st._

The memories of the early prairies, filled with vast stretches of waving
grasses, made beautiful by an endless profusion of wild flowers, and
dotted here and there with pleasant groves, are ineffaceable. For the
boy who, barefooted and care-free, ranged over these plains, in search
of adventure, they always possessed an inexpressible charm and
attraction. These grassy savannas have now passed away forever. Glorious
as they were, a greater marvel has been wrought by the untiring hand of
man. Where the wild flowers bloomed, great fields of grain ripen, and
vast gardens of wheat and corn, interspersed with beautiful towns and
villages, greet the eye of the traveler. "The prairies of Illinois and
Indiana were born of water, and preserved by fire for the children of
civilized men, who have come and taken possession of them."

In the last half of the eighteenth century, great herds of buffalo
grazed here, attracting thither the wandering bands of the Potawatomi,
who came from the lakes of the north. Gradually these hardy warriors and
horse tribes drove back the Miamis to the shores of the Wabash, and took
possession of all that vast plain, extending east of the Illinois river,
and north of the Wabash into the present confines of the state of
Michigan. Their squaws cultivated corn, peas, beans, squashes and
pumpkins, but the savage bands lived mostly on the fruits of the chase.
Their hunting trails extended from grove to grove, and from lake to
river.

Reliable Indian tradition informs us that about the year 1790, the herds
of bison disappeared from the plains east of the Mississippi. The deer
and the raccoon remained for some years later, but from the time of the
disappearance of the buffalo, the power of the tribes was on the wane.
The advance of the paleface and the curtailment of the supply of game,
marked the beginning of the savage decline. The constant complaint of
the tribes to General William Henry Harrison, the first military
governor of Indiana, was the lack of both game and peltries.

From the first the Indians of the Northwest were pro-British. Following
the revolutionary war they accepted the overtures of England's agents
and traders, and the end of the long trail was always at Detroit. The
motives of these agents were purely mercenary. They were trespassers on
the American side of the line, for England had agreed to surrender all
the posts within the new territory by the treaty of 1783. The thing
cov