mself commanded on the Hornet, he might have recorded a
victory instead of losing his ship and his life. At the same time it must
also be admitted that Captain Broke was a superb naval officer, and that
his victory was chiefly due to the perfect discipline and devotion of his
men, with whom he was thoroughly acquainted, whereas Lawrence had been
but a few days in command of the Chesapeake. When mortally wounded and
carried below, Lawrence cried: "Keep the guns going!" "Fight her till she
strikes or sinks!" and his last words were--"Don't give up the ship!" The
British boarded the Chesapeake, after a brief cannonading. The Americans
on board made a desperate resistance, and it is a question whether there
was any formal surrender. The Chesapeake lost forty-seven killed and
ninety-nine wounded, and of the latter fourteen afterward died. The
Shannon lost twenty-four killed and fifty-nine wounded. There could
hardly have been greater joy in England over a Peninsular victory.
Parliament acclaimed, the guns of the Tower thundered, and Captain Broke
was made a baronet and a Knight Commander of the Bath. America keenly
felt the defeat, but honored the heroic dead, and a gold medal was voted
to the nearest male descendant of Captain Lawrence.

CHAPTER XXV.

The War on Land--Tecumseh's Indian Confederacy--Harrison at Tippecanoe
--General Hull and General Brock--A Fatal Armistice--Surrender of
Detroit--English Masters of Michigan--General Harrison Takes Command
in the Northwest--Harrison's Answer to Proctor--"He Will Never Have This
Post Surrendered"--Crogan's Brave Defence--The British Retreat--War on
the Niagara Frontier--Battle of Queenstown--Death of Brock--Colonel
Winfield Scott and the English Doctrine of Perpetual Allegiance.

The sea victories were a fortunate offset to American disasters on land.
With the aid of the great Indian chieftain Tecumseh, the British set out
to conquer the Northwest. Tecumseh, chief of the Shawaneese, was probably
the ablest Indian that the white man had ever met. He resolved early in
life to make a final stand against the progress of the palefaces. His
scheme was at first not of a warlike nature, for he began with a secret
council of representative Indians about the year 1806, the object of
which was to form an Indian confederacy to prevent the further sale of
lands to the United States, except by consent of the confederacy, which
was to include the entire Indian population of the North