ove, is truly translated; and was actually delivered to general
Proctor under the circumstances above related. When the battle of the
Thames had been fought, the British commander sought safety in flight.
He was pursued by colonels Wood, Chambers, and Todd, and three or four
privates. He escaped, but his baggage was captured. Colonel Chambers
was present when his port-folio was opened, and among the papers, a
translation of this speech was found. In remarking upon the fact
subsequently, to some of the British officers, they stated to colonel
Chambers that the speech was undoubtedly genuine; and that general
Proctor had ordered it to be translated and exhibited to his officers,
for the purpose of showing them the insolence with which he was treated
by Tecumseh, and the necessity he was under of submitting to every
species of indignity from him, to prevent that chief from withdrawing
his forces from the contest or turning his army against the British
troops.

CHAPTER XIV.

Retreat of the combined British and Indian army to the river
Thames--skirmish at Chatham with the troops under general
Harrison--Tecumseh slightly wounded in the arm--battle on the Thames
on the 5th of October--Tecumseh's death.

Shortly after the delivery of the speech quoted in the foregoing
chapter, a considerable body of Indians abandoned general Proctor, and
crossed the strait to the American shore. Tecumseh himself again
manifested a disposition to take his final leave of the British
service. Embittered by the perfidy of Proctor, his men suffering from
want of clothes and provisions, with the prospect of a disgraceful
flight before them, he was strongly inclined to withdraw with his
followers; and leave the American general to chastise in a summary
manner those who had so repeatedly deceived him and his Indian
followers. The Sioux and Chippewas, however, again objected to this
course. _They_ could not, they said, withdraw, and there was no other
leader but Tecumseh, in whom they placed confidence: they insisted that
he was the person who had originally induced them to join the British,
and that he ought not to desert them in the present extremity.
Tecumseh, in reply to this remonstrance remarked, that the battlefield
had no terrors for him; he feared not death, and if they insisted upon
it, he would remain with them.

General Proctor now proposed to the Indians to remove their women and
children to McGee's, opposite the river