cumseh was in the camp. A striking instance of this
confidence is presented in the following anecdote. The British and
Indians were encamped near the river Raisin; and while holding a talk
within eighty or one hundred yards of Mrs. Ruland's house, some Sauks
and Winnebagoes entered her dwelling, and began to plunder it. She
immediately sent her little daughter, eight or nine years old,
requesting Tecumseh to come to her assistance. The child ran to the
council house, and pulling Tecumseh (who was then speaking) by the
skirt of his hunting-shirt, said to him, "Come to our house--there are
bad Indians there." Without waiting to close his speech, the chief
started for the house in a fast walk. On entering, he was met by two or
three Indians dragging a trunk towards the door: he seized his tomahawk
and levelled one of them at a blow: they prepared for resistance, but
no sooner did they hear the cry, "dogs! I am Tecumseh!" than under the
flash of his indignant eye, they fled from the house: and "you," said
Tecumseh, turning to some British officers, "are _worse_ than dogs, to
break your faith with prisoners." The officers expressed their regrets
to Mrs. Ruland, and offered to place a guard around the house: this she
declined, observing, that so long as that man, pointing to Tecumseh,
was near them, she felt safe.[A]

[Footnote A: On the authority of colonel John Ruland.]

Tecumseh entertained a high and proper sense of personal character--was
equally bold in defending his own conduct, and condemning that which
was reprehensible in others. In 1811, he abandoned his intention of
visiting the President, because he was not permitted to march to
Washington at the head of a party of his warriors. As an officer in the
British army, he never lost sight of the dignity of his rank, nor
suffered any act of injustice towards those under his command to pass
without resenting it. On one occasion, while the combined British and
Indian forces were quartered at Malden, there was a scarcity of
provisions, the commissary's department being supplied with salt beef
only, which was issued to the British soldiers, while horse flesh was
given to the Indians. Upon learning this fact, Tecumseh promptly called
on general Proctor, remonstrated against the injustice of the measure,
and complained, indignantly, of the insult thus offered to himself and
his men. The British general appeared indifferent to what was said;
whereupon, the chief struck the hi