Vermilion County, Indiana, 172

 Great Miami, River of, 8

 Green Bay, Wisconsin, 52, 71

 Greenville, Ohio, 197, 205, 223, 228, 240, 267, 282, 283, 285, 295, 299

 Greenville, Treaty of, account, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244

 Greenville, Treaty of, Other References to, 3, 44, 46, 49, 52, 53, 57, 60, 71, 72, 110, 255, 267, 309, 354

 Grenville, Lord, 236

 Griswold, B. J. , Historian, 170

 --H--

 Haldimand, Gen. Frederick, British Governor, 126

 Hale, Lieut. Job, Death of, 213

 Half-King of the Wyandots, 98

 Hall, Major (Ky. ), 162, 168, 169

 Hall, James, Historian, 23, 79

 Hamilton, Henry, British Lieutenant Governor, 121, 122

 Hammond, British Minister, 226

 Hamtramck, John F. , U. S. Army, 153, 161, 171, 172, 198, 235

 Hardin, Colonel John (Ky. ), 48, 70, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 184, 185, 186, 210, 211

 Hardy, Samuel, 84

 Harmar, General Josiah, 3, 26, 30, 38, 48, 54, 65, 124, 141, 151, 161, 162, 163, 164, 167, 193, 197

 Harmar's Ford, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 48

 "Harmar's Trace, ", 163

 Harrison County, Indiana, 372, 376

 Harrison, Gen. Wm. Henry, References to, 2, 4, 9, 20, 32, 37, 38, 45, 46, 47, 56, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 75, 76, 77, 79, 113, 124, 134, 138, 172, 203, 208, 245, 246, 247, 249, 250, 253, 254, 257, 258, 259, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 283, 285, 295, 296, 300, 301, 302, 304, 305, 306, 307, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 316, 317, 320, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 329, 330, 334, 337, 338, 341, 342, 344, 345, 346, 348, 349, 350, 352, 355, 357, 358, 360, 361, 362, 363, 364, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 373, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380, 382, 385, 387, 389

 Harrison's Answer to Tecumseh, 320, 321

 Harrison's Courage, 320, 323, 324, 379, 385

 Harrison Deceived by Prophet, 302, 303

 Harrison's General Policies Toward Indian Tribes, 257, 258, 279

 Harrison's House at Vincennes, 316

 Harrison Inveighs Against Liquor Traffic, 252, 258

 Harrison's Private Interview With Tecumseh, 326, 327, 328

 Harrison's Speech to Wabash and Fort Wayne Miamis, 355, 356

 Harrison's Tribute to Tecumseh, 350

 Harrison vs. McIntosh, Suit for Slander, 276, 277, 278

 Harrod, James (Ky. ), 115, 120, 122

 Harrodsburgh, Kentucky, 117, 120

 Harvey, Henry (Quaker), 59

 Hatch, Wm. Stanley, Historian, 56, 291

 Hawkins, Lieutenant, 378

 Hay, Henry, English Trader and Agent, 49, 50, 51, 146, 147, 149

 "Hay's Journal", 49, 50

 Heckewelder, John, 16, 29, 38, 127, 211, 214

 Heller's Corners, Near Fort Wayne, Indiana, 166

 Hemp at Vincennes, 41

 Henry, Patrick, Governor of Virginia, 6, 85

 Hickory Grove, Near Fowler, Indiana, 25

 Higgins, Ensign, Killed, 170

 High Gap, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 183, 184, 185

 "Hobson's Choice", 209, 222

 Hoecake, 38

 Holderman's Grove, Illinois, 23

 Honey-bee, 35, 36

 Hops at Vincennes, 41

 Hornaday, William T. , 31

 Horses at Vincennes, Breed of, 41

 Horse Flesh, eating at Tippecanoe, 390

 Horse Thieves, References to, 73, 74, 99, 122, 123, 143, 146, 256, 312, 335, 337

 Huckleberry, Henry (Tippecanoe), 387

 Hubbard, Gurdon S. , 13, 190

 Hunting Shirt Men, 6, 60, 115, 341

 Hutchins, Thomas, Geographer, 39

 Hutchins' Description of Wabash Valley, 39, 40, 41, 42

 --I--

 Illinois Central Railway, 22

 "Illinois Grant", 84

 Illinois, Tribe of, 26, 45, 46, 72, 211, 362

 Illinois Tribes, Conquest of, 46

 Impressment of American Seamen, 284

 Indiana Becomes State, 380

 Indian Creek (Reviere de Bois Rouge), 186

 "Indian Hills, " on Wabash, 183

 Innes, Harry, (Ky. ), 123, 175

 Iroquois, Illinois, 13

 Iroquois, County of, Illinois, 13

 Iroquois, Tribe of, 8, 55, 57, 59, 71, 80, 82, 96, 97, 100, 108, 110, 130, 134, 159, 175, 178, 212, 213

 --J--

 Jasper County, Indiana, 22

 Jay, John, 122, 225, 236

 Jay's Treaty, 236, 237

 Jefferson, Thomas, References to, 6, 7, 84, 85, 86, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 250, 253, 280, 288

 Jefferson's Policy as to Payment of Annuities to Indians, 253

 Jennings, Lieutenant, 317, 322

 Jesuit Fathers, 53, 71, 133

 Jesuit Relation, 71

 Johnson, Sir John, British Agent, 136, 137, 239

 Johnson, Wm. , 27, 129

 Johnston, John, U. S. Indian Agent, 257, 280, 291, 308

 Jones, Peter, Secretary to Governor Harrison, 258, 261, 276

 --K--

 Kankakee, River of, 9, 76, 78

 Kaskaskia, Illinois, 7, 22, 26, 30, 48, 69, 84, 120, 121

 Kaskaskias, Tribe of, 241

 Keel Boats, 3, 56, 73, 143, 145, 146, 149, 150

 Keesass, the Sun, Potawatomi Chief, 53, 241

 Kekionga (at Fort Wayne), 47, 52, 58, 146, 154, 156, 160, 161, 167, 175, 177, 188, 189, 195, 212

 Kenapacomaqua, Eel River Town, L'Anguille, 38, 145, 146, 156, 188, 190, 191

 Kendall County, Illinois, 23

 Kenton, Simon, 56, 70, 122, 280, 289

 Kentucky, References to, 3, 4, 7, 11, 27, 51, 56, 57, 60, 70, 73, 76, 93, 99, 109, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 127, 135, 148, 161, 162, 174, 175, 193, 194, 205, 210, 358, 388

 Kentucky, River of, 146, 148, 183, 242

 Kentuckians, References to, 69, 71, 76, 88, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 135, 139, 149, 151, 162, 164, 167, 168, 170, 185, 187, 188, 192, 193, 194, 195, 205, 210, 213, 222, 223, 229, 231, 330, 358, 361, 362, 365, 366, 375, 387, 388

 Keth-tip-e-ca-nunk, (Tippecanoe), 11, 145, 186, 187, 190, 192

 Kibby, Ephraim, Wayne Scout, 230

 Kikapouguoi, Indian Village, 154

 Kickapoos, Tribe of, References to, 26, 41, 46, 47, 53, 72, 74, 140, 143, 145, 154, 155, 156, 172, 175, 184, 185, 188, 190, 211, 241, 250, 272, 273, 279, 297, 298, 305, 308, 311, 325, 361 365, 367, 371

 "Kickapoo Town in Prairie", near Oxford, Ind. , 188, 189, 190, 191, 192

 Kinzie, John, trader among Indians, 164

 Knox Co. , Ind. , 249, 276

 Kosciusko, Baron and Little Turtle, 260

 Kumskaukau, Brother of Prophet, 280

 --L--

 Lafayette, city of, 5, 73, 190, 296

 LaFountaine, fur trader at Kekionga, 37, 51

 Lakeside, Avenue at Ft. Wayne, Ind. , 48, 164

 L'Anguille, (Kenapacomaqua), 146, 156, 160, 188

 La Plante, Pierre, Harrison agent, 249, 340

 La Poussier, Wea chief, 278, 279, 343, 346, 357

 L'Arbe Croche, 55

 La Salle Comes UP St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, 9

 Laselle, Antoine, French fur trader and British loyalist, 51, 147, 148, 164

 Laselle, Hyacinthe, 279

 Laselle, Jacques, interpreter, 242

 Laulewasikaw, (The Prophet), 280, 282

 Law, John, of Vincennes, 247, 259, 289, 293, 320

 Lee, Arthur, of Virginia, 84, 96, 97, 100

 Lee, Richard Henry, 85

 Legion, The (of Wayne), 209, 222, 223, 231, 232

 Legionville, 208

 Le Gris, Miami chief, 49, 50, 51, 140, 146, 147, 148, 157, 158, 171, 241

 Le Gris, town of, 49

 "Lea Poux, " (Potawatomi), 74

 Lewis, General Andrew, 241

 Lewis, Isaac W. , of Oxford, Ind. , 191

 Licks, buffalo, etc. , 27

 Limestone, (Maysville, Ky. ), 149, 150, 151

 Lincoln, Benjamin, U. S. Commissioner, 104, 214

 Little Beaver, Wea chief, 241

 Little Eyes, Wea chief, 278

 Little Face, chief at Petit Piconne, 145

 Little Miami, river of, 84, 109

 Little Turtle, reference to, 32, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 59, 62, 64, 65, 78, 133, 140, 146, 157, 163, 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171, 198, 203, 213, 228, 230, 239, 241, 242, 243, 260, 264, 271, 274, 332, 357

 Little Turtle's Views on Treaty of Fort Wayne, 357

 Little Wabash, 22

 Logan, Benjamin, 118, 119, 120, 122, 175

 Logansport, Indiana, 73, 145, 188, 191, 385

 Logan's Station (St. Asaphs) (Ky. ), 117, 118, 119, 120, 123

 "Looking Glass, " the (Wabunsee), Potawatomi Chief, 76, 77, 78

 Lord Sidney, 80

 Lord Clarendon, 81

 Losantiville (Cincinnati), 153

 Lossing, Benson J. , Historian, 208, 359

 Louisville, Ky. , 172

 Loutre Island, (Missouri River), 337

 Ludlow's Station, 196

 Lynx, 13

 --M--

 Mackinaw, 12, 53

 Madison, James, 85, 250

 "Magic Bowl, " of the Prophet, 374

 Maize, or Indian Corn, References to, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 48, 49, 69, 164, 167, 170, 189, 190, 192, 193, 230, 235, 369, 389

 Malden, Canada, 4, 259, 284, 292, 298, 306, 312, 332, 333, 352, 353, 356

 Mantoulin, Island of, 54

 Maple Sugar, 39

 Marietta, Ohio, 108, 109, 153, 172, 173

 Mars, Corporal Stephen, (Ky. ), 378

 Marshal, Humphrey, Historian of Kentucky, 27, 114, 117

 Marshall, John, Chief Justice, 82, 83, 85

 Marshal, Thomas, (Ky. ), 150

 Marshfield, Warren Co. , Ind. , 21

 Marten (Sable), 13

 Mash-i-pinash-i-wish, Chippewa Chief, 53, 241

 Mason, George, of Virginia, 6, 85

 Massachusetts Cession to General Government, 84

 Massas, Chippewa Chief, 44, 239, 309

 Matthews, Major, British Army, 137

 Maumee Bay, 45

 Maumee City, Ohio, 231, 233

 Maumee, River of, References to, 8, 10, 34, 40, 42, 43, 48, 50, 52, 59, 87, 91, 98, 115, 142, 143, 144, 146, 156, 161, 164, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 175, 181, 182, 211, 212, 215, 226, 227, 229, 230, 231, 233, 234, 235, 236, 242

 May, William, 211

 Maysville (Limestone) (Ky. ), 149, 150, 151

 McClellan, Robert, Wayne Scout, 230

 McCormick, Alexander, 107, 129

 McCoy, Capt. (Ky. ), 184

 McIntosh, William, Tory at Vincennes, 276, 277, 278

 McKee, Alexander, British agent, 127, 128, 130, 142, 147, 163, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 211, 212, 218, 224, 226, 231, 235, 238, 239, 284, 285

 McMahan, Lieut. Richard, 372, 378

 McMahon, Major, 228, 229

 McMullen, Captive of Indians, 148

 McMullen, Major (Ky. ), 162, 164, 168, 169

 McMurtrey, Capt. , 170

 McNemar, Richard (Shaker), 299

 "Medean Fire", 374

 Melons, 37, 41

 Meredosia, Ill. , 21

 Miami Carrying Place or Portage, 39, 40, 42, 43, 49, 51, 52, 243

 Miami, Fort (British), 231, 233

 Miami of the Lake (Maumee), 40, 42, 52, 142, 158, 243, 285, 342

 Miami Rapids, Battle of (Fallen Timbers), 209

 Miami Rapids, Ohio, 224

 Miami, River of, 10, 58, 87, 91, 98, 99, 109, 115, 197, 223, 242, 243, 281

 Miamitown, 3, 10, 11, 30, 37, 38, 40, 43, 49, 54, 64, 99, 106, 140, 146, 147, 149, 154, 163

 Miami, Treaty of, 99, 103

 "Miami Village", 47, 91, 98, 161, 175, 176, 177, 181, 182

 Miamis, Tribe of, References to, 1, 3, 11, 17, 32, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 54, 57, 58, 59, 61, 62, 64, 65, 72, 73, 95, 97, 107, 132, 134, 139, 140, 142, 144, 145, 147, 148, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 166, 169, 171, 175, 177, 178, 179, 181, 193, 198, 199, 203, 212, 213, 219, 227, 231, 240, 241, 242, 243, 250, 260, 261, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 271, 274, 279, 297, 310, 319, 321, 329, 334, 346, 349, 354, 357, 364, 369

 Michillimacinac, 7, 10, 53, 98, 126, 160, 243

 Miller, Christopher, Wayne Scout, 230, 231, 242

 Miller, Henry, Wayne Scout, 230

 Miller, Col. James, 360

 Mingoes, Tribe of, 65, 219

 Mink, 13

 Mississinewa, Indians, 260, 261, 264, 267, 310, 311

 Mississinewa, River of, 37, 260

 Mitchell, Corporal James (Tippecanoe), 378

 Mohawks, Tribe of, 80, 96, 97, 128, 129, 130, 144, 179, 182, 231

 Monongahela, River of, 63, 112

 Monroe, James, 84, 85

 Montezuma, Ind. , 76, 79, 366

 Montgomery Co. , Ind. , 381

 Morins, M. , Interpreter at Treaty of Greenville, 242

 Morocco, Ind. , 337

 Mud Creek, Benton Co. , Ind. , 25

 Mulberry Trees (white and Black), 40

 "Munsees", Tribe of, 219

 Muskegon, River of, 13

 Muskingum, River of, 8, 27, 45, 55, 87, 98, 107, 108, 125, 127, 141, 173, 242

 Musquitons, 41

 Musk-rat, 13

 --N--

 Na-goh-quan-gogh, or Le Gris, Miami Chief, 49

 Naylor, Judge Isaac, 38, 381

 Naylor's Narrative of Battle of Tippecanoe, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 386, 387, 388, 389, 390

 Naylor's Portrait at Williamsport, Ind. , 381

 Naylor, William, Brother of Isaac Naylor, 384

 Negro-Legs, Wea Chief, 278, 357

 New Orleans, Market of, 88

 New Purchase, The, 255, 305, 325, 329, 335, 340, 347, 354 361, 366

 Newton Co. , Ind. , 22, 74, 337

 New York Cession to General Government, 84

 Niagara, Post of, 87, 90, 126, 137, 177, 178, 179

 --O--

 Ohio Company, The, 108

 Ojibways, (Chippewas), 53

 Old Congress, Records of, 100, 101, 102

 Oldham, Col. (Ky. ), 195, 200

 Onondagas, Iroquois Tribe, 97

 Onoragas, Iroquois Tribe, 97

 "Open Door, " The (The Prophet), 282

 Ordinance of 1787, 92, 96, 107, 108, 249

 Osage, Miami Chief, 357

 Osages, Tribe of, 347, 349

 Oswego, Post of, 87, 90, 126

 Ottawa County, Mich. , 55

 Ottawas, Tribe of, 17, 18, 42, 44, 45, 54, 55, 56, 65, 71, 98, 108, 132, 140, 141, 143, 160, 169, 179, 180, 199, 219, 224, 231, 240, 241, 282, 285, 291, 298, 303, 305, 307, 325, 347

 Otter, 11, 51

 Otterbein, Ind. , 5

 Ouiatenon, 10, 11, 39, 40, 41, 49, 51, 53, 140, 145, 147, 148, 156, 160, 182, 184, 187, 190, 192, 243

 Ouiatenons, Indian Tribe (Weas), 41, 183

 Owen, Col. Abraham (Ky. ), 247, 248, 358, 366, 375, 378, 379, 384, 388

 Owl, The, Miami Chief, 260, 266

 Oxford, Ind. , 190

 --P--

 Parish Grove, Benton Co. , Ind. , 24, 25

 Parke, Judge Benjamin, 249, 276, 277, 336, 344, 353, 360, 372

 Parke Co. , Ind. , 18, 254, 279

 Parsons, Samuel H. , 99

 Peas, 389

 Pecan, Miami Chief at Kekionga, 26, 30, 48, 146, 260, 269, 271, 357

 Pecan, Nuts, 38

 Peltries, 2, 8, 11, 19, 37, 75, 116, 127, 135, 187, 262, 301, 353

 Pemmican, 28

 Penn, Wm. , 272

 Peoria, Ill. , 47, 72

 Pepper, Abel C. , 5

 Peshewah (Jean Baptiste Richardville), 48, 50, 146, 261, 271

 Peters, Lieut. George P. , Officer at Tippecanoe, 375

 Petit Piconne (Tippecanoe), 10, 11, 51, 140, 145, 296

 Pettit, Daniel, Soldier at Tippecanoe, 384

 Pheasant, 37

 Piankeshaws' Hunting Ground, 27

 Piankeshaws, Tribe of, 32, 41, 44, 154, 160, 241

 Piatt, Capt. William, Quartermaster, 361

 Pickering, Timothy, United States Commissioner, 104, 214

 Pigeons, Wild, 37

 Pine Creek, Benton and Warren Counties, Ind. , 20, 25, 37, 47, 73, 190, 367

 Pirogues, 76, 150, 182

 Pirtle, Capt. Alfred, Historian, 358

 Plum Patch, The Great, Vermilion Co. Ind. , 172

 Point Pleasant, Battle of, 241

 Pontiac, Ottawa Chief, 56, 342, 349

 Portages, 8, 9, 42, 52, 87, 98

 Posey, Capt. John, Officer at Tippecanoe, 372, 377

 Potatoes, 37, 43

 Potawatomi, Tribe of, References to, 1, 2, 3, 5, 11, 17, 26, 32, 35, 44, 45, 46, 47, 52, 53, 65, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 95, 108, 132, 140, 143, 157, 160, 169, 179, 180, 181, 189, 190, 191, 199, 203, 212, 213, 219, 226, 231, 240, 241, 250, 255, 260, 261, 264, 265, 266, 267, 269, 272, 273, 274, 285, 297, 298, 301, 303, 305, 307, 319, 321, 325, 336, 338, 339, 346, 361, 365

 Potawatomi Murders on Missouri, 336, 337, 338, 346, 347, 361, 374

 Prairies, References to, 1, 7, 10, 12, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 35, 37, 73, 337, 367

 Prairie Chicken, 37

 Prairie Fires, 23, 24, 25

 Prescott, Capt. George W. , Officer at Tippecanoe, 360, 371

 "Presque Isle, " Ohio, 231

 Price, Captain (Ky. ), 185, 232

 Proctor, Col. Thomas, U. S. Agent and Commissioner, 176, 177, 178, 179, 182, 183

 Prophet, The, References to, 4, 72, 74, 75, 259, 274, 280, 281, 282, 283, 285, 286, 287, 288, 290, 292, 294, 295, 297, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 329, 332, 334, 335, 338, 339, 340, 341, 350, 352, 354, 356, 357, 360, 363, 364, 365, 369, 373, 374, 388

 Prophet's Incantations During Battle of Tippecanoe, 388

 Prophet's Town, 38, 295, 296, 297, 298, 301, 305, 308, 310, 311, 312, 324, 333, 340, 341, 361, 363, 365, 368, 371, 373, 379, 382, 389

 Prophet's Town, Burning of, 389

 Prophet's Town, Favorable Position of, 342, 343

 Pumpkins, 37

 Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, 35

 Putnam, General Rufus, 110, 173, 211

 --Q--

 Quail, 37

 Queen, The, (Prophet's Wife), 290

 Quincy, Illinois, 21

 --R--

 Raccoon, 2, 12, 13, 16, 37, 51

 Raccoon Creek, Indiana, 254, 279, 366

 Randolph, Beverly, of Virginia, 104, 214

 Randolph, Thomas, of Vincennes, 247, 249, 276

 Rapids of the Miami (Maumee), 180

 Ray, Major, (Ky. ), 162

 Recovery, Fort, Ohio, 223, 228, 242, 243

 Red Jacket, Iroquois Chief, 177, 178, 179

 Reynolds, John, 23

 Rhea, Thomas, Prisoner, 181, 182

 Richardville, Jean Baptiste (Peshewah), Miami Chief, 48. 50, 146, 261, 271, 274

 Richest Indian, 48

 Riviere de Bois Rouge (Indian Creek), Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 186

 Roche de Bout, 181, 226, 227

 Robb, Captain David (Tippecanoe), 376, 377, 386

 Rogers, Lieutenant, Killed, 170

 Roosevelt, Theodore, References to, 61, 71, 115, 116, 121, 162, 171, 180, 210, 218

 Round Grove, Warren County, Indiana, 20, 367

 --S--

 "Sacred Torch", 374

 Sacs and Foxes, Tribe of, 26, 46, 54, 72, 108, 240, 298, 304, 312, 339

 Saline, 40

 Salt, Refusal of, by Prophet, 308, 309

 Salt, Seizure of, by Prophet, 340, 341, 345

 Sand Prairie, Vermilion County, Indiana, 20, 367

 Sandusky, River of, 8, 10, 45, 98, 177, 179, 181, 182, 211

 Sangamon, River of, 21, 22, 44

 Sault St. Marie, 53

 Sa-wagh-da-wunk, Wyandot Chief, 218

 Schoolcraft, H. R. , Historian, 77

 Schuyler, General Philip, 94

 Scioto, River of, 8, 10, 27, 45, 46, 57, 69, 84, 87, 115, 150, 151

 Scott, Captain, Killed, 170

 Scott, Charles, Governor of Kentucky, 11, 70, 151, 175, 182, 183, 184, 185, 187, 193, 211, 222, 229, 232, 248, 358, 366

 Scott, Rev. Samuel T. , 351

 Scott, Captain Thomas, 372, 377

 "Scott's Trace", 193

 Seminoles, Tribe of, 57

 Senecas, Iroquois Tribe, 97, 176, 177, 182, 282

 Shadeland Farm, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 184

 Shane, Anthony, 280

 Shaubena, Potawatomi Chief, 29, 30, 78, 349

 Shawanoe, Wea Chief, 278

 Shawnees, Came From Florida and Georgia, 56, 57

 Shawnees, Tribe of, References to, 3, 11, 44, 56, 57, 58, 59, 62, 65, 73, 78, 99, 107, 114, 117, 132, 140, 143, 144, 145, 148, 149, 151, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158, 159, 164, 169, 175, 179, 180, 189, 193, 199, 213, 219, 227, 231, 238, 240, 241, 250, 275, 282, 285, 289, 291, 298, 305, 308, 310, 321, 340, 364

 Shawnee River, (Same as Cumberland), 58

 Shawneetown, Illinois, 57

 Shay's Rebellion, Massachusetts, 135

 "Shishequia", 148

 Shelby House, Near Cayuga, Indiana, 154, 172

 Shelby, Isaac, 175

 Sidney, Lord, 80, 130, 131, 136

 Silver Heels, Miami Chief at Ft. Wayne Treaty, 260, 266

 Simcoe, Lieut. -Governor, British Officer 214, 215, 224, 225, 226, 238

 Sioux Indians, 44, 54, 71

 Six Nations (Iroquois), Confederacy of, 96, 108, 110, 128, 143, 180, 212, 333

 Sloan, Warren County, Indiana, 20, 367

 Slough, Captain, 200

 Small, John, Affidavit of, 276

 Smallpox, Among Indians, 60, 144

 Smith, Col. James, Indian Captive and Historian, 14, 15, 17, 27, 60

 Snelling, Capt. Josiah (Tippecanoe), 360, 371, 376, 378

 Snelling, Capt. Josiah, Jr. (Tippecanoe), 372

 "Soldier, The, " Miami Chief, 146

 Spencer, Capt. Spier, Leader of Yellow Jackets, 36, 372, 376, 377, 378, 379, 385, 386

 Springfield, Illinois, 21

 Spy Run, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, 49

 Squashes, 37

 St. Asaphs (Logan's Station, Ky. ), 117, 118, 119, 120

 St. Clair, General Arthur, References to, 3, 54, 63, 64, 65, 67, 109, 110, 129, 133, 134, 138, 140, 141, 142, 144, 149, 153, 158, 160, 161, 170, 171, 174, 175, 177, 188, 195, 196, 197, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 246

 St. Clair's Defeat, Description of, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206

 Still Hunters, of Buffalo, 30

 St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, River of, 8, 9, 53, 72, 75, 78, 306, 308

 St. Joseph of Maumee, River of, 47, 48, 49, 78, 146, 163, 164, 168, 169, 235

 St. Marys, River of, Ohio, Indiana, 8, 47, 48, 49, 98, 146, 163, 168, 235, 242

 Stone Eater, Sa-na-mah-hon-ga, Miami Chief, 357, 364, 378

 Sugar Creek, Benton County, Indiana, 25

 Sugar Grove, Benton County, Indiana, 25

 "Sun, My Father; Earth, My Mother", 318

 Sun, The, Potawatomi Chief, 53

 Sun-worship, by Prophet, 299, 300

 Surveyors Driven Out of New Purchase, 340

 Swan, Game, 12

 Sweet, Ensign, Killed, 170

 Symmes, John Cleves, 108, 109

 --T--

 Tarhe, The Crane, Wyandot Chief, 110, 239, 241, 244

 Tawas (Ottawas), 140

 Taylor, Judge Waller, of Vincennes, 249, 277, 352, 360, 370, 382

 Taylor, Captain Zachary, 381

 Tecaughretanego, Friend of Col. James Smith, 14, 15

 Tecumseh, References to, 4, 5, 59, 72, 73, 133, 138, 254, 259, 265, 266, 267, 275, 280, 281, 282, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 297, 305, 306, 308, 310, 311, 313, 314, 316, 317, 318, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 329, 330, 332, 333, 334, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346, 348, 349, 355, 379, 388, 389

 Tecumseh's Chivalry, 289, 290, 291

 Tecumseh, Description of Person, Appearance, 291, 292, 315

 Tecumseh's Land Doctrine, 292, 293, 305, 319, 333

 Tecumseh's Last Speech to Harrison, 346, 347, 348

 Tecumseh's Speech at Vincennes in 1810, 318, 319

 "Ten O'clock Line", 254, 255

 Tenskwatawa (The Prophet), 282

 Terre Haute, (High Land), Indiana, 76, 77, 362, 363, 364, 381

 Thames, Battle of, 5, 379

 Thielkeld, Ensign, Killed, 170

 Thompson, George, Bravery of, 151

 Thorp, Captain, 170

 "Three Fires, " Confederacy of, 44, 140

 Tippecanoe Battle Ground, Description of, 370, 371

 Tippecanoe, Battle of, Description, 371, 372, 373, 374, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380

 Tippecanoe, Battle of, References to, 38, 45, 62, 76, 155, 172, 247, 276

 Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 22

 Tippecanoe, Town of, 10, 11, 145, 148, 160, 186, 190, 192, 259, 305, 310, 354, 364, 365

 Tipton, John, 5, 38, 76, 77, 79, 361, 372, 376, 377, 385

 Tobacco at Vincennes, 38, 41

 Todd, Brigadier-General, (Ky. ), 231, 232

 Topenebee, Potawatomi Chief, 75, 241, 340

 Tramblai, French Trader, 148

 Treaties, Harrison's Method of Holding With Indians, 251

 Treaty of 1763, 10, 81, 113

 Treaty of 1783, 10, 80, 91, 92, 93, 99, 104, 126

 Treaty at Mouth of Big Miami in 1786, 99, 103

 Treaty of Fort Harmar, Ohio, 55, 58, 104, 108, 109, 110, 133, 134, 138, 139, 140, 141, 144, 145, 157, 214, 219, 239, 242

 Treaty of Fort McIntosh (Penn. ), 97, 98, 99, 103, 105, 107, 110, 132

 Treaty of Fort Stanwix (N. Y. ), 96, 97, 103, 104, 105, 107, 132

 Treaty of Fort Wayne by Harrison, 45, 134, 251, 252, 254, 255, 256, 257, 260, 261, 262, 263, 267, 269, 271, 273, 277, 278, 279, 305, 319, 346, 357

 Treaty of Greenville, Ohio, 3, 44, 46, 49, 52, 53, 57, 60, 71, 72, 110, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 255, 267, 309, 354

 Treaty of Grouseland, 254, 268, 269

 Treaty With Kickapoos of 1809, 279

 Treaty With Weas of 1809, 278, 279

 Trotter, Colonel William (Ky. ), 162, 164, 168

 Trueman, Major Alexander, Death of, 210, 211

 Tupper, Brigadier-General, 106

 Turkey Foot, Potawatomi Chief, 74, 337

 Turkey Foot Grove, Benton and Newton Counties, Indiana, 25, 74, 337

 Turkeys, Wild, 37, 86, 290

 Tuscaroras, Iroquois Tribe, 97

 --U--

 "Uncles, " (The Wyandots), 309

 Uniform of Fourth U. S. Regiment at Tippecanoe, 360

 --V--

 Vanderburgh, Judge Henry, 276

 Venereal Disorders Among Indiana, 60

 Vermilion, Big, River of, 20, 21, 27, 37, 44, 47, 72, 74, 76, 153, 154, 274, 279, 298, 366

 Vermilion County Indiana, 20, 27, 35, 154, 279

 Vermilion of the Illinois, 22

 "Vermilion Piankeshaws", 154, 160

 Vigo County, Indiana, 18

 Vigo, Francis, 351

 Vincennes, Town of, References to, 7, 10, 21, 30, 31, 34, 36, 38, 39, 69, 75, 84, 120, 121, 124, 147, 153, 154, 158, 159, 160, 161, 172, 211, 245, 248, 249, 255, 256, 267, 273, 276, 279, 291, 298, 301, 303, 305, 307, 310, 316, 336, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 350, 352, 360, 365, 381

 Vincennes Treaty by General Rufus Putnam, 211, 212

 Virginia Cession to General Government, 84, 86, 92

 Virginians, References to, 6, 84, 85, 86, 93, 121, 249, 250

 Voyageurs, 9, 12

 --W--

 Wabash, Description of, By Thomas Hutchins, Geographer 39, 40, 41, 42

 Wabash Railway, Indiana, Illinois, 21

 Wabash, River of, References to, 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 18, 21, 22, 27, 28, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 47, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 57, 58, 59, 64, 69, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 87, 91, 99, 115, 121, 134, 144, 145, 148, 152, 154, 158, 160, 161, 175, 181, 182, 183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 192, 198, 199, 212, 236, 246, 249, 255, 256, 263, 264, 268, 269, 279, 281, 295, 296, 298, 306, 308, 313, 316, 321, 324, 333, 335, 340, 342, 349, 355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 360, 364, 365, 366, 369, 380, 381

 Wabunsee, "Looking Glass, " Potawatomi Chief, 76, 77

 Wallows, Buffalo, 32

 Wampum, 157

 Wapocconata (Wapakoneta), Ohio, 57, 275, 282, 308

 Warnock, Joseph, Death at Tippecanoe, 382, 383

 Warren County, Indiana, 20, 21, 22, 35, 279, 367, 381

 Warrick, Captain Jacob, at Tippecanoe, 372, 377, 378, 379

 Washington County, Illinois, 22

 Washington, George, References to, 3, 7, 43, 47, 51, 63, 65, 67, 85, 86, 88, 91, 94, 96, 103, 108, 110, 144, 151, 153, 174, 193, 194, 207, 209, 210, 216, 220, 225, 226, 236

 Wattles, John, Benton County, Indiana, 191

 Wayne, General Anthony, References to, 3, 42, 43, 44, 52, 53, 54, 56, 65, 67, 71, 110, 124, 163, 203, 204, 205, 207, 208, 209, 210, 216, 221, 222, 223, 226, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 239, 240, 242, 243, 244, 245, 309, 310, 315, 356, 367, 377

 Wea Creek, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 145, 183, 184

 Wea Plains, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 35, 183, 184, 192

 Wea Village at Terre Haute, 312

 Weas, Tribe of, References to, 35, 44, 53, 145, 147, 155, 156, 160, 175, 182, 184, 185, 211, 241, 255, 256, 260, 263, 264, 267, 273, 278, 279, 297, 310, 311, 319, 320, 329, 333, 343, 362, 364

 Wells, Major-General Samuel, (Ky. ), 358, 366, 372, 378

 Wells, William, of Fort Wayne, 32, 78, 203, 241, 262, 283, 285, 338, 339

 Wergild, Among Indians, 272, 273

 "Western Confederacy", 44

 "Western Sun, " of Vincennes, 75, 251, 336

 Wetzel, Lewis, 70

 Wheat at Vincennes, 38, 41

 Whiskey, Among Indians, References to, 74, 75, 76, 77, 95, 140, 252, 256, 264, 271, 272, 278, 282, 298, 299, 301, 302, 303

 White County, Indiana, 22

 White Loon, Miami Chief, 378, 388

 "White Man's Fly, " Honey Bee, 35

 White River, Indiana, 37

 Wildcat, 13

 Wildcat Creek, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 37, 297

 Wild Rice, 54

 Wilkinson, James, References to, 11, 38, 135, 185, 186, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 204, 211

 Williams, Abraham, Interpreter, 242

 Williamsport, Warren County, Indiana, 381

 Wilson, George, Historian, 29

 Wilson, Capt. Walter, Tippecanoe Officer, 341, 343, 377

 Winamac, Potawatomi Chief, 133, 254, 257, 260, 264, 267, 307, 308, 318, 319, 322, 346, 364, 365, 369, 378

 Winnebagoes, Bravery at Tippecanoe, 376

 Winnebagoes, Tribe of, 44, 298, 305, 325, 333, 340, 359, 361, 365, 376

 Witchcraft Among Indians, 286

 Witherington, John, Captive of Indians, 149

 Wolcott, Oliver, U. S. Commissioner, 96

 Wolverine, 13

 Wolves Hunting Buffalo, 31

 Wyandots, Leaders and Keepers of Great Belt, 310

 Wyandots, Tribe of, References to, 4, 17, 18, 42, 44, 45, 55, 58, 59, 61, 63, 65, 70, 71, 97, 98, 100, 107, 108, 110, 128, 131, 139, 142, 159, 177, 180, 199, 211, 219, 227, 231, 240, 241, 244, 282, 309, 310, 325, 333, 364

 Wyllys, Major John, 48, 163, 167, 168, 170

 Wythe, George, of Virginia, 6

 --X--

 No References. 

 --Y--

 Yellow Jackets of Harrison County, Indiana, 36, 372, 376

 York, Duke of, 81

 --Z--

 Zane, Isaac, Interpreter, 242

 +--------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the | | original document have been preserved. | | | | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | | | | Page 10 diffculties changed to difficulties | | Page 32 situate changed to situated | | Page 39 battoes changed to bateaux | | Page 44 Wiscousin changed to Wisconsin | | Page 48 crosssed changed to crossed | | Page 56 speciments changed to specimens | | Page 76 Pottawatomies changed to Potawatomis | | Page 77 descrepancy changed to discrepancy | | Page 78 commited changed to committed | | Page 80 proprietory changed to proprietary | | Page 82 conquerer changed to conqueror | | Page 103 solicitious changed to solicitous | | Page 110 pronciples changed to principles | | Page 132 indispensibly changed to indispensably | | Page 139 accomodation changed to accommodation | | Page 141 monent changed to moment | | Page 158 of changed to or | | Page 163 Mary's changed to Marys | | Page 173 Randlopb changed to Randolph | | Page 201 valorus changed to valorous | | Page 204 accoutrements changed to accouterments | | Page 223 marksmenship changed to marksmanship | | Page 252 Pottawattamies changed to Potawatomis | | Page 265 Pottawattamies changed to Potawatomis | | Page 275 Wapakonetta changed to Wapakoneta | | Page 305 Potawatomies changed to Potawatomis | | Page 309 Pottawattamie changed to Potawatomi | | Page 316 accomodate changed to accommodate | | Page 319 Pottawattamies changed to Potawatomis | | Page 321 Phophet changed to Prophet | | Page 355 defliance changed to defiance | | Page 359 eleplants changed to elephants | | Page 398 Added "of" between "History" and "Dubois" | | Page 409 Ephriam changed to Ephraim | | Page 413 Na-go-quan-gogh changed to Na-goh-quan-gogh | | Page 415 Potowatomi changed to Potawatomi | | Page 415 Vermillion changed to Vermilion | +--------------------------------------------------------+