—The last meeting between the two leaders before Harrison marched into the Indian country.

What strange fatality directed the minds of the Shawnee brothers to repel all friendly advances on the part of the American government, and to listen to the poisonous council of Matthew Elliott and the other British agents who had so often deceived their race, may not easily be divined. Brant had been bribed, Little Turtle and the Blue Jacket basely deserted in the hour of defeat, and two English treaties negotiated without a line in either to the advantage of the red man, but notwithstanding all these facts, both Tecumseh and the Prophet were now in 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-time authority, and the power of determination lodged in the hands of the warriors, but the belt of union circulated by the Prophet among the tribes "to confine the great water and prevent it from overflowing them," brought many accessions both to the confederacy and to the Shawnee influence. It was reported that when this belt was exhibited to Elliott and he saw that so many tribes had united against the United States that he danced with joy. About the first of November, Tecumseh himself arrived at Malden on a visit to the British agency. He remained there until some time after the twenty-fourth of December. The nature of his conferences with Elliott may be inferentially arrived at from the following. An Indian council had, during the preceding autumn, been convened at Brownstown, near Detroit. A resolution had there been entered into to prevent the sale of any more lands to the United States and this step had been taken at the suggestion of Elliott. According to the report of the Wea chiefs, the British agent had informed the tribes that England and France had now made peace, and would soon unite their arms "to dispossess the Americans of the lands they had taken from the Indians." The Shawnee land doctrine had become popular. "The Indians," writes Harrison, "appear to be more uneasy and dissatisfied than I ever before saw them, and I believe that the Prophet's principle, that their land should be considered common property, is either openly avowed or secretly favored by all the tribes west of the Wabash." The tribes of the Lakes looked upon the Wabash as the land of promise. The Winnebagoes were already present in considerable numbers at the Prophet's Town, and the Wyandots had formed a camp in close proximity to that place. The Six Nations were reported to be in motion and demanding the privilege of settling in the Wabash valley. Could all these tribes be assembled in the face of the advancing American settlements, they would serve the double purpose of checking this advance and furnishing a protective barrier to Canada in case of a war between Great Britain and the United States. Tecumseh and Elliott were joined in the fellowship of a mutual interest.

The Miami chiefs looked upon this presumptuous conduct of the Shawnee leaders with high disapproval. Their tribes were the rightful proprietors of the soil, and the establishment of the Prophet had been effected without their consent. But much of their ancient authority had passed away. Many of their young warriors were carried away by the mad fanaticism of the Prophet and vainly imagined that they could drive the white man back across the Ohio. Unless the hands of the Miami leaders were upheld, they could not long resist the pressure of the surrounding tribes and must give their sanction to the Prophet's scheme.

Harrison was fully convinced that the old village chiefs would willingly place themselves under the protection of the government, and surrender their claims for a suitable annuity, rather than submit to any domination on the part of their neighbors. The Governor was plainly in favor of forming an alliance with the Miamis, of dispersing the followers of the Prophet, and paving the way for further extinguishment of the Indian title. He urged that the narrow strip on the west side of the Greenville cession, in the eastern part of the Indiana territory, would soon be filled with new settlers; that the backwoodsmen were not men "of a disposition to content themselves with land of an inferior quality when they see in their immediate neighborhood the finest country as to soil in the world occupied by a few wretched savages;" that the Territory was fast advancing to statehood, and that the members of the Territorial legislature were heartily in favor of smoothing the way to further purchases.

The Governor also earnestly pressed the government to establish a strong post on the Wabash in the upper portion of the New Purchase. The citizens of Vincennes had been thoroughly alarmed by the presence of so large a gathering of red men at the council in August. Murders were frequent, and horse-stealing was an everyday occurrence. To adopt a policy of vacillation with a savage was to confess weakness. The Prophet was openly declaring to Brouillette, the Governor's agent, that no survey of the new lands would be permitted. Immigration was ebbing, and the selling and settling of the newly acquired territory was wholly out of the question so long as the purchasers could not be assured of protection. The display of a strong force of regulars and mounted militia, the establishment of a strong position on the borders of the Indian country, would not only dishearten the followers of the Prophet and discourage further accessions to his banner, but strengthen the hands of those Miami chieftains who still preserved their allegiance to the United States. Any expeditionary force to be employed was to be headed by the Governor himself, who had taken a very active part in the training of the frontier militiamen, and who now offered his services voluntarily and without compensation.

The Federal authorities moved slowly. It was evident that the old indifference as to the welfare of the western world still prevailed. Some strange hallucination led the Washington authorities to believe that friendly relations might be sustained with a band of savages who were carried away by a religious frenzy, and who were daily giving ear to British whisperings. The consequences were that a party of mounted dragoons organized by Judge Benjamin Parke to protect Vincennes and who made a demand for pistols and swords, did not receive their equipment until late in the following spring, and then the swords were found to be of iron; that no orders were issued to form a friendly alliance with the Miami chiefs, and hold them steadfast; that the small detachment of one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty regulars under Captain Cross did not arrive until the third of October, and that no instructions were received from the government, until all forage for the horses had disappeared from the woods, and it was too late in the season to undertake an expedition.

With the opening of the spring of 1811, the insolence and effrontery of the Shawnee leaders measurably increased. About the first of April twelve horses were stolen from the settlement of Busseron, about twenty miles above Vincennes. The pillaging bands of the Potawatomi, directly under the influence of the Prophet, were committing robberies and murders on the Illinois and Missouri frontiers. In the issue of August 18th, 1810, of the Western Sun, of Vincennes, appeared this paragraph: "Extract of a letter from a gentleman at St. Louis, to his friend in this place, dated August 3rd, 1810. 'On my return from the garrison up the Missouri, I stayed at Captain Cole's, who just returned from the pursuit of some Indians that had stolen horses from the settlement—they came in view of the Indians on the prairie, and pursued on until night, and encamped, made fires, etc., in the woodland, and not apprehending any danger from the Indians, lay down to sleep—some time after midnight, they were fired upon by the Indians, and four men killed."

What had happened was this: There is a grove about three or four miles southwest of Morocco, in Newton County, Indiana, named Turkey Foot grove, and another of the same name about forty miles south of it, and two or three miles southeast of the town of Earl Park. In this region dwelt Turkey Foot, at the head of a lawless band of the prairie Potawatomi. They had kept the frontiers of Illinois in terror for months and had caused considerable anxiety both to Governor Harrison and to Governor Ninian Edwards of the Illinois Territory. In a spirit of devilish mischief and led on by the hope of plunder, the chief and his followers had ridden hundreds of miles across the grand prairies of Indiana and Illinois, had forded the Mississippi, and pierced to the outposts of Loutre island in the Missouri river, below the present town of Hermann, and from fifty to seventy miles west of St. Louis, had stolen a bunch of horses there, and made good their escape, after committing one of the foulest murders recorded in the early history of that territory.

As soon as the theft of the horses was discovered, great excitement prevailed, as horses were very valuable to the early pioneer. A rescue party was organized, composed of Samuel Cole, and William T. Cole, Temple, Patton, Murdock and Gooch, and after pursuing the Indians all day, they came in sight of them on a large prairie, but the horses of Cole's party were so tired that Cole had to give up the chase, and an encampment was made in a small woodland. After midnight, and when all were in slumber, the stealthy savages returned, surrounded the camp, and on the first attack killed Temple, Patton and Gooch. Murdock sought shelter under the bank of a creek near by, but William T. Cole was attacked by two savages, one in front and one in the rear. In the rencounter Cole was stabbed in the shoulder, but wrenched a knife from one of his assailants and killed him. The other Indian escaped in the darkness.

This murder and larceny combined, was brought to the attention of Governor Harrison by the then acting governor of the Louisiana Territory. Later, documentary proof was furnished by Governor Howard. Harrison sent William Wells and John Conner to Tippecanoe to demand restitution of the stolen property. Four horses were delivered up, and a promise made by the Shawnee leaders to procure the remainder, but this was never done. Wells found out that the Potawatomi banditti who had committed these murders were directly under the influence of Tecumseh and the Prophet, but he was given to understand that the murderers had fled to the Illinois river, and that no attempt would be made to apprehend them. Tecumseh boldly attempted to excuse all these outrages in a subsequent conference with the Governor.

Wells had much conversation at this time with Tecumseh, who "openly and positively avowed his determination to resist the encroachments of the white people." Wells told the Shawnee chief that he would never be able to accomplish his designs, but Tecumseh replied that Wells would live to see the contrary. About this time a friendly Kickapoo chief arrived at Vincennes and told the Governor that he was determined to put him on his guard against the Prophet and his brother. "He said that their pacific professions were not to be relied upon; that he had heard them speaking to the Indians for several years and in that time he had never heard anything that they said but war and hatred against the United States. That the delivering up of the horses which were occasionally stolen was merely intended to lull our vigilance and to prevent us from discovering their designs until they were ripe for execution. That they frequently told their young men that they would defeat their plans by their precipitancy. That in their harangues to the Indians they frequently requested those who would not join their confederacy, to keep their secret. That they always promised them a rich harvest of plunder and scalps, declaring that the first stroke would put them in possession of an ample supply of arms, ammunition and provisions."

On the second of May, General William Clark, of St. Louis, wrote to the Governor informing him that the Prophet had sent the belt to the Mississippi tribes, inviting them to join in a war against the United States, and declaring that the war would be begun by an attack on Vincennes. About the same time word was brought that the Sacs had acceded to the hostile confederacy, and that the Potawatomi in the region of Chicago were on the warpath. A party of surveyors employed by the surveyor-general to divide the New Purchase into townships, were seized and bound by a party of Weas, their arms taken from them, and the engineers driven in terror to Cincinnati. In the fore part of June, a pirogue sent up the Wabash with the annual supply of salt for the Indian tribes was seized by the Prophet and every barrel taken. The excuse given was, that the Prophet had two thousand warriors to feed, and that he had taken none on the previous year. Pierre La Plante, Harrison's agent at the Prophet's Town, reported that only about one hundred warriors were present at the time, but that Tecumseh was shortly expected to arrive with a considerable reinforcement from the lakes. About the twentieth of June, five Shawnees and ten Winnebagoes of the Prophet's party invaded Vincennes bringing a number of rifles and tomahawks to be repaired. They were boldly accused by some Potawatomi of Topenebee's faction to be meditating war against Harrison and to be making observations on the situation of affairs within the town.

So threatening and warlike were the actions of the Shawnee leaders that the Governor now addressed a communication to the Secretary of War, demanding that the Fourth United States Regiment at Pittsburgh, under the command of Colonel John Parke Boyd, be sent forward immediately for the defense of the frontiers. The government was in part aroused from its state of lethargy. Recent advices from Governor Edwards had announced 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, and that there was danger of them falling on the Indians and slaying friend and foe alike, from their inability to discriminate the various tribes. By a letter of the seventeenth of July, the Governor received word that the aforementioned regiment, with a company of riflemen, had been ordered to descend the Ohio, and that Colonel Boyd was to act under the advice and command of the Governor himself. If necessary, this force was to be employed in an attack upon the Prophet, but the Governor was given positive orders not to march them up the river or to begin hostilities, until every other expedient had failed. Hedged about by timid restrictions and foolish admonitions, the course of the Governor was rendered extremely difficult. One thing, however, he had firmly resolved to do. The Prophet's forces must soon be scattered.

In the meantime, Harrison had dispatched Captain Walter Wilson, of the Territorial militia, with a speech to the Prophet's Town. The Captain was well received by Tecumseh. Harrison's talk was plain and to the point. He informed the Shawnee brothers that he was well aware of their design to unite the tribes, murder the Governor, and commence a war upon his people. That their seizure of the salt sent up the Wabash was ample proof of their hostile intention. That they had no prospect of success, for his hunting shirt men were as numerous as the mosquitoes on the shores of the Wabash. That if they were discontented with the sale of the lands at Fort Wayne, that he (the Governor) would furnish them the means to visit the President of the United States, and they might then state their claims in full and receive justice, but that they must not come 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 to the 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 of scouts, and in the meantime to muster the militia and make a show of military force. He was convinced that if his wily antagonist found him off his guard that he would not hesitate to "pick a quarrel," and launch a general attack. The Governor's letter to the war department of July 10th, 1811, is interesting. "With them (i. e., the Indians) the surprise of an enemy bestows more eclat upon a warrior than the most brilliant success obtained by other means. Tecumseh has taken for his model the celebrated Pontiac and I am persuaded that he will bear a favorable comparison in every respect with that far famed warrior. If it is his object to begin with the surprise of this place, it is impossible that a more favorable situation could have been chosen than the one he occupies. It is just so far off as to be removed from our immediate observation, and yet so near as to enable him to strike us when the water is high in twenty-four hours, and even when it is low their light canoes will come fully as fast as the journey could be performed on horseback. The situation is in other respects admirable for the purposes for which he has chosen it. It is nearly central with regard to the tribes which he wishes to unite. The water communication with Lake Erie by means of the Wabash and Miami, with Lake Michigan and the Illinois by the Tippecanoe, is a great convenience. It is immediately in the center of the back line of that fine country which he wishes to prevent us from settling, and above all, he has immediately in his rear a country that has been but little explored, consisting principally of barren thickets, interspersed with swamps and lakes, into which our cavalry could not penetrate, and our infantry only by slow and laborious marches."

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

On the twenty-seventh the main body of savages arrived by canoe, and on the next day came those who marched by land. Three hundred red men were present, including twenty or thirty women and children. What was Tecumseh's object? Harrison's spies reported to him that it was the intention of the Shawnee to peremptorily demand a retrocession of the late purchase, and if it was not obtained, to seize some of the chiefs who were active in making the treaty, and in the presence of the Governor put them to death. If the Governor interfered he was to share the same fate. However this may be, the great chief abandoned any hostile 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 two infantry companies on duty were increased to three, and these being relieved on different days by some management in marching and changing quarters, it appeared to the Indians that four or five companies were on constant duty. The elegant troop of dragoons commanded by Captain Parke (who is also one of our supreme judges) were exhibited to the greatest advantage, and nightly patrols both of horse and foot announced a vigilance which defied surprise. The Indians were in astonishment and terror and I believe most of them went off impressed with the belief that Vincennes was not as easily to be taken as their chief would have convinced them." The promptitude and foresight of the Governor probably prevented a massacre.

Harrison sought an immediate interview, but was not able to bring Tecumseh into council, until Tuesday the thirtieth of July. An arbor had been erected in front of the executive mansion. An hour before the time of the appointed meeting Tecumseh sent a messenger to learn whether the Governor would be attended by an armed force. In that event he announced that he would come armed also. The Governor gave him his choice, but informed the chief that in case his warriors left their guns at their camp, that he (Harrison) would only be attended by twenty-five or thirty dismounted dragoons. Tecumseh preferred the latter arrangement, "and came attended by about one hundred and seventy or one hundred and eighty men without guns, but all of them having knives and tomahawks or war clubs, and some with bows and arrows." The Governor opened the council by mentioning the great alarm which had been occasioned by the late murders in Illinois and the assembling of so large a body of savages, and declared that he was ready to listen to anything that the chiefs might have to say, but that he would enter into no negotiation concerning the late purchase. That affair was in the hands of the President who had not sent any answer to the claim that Tecumseh had last year set up on behalf of all the tribes on the continent. He also declared that Tecumseh might, if he so desired, make a visit to the President and hear his determination from his own mouth. The Governor concluded by demanding an explanation of the seizure of the salt.

Tecumseh in his short reply adverted to the matter of the salt first. He said that he had not been at home on either occasion when the salt boats had arrived, but that it was impossible to please the Governor, for last year he was angry because the salt was refused, and now he was angry because it was taken. After some further unimportant observations, a violent 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 and made a long speech on the treaties that had been entered into between the Governor and the Indian tribes. He closed by stating that the Miamis had 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 had held the tomahawk over their heads, and punish him. This was, of course, an allusion to Winamac. Harrison immediately called on the Miami chiefs present for a contradiction of this statement, and then turning to Tecumseh, told him that it lay within his power to manifest the truth of his professions of friendship towards the United States and his desire to preserve peace, by delivering up the two Potawatomi who had murdered the four white men on the Missouri last fall, and who were then in his camp.

The reply of Tecumseh is given in Harrison's own language. "He said that after much trouble and difficulty he had at length brought all the northern tribes to unite and place themselves under his direction. That the white people were unnecessarily alarmed at his measures—that they really meant nothing but peace—the United States had set him the example of forming a strict union amongst all the fires that compose their confederacy. That the Indians did not complain of it—nor should his white brothers complain of him for doing the same thing with regard to the Indian tribes. As soon as the council was over he was to set out on a visit to the southern tribes to get them to unite with those of the north. To my demand of the murderers, he observed that they were not in his town, as I believed them—that it was not right to punish those people—that they ought to be forgiven, as well as those who lately murdered our people in the Illinois. That he had set us an example of forgiveness of injuries which we ought to follow. The Ottawas had murdered one of his women, and the Osages one of his relations, and yet he had forborne to revenge them—that he had even taken the tomahawks out of the hands of those who were ready to march against the Osages. To my inquiry whether he was determined to prevent the settlement of the New Purchase, he replied that he hoped no attempt would be made to settle until his return next spring. That a great number of Indians were coming to settle at his town this fall, and who must occupy that tract as a hunting ground, and if they did no further injury, they might kill the cattle and hogs of the white people, which would produce disturbance. That he wished every thing to remain in its present situation until his return—our settlements not to progress further—and no revenge sought for any injury that had been or should be received by the white people until his return—that he would then go and see the President and settle everything with him. That the affairs of all the tribes in this quarter were in his hands and that nothing could be done without him—that he would dispatch messengers in every direction to prevent them from doing any more mischief—that he had made full atonement for the murders which had been committed by the wampum which he delivered."

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

We have said that the promptitude and foresight of the Governor probably averted a massacre. It was the opinion of all the neutral Indians on the ground that Tecumseh meditated a stroke. His manner throughout the council was embarrassed, and it was evident to all that the speech he actually delivered was not the one he had prepared for the occasion. If he had found the Governor unprepared and the town defenseless, his fierce hatred of the paleface and his boundless ambition as a warrior, would probably have prompted him to resort to violence, for it is a well known fact, observed by all Indian writers, that a savage will always act upon the advantage of the moment, regardless of future consequences. Besides, it is probable that Tecumseh now felt himself powerful enough to deal a telling blow. Many accessions had been made to his confederacy and the daring depredations in the Illinois country had gone unpunished. Like all savages, he had nothing but contempt for a government that did not promptly revenge its wrongs. But when, on approaching the town, he observed the great military array, and saw bodies of armed men and mounted riflemen moving to and fro, his resolution was shaken and he experienced a more wholesome respect for his adversary's strength. "Heedless of futurity," says Harrison, "it is only by placing the danger before his eyes, that a savage is to be controlled. Even the gallant Tecumseh is not insensible to an argument of this kind. No courtier could be more complaisant, than he was upon his last visit. To have heard him, one would have supposed that he came here for the purpose of complimenting me. This wonderful metamorphosis in manner was entirely produced by the gleaming and clanging of arms; by the frowns of a considerable body of hunting shirt men, who accidentally lined a road by which he approached to the council house."

The body of savages again melted away, and the Miami chieftains who had accompanied the expedition returned to their homes. On the fifth of August, Tecumseh, with a retinue of twenty chiefs, including the famous Potawatomi, Shaubena, passed down the Wabash to visit the nations of the south and more firmly cement the bonds of his confederacy. The day before he departed he called on the Governor and labored hard to convince him that he had no object in view other than to unite the tribes in a league of peace. After visiting the Creeks and Choctaws, he was to pass through the land of the Osages and return by the Missouri river. Before his return, the last hope of the red man was to be forever crushed, and the old dream of Pontiac forever dispelled.

The Governor has paid a just and worthy tribute to his savage foe. In a letter of August seventh, 1811, he writes to the department of war as follows: "The implicit confidence and respect which the followers of Tecumseh pay to him is really astonishing, and more than any other circumstance bespeaks him one of those uncommon geniuses, which spring up occasionally to produce revolutions and overturn the established order 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 glory that of Mexico or Peru. No difficulties deter him. His activity and industry supply the want of letters. For four years he has been in constant motion. You see him today on the Wabash, and in a short time you hear of him on the shores of Lake Erie or Michigan, or on the banks of the Mississippi, and wherever he goes he makes an impression favorable to his purposes."

While these stirring events were happening at the frontier capital, and on the thirty-first of July, a considerable body of the citizens of Vincennes, both English and French, met at the seminary building, and after selecting Ephraim Jordan as president and one James Smith as secretary, certain resolutions were "fallen into," which vividly portray the emotions of the frontiersmen of that day and their dire apprehension of impending danger. The resolutions stated in substance that the safety of the persons and property of the inhabitants could never be effectively secured, but by the breaking up of the combination formed on the Wabash by the Shawnee Prophet; that the inhabitants regarded this combination as a British scheme; that but for the prompt measures of Governor Harrison, it was highly probable that the town would have been destroyed and the inhabitants massacred. The Rev. Samuel T. Scott, the Rev. Alexander Devin, Colonel Luke Decker, Francis Vigo and others, were appointed as a committee to draft an address to the President of the United States, setting forth their situation and praying for relief. On the same day this address was duly formulated and signed by the committee above mentioned, and forwarded to the chief executive of the nation. In it, the citizens breathed forth their terrors and fear of the Wabash banditti, and their alarm at the constant depredations committed on the frontier. One passage is significant. "The people have become irritated and alarmed, and if the government will not direct their energies, we fear that the innocent will feel the effects of their resentment, and a general war be the consequence." A temper of this kind could not long be disregarded. Temporizing must cease.