88 The Winning of the West 



opening was made in the dam to let the boats pass. 

 The traders and Indians thoroughly appreciated the 

 help given them at this difficult part of the course 

 by the engineering skill of the beavers for Hamil- 

 ton was following the regular route of the hunting, 

 trading, and war parties, and none of the beavers 

 of this particular dam were ever molested, being 

 left to keep their dam in order, and repair it, which 

 they always speedily did whenever it was damaged. 8 

 It proved as difficult to go down the Wabash as 

 to go up the Maumee. The water was shallow, and 

 once or twice in great swamps dikes had to be built 

 that the boats might be floated across. Frost set 

 in heavily, and the ice cut the men as they worked 

 in the water to haul the boats over shoals or rocks. 

 The bateaux often needed to be beached and caulked, 

 while both whites and Indians had to help carry the 

 loads round the shoal places. At every Indian vil- 

 lage it was necessary to stop, hold a conference, 

 and give presents. At last the Wea village or 

 Ouiatanon, as Hamilton called it was reached. 

 Here the Wabash chiefs, who had made peace with 

 the Americans, promptly came in and tendered their 

 allegiance to the British, and a reconnoitring party 

 seized a lieutenant and three men of the Vincennes 

 militia, who were themselves on a scouting expe- 

 dition, but who nevertheless were surprised and cap- 

 tured without difficulty. 9 They had been sent out 



8 Haldimand MSS. Hamilton's "brief account." 



9 Do. The French officer had in his pocket one British and 

 one American commission ; Hamilton debated in his mind for 

 some time the advisability of hanging him. 



