force as should strike alarm to all the white frontier settlements, for some years.

In the summer of 1808, Olliwacheca gathered an encampment on the banks of the Tippecanoe river, a tributary of the Wabash. To deceive the government as to their plans, the prophet proposed to visit the governor and make a speech to him, and hold some of his religious meetings in his presence. He came, with a large number of his devoted followers. He delivered his speech, and made frequent addresses to his associates on the evils of war and whisky drinking. He had so thoroughly indoctrinated them against whisky, that no persuasion could induce them to drink. Rumors increased among the whites, that the Indians were preparing for war. Anxious to know the exact facts about their movement, Governor Harrison sent for both Tecumseh and the prophet to visit him. Tecumseh visited Vincennes, at length, to pay his respects to the governor. He went with four hundred plumed and painted warriors, and held a council on the twelfth of August, 1809. The governor had not invited such an army, and was not prepared to make an equal demonstration. He gathered the judges of the court, a few army officers, a number of citizens, and a small body guard, consisting of a sergeant and twelve men, and cheerfully met the savage chief and his warriors, as though they had come on the most peaceful of missions. When the high ceremonies brought the time, Tecumseh affirmed, in a dignified speech, his peaceful intentions; but declared that he proposed to combine all the tribes, to stop the further encroachments of the whites; that no more land should be sold to them without the consent of all the tribes; and that the chiefs who had lately sold land to the United States, should be put to death.

The governor, in his reply, remonstrated strongly against the murder of the chiefs. Tecumseh interrupting him in angry tones and threatening gestures, accused him of having cheated the Indians. The warriors, who had been squatted on the ground, caught the spirit, rose up and brandished their clubs. The governor drew his sword. The army officers drew around him; the guard presented their arms ready to fire. The gov

ernor calmly ordered all to be quiet. Then, turning to Tecumseh, told him he should hold no further intercourse with him, but to go in peace from their council-fire. The chief and his warriors retired; but from this time the governor knew that there was fire in the forests and danger ahead.

That night, the militia of Vincennes was under arms, expecting every moment the bullet in the dark, and the howl of the savage. But the night passed in quiet.

The next morning Tecumseh called upon the governor, apologized for his hasty conduct the day before, and repeated his statement of no hostile intentions; yet he was firm in his purpose to oppose any further transfer of land without the consent of all the tribes; and he now affirmed that he and his fellow chiefs would hold as null and void the treaty which the governor had lately made at Fort Wayne with a few chiefs.

A short time after this Governor Harrison resolved to visit Tecumseh at his encampment on the Tippecanoe. He was politely received, and was informed in courteous language that the Indians were very unwilling to go to war with the United States; but were resolved that the recently ceded land should not be given up; and that no further treaties should be made without the consent of all the tribes.

No further intercourse was held over the matter. The chief and the prophet were out among the tribes holding meetings and consulting. In the meantime the awakened Indians of the baser sort were committing depredations on the settlers, in the way of stealing horses and stock, breaking into houses and lawlessly plundering the farms, and annoying the white people in many ways. Affairs were growing worse, indicating the approach of a border war. The people were everywhere anxious and alarmed.

In this state of things the governor resolved to visit again the prophet at his encampment on the Tippecanoe. Tecumseh had gone south to visit and consult with the tribes in that part of the country. It was decided that the governor should go with force enough to secure his own safety, and at the same time overawe the savages somewhat, with a view to preventing

hostilities. Nearly a thousand troops were gathered and put in marching order for this visit. This little army, as the governor's escort, moved out from Vincennes on the twenty-eighth of October, 1812. It was accidental, apparently, but this was the year war was declared with England. This Indian disturbance had been fermenting about as long as that with England. And this seemed to be independent of that.

The movement of the army was cautious, being always ready to form instantly into a line of attack or a solid body of defense. It moved along an Indian trail, in two lines of march, near enough to come quickly together if attacked. Early in November the governor and his escort reached the valley of the Tippecanoe. Very soon after they began to observe bands of Indians prowling about at a distance. When the army had reached within three miles of the town, three Indians of rank made their appearance and inquired why the governor was approaching their town in such hostile array? After a short conference, arrangements were made for a council-fire on the next day to agree on terms of amity and peace.

The governor was too well acquainted with the Indian character to take this as any indication of what they intended to do; so he made every provision for a night attack. His little army was formed into a solid body, the dragoons in the center. Every man was ordered to sleep on his arms if he slept at all; and every direction was given, as to their action in case of an attack.

The wakeful governor rose between three and four o'clock in the morning, and was sitting by the embers of the last night's fire, talking low with his aides. It was a dark, cold, cloudy, almost rainy morning. Just then the Indians in force had crept close to them, and with a yell and war-whoop fierce enough to rend the forest with dismay, poured into them a volley of bullets, and kept up their work of death and alarm. But the camp-fires, which had served to light the savages to their prey, were at once put out, and then Harrison's men rose and stood in their tracks and poured an incessant fire into the places where flashed the Indian guns. As soon as it was light enough to see to move,

they made a simultaneous charge into the woods and among the Indians and made fearful slaughter in their midst.

The poor savages soon learned that the prophet's predictions that the white men's bullets would not hurt them, were not true. They soon took alarm and many of them fled to a swamp, where the governor's soldiers followed them and made fearful havoc among them. They lost sixty-one dead upon the field and one hundred and twenty bleeding and helpless. The prophet was present to see the rout and defeat of his select warriors. Harrison lost nearly as many, but his little army was intact and as intrepid as when it began the bloody work.

After burying the dead, the army destroyed the town and everything that could aid the Indians in their further hostilities and then returned to Vincennes.

This battle afforded the chorus for the campaign song that did not a little in the election of Mr. Harrison to the presidency, later in life. He little dreamed then of the use that would be made of it.

This battle would have nipped in the bud this great revolt of all the tribes which Tecumseh had so long worked hard to bring about, had it not been for the English using their influence to fan its dying flame. The tribes began at once to sue for peace and a good understanding, but Tecumseh returned from his southern tour and, joining with the English, kept up the war spirit toward the United States.

The war with England had now taken on a fierce aspect. Our whole northern frontier was exposed to incursions from Canada. The St. Lawrence river and the lakes afforded a highway for the enemies' ships, and through that highway he could come into the heart of the Indian territory. He at once availed himself of that opportunity. In the revolutionary war, England allied herself with the savages of the forest, to lay waste the settlements of the frontier. So now, she revived her old policy, and Tecumseh's revolt favored her wishes. She made an ally of him.

The battle of Tippecanoe was on the seventh of November

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

In September, 1812, Governor Harrison was made commander of all the forces of the northwest. He at once turned his attention toward the recapture of the fort at Detroit, which General Hull had ignominiously surrendered. That fort was the British key to the northwest. Between him and that point was a body of Indians on the Maumee. He ordered the scattered forces, in southern and central Ohio, to move toward Detroit. His plan was to overcome the Indians, gather at and retake the fort at Detroit, and so get repossession of the peninsula of Michigan. In this way he would make it difficult for the British to coöperate with the Indians. The lateness of the season and the early autumn rains filling the swamps and streams, made it impossible to carry his plans immediately into effect. A portion of his forces met the Indians on the Maumee and were almost destroyed. This disaster helped to retard the movement upon Detroit. In the meantime, the Indians all along the frontier let loose their dogs of savage warfare upon the scattered settlements. Robbing, plundering, killing, scalping, burning, were everywhere going on. The men from the settlements had for the most part gathered into Harrison's army, which had to wait for winter to freeze up the swamps, so it might make its way to Detroit. It was a terrible winter to the exposed settlements

In the spring the British had come to the assistance of the Indians on the Maumee, and the way of Harrison was hedged by this union under Proctor and Tecumseh. Severe fighting ensued with varied results, from time to time for some months. Reinforcements continued to come from Kentucky, under Governor Shelby, and from Ohio, to Harrison's army. Affairs grew more and more favorable to Harrison, and the prospect looked encouraging for sweeping the valley of the Maumee to the lake.

Just at this juncture of affairs Commodore Perry gained his great battle on Lake Erie, September tenth, 1813, which secured to the United States the command of the lake as the gateway to the northwest.

On the twenty-seventh of September, Harrison and his army