186 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



mined that she would accompany him and Scott, and 

 never give back or mourn the fatigue, until she had 

 moistened the grave of her father with her tears. 



In the meantime, young Atwater's Attorney, in his 

 turn, became uneasy at the result of the next trial. — He 

 now, on the part of the claimant, renewed the proposal 

 for a compromise. He even offered to take less than half 

 the value of the property. Scott would, perhaps, have 

 closed with this offer, but Indiana firmly resisted, declar- 

 ing that however dark the prospect, she yet humbly be- 

 lieved the whole of the dream of her father would be ac- 

 complished. 



Finding his proposals rejected, he returned to his vil- 

 lainy, as natural as "the hog to his wallow." His first 

 attempt was to bribe one of the negroes about the house 

 to rob Indiana of her ring. Failing in this, he determined 

 to have one made exactly like it, and with the means of 

 that, work one of the worst of deceptions upon the In- 

 dians, and obtain possession of the papers ; one of which 

 he had no doubt was the Will made upon the battle 

 ground of Tippecanoe, and which, if ever in possession 

 of Indiana, would forever ruin his chance upon the prop- 

 erty, as he had ascertained that the witnesses were yet 

 living, and besides the hand writing was such that it 

 could never be disputed. With this end in view, he wrote 

 to Washington to ascertain in what part of the state the 

 reservation made by the treaty to an Indian called Sho- 

 val-ya, was situated. How he was astounded when in- 

 formed by the war officer "that no such name appeared 

 upon the treaty." Weighing every one in his own bal- 

 ance, he immediately pronounced Western a villain and 

 imposter, and his whole story a vile fabrication, got up 

 and contrived by the defendant's counsel, merely to get 

 a year or two more time to make way with the property. 

 "And now I recollect," says he, "how darned coolly 

 they sat and listened to the infernal lie of their dirty 

 tool." And with this comfortable persuasion, he settled 

 his mind to patiently await the "law's delay ;" fully satis- 



