208 The Winning of the West 



though they included a few veteran Indian fighters. 

 The party left Mingo Bottom on the 25th of May. 

 After nine days* steady marching through the un- 

 broken forests they came out on the Sandusky plains ; 

 billowy stretches of prairie, covered with high coarse 

 grass and dotted with islands of timber. As the 

 men marched across them they roused quantities of 

 prairie fowl, and saw many geese and sand-hill 

 cranes, which circled about in the air, making a 

 strange clamor. 



Crawford hoped to surprise the Indian towns ; but 

 his progress was slow and the militia every now and 

 then fired off their guns. The spies of the savages 

 dogged his march and knew all his movements 19 ; 

 and runners were sent to Detroit asking help. This 

 the British commandant at once granted. He sent 

 to the assistance of the threatened tribes a number 

 of lake Indians and a body of rangers and Cana- 

 dian volunteers, under Captain Caldwell. 20 



On the fourth of June Crawford's troops reached 

 one of the Wyandot towns. It was found to be de- 

 serted ; and the army marched on to try and find 

 the others. Late in the afternoon, in the midst of 

 the plains, near a cranberry marsh, they encoun- 

 tered Caldwell and his Detroit rangers, together 

 with about two hundred Delawares, Wyandots, and 



19 Heckewelder, 336. Butterfield shows conclusively that 

 there is not the slightest ground to accept Heckewelder's as- 

 sertion that Crawford's people openly declared that "no In- 

 dian was to be spared, friend or foe." 



20 Haldimand MSS. May 14, 1782. De Peyster to Haldi- 

 mand. 



