io8 The Winning of the West 



lance, Wayne marched without opposition to the 

 confluence of the Glaize and the Maumee, where 

 the hostile Indian villages began, and whence they 

 stretched to below the British fort. The savages 

 were taken by surprise and fled without offering 

 opposition; while Wayne halted, on August 8th, 

 and spent a week in building a strong log stockade, 

 with four good block-houses as bastions; he chris- 

 tened the work Fort Defiance. 36 The Indians had 

 cleared and tilled immense fields, and the troops 

 reveled in the fresh vegetables and ears of roasted 

 corn, and enjoyed the rest; 37 for during the march 

 the labor of cutting a road through the thick forest 

 had been very severe, while the water was bad and 

 the mosquitoes were exceedingly troublesome. At 

 one place a tree fell on Wayne and nearly killed 

 him; but though somewhat crippled he continued 

 as active and vigilant as ever. 38 



From Fort Defiance Wayne sent a final offer of 

 peace to the Indians, summoning them at once to 

 send deputies to meet him. The letter was carried 

 by Christopher Miller and a Shawnee prisoner ; and 

 in it Wayne explained that Miller was a Shawnee 

 by adoption, whom his soldiers had captured "six 

 months since," while the Shawnee warrior had been 



36 American State Papers, IV, 490, Wayne to Secretary of 

 War, Aug. 14, 1794. 



31 Bradley MSS. Letter of Captain Daniel Bradley to 

 Ebenezer Banks, Grand Glaize, August 28, 1794. 



38 "American Pioneer," I, 317, Daily Journal of Wayne's 

 Campaign. By -Lieutenant Boyer. Reprinted separately in 

 Cincinnati in 1866. 



