s to lie perdue until the maneuver was executed,
when a simultaneous charge was to be made on all quarters of the town.
Before the plan could be executed, however, the troops were discovered,
whereupon an instant charge was made by plunging into the river and
attacking the town on the front. Six warriors were killed, "and in the
hurry and confusion of the charge, two squaws and a child."

Wilkinson found the towns of the Eel river tribes scattered along Eel
river for a distance of three miles. These villages were separated by
almost impassable bogs, and "impervious thickets of plum, hazel and
black-jack." The head chief of the tribe, with his prisoners and a
number of families were out digging a root, which the Indians
substituted for the potato. A short time before Wilkinson arrived, most
of the warriors had gone up the river to a French store to purchase
ammunition. This ammunition had come from Kekionga on the same day.
Several acres of green corn with the ears in the milk were about the
town. All of this was destroyed. Thirty-four prisoners were taken and a
captive released.

After encamping in the town for the night, Wilkinson started the next
morning for the Kickapoo town "in the prairie." He considered his
position as one of danger, for he says he was in the "bosom of the
Ouiatenon country," one hundred and eighty miles from succor, and not
more than one and a half days' forced march from the Potawatomi,
Shawnees and Delawares. This was, of course, largely matter of
conjecture.

The Kickapoo town that Wilkinson was headed for was in fact about sixty
miles from Kenapacomaqua and in the prairie. But it was south and west
of the Eel river villages instead of north and west. The imperfect
geographical knowledge of the times led Wilkinson to believe it was on
the Illinois river, but it was in fact on Big Pine creek, near the
present town of Oxford, in Benton County, Indiana. Wilkinson was right
in one regard, however, for he knew that the village he sought was on
the great Potawatomi trail leading south from Lake Michigan. This trail
passed down from the neighborhood of what is now Blue Island, in
Chicago, south through Momence and Iroquois, Illinois, south and east
again through Parish Grove, in Benton County, across Big Pine Creek and
on to Ouiatenon and Kethtipecanunck, or Tippecanoe. It was a great fur
trading route and of great commercial importance in that day. This
Kickapoo village "in the prairie," was abou