ey will
begin to study in what manner they can most effectually
deceive us.

Should negociations for peace be opened, I cannot be too
earnest with your excellency to represent to the king's
ministers the expediency of including the Indians as allies,
and not leave them exposed to the unrelenting fury of their
enemies.

The enemy has evidently assumed defensive measures along the
strait of Niagara. His force, I apprehend, is not equal to
attempt, with any probability of success, an expedition across
the river. It is, however, currently reported that large
reinforcements are on their march; should they arrive, an
attack cannot be long delayed. The approach of the rainy
season will increase the sickness with which the troops are
already afflicted. Those under my command are in perfect
health and spirits.

I have the honor to transmit the purport of a confidential
communication[94] received in my absence by Brigade-Major
Evans from Colonel Van Rensselaer. As your excellency's
instructions agree with the line of conduct he is anxious I
should follow, nothing of a hostile nature shall be attempted
under existing circumstances.

* * * * *

The unlettered Tecumseh well knew the wrongs of the red men when he
endeavoured, several years before the war, to induce the Osages to unite
in a general Indian confederacy against the continued encroachments of
the Americans, and gave extemporaneous utterance before a large
assemblage to the following simple but faithful narration of their
grievances. The harangue, eloquent as it is, suffers under all the
disadvantages of translation, and is but the shadow of the substance,
because the gestures, and the interests and feelings excited by the
occasion, which constitute the essentials of its character, are
altogether wanting.

Brothers,--We all belong to one family; we are all children of
the Great Spirit; we walk in the same path; slake our thirst
at the same spring; and now affairs of the greatest concern
lead us to smoke the pipe around the same council fire!

Brothers,--We are friends; we must assist each other to bear
our burdens. The blood of many of our fathers and brothers has
run like water on the ground, to satisfy the avarice of the
white men. We, ourselves, are threatened with a great evil;
nothing will pacify them but the