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INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES.

the Indian towns which lay around the forks of this river (now Fort Wayne, Indiana), he began to destroy the Indian fields and huts in the outskirts of their camp, whereby his troops became so much divided, that they were separately attacked and routed by the savages under their war-chief Little Turtle. General Harmar, after this disaster, thought it prudent to retire again to Fort Washington. He had instructions for the erection of a fort on the Maumee, but his troops after the defeat became unreliable, and, as the supplies were short, and the season being too far advanced to bring forward others, the enterprise was dropped. General Harmar, the next year, was dismissed from the service.

The savages, intoxicated with joy over the defeat of their adversaries, now swarmed all over the country and around the settlements, striking terror into the hearts of even the hardiest of the pioneers. A cry went up to the general government, demanding energetic measures in the premises, Harmar's disastrous defeat having demonstrated the necessity of imposing some strong check upon the aggressions of the northern Indians; and new measures were devised for the attainment of that end. Governor St. Clair was at once appointed a major-general in the service of Congress, and vested with the power of a commander-in-chief of the United States forces; Orders were given for the recruiting of a large and effective army, and besides, the militia of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky were called into action. >

While this powerful army was organizing and concentrating at Fort Washington, Colonels Scott and Wilkinson were sent in the summer of 1791 on an expedition into the lower Wabash country, where they succeeded in destroying several Indian towns and fields, which, coupled with the same policy pursued by Harmar, led the Indians, stimulated by the British, to the belief that the government policy was to exterminate the race and seize their lands. In this belief they were confirmed when they witnessed the extensive preparations making by St. Clair