utmost despatch. I halted at twelve o'clock to refresh the horses, and examine the men's arms and ammunitions; marched again at half after one; and at fifteen minutes before five I struck the Wabash, about one and a half leagues above the mouth of Eel river, being the very spot for which I had aimed from the commencement of my march. I crossed the river, and following the path a north by east course, at the distance of two and a half miles, my reconnoitering party announced Eel river in front, and the town on the opposite bank. I dismounted, ran forward, and examined the situation of the town as far as was practicable, without exposing myself; but the whole face of the country, from the Wabash to the margin of Eel river, being a continued thicket of brambles, black jacks, weeds and shrubs of different kinds, it was impossible for me to get a satisfactory view, without endangering a discovery. I immediately determined to post two companies on the bank of the river, opposite to the town, and above the ground I then occupied, to make a detour with Major Caldwell and the second battalion, until I fell into the Miami trace, and by that route to cross the river above, and gain the rear of the town, and to leave directions with Major McDowell, who commanded the first battalion, to lie perdue until I commenced the attack, then to dash through the river with his corps and the advanced guard, and assault the houses in front and upon the left. In the moment I was about to put this arrangement into execution, word was brought me that the enemy had taken the alarm, and were flying. I instantly ordered a general charge, which was obeyed with alacrity. The men, forcing their way over every obstacle, plunged through the river with vast intrepidity. The enemy was unable to make the smallest resistance. Six warriors, and (in the hurry and confusion of the charge) two squaws and a child, were killed; thirty-four prisoners were taken, and an unfortunate captive released, with the loss of two men killed and one wounded.

"I found this town scattered along Eel river for full three miles, on an uneven, scrubby oak barren, intersected alternately by bogs almost impassable, and impervious thickets of plum, hazel, and black jacks. Notwithstanding these difficulties, if I may credit the report of the prisoners, very few who were in town escaped. Expecting a second expedition, their goods

were generally packed up and buried. Sixty warriors had crossed the Wabash to watch the paths leading from the Ohio. The head chief, with all the prisoners, and a number of families, were out digging a root which they substitute in place of the potato; and about one hour before my arrival, all the warriors, except eight, had mounted their horses, and rode up the river to a French store to purchase ammunition. This ammunition had arrived from the Miami village that very day, and the squaws informed me was stored about two miles from the town. I detached Major Caldwell in quest of it; but he failed to make any discovery, although he scoured the country for seven or eight miles up the river.

"I encamped in the town that night, and the next morning I cut up the corn, scarcely in the milk, burned the cabins, mounted my young warriors, squaws, and children, in the best manner in my power, and leaving two infirm squaws and a child, with a short talk, I commenced my march for the Kickapoo town in the prairie. I felt my prisoners a vast incumbrance; but I was not in force to justify a detachment, having barely five hundred and twenty-three rank-and-file, and being then in the bosom of the Ouiatenon country, one hundred and eighty miles removed from succor, and not more than one and a half days' march from the Pottawattamies, Shawanees and Delawares.

"Not being able to discover any path in the direct course to the Kickapoo town, I marched by the road leading to Tippecanoe, in the hope of finding some diverging trace which might favor my design. I encamped, that evening, about six miles from Ke-na-pa-com-a-qua, the Indian name of the town I had destroyed, and marched next morning at four o'clock. My course continued west until nine o'clock, when I turned to the northwest, on a small hunting-path, and, at a short distance, I launched into the boundless prairies of the west, with the intention to pursue that course until I could strike a road which leads from the Pottawattamies of lake Michigan immediately to the town I sought. With this view, I pushed forward, through bog after bog, to the saddle-skirts in mud and water; and after persevering for eight hours, I found myself environed on all sides, by morasses which forbade my advancing, and, at the same time, rendered it difficult for me to extricate my little

army. The way by which we had entered was so much beat and softened by the horses, that it was almost impossible to return by that route; and my guides pronounced the morass in front impassable. A chain of thin groves, extending in the direction of the Wabash, at this time presented itself to my left. It was necessary I should gain these groves; and, for this purpose, I dismounted, went forward, and, leading my horse through a bog to the armpits in mud and water, with great difficulty and fatigue I accomplished my object; and, changing my course to south-by-west, I regained the Tippecanoe road at five o'clock, and encamped on it at seven o'clock, after a march of thirty miles, which broke down several of my horses. I am the more minute in detailing the occurrences of this day, because they produced the most unfavorable effects.

"I was in motion at four o'clock next morning, and at eight o'clock my advanced guard made some discoveries which induced me to believe we were near an Indian village. I immediately pushed that body forward in a trot, and followed with Major Caldwell and the second battalion; leaving Major McDowell to take the charge of the prisoners. I reached Tippecanoe at twelve o'clock, which had been occupied by the enemy, who watched my motions and abandoned the place that morning. After the destruction of this town, in June last, the enemy had returned and cultivated their corn and pulse, which I found in high perfection, and in much greater quantity than at l'Anguille, [the French name of Ke-na-pa-com-aqua.] To refresh my horses, and give time to cut down the corn, I determined to halt till the next morning, and then to resume my march to the Kickapoo town, on the prairie, by the road which leads from Ouiatenon to that place. In the course of the day, I had discovered some murmurings aud discontent among the men, which I found, on inquiry, to proceed from their reluctance to advance farther into the enemy's country. This induced me to call for a state of the horses and provisions; when, to my great mortification, two hundred and seventy horses were returned lame and tired, with barely five days' provisions for the men. Under these circumstances, I was compelled to abandon my designs upon the Kickapoos of the prairies, and, with a degree of anguish not to be compre

hended but by those who have experienced similar disappointments, I marched forward to a town of the same nation, situate about three leagues west of Ouiatenon: as I advanced to that town, the enemy made some show of fighting me, but vanished at my approach. I destroyed this town, consisting of thirty houses, with a considerable quantity of corn in the milk, and the same day I moved on to Ouiatenon, where I forded the Wabash, and proceeded to the site of the villages on the margin of the prairie, where I encamped at seven o'clock. At this town, and the villages destroyed by General Scott, in June, we found the corn had been replanted, and was now in high cultivation, several fields being well plowed; all of which was destroyed. On the 12th I resumed my march, and, falling into General Scott's return trace, I arrived, without any material incident, at the Rapids of the Ohio, on the 21st inst., [August,] after a march, by accurate computation, of four hundred and fifty-one miles from Fort Washington.

"The volunteers of Kentucky have, on this occasion, acquitted themselves with their usual good conduct: but, as no opportunity offered for individual distinction, it would be unjust to give one the plaudits to which they all have an equal title. I can not, however, in propriety, forbear to express my warm approbation of the good conduct of my majors, McDowell and Caldwell; and of Colonel Russell, who, in the character of a volunteer, without commission, led my advance; and I feel myself under obligations to Major Adair and Captain Parker, who acted immediately about my person, for the services they rendered me, by most prompt, active, and energetic exertions. "The services which I have been able to render, fall short of my wishes, my intentions, and my expectations. But, sir, when you reflect on the causes which checked my career and blasted my designs, I flatter myself you will believe every thing has been done which could be done in my circumstances. I have destroyed the chief town of the Ouiatenon nation, and made prisoners of the sons and sisters of the king: I have burned a respectable Kickapoo village, and cut down at least four hundred and thirty acres of corn, chiefly in the milk. The Ouiatenons, [Weas,] left without houses, home, or provisions, must cease to war, and will find active employ to subsist their squaws and children during the impending winter."

CHAPTER XXIII.

ST. CLAIR'S EXPEDITION.

THE three successive expeditions, under Harmar, Scott, and Wilkinson, fell with considerable severity on the tribes of the Miami and Shawanee nations. Many of their people were killed; their principal villages were plundered and destroyed; their cultivated fields were laid waste; and a number of their men, women, and children, were taken and carried into captivity. But, impressed with the opinion that the United States wished to deprive them of their lands and exterminate their race, these tribes, instead of being subdued by their misfortunes, were aroused to a state of angry excitement which bordered on desperation. To aid them in their war against the United States, they called to their assistance numbers of warriors from the Delaware, Wyandot, Kickapoo, Pottawattamie, Ottawa, Chippewa, and other northern tribes; and while Governor St. Clair was making preparations to establish a military post at the Miami village, the Miami chief Little Turtle, the Shawance chief Blue Jacket, and the Delaware chief Buck-ong-a-helas, were actively engaged in an effort to organize a confederacy of tribes sufficiently powerful to drive the white settlers from the territory lying on the northwestern side of the river Ohio. These chiefs received counsel and aid from Simon Girty, Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott,* and from a number of British, French, and American traders, who generally resided among the Indians, and supplied them with arms and ammunition, in exchange for furs and peltries. At this time the government of Great Britain still supported garrisons at the posts of Niag ara, Detroit, and Michilimacinac, notwithstanding it was declared, by the seventh article of the definitive treaty of peace of 1783, that the king of Great Britain would "with all convenient speed, and without causing any destruction, or carrying away any negroes or property of the American inhabitants,

*McKee and Elliott were subordinate agents in the British Indian Department.