ticks.' In all this
business of mustering the tribes, he used great caution; he supposed
enquiry would be made as to the object of his visit; that his plans
might not be suspected, he directed the Indians to reply to any
questions that might be asked about him, by saying, that he had
counselled them to cultivate the ground, abstain from ardent spirits,
and live in peace with the white people. On his return from Florida, he
went among the Creeks in Alabama, urging them to unite with the
Seminoles. Arriving at Tuckhabatchee, a Creek town on the Tallapoosa
river, he made his way to the lodge of the chief called the Big
Warrior. He explained his object, delivered his war-talk, presented a
bundle of sticks, gave a piece of wampum and a hatchet; all which the
Big Warrior took. When Tecumseh, reading the intentions and spirit of
the Big Warrior, looked him in the eye, and pointing his finger towards
his face, said: 'Your blood is white: you have taken my talk, and the
sticks, and the wampum, and the hatchet, but you do not mean to fight:
I know the reason: you do not believe the Great Spirit has sent me: you
shall know: I leave Tuckhabatchee directly, and shall go straight to
Detroit: when I arrive there, I will stamp on the ground with my foot,
and shake down every house in Tuckhabatchee.' So saying, he turned and
left the Big Warrior in utter amazement, at both his manner and his
threat, and pursued his journey. The Indians were struck no less with
his conduct than was the Big Warrior, and began to dread the arrival of
the day when the threatened calamity would befal them. They met often
and talked over this matter, and counted the days carefully, to know
the time when Tecumseh would reach Detroit. The morning they had fixed
upon, as the period of his arrival, at last came. A mighty rumbling was
heard--the Indians all ran out of their houses--the earth began to
shake; when at last, sure enough, every house in Tuckhabatchee was
shaken down! The exclamation was in every mouth, 'Tecumseh has got to
Detroit!' The effect was electrical. The message he had delivered to
the Big Warrior was believed, and many of the Indians took their rifles
and prepared for the war.

"The reader will not be surprised to learn, that an earthquake had
produced all this; but he will be, doubtless, that it should happen on
the very day on which Tecumseh arrived at Detroit; and, in exact
fulfilment of his threat. It was the famous earthquake of New Madr