—His personal courage and activities save the frontier capital.

The spring of 1810 opened with peril to Vincennes. The eternal vigilance of Harrison alone saved the day. The fall before had witnessed the making of the Treaty of Fort Wayne and the acquisition of the New Purchase; this had strengthened the claims of the Prophet and Tecumseh for a closer union of the tribes, and had given added force to their argument in favor of a communistic ownership of all the land. What right had the old village chiefs to dispose of the common domain without the consent of the warriors who had fought to maintain it? The Great Spirit gave the soil in common to all the tribes; what single tribe could alienate any particular portion of it?

Reliable word came to the Governor in April that the Prophet had assembled one thousand souls at the Prophet's Town, with probably three hundred fifty or four hundred men among them, consisting principally of Kickapoos and Winnebagoes, "but with a considerable number of Potawatomis and Shawnees and a few Chippewas and Ottawas;" that the French traders along the Wabash had been warned by the Prophet's followers to separate themselves from the Americans at Vincennes for trouble was brewing; that the Indians at Tippecanoe had refused to buy ammunition of the traders, saying that they had a plenty, and could get plenty more without paying for it; that Matthew Elliott, the British agent at Malden, was busy with plot and intrigue against the United States. But Harrison was surrounded by some of the best scouts and confidential agents that a frontier official ever commanded—among them Touissant Dubois, Joseph Barron and Michael Brouillette. He kept awake and on the alert.

Tecumseh now assumed a more active leadership. The day had arrived for the statesman and warrior to sound the alarm, form an active league and confederacy of all the tribes, and with tomahawk in hand, resist any further advancement on the part of the whites. As Harrison afterwards remarked, he appeared today on the Wabash, a short time later on the shores of Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, and then upon the Mississippi. Everywhere he was masterful, eloquent, convincing, and "made an impression favorable to his purpose." At one time during the early summer it is known that he was at Detroit, and he was probably in close communication with his British allies, although he professed to hate them.

About May, 1810, a council of all the tribes of the Wabash and those to the north was called at the river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. The whole situation was fraught with danger, for Harrison had reason to believe that many of the tribes had already received the tomahawk and were meditating a combined attack on the settlements. Subsequent events proved that his fears were well founded. He immediately dispatched John Conner to the Delawares and "pointed out to them the unavoidable destruction which awaited all the tribes which should dare to take up the hatchet against their fathers, and the great danger that the friendly tribes would incur, if war should be kindled, from the difficulty of discriminating friend from foe."

A messenger was dispatched in haste after the deputies of the tribes deputed to the council, with full instructions dictated by the Governor, to urge these facts upon the assembled tribes. In addition, the Governor in response to the demand of a company of officers, merchants, and others at Vincennes, at once called two companies of militia into active service, established alarm posts upon the frontier, and used all available means at hand to put himself in readiness for war. Fortunately, the Delawares remained faithful. If Winamac is to be believed, the Prophet in person urged upon the council an immediate surprise of Detroit, Fort Wayne, the post at Chicago, St. Louis and Vincennes, and a junction with the tribes of the Mississippi, but the "forcible representations" of the Delaware deputies, who were looked upon as "grandfathers," prevented the adoption of his plans. It seems that the younger men and some of the war lords of the smaller bands were ready to go to war, but the sachems and older village chieftains who had participated in the treaty of the year before held aloof. The Chippewas, Ottawas and Potawatomi refused to take up arms, the council broke up without any concerted action, and Winamac and the Potawatomi were sent to the Governor to make report of the proceedings. When Winamac arrived at Vincennes in the latter part of June, he reported that as he passed through the Prophet's Town an attempt was made to assassinate him—so enraged was the Prophet at his failure on the St. Joseph. Winamac further told the Governor that about the time of the council the Prophet had proposed to the younger warriors that the principal chiefs of all the tribes should be murdered; that they were the ones who had brought about a sale of the Indian lands, and that their, the warriors' hands, would never be untied until they were rid of them. The brothers were baffled in another mission. Tecumseh urged the Shawnees at Wapakoneta, Ohio, to join the league. A letter of John Johnston, Indian agent at Fort Wayne, informed the Governor that, the Shawnees refused even to enter into council with him.

The ugly temper into which the Indians had now worked themselves is well illustrated by the episode of the salt. Shortly prior to the fifteenth of June, a boat came up the Wabash to the Prophet's Town laden with salt for 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 some Kickapoos with him at the time, refused to receive it, and he was directed to leave the salt on the bank of the river until Tecumseh should return; Tecumseh being reported as at Detroit. On his return trip home the master of the boat was directed to re-load the salt; that the Indians would have nothing to do with it. "Whilst the hands were rolling in the barrels, the brother of the Prophet seized the master and several others by the hair, and shaking them violently, asked them if they were Americans. They, however, were all young Frenchmen. They also insulted Mr. Brouillette, and called him an American dog, and a young Potawatomi chief directed his men to plunder his house, which was immediately done, depriving him of all his provisions, tobacco, etc." Michael Brouillette was the French trader heretofore referred to, and was the personal agent and scout of General Harrison. He kept on hand a few Articles of trade to disguise his real character.

On one of their embassies, however, the brothers were successful. One of the most influential of the tribes in council was the Wyandots or Hurons, now greatly reduced in numbers, but still of great prestige and power among the red men. Harrison always ranked their warriors among the best, and General Wayne at Greenville had delivered to them the original duplicate of the treaty. In a speech by Massas, a Chippewa chief, to General Wayne, he referred to this tribe as "our uncles, the Wyandots," and this was the designation generally employed by all the tribes. It was plain that if the Wyandots could be won over to the new cause, a great diplomatic victory would be gained and the influence of the new movement greatly augmented. The Prophet accordingly sent a deputation to the Wyandots, "expressing his surprise that the Wyandots, who had directed the councils of the other tribes, as well as the treaty with the white people, should sit still, and see the property of the Indians usurped by a part," and he expressly desired to see the treaties and know what they contained. The Wyandots were greatly flattered by these attentions, and answered "that they had nothing nearer their hearts, than to see all the various tribes united again as one man—that they looked upon everything that had been done since the treaty of Greenville as good for nothing—and that they would unite their exertions 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 white people." It seems that the Wyandots were also the keepers of the great belt, which had formerly been a symbol of the union of the tribes at the time of the war with Anthony Wayne. They now came in deputation to the Prophet's Town, carrying this great belt with them, and producing it among the clans of the Miami at the villages of the Mississinewa, accused them of deserting their Indian friends and allies. The tribes at Mississinewa sent for the Weas and accompanied the deputation to Tippecanoe.

Though thwarted on the St. Joseph and among the Shawnees, it was plain that a strict espionage would have to be maintained over the proceedings at the Prophet's Town, and especially over the Prophet himself. The heart of this priest was filled with plots of assassination and murder. Grosble, an old Indian friend of the Governor, informed him that the Prophet had at one time planned a wholesale slaughter at Vincennes, and that it had been arranged that the Prophet should enter the Governor's house with ten or twelve of his followers and slay him. To the Prophet may be attributed most of the horse-stealing expeditions, the insults to messengers and agents, and the plans for the murder of the older Indian chiefs. While Tecumseh either countenanced these transactions, or else was unable to control them, he seems, with strange sagacity for a savage, to have at all times realized that the assassination of Harrison, the stealing of a few horses, or the slaughter of a few white men on the border, would really never accomplish anything save to intensify the feeling between the races. While never comprehending the great forces of civilization and of the government which he was resisting, he seems to have steadily kept in mind that a handful of naked savages at the Prophet's Town would avail him nothing; that in order to effectively strike he must have back of him a substantial body of 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 never long resist a superior force. If he could keep his rash and impulsive brother 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 that fatal egotism of the fanatic, vainly imagined that he was more than a match for the Governor, and in the absence of his brother, let his vindictive hate and malice destroy the last dream of empire.

In the latter part of the month of June, Harrison sent Dubois and Brouillette to the Prophet's Town to take note of what was going on. They reported that while the tribes of the Mississinewa, the Weas and Kickapoos were living in expectation of trouble, that there was no immediate danger, as the defection of the tribes at the St. Joseph had upset the plans of the brothers. Dubois requested the Prophet to state the grounds of his complaint, if he had any, against the United States. The Prophet answered in the language of Brant, that the Indians had been cheated of their lands and that no sale was good unless made by all the tribes. On the fourth of July, four canoes, filled with the Prophet's followers, passed the Wea village at Terre Haute, and Harrison sent out the militia to discover what had become of them. One of these canoes came down the river to a Shaker settlement sixteen miles above Vincennes. The Indians there attended meeting on Sunday, the Prophet professing to believe in the Shaker creed, (without, however, practicing celibacy), and then finished the day's proceedings by stealing five horses. They made no attempt to cover their tracks, but the Governor stopped any pursuit, as he "had been informed some time before, that one of their plans to bring on the war, was to send out parties to steal horses, and, if they were pursued, to kill their pursuers." This was plainly the work of the Prophet. More alarming stories came in. It was said that the Sacs and Foxes were awaiting the signal from the Prophet to take up arms; that a party of them had visited the British superintendent, 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 do not strike till I give the signal." Harrison in the light of all these events, determined to send Barron, his trusted interpreter, to the Prophet'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 standing at a distance of about ten feet from the Indian prophet. 'He looked at me,' said Barron, 'for several minutes, without speaking or making any sign 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 ground near the spot where I stood."

No harm was done him, however. Tecumseh interceded and the Governor's messenger was finally received with respect. Barron delivered a speech of Harrison's to the Prophet in the presence of Tecumseh. The purport of this address was, that while the Governor said he believed that there had been an attempt to raise the tomahawk, that the old chain of friendship between the Indians and whites might still be renewed; that there were two roads open, one leading to peace, and the other to misery and 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, that the Governor was willing to send the principal chiefs to Washington to make this complaint to the President in person; that everything necessary for the journey should be prepared and a safe return guaranteed.

On this visit Barron held much personal converse with Tecumseh and lodged with him in a cabin. He professed to be much pleased with Harrison's speech, observing that he had not seen him since he was a young man seated at the side of General Wayne. He disclaimed any intention of trying to make war, but said that it would be impossible to remain on friendly terms with the United States unless they abandoned the idea of trying to make settlements farther to the north and west, and unless they acknowledged the principle that all the lands were held by the tribes in common. Said he: "The Great Spirit gave this great island to his red children; he placed the whites on the other side of the big water; they were not contented with their own, but came to take ours from us. They have driven us from the sea to the lakes, we can go no further. They have taken upon themselves to say this tract belongs to the Miamis, this to the Delawares, and so on, but the Great Spirit intended it as the common property of all the tribes, nor can it be sold without the consent of all. Our father tells us, that we have no business upon the Wabash, the land belongs to other tribes, but the Great Spirit ordered us to come here and here we shall stay."

Tecumseh now resolved on that famous meeting with the Governor at Vincennes. Harrison had long known that there were those in his midst who were inimical to his plans and who had opposed his purpose of the fall before, but he did not learn until afterwards the full extent of their treachery. It seems that Tecumseh had been given to understand that about half of the population of Vincennes were friendly to his cause. An American had visited him during the winter of 1809-10 who informed him that Harrison had no authority whatever from the government to make the purchase; that the Governor had only two years more to remain in office, and that if Tecumseh could prevail upon the Indians to refuse their annuities under the treaty until the Governor "was displaced, as he would be, and a good man appointed as his successor, he would restore to the Indians all the lands purchased from them." How far these representations may have deceived Tecumseh into the belief that he was dealing with a man who was tottering to the fall, is not certainly known. He determined at any rate, to make a show of force. If the Governor was a weakling who sat insecurely in his seat, and was fearful of public clamor, here was an opportunity to display that fact. As he remarked to Barron, he had not seen the Governor since he was "a very young man," sitting at the side of General Wayne. The Governor was younger in years than Tecumseh, and no doubt the Shawnee was disposed to regard him with contempt. To appear suddenly at the capital of the white man with a band of armed warriors; to openly and haughtily declare his purpose of resisting the pretensions of the Governor and to pour out his insolence upon the heads of the chieftains who had dared to sell the lands—what a grand culmination of all his plans this would be, if it had the desired effect! There was nothing to lose, everything to gain. He resolved to try it. Accordingly, on the 12th day of August, there swept down the river to Fort Knox, eighty canoes, filled with naked savages painted in the most terrific manner. All of them were armed and ready for attack. At their head was the great war chief, described by Major George R. Floyd, commandant at the fort, as "about six feet high, straight, with large, fine features, and altogether a daring, bold looking fellow." The conference with the Governor was appointed for the morrow.