ers. All Indians
who ceased to resist were to be spared. Women and children, and as many
warriors as possible, were to be taken prisoners, but treated with
humanity.

The tenth day of May arrived, but Proctor was not heard from. The
hostility of the savages was daily increasing. Scott was delayed a few
days longer in the hope that intelligence might arrive, but on the
twenty-third of May he crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Kentucky and
plunged into the wilderness. Before him lay one hundred and fifty-five
miles of forest, swamp and stream. The rain fell in torrents and every
river was beyond its banks. His horses were soon worn down and his
provisions spoiled, but he pressed on. On the morning of the first of
June, he was entering the prairies south of the Wea plain and
approaching the hills of High Gap. He now saw a lone Indian horseman to
his right and tried to intercept him, but failed. He pushed on rapidly
to the Indian towns.

On the morning of June first, 1791, the landscape of the Wea is a thing
of beauty. To the north lies the long range of the Indian Hills, crowned
with forest trees, and scarped with many a sharp ravine. At the southern
edge of these hills flows the Wabash, winding in and out with graceful
curves, and marked in its courses by a narrow fringe of woodland. To the
east lies Wea creek, jutting out into the plain with a sharp turn, and
then gliding on again to the river. Within this enclosure of wood and
stream lie the meadows of the Ouiatenons, dotted here and there with
pleasant groves, and filled with the aroma of countless blossoms.

"Awake from dreams! The scene changes. The morning breath of the first
day of summer has kissed the grass and flowers, but it brings no evil
omen to the Kickapoo villages on this shore, nor to the five Wea towns
on the adjacent plain. High noon has come, but still birds and grass and
flowers bask in the meridian splendor of a June sunshine, unconscious of
danger or the trampling of hostile feet. One o'clock! And over High Gap
hostile horsemen are galloping. They separate; one division wheels to
the left led by the relentless Colonel Hardin, still smarting from the
defeat of the last year by the great Miami, Little Turtle. But the main
division, led by the noble Colonel Scott, afterward the distinguished
soldier and governor of Kentucky, moves straight forward on to
Ouiatenon."

Scott's advance since the morning has been swift and steady. He fears
that the I