have brought dismay to the heart of any man but
Washington. He, however, remained firm. Forced by what Roosevelt has
termed as the "supine indifference of the people at large," he
determined to make one more effort to secure peace, but failing in that,
the army of Anthony Wayne should be made ready for the final appeal to
arms.

On the seventh of April, 1792, Freeman and Gerrard, two messengers of
peace, were sent forward to the Maumee, but both were killed. About the
twentieth of May, Major Alexander Trueman, of the First United States
Regiment, and Colonel John Hardin, of Kentucky, left Fort Washington
with copies of a speech from President Washington to the Indians. The
President expressed his desire to impart to the tribes all the blessings
of civilized life; to teach them to cultivate the earth and to raise
corn and domestic animals; to build comfortable houses and to educate
their children. He expressly disaffirmed any intention to seize any
additional lands, and promised that compensation should be made to all
tribes who had not received full satisfaction. The threat of Simon
Girty against Proctor, was now made good as against both Hardin and
Trueman. Hardin was to go among the Wyandots at Sandusky, while Trueman
proceeded to the Rapids of the Maumee. Months after they had departed,
one William May, who had been captured by the Indians, testified that he
saw the scalp of Trueman dangling on a stick, and that Trueman's papers
fell into the hands of Alexander McKee, who forwarded them to Detroit.
Later he saw another scalp said to be the brave Colonel Hardin's, and
Hardin's papers fell into the hands of Matthew Elliott. This was the
answer of the savage allies to the flag of truce.

In May, 1792, General Rufus Putnam, of Ohio, and the Reverend John
Heckewelder, of the Moravian missions, were sent to the Wabash tribes to
make a treaty. The instructions to Putman were of the most pacific
nature. He was told to renounce on the part of the United States, "all
claim to any Indian land which shall not have been ceded by fair
treaties, made with the Indian nations." "You will make it clearly
understood, that we want not a foot of their land, and that it is
theirs, and theirs only; that they have the right to sell, and the right
to refuse to sell, and the United States will guarantee to them the said
just right." Putnam carried forward with him about one hundred women and
children captured by Scott and Wilkinson, and a nu