federacy united in the agreement. It was because of the absence of deputies from many of the Indian nations belonging to the confederacy that the validity of the treaties of Fort McIntosh and Fort Harmer were denied. To enforce these treaties was one of the objects of the campaigns of Harmer and St. Clair; and in 1794, the Indians, on this account, refused to meet the government commissioners, and hence the campaign of General Wayne. It is to be presumed that when Wayne entered into negotiations, in 1795, at Greenville, he had present delegates representing all the nations in the Indian confederacy, and that they were parties to the agreement. It is observed that the Chippewas and Ottawas, two very important tribes who were parties to the treaty of Greenville, were not parties to the treaty of Fort Wayne. Moreover, several of the tribes who were parties to this treaty, appear to have been there only by agents or representatives.

On the 22d day of August, only two months after the execution of the Fort Wayne treaty, Governor Harrison made another treaty at Vincennes; the Indian tribes represented being the Eel River, Wyandot, Piankashaw, and Kaskaskia nations, and also the Kickapoos, "by their representatives, the chiefs of the Eel River nation." The Delawares, Shawanoes, Ottawas, Chippewas, and Miamis were absent.

On the 4th of July, 1805, Charles Jowett, as commissioner on the part of the United States, made a treaty at Fort Industry, with the Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippewas, Munsees, Delawares, Shawanoes, and Pottawatomies. The Kickapoos, Weas, Piankashaws, and Kaskaskias were absent.

On the 25th of August, 1805, Governor Harrison made a treaty at Grouceland, near Vincennes, with the Delawares, Pottawatomies, Miamis, Eel Rivers, and Weas. The Wyandots, Shawanoes, Ottawas, Chippewas, Piankashaws, and Kaskaskias were absent.

On the 17th of November, 1807, Governor William Hull, of the Michigan Territory, made a treaty at Detroit, at which only the Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatomies, and Wyandots were represented.

On the 25th of November, 1808, Governor Hull made a treaty at Brownstown, at which only the Chippewas, Otta

was, Pottawatomies, Wyandots, and Shawanoes were represented.

On the 30th of September, 1809, Governor W. H. Harrison made a treaty at Fort Wayne, in which only the Delawares, Pottawatomies, and Miamis were represented.

All these treaties were for cessions of land; and thus in the space of fifteen years it is seen that Wayne's treaty of 1795, with all its excellent provisions for the government and protection of the Indians, was not only substantially obliterated, and vast bodies of the lands assured by it to the Indian nations were transferred to the white man, the original proprietors dispossessed, and wherever found were a broken-down, disheartened, and miserable people.

As cession after cession of land was obtained from the Indians, by this process of almost continual treaty-making, Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, as well as other leading Indiaus, became alarmed, and set about to revive the confederacy and form a union of the tribes to prevent further cessions as well as settlements on their lands. Another purpose they had in view was to attempt a reformation of the habits of the Indians, many of whom, through despondency, had become much addicted to the use of liquor, by which they were made unfit for intelligent action.

By the treaty of 1809, at Fort Wayne, certain lands on the Wabash were ceded to the United States. Tecumseh entered a bitter protest against these treaties, and notably against this Fort Wayne treaty. The land ceded by this treaty was in the valley of the Wabash, and while the length of the cession could not be determined by the language of the treaty, it is provided that the tract shall not be less in width, at the narrowest point, than thirty miles. In an interview with Governor Harrison, after this treaty was made, Tecumseh insisted that there must be no more cessions of land acquired by treaties made with but a fragment of the Indian nations interested, and that the petty village chiefs were not the parties authorized to make treaties. Ile insisted that the principle must be recognized that no purchase could be made unless sanctioned by a council representing all the tribes parties to the Wayne treaty of 1795, as one nation. He had been

charged to the governor with having threatened to kill the chiefs who signed the treaty of 1809, and this he admitted to be true. He recited in an earnest manner the aggressions of the whites upon the Indians and the wrong done them; and while he disclaimed any intention of making war on the people of the United States, he declared it to be his unalterable resolution to oppose any further incursions of the whites upon the domain of the Indians. When it is remembered that the Shawanoes were among the most influential of the tribes parties to the treaty of 1795, and that they were specially interested in the land on the Wabash, ceded by the treaty of 1809, and yet that there is not the name of a single Shawanoe attached to that treaty, it would seem that Tecumseh had good cause to express dissatisfaction. It would have required more than ordinary grace to have restrained the wrath of a representative of a civilized community, and induced him to patiently submit under like circumstances. Tecumseh was, strictly speaking, neither a war nor a peace chief, but withal was regarded a sagacious and brave warrior and a wise and efficient counselor. In the reply of Governor Harrison to the speech of this chief, at the interview referred to, the interpreter was interrupted by the Indian, who said that all that the governor stated was false, and that he and the Seventeen Fires (the United States) had cheated and imposed upon the Indians. The governor did not attempt to explainindeed, it is not seen how he could; but told the chief that he was a bad man, and that he would hold no further communication with him, and thus the interview ended. For some time previous to this interview which closed so abruptly, Governor Harrison had, in view of the movements of Tecumsch and his brother, been looking to a conflict as probable, and immediately after the chief left Vincennes proceeded to prepare for a contest, by strengthening the militia and posting the regular troops that were with him. Tecumseh had said that the lands ceded by the treaty of 1809 must be given up and no more treaties made with village chiefs, and unless this was acceded to, his effort to unite all the Indians in hostility would be continued, and hence war seemed to be a foregone conclusion. At this juncture sundry deputations,

from such of the natives as felt their weakness, came and promised peace and compliance, but Governor Harrison put his troops in the field, and on the 5th of October, 1811, was on the Wabash, about sixty-five miles above Vincennes, where he built Fort Harrison. On the 31st of the month he was at the mouth of the Vermillion, where he built a block-house; from thence he advanced for the Prophet's town, and without interruption, on the 6th of November reached its vicinity. Here he was met by Indian embassadors, whom he informed that he had no hostile intentions if the Indians were true to existing treaties. Of course he meant the treaties made subsequent to the treaty of 1795, all of which were made by only portions of tribes parties to that treaty, and hence not in the judgment of many of the Indians binding upon them. Harrison encamped that night on a piece of dry oak land, indicated by the chiefs, who, he said before they left, united with him in a mutual promise for a suspension of hostilities, "until an interview could be had on the following day." His camp was near the Indian town, and the Indians doubting his profession that he had no hostile intent in invading their country with an army, attacked him on the morning of the 7th of November, before day, and after a vigorous contest were repulsed and driven by the infantry and dragoons into a marsh, where they could not be followed. The Americans lost in the battle thirty-seven killed, and had one hundred and fifty-one wounded, twenty-five of whom were mortally wounded. Forty Indians were killed; the number of wounded unknown. There was no further operation by the troops, and on the 4th of December, Governor Harrison wrote that the frontiers never enjoyed more perfect

repose.

In Tuttle's history of Michigan (1873), when speaking of the events which occurred about this period, it is said: "These new troubles were indeed nothing more than the Americans might have expected. The Indians saw a new power enaching upon the inheritance handed down to them from eir ancestors. It was not difficult, therefore, to unite them one last desperate effort to resist this usurping power. Their titles had been only partially extinguished, and they

complained that where this had been done, the treaties had been unfairly conducted; that the Indians had been deceived; that they were in a state of intoxication at the time they signed away their lands, and that even under those circumstances, only a part of the tribes had given their consent."

Tecumseh was absent among the southern Indians at the time of the battle of Tippecanoe, and on his return reproached his brother, the Prophet, for his indiscretion. By his imprudence in attacking Harrison's army, at Tippecanoe, the Prophet had, in the judgment of Tecumseh, ruined the scheme of the projected confederacy. He, however, immediately sent word to Harrison, that he had returned home from the south, and was prepared to make a visit to Washington, to see the president, which had some time before been proposed. The governor gave him permission to go, but not to conduct a party of Indians, which was desired. The proposed visit on these terms was declined, and all intercourse terminated. At Fort Wayne, some time after this, Tecumseh disavowed to the Indian agent any intention to make war on the United States, and reproached Governor Harrison for invading his country with troops, during his absence in the south. To the reply of the agent, the chief listened with great indifference, and thereafter departed for Malden, in Upper Canada, and went into the British service. This gave him power to do much injury, and he was active. As an evidence of this it may be stated that as soon as Hull had retreated out of Canada, and Mackinac had fallen into the hands of the British, Tecumseh sent a messenger to the Pottawatomies, then residing near Fort Dearborn (Chicago), informing them of the fact, and urging them to arm immediately. The sad fate of the troops then in the garrison there is known to all; and the conflicts in the Northwest, during the war of 1812, in which the British had as allies numerous bands of the Indian nations, who were parties to Wayne's treaty of 1795, and the aid they rendered the British cause, are matters of history. In the month of October, 1813, at the battle of the Thames, in Canada, a novel charge was made by the Kentucky cavalry, and this produced a panic, under which the main body of the British troops yielded at once;