fifty soldiers, Procter faced about on the morning
of October the 5th, to give battle. On the left was the river Thames,
on the right a cedar swamp, to rear on the east the Indian mission of
Moraviantown. The troops formed in line across a forest road. Procter
seems to have lost both his heart and his head, for he permitted his
fatigued troops to go into the fight without breakfast. Not a
barricade, not a hurdle, not a log was placed to break the advance of
Harrison's cavalry. The American riders came on like a whirlwind.
Crack went the line of Procter's men in a musketry volley! The horses
plunged, checked up, reared, and were spurred forward. Another volley
from the Canadians! But it was too late. Harrison's fifteen hundred
riders had galloped clean through the Canadian lines, slashing swords
as they dashed past. Now they wheeled and came on the Canadians' rear.
Indians and Canadians scattered to the woods before such fury, like
harried rabbits, poor Tecumseh in the very act of tomahawking an
American colonel when a pistol shot brought him down. The brave Indian
chief was scalped by the white backwoodsmen and skinned and the body
thrown into the woods a prey to wolves. Flushed with victory and
without Harrison's permission, the Kentucky men dashed in and set fire
to Moraviantown, the Indian mission. As for Procter, he had mounted
the fleetest horse to be found, and was riding in mad flight for
Burlington Heights. It is almost a pity he had not fallen in some of
his former heroic raids, for he now became a sorry figure in history,
reprimanded {366} and suspended from the ranks of the army. The only
explanation of Procter's conduct at Moraviantown is that he was anxious
for the safety of his wife and daughters, perhaps needlessly fearing
that the rough backwoodsmen would retaliate on them for the treachery
of the Indians tomahawking American prisoners of war.

[Illustration: TECUMSEH]

And it had fared almost as badly with the Canadian fleet on Lake
Ontario. The boats under Sir James Yeo, the young English commander,
were good only for close-range fighting, the boats under Commodore
Chauncey best for long-range firing. All July and August the fleets
maneuvered to catch each other off guard. Between times each raided
the coast of the other for provisions, Chauncey paying a second visit
to Toronto, Yeo swooping down on Sodus Bay. All September the game of
hide and seek went on between the two Ontario