WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 237 



warrior's whole history, as he often requested us to do. 

 By those who neither knew him, nor any other wild Indians, 

 he is often represented as being something very uncommon; 

 whereas all his movements originated with the Canadian Indi- 

 an department. In obedience to their orders, he visited near- 

 ly all the Indian nations of North America, stirring them all 

 up, against the Americans. He told the Onondagoes, through 

 the writer, as his interpreter, " that he had visited the Florida 

 Indians, and even the Indians so far to the north that snow 

 covered the ground in midsummer." He was a warrior, and 

 Elsquataway acted as a prophet, dissuading the Indians from 

 drinking ardent spirits. As to real talent he possessed no 

 more of it than any one of thousands of his people, in the 

 northwest. Being much with the British officers, he had en^ 

 larged his ideas very much, as I^eokuk has his also, in the 

 same way. All the principal men of the Winnebagoes had 

 learned a great deal from the English officers. In their man- 

 ners, these Indians at table, were most perfect gentlemen, and 

 they knew enough to behave so any where. Whether the ridic- 

 ulous stories about Tecumseh's death will continue to be told, 

 we do not know, but we have done our duty by stating facts. 

 Upon one incident, the death of Tecumseh in the battle of 

 the Thames, we cannot resist the impulse to make a further 

 remark upon the capriciousness of that species of fame, which 

 is ephemeral. General Harrison who planned this well fought 

 and successful battle, has never been applauded for what he 

 so richly merited; while an individual, a subordinate, who 

 merely did his duty, as every other officer and solder did, has 

 been applauded to the very echo, for killing an Indian! If 

 that had been true, he deserved no more credit than any one 

 common soldier in the engagement. A few Mohawks, and 

 some other Indian chiefs and warriors belonging to the Cana- 

 dian Indians, about lake Ontario, were mixed with the British 

 regulars in the front line of the enemy. Some of these sava- 

 ges were killed in the action, and the remainder of these In- 

 dians on horse back, fled with Proctor. The Indian found dead, 

 belonged to these Indians, not to the Winnebagoes or Shaw- 



