eted was the trade in beaver, deer and raccoon skins. In order that
this might be done, the Americans must be kept south of the Ohio. The
tribes were taught to regard the crossing of the Alleghenies as a direct
attempt to dispossess them of their native soil. To excite their savage
hatred and jealousy it was pointed out that a constant stream of
keel-boats, loaded with men, women, children and cattle, were
descending the Ohio; that Kentucky's population was multiplying by
thousands, and that the restless swarm of settlers and land hunters, if
not driven back, would soon fill the whole earth. Driven as they were by
rage and fear, all attempts at treaty with these savages were in vain.
The Miamis, the Potawatomi and the Shawnees lifted the hatchet, and
rushed to the attack of both keel-boats and settlements.

The wars that followed in the administration of George Washington are
well known. Back of them all stood the sinister figure of the English
trader. Harmar was defeated at Miamitown, now Fort Wayne; St. Clair's
army was annihilated on the head waters of the Wabash. For a time the
government seemed prostrate, and all attempts to conquer the savages in
their native woods, futile. But finally General Anthony Wayne, the hero
of Stony Point, was sent to the west. He was a fine disciplinarian and a
fearless fighter. At the battle of Fallen Timbers, in 1794, he broke the
power of the northwestern Indian confederacy, and in the following year
forced the tribes into the Treaty of Greenville.

On July 11th, 1796, the British, under the terms of Jay's Treaty,
evacuated the post of Detroit, and it passed into the hands of its
rightful owners, the American people. Well had it been for the red men,
if, with this passing of the British, all further communication with the
agents of Great Britain had ceased. Already had the tribes acquired a
rich legacy of hate. Their long intercourse and alliance with the
English; their terrible inroads with fire and tomahawk, on the
settlements of Kentucky; their shocking barbarities along the Ohio, had
enraged the hearts of all fighting men south of that river. But the
British in retiring from American soil had passed over to Malden, near
the mouth of the Detroit river. Communication with the tribes of the
northwest was still kept up, and strenuous efforts made to monopolize
their trade. At last came Tecumseh and the Prophet, preaching a
regeneration of the tribes, and a renewal of the contest for