"My children, I have heard bad news. The sacred spot where the great
council fire was kindled, around which the Seventeen Fires and ten
tribes of their children, smoked the pipe of peace--that very spot
where the Great Spirit saw his red and white children encircle
themselves with the chain of friendship--that place has been selected
for dark and bloody councils.

"My children, this business must be stopped. You have called in a
number of men from the most distant tribes, to listen to a fool, who
speaks not the words of the Great Spirit, but those of the devil, and
of the British agents. My children, your conduct has much alarmed the
white settlers near you. They desire that you will send away those
people, and if they wish to have the impostor with them, they can carry
him. Let him go to the lakes; he can hear the British more distinctly."

At the time of the delivery of this speech, the head chiefs of the
Shawanoes were absent from Greenville. The Prophet, after listening
patiently to it, requested the interpreter to write down the following
answer, which was transmitted to the governor.

"Father,--I am very sorry that you listen to the advice of bad birds.
You have impeached me with having correspondence with the British; and
with calling and sending for the Indians from the most distant part of
the country, 'to listen to a fool that speaks not the words of the
Great Spirit, but the words of the devil.' Father, those impeachments I
deny, and say they are not true. I never had a word with the British,
and I never sent for any Indians. They came here themselves to listen,
and hear the words of the Great Spirit.

"Father, I wish you would not listen any more to the voice of bad
birds; and you may rest assured that it is the least of our idea to
make disturbance, and we will rather try to stop any such proceedings
than to encourage them."

The appeal of the governor, as may be inferred from the evasive and
cunning answer of the Prophet, produced no change in his measures, nor
did it arrest the spread of the fanaticism among the Indians which his
incantations had set afloat. The happiness of the Indians was the great
idea which Tecumseh and his brother promulgated among their followers
as being the object of their labors. This was to be attained by leading
more virtuous lives, by retaining their lands, and in simply doing what
the government of the United States had frequently urged upon them,
effecting an extended