amis left the
council house in contempt. Not only was the treaty of 1809 concluded by
a larger number of Indians than were present at Greenville, Ohio, in
1795, but the influence of Winamac with the Miamis seems to have been of
a very negligible quantity.

The truth is that the final consummation of the pact of 1809 was brought
about by the ready tact and hard common sense of Harrison himself. On
the morning of the thirtieth of September, the very day the treaty was
signed, it was thought by all the officers and gentlemen present that
the mission of the Governor was fruitless. No solution of the obstinacy
of the Mississinewa chiefs had been discovered. Nothing daunted,
Harrison resolved to make one more attempt. He took with him his
interpreter, Joseph Barron, a man in whom he had the utmost confidence,
and visited the camps of the Miamis. He was received well and told them
that he came, not as a representative of the President, but as an old
friend with whom they had been many years acquainted. "That he plainly
saw that there was something in their hearts which was not consistent
with the attachment they ought to bear to their great father, and that
he was afraid that they had listened to bad birds. That he had come to
them for the purpose of hearing every cause of complaint against the
United States, and that he would not leave them until they laid open
everything that oppressed their hearts. He knew that they could have no
solid objection to the proposed treaty, for they were all men of sense
and reflection, and all knew that they would be greatly benefited by
it." Calling then, upon the principal chief of the Eel River tribe, who
had served under him in General Wayne's army, he demanded to know what
his objections to the treaty were. In reply, the chief drew forth a copy
of the Treaty of Grouseland and said: "Father, here are your own words.
In this paper you have promised that you would consider the Miamis as
the owners of the land on the Wabash. Why then, are you about to
purchase it from others?"

"The Governor assured them that it was not his intention to purchase the
land from the other tribes. That he had always said, and was ready now
to confess that the land belonged to the Miamis and to no other tribe.
That if the other tribes had been invited to the treaty, it was at their
particular request (the Miamis). The Potawatomi had indeed taken higher
ground than either the Governor or the Miamis expected. They c