p my foot on the ground, and shake down
every wigwam you have. It so happened that, shortly after Tecumseh
had gone north, a sharp shock of earthquake was felt in Alabama, and
the wigwams were actually shaken down by it. When the terrified
Indians felt their houses falling to pieces, they ran out of them,
shouting, "Tecumseh has got to Detroit!"

These Indians now believed all that Tecumseh had said; they began
to attack the white people, and they killed a great number of them.

[Footnote 10: Tecumseh: see paragraph 203.]

216. Jackson conquers the Indians; the "Holy Ground"; Weathersford
and Jackson; feeding the starving.--General Jackson marched against
the Indians and beat them in battle. The Indians that escaped fled
to a place they called the "Holy Ground.", They believed that if a
white man dared to set his foot on that ground he would be struck
dead as if by a flash of lightning. General Jackson and his men
marched on to the "Holy Ground," and the Indians found that unless
they made peace they would be the ones who would be struck dead by
his bullets.

[Illustration: GENERAL JACKSON AND THE INDIAN CHIEF.]

Not long after this, a noted leader of the Indians, named
Weathersford, rode boldly up to Jackson's tent. "Kill him! kill him!"
cried Jackson's men; but the general asked Weathersford into his tent.
"You can kill me if you want to," said he to Jackson, "but I came
to tell you that the Indian women and children are starving in the
woods, and to ask you to help them, for they never did you any harm."
General Jackson sent away Weathersford in safety, and ordered that
corn should be given to feed the starving women and children. That
act showed that he was as merciful as he was brave.

217. The British send war-ships to take New Orleans; the great battle
and the great victory.--These things happened during our second war
with England, or the War of 1812. About a year after Jackson's victory
over the Indians the British sent an army in ships to take New
Orleans.

General Jackson now went to New Orleans, to prevent the enemy from
getting possession of the city.

About four miles below the city, which stands on the Mississippi
River,[11] there was a broad, deep ditch, running from the river into
a swamp. Jackson saw that the British would have to cross that ditch
when they marched against the city. For that reason he built a high
bank on the upper side of the ditch, and placed cannon along the top
of th