ndian horseman will give the alarm. At one o'clock he comes
over High Gap, a high pass through the hills to the southwest of the
present town of Shadeland. To the left he perceives two Indian villages.
One is at a distance of two miles and the other at four. They were
probably situated in the prairie groves. He now detaches Colonel John
Hardin with sixty mounted infantry and a troop of light horse under
Captain McCoy, and they swing to the left. Scott moves briskly forward
with the main body for the villages of the Weas, at the mouth of Wea
creek. The smoke of the camp fires is plainly discernible.

[Illustration: Showing the Wea Plains and the Line of Scott's March,
Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Drawing by Heaton Map]

As he turns the point of timber fringing the Wea, and in the vicinity of
what is now the Shadeland Farm, he sees a cabin to the right. Captain
Price is ordered to assault it with forty men. Two warriors are killed.
Scott now gains the summit of the eminence crowning the south bank of
the Wabash. The Wea villages are below him and scattered along the
river. All is in confusion and the Indians are trying to escape. On the
opposite shore is a town of the Kickapoos. He instantly orders his
lieutenant-commandant, James Wilkinson, to charge the Weas with the
first battalion, and the eager Kentuckians rush to the river's edge,
just as the last of five canoes loaded with warriors, has pushed from
the shore. With deadly and terrible aim the riflemen empty the boats to
the last man.

In the meantime, a brisk fire has been kept up from the Kickapoo camp.
Scott now determines to cross the river and capture the town, but the
recent rains have swelled the stream and he cannot ford it. He orders
Wilkinson to cross at a ford two miles above, and detaches King's and
Logsdon's companies, under conduct of Major Barbee, to cross the river
below. Wilkinson fails, for the river is swift and very high. Barbee is
more successful. Many of the hardy frontiersmen breast the stream, and
others pass in a small canoe. But the instant the Kentuckians foot the
opposite shore, the Indians discover them and flee.

About this time Scott hears from Colonel Hardin. The redoubtable old
Indian fighter who was saved to die in the service of his country, has
pushed on and captured the two villages observed from High Gap, and is
encumbered with many prisoners. He now discovers a stronger village
farther to the left, and proceeds to attack. This