*

As Tecumseh was so conspicuous in the annals of this war for his
fidelity and devotion to the British crown, and as his name has occurred
so often in these pages,[135] a concluding and connected notice of him
will surely be deemed but an act of justice to his memory.

This renowned aboriginal chief was a Shawanee, and was born in 1769 or
1770, about the same year as his "brave brother warrior," Sir Isaac
Brock. He may be said to have been inured to war from his infancy, as
the Indian nations continued in hostility against the United States
after their independence was achieved, alleging that they infringed on
their territories. In 1790, about which period Tecumseh first gave
proofs of that talent and daring which so distinguished his after-life,
General Harmer was dispatched with a competent force to punish the
predatory incursions of the Indians; but he was glad to return, with the
loss of many of his men. In the following year, General St. Clair
proceeded with another army to ravage the Miami and Shawanee
settlements, and was even more unfortunate than his predecessor, as the
Indians boldly advanced to meet him on the way, attacked his encampment,
and put his troops to a total rout, in which the greater part were cut
off and destroyed. In 1794, however, a much more formidable expedition,
under General Wayne, entered the Indian territory; the warriors
gradually retired as the Americans advanced, but at length imprudently
determined on making a stand. In the battle which ensued, the Indians
were so completely discomfited, that, the following year, they agreed to
the treaty of Greenville, by which they were compelled to cede a large
tract of country as an indemnity for _past injuries_! As Tecumseh had
then scarcely completed his twenty-fifth year, and as the Indians pay
great deference to age, it is not probable that he had any hand in this
treaty, the more especially as, from that period to 1812, he laboured
incessantly to unite the numerous aboriginal tribes of the North
American continent in one grand confederacy, for the threefold purpose
of endeavouring to regain their former possessions as far as the Ohio,
of resisting the further encroachments of the whites, and of preventing
the future cession of land by any one tribe, without the sanction of
all, obtained in a general council. With this object he visited the
different nations; and having assembled the elders, he enforced his
disinterested views in strains o