e interests of the nations they represented were, as
regards the northwestern wilderness, not only incompatible but
diametrically opposed. The commanders of the British posts, and the men
who served under them, were moved by a spirit of stern loyalty to the
empire, the honor of whose flag they upheld, and endeavored faithfully
to carry out the behests of those who shaped that empire's destinies; in
obedience to the will of their leaders at home they warred to keep the
Northwest a wilderness, tenanted only by the Indian hunter and the white
fur trader. The American frontiersmen warred to make this wilderness the
heart of the greatest of all Republics; they obeyed the will of no
superior, they were not urged onward by any action of the supreme
authorities of the land; they were moved only by the stirring ambition
of a masterful people, who saw before them a continent which they
claimed as their heritage. The Americans succeeded, the British failed;
for the British fought against the stars in their courses, while the
Americans battled on behalf of the destiny of the race.

Between the two sets of rivals lay leagues on leagues of forest, in
which the active enemies of the Americans lived and hunted and marched
to war. The British held the posts on the lakes; the frontiersmen held
the land south of the Ohio. In the wilderness between dwelt the
Shawnees, Wyandots, and Delawares, the Wabash Indians, the Miamis, and
many others; and they had as allies all the fiercest and most
adventurous of the tribes farther off, the Chippewas, the Winnebagos,
the Sacs and Foxes. On the side of the whites the war was still urged by
irregular levies of armed frontiersmen. The Federal garrisons on the
Ohio were as yet too few and feeble to be of much account; and in the
south, where the conflict was against Creek and Cherokee, there were no
regular troops whatever.

Indian Inroads.

The struggle was at first one of aggression on the part of the
northwestern Indians. They were angered and alarmed at the surveyors and
the few reckless would-be settlers, who had penetrated their country;
but there was no serious encroachment on their lands, and Congress for
some time forbade any expedition being carried on against them in their
home. They themselves made no one formidable attack, sent no one
overmastering force against the whites. But bands of young braves from
all the tribes began to cross the Ohio, and ravage the settlements, from
the Pen