publicly took off his sash, and placed it round
the body of the chief. Tecumseh received the honor with evident
gratification; but was next day seen without his sash. General Brock
fearing something had displeased the Indian, sent his interpreter for
an explanation. The latter soon returned with an account, that
Tecumseh, not wishing to wear such a mark of distinction, when an
older, and as he said, abler warrior than himself, was present, had
transferred the sash to the Wyandot chief, Roundhead."[A]

[Footnote A: James' Military Occurrences of the Late War.]

On the 15th of August, the garrison of Chicago, situated in the
south-western bend of lake Michigan,--consisting of about seventy men,
with some women and children,--were attacked by a large body of
Indians, who had been lying around the fort for some time, professing
neutrality. The whole were either murdered or taken prisoners. The
garrison, under the direction of captains Heald and Wells, having
destroyed the fort and distributed the public stores among the Indians,
was about to retreat towards fort Wayne. As the Indians around Chicago
had not yet taken sides in the war, the garrison would probably have
escaped, had not Tecumseh, immediately after the attack upon major
Vanhorn, at Brownstown, sent a runner to these Indians, claiming the
victory over that officer; and conveying to them information that
general Hull had returned to Detroit; and that there was every prospect
of success over him. This intelligence reached the Indians the night
previous the evacuation of Chicago, and led them at once, as Tecumseh
had anticipated, to become the allies of the British army.

At the period of colonel Campbell's expedition against the
Mississinaway towns, in the month of December, Tecumseh was in that
neighborhood, with about six hundred Indians, whose services he had
engaged as allies of Great Britian. He was not in the battle of the
river Raisin on the 22d of January. Had he been present on that
occasion, the known magnanimity of his character, justifies the belief
that the horrible massacre of prisoners, which followed that action,
would not have taken place. Not only the savages, but their savage
leaders, Proctor and Elliott, would have been held in check, by a chief
who, however daring and dreadful in the hour of battle, was never known
to ill-treat or murder a prisoner.

CHAPTER XII.

Siege of fort Meigs--Tecumseh commands the Indians--acts with
in