ued a proclamation, declaring
that "the duty and interest of the United States required that they
should, with sincerity and good faith, adopt and pursue a conduct
friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers." But the vast
majority of the people of the United States, including many high in
public life, were in open sympathy with the French and utterly detested
England. These sentiments were particularly marked in the western
countries, for there the people had suffered from all the cruelty and
savagery of the Indian warfare, and they fiercely denounced the British
agents.

Under all these circumstances the relations between Great Britain and
the United States had become tense and strained. The provincial officers
at Quebec and the Indian partisans at Detroit quickly echoed the mood of
the home government. In the event of a new war, England could again
command the savage allies and ravage the frontiers as she had done
during the revolution. The Indians would not only prove to be a useful
barrier in the event of an American invasion of Canada, but they might
help England to regain in part the territory she had lost. "Hence,
instead of promoting a pacification, the efforts of the Canadian
government were obviously exerted to prevent it." This, no doubt,
accounts for what Brant has noted concerning the exchanges with the
American commissioners at the mouth of the Detroit river. The western
tribes were suddenly given assurance by the British that England would
come to their aid, and were told to insist on the Ohio as the limit of
concession. This put an effectual stop to all further measures for
peace.

Wayne was now free to go forward with his campaign again, but so much
time had been consumed by the commissioners, and the militia were so
slow in arriving from Kentucky that the army did not take up its march
from Hobson's Choice until the seventh of October. The general now had
about twenty-six hundred effective men, including officers, thirty-six
guides and spies, and about three hundred and sixty mounted volunteers.
With these he determined to push forward to a position about six miles
in advance of Fort Jefferson, and about eighty miles north of
Cincinnati. He would thus excite a fear on the part of the savages for
the safety of their women and children, and at the same time protect the
frontiers. He expected resistance, for the Indians were "desperate and
determined," but he was prepared to meet it. The savag