and between them and the Shawnese a friendly intercourse had long subsisted. His object was to excite the Creeks to hostilities against the United States, and eventually to form a general Indian confederacy, under the protection of the British.

That Tecumthé himself, and the disaffected band of the Shawnese, who adhered to him, had been tampered with by the British agents, no man can doubt, who was so situated as to observe the course of events upon the frontier, or who has examined the mass of evidence, submitted by the President to Congress in his message of June 11, 1812, respecting the origin and progress of our difficulties with the Indians. Tecumthé returned from his tour in December, and remained with his party during the winter of 1811, 12. In the spring of 1812, as the note of preparation became louder and louder, he was invited to Malden. He left Fort Wayne for that place. on the second of July, and arrived there about the eighth or ninth.* He was in most of the engagements upon that frontier, during the two succeeding campaigns, and never was again further west than the Tippecanoe.

The Reviewers, with their characteristic accuracy, state, that the Indians, lulled into security by confidence in the supernatural powers of their prophet, and neglecting that caution, which is generally so marked a trait in the Indian character, were surprised by an American corps in the dead of the night on the banks of the Wabash, and almost annihilated. Tecumthé, with a small number of warriors, escaped the massacre; but it is probable, that the survivors were too few to preserve the separate existence of a tribe; for while he swayed the whole Indian body, Tecumthé could scarcely number a score of immediate followers of his own people.'

In this paragraph are almost as many misrepresentations as lines. We happen to know, and the whole American people know, that the troops under General Harrison did not attack the Indians. The army encamped in the vicinity of the Prophet's Town, under the expectation, and with assurances from the Indians, that the difficulties would be adjusted at a

*For some days preceding his departure from Fort Wayne, he had been in conference with the agent there, on the state of affairs between the United States and Great Britain, and on the evening of the first of July he promised, that he would return to the Wabash, quietly resume his ordinary occupations, and avoid any participation in the approaching conflict.

council to be held the succeeding day. But the General had been trained in the school of experience. He was able and cautious, and his troops were brave. And to these qualities. they owed their final safety. Before the dawn of day, the Indians commenced a fierce assault upon the camp, and after much slaughter were driven from the field. A nocturnal surprise of an encampment of Indians by a corps of civilised. troops, every step of whose progress has been vigilantly watched, is a manoeuvre to be found only in the tactics of the Quarterly; and is probably among the discoveries, for which we are indebted to the educated Englishman.' Tecumthé was not present at the engagement. He was then on his southern mission. It is certain he did not anticipate a battle, during his absence, and it is probable he still calculated on the system of forbearance, which had marked the conduct of the American government towards the Indians. His brother, the Prophet, had the principal direction of affairs; an influence, which he owed to his talents and his religious character, rather than to his military qualifications. Mengoatowa, a Kickapoo chief, who was killed, and Waweapakoosa, a Winebago chief, commanded in the action, as far as any command. was exercised. But where there is no combination of movement, and each individual is left to act for himself, very little authority is necessary, and very little is exerted.

The Reviewers say, that many Shawnese were killed in the action, and to this they attribute the weakness of the band, which accompanied Tecumthé, when he joined the British. Admirable historians! But one Shawnese was killed in the action. The loss fell on the Kickapoos, Winebagoes, and Potawatamies. We happen to know why Tecumthé's party was so weak, and we will communicate the cause, for the benefit of the author of the next tirade upon this subject in the Quarterly. Tecumthé was a disaffected man, and had seceded from the 'legitimate' authority of his tribe. All the chiefs, and almost all the warriors, were opposed to his plans. They saw, that these were fraught with ruin to their people, and believed them to have originated in a system of self aggrandisement. Tecumthé was a novus homo, not entitled

Paaksgee was killed; and three other Shawnese, namely, Kathooskaka, Mamatseka, and Maipokseka were wounded.

to any hereditary authority; and he regarded with jealousy the influence of the lawful chiefs. The great body of the tribe adhered with unshaken fidelity to the cause of the United States, during the whole contest, and time has proved the wisdom of their measures. They are now living comfortably, upon a large reservation secured to them in a fertile part of Ohio; while Tecumthé fell in a cause, in which he had no interest, and his son and brother are outcasts from their people, receiving no aid from the British government, and anxious to rejoin their connexions.* Like all other In

dians, who have placed their faith in the same trust, when their services ceased to be useful, they ceased to be regarded or rewarded.

We are the less apprehensive of leading our readers, or being ourselves led into error on this topic, or on any other connected with the history or objects of Tecumthé, as the Prophet his brother, and his son are sitting with us, while we are writing these remarks, and as they have freely disclosed to us their past history and present situation. We have been not a little amused, at the shrewd observations of the Prophet, respecting the ignorance of the Reviewers in the article, which we have caused to be explained to him.

Tecumthé has obtained a celebrity, such as has fallen to the lot of few of his countrymen. For this he was indebt

ed, not less to adventitious circumstances, than to his own physical and mental endowments. He was a man of more enlarged views, than are often found among the Indian chiefs; a brave warrior, and a skilful leader; politic in his measures, and firm in his purposes. But he was jealous and ambitious, and prepared to sacrifice the happiness of his people to his own impracticable projects. His connexion with the British contributed, however, more than any other circumstance, to the celebrity he enjoyed. He was an instrument in their hands; and it was their interest to give him an importance, true or false, by which they could wield the savage force, which they had collected. With this view he was invited, as the Quarterly states, to the British General's table, and with this view he was made the distributor of the presents, lavished upon the Indians. One of the British

* Since the above was written, they have left Canada, and removed to the Shawnese reservation in Ohio, radically cured, if we may credit their own declarations, of their Anglo Mania.

armed vessels was named the Tecumthé, and another the Nawash. This Nawash was an Ottawa, elevated to importance by the same system, and with the same object. He has long since ceased to be useful, and now lives in utter insignificance among his tribe, upon the Miami in the Michigan Territory.*

The Prophet, the brother of Tecumthé, was an able coadjutor. His character has not been well understood. He is shrewd, and sagacious, and well qualified to acquire an influence over those about him. We are inclined to think, that at the commencement of his career he was a fanatic, who had ' seen visions and dreamed dreams,' and who believed the doctrines he professed and inculcated. This practical conquest of the imagination over the reason is not very rare, even in civilised life; and there is a singular feature in the system of Indian education, by which its occurrence is encouraged and promoted.† Subsequent events in life are materially affected by this process, and vivid impres

* In the division of labor among the Indians, the composition and delivery of speeches, are not often entrusted to the same person. In all important questions, the Chiefs previously assemble and prepare the speech, which is to be delivered. And here the influence of talent and authority is exerted and felt. But the public delivery of the speech is a mere act of memory on the part of the orator. The addresses, for which Tecumthé has had credit, were prepared principally by Walk-in-the-water, the Grey-eyed-man, and Isidore, three Wyandot Chiefs; and the celebrated remonstrance to Proctor, against his evacuation of the country upon the Detroit River, and in which he was told, that he appeared like a dog running off with his tail between his legs, was thus prepared in the house of Mrs Walker, a respectable half Wyandot woman, upon whose authority we state the fact. Tecumthé was not an able composer of speeches. We understand he was particularly deficient in those powers of the imagination, to which we have been indebted for the boldest flights of Indian eloquence. He was sometimes confused, and generally tedious and circumlocutory.

We have in our possession ample materials for a biographical sketch of this celebrated chief. Hereafter we may embody them in an article for our Journal.

This remarkable institution should receive a minute examination. It is admirably contrived to render the Indians reckless of consequences, and its influence is not less powerful, than the sternest principle of fatalism. The tutelary genii guard the lives of their favorites, and the Eagle receives upon his beak the balls of their enemies.

The process commences before the age of puberty, and continues for a shorter or longer term, as the revelations are more or less propitious. The appearance of some animals foreshow a happy destiny, while others, and particularly snakes, portend misfortune. When the dreams are fortunate, the discipline is terminated; but when otherwise, it is interrupted, and after some time renewed, with the hope of a more favorable result. If, however, in this hope, they continue to be disappointed, their situation is remediless, and they must submit with fortitude to the calamities which await them.

sions are formed, which are never eradicated. This result is produced by a system of watching and fasting, rigorous, painful, and long continued. During this period, which is called the time of fasting,' in Chippewa, Makatea, many rites are practised to render the lessons impressive, and to excite the feelings to a proper degree of susceptibility. The guardian Manitou finally appears in a dream, assuming the shape of some animal, and is ever after during life the object of adoration. The real or imaginary qualities of this animal indicate the character, and the proper business in life of the dreamer. If it is an eagle, he must be a warrior; if a wolf, a hunter; and if a turkey buzzard, a prophet or physician.

It is probable, that the opinions of the Shawnese Prophet, in mature age, were materially affected by this hallucination, and that when he began his career, he was as much the dupe of his own feelings, as were any of his hearers. His conduct was certainly incompatible with any rational policy, that he can be supposed to have adopted; and of the immense numbers, who from time to time assembled at Greenville, and elsewhere, to hear his rhapsodies, many perished from hunger, and none attempted to aid him in any project, hostile to the United States, till long after his influence was on the wane. The Shawnese, whatever may have been their origin, were intruders upon the Northwestern Indians. They owned no portion of the country, and, consequently, were entitled to no part of the consideration paid for the cession of it. A principle of international law, which should prevent the sale of land by one tribe, without the consent of all, could not but be advantageous to those, who had no other title than sufferance to the district they occupied. This was a cardinal principle in the policy of Tecumthé, and the opportunity, furnished by the fanaticism of his brother, opened the way for more enlarged views, and eventually afforded the means, as he thought, of accomplishing them.

These prophets, as they are improperly termed, frequently make their appearance among the Indians, and acquire a wonderful ascendancy over them. They are preachers, prophets, and physicians, and they pretend to a direct communication, with all the superior and inferior deities in the Indian mythology.