856

TECUMTHE JOINS THE BRITISH STANDARD.

1812.

of an approaching Indian war, were peculiarly calculated to alarm the people of the West, among whom, at the close of the year, there existed a universal feeling of gloom and consternation.

Although Harrison had written about the close of the last year that 1812.] " the frontiers never .enjoyed more perfect repose," it is evident that a disposition to do mischief was by no means extinguished among the savages.

At the time of the battle of Tippecanoe, Tecumthe, the master spirit in Indian diplomacy, was amongst the southern Indians, to bring them into the grand confederacy he had projected. On his return, where he supposed he had made a strong and permauent impression, a few days after the disastrous battle, when he saw the dispersion of his followers, the disgrace of his brother, and the destruction of his long cherished hopes, he was exceedingly angry. The rash presumptuousness of the Prophet, in attacking the American army at Tippecanoe, destroyed his own power, and crushed the grand confederacy before it was completed.

When Tecumthe first met the Prophet, he reproached him in the bitterest terms, and when the latter attempted to palliate his conduct, he seized him by the hair, shook him violently, and threatened to take his life.

Tecumthe immediately sent word to Governor Harrison, that he had returned from the south, and that he was ready to visit the president, as had been previously proposed. The governor gave him permission to proceed to Washington, but uot a3 the leader of a party of Indians, as he desired. The proud chief, who had appeared at Vincennes in 1811, with a large party of braves, had no desire to appear before his " Great Father," the president, without his retinue. The proposed visit was declined, and the intercourse between Tecumthe and the governor terminated.

Iu June, he sought an interview with the Indian agent at Fort Wayne; disavowed any intentiou of making war on the United States, and reproached General Harrison for having marched against his people during his absence. The agent replied to this; Tecumthe listened with frigid indifference, and after making a few general remarks, with a haughty air, left the council house, and departed for Fort Maiden, in Upper Canada, where he joined the British standard.

The causes of complaint on the part of the United States against England, which at length led to the war of 1812, were, the interference with American trade enforced by the blockade system; the