ight. At last
their chief, a Mississago, who had been trained to war by the British,
cried out to them to stop as they had killed enough. They then returned
to plunder the camp and divide the spoils, while the routed troops
continued their flight to Fort Jefferson, throwing away their arms on the
roadside that they might run faster. The Indians found in the camp seven
pieces of cannon, two hundred oxen, and several horses, and had a great
rejoicing. Well might the Mississago chief tell his people they had
killed enough: thirty-eight commissioned officers were slain, and five
hundred and ninety-three non-commissioned officers and privates. Besides
this, twenty-one officers and two hundred and forty-two men were
wounded, some of whom soon died of their wounds.

This was a most disastrous battle for the whites, the most disastrous
they had yet known. The triumphant Indians were so delighted that they
could not leave the field, but kept up their revels from day to day.
Their revels, however, were at length broken up sorrowfully for them.
General Scott, hearing of the disaster, pushed on for the field with one
thousand mounted volunteers from Kentucky. The Indians were dancing and
singing, and riding the horses and oxen in high glee. Scott instantly
attacked them; two hundred were killed, their plunder retaken, and the
whole body of savages driven from the ground.

When Congress met soon after this, of course this wretched Indian war was
much talked of. It was proposed at once to raise three additional
regiments. Upon this a hot debate sprang up, the proposal was opposed
warmly; the opponents said that it would be necessary to lay a heavy tax
upon the people to raise them, that the war had been badly managed, and
should have been trusted to the militia in the west under their own
officers, and, moreover, that no success could be expected so long as the
British continued to hold posts in our own limits, and furnish the
Indians with arms, ammunition, and advice.

On the other hand, it was declared that the war was a just and necessary
one. It was shown that in seven years (between 1783 and 1790), fifteen
hundred people in Kentucky had been murdered or taken captives by the
savages; while in Pennsylvania and Virginia matters had been well nigh as
bad; that everything had been done to settle matters peaceably but all to
no purpose. In 1790, when a treaty was proposed to the Indians of the
Miami, they asked for thirty days to d