rks of the Wabash and striking the towns of the Miamis at the
mouth of the Mississinewa. Here dwelt John B. Richardville, or Peshewah,
a celebrated chief of that tribe, who was later chosen as principal
sachem on the death of Little Turtle. Richardville had not been
personally present at Fort Wayne, but he now received the Governor
cordially, and gave his unqualified approval to the previous
proceedings.

The day before his arrival at Peshewah's town, the Governor met with a
singular experience, which not only served to illustrate the advancing
ravages of liquor among the tribes but Harrison's intimate knowledge of
Indian laws, customs and usages. On coming into the camp of Pecan, a
Mississinewa chieftain, he discovered that one of the warriors had
received a mortal wound in a "drunken frolic" of the preceding evening.
The chiefs informed him that the slayer had not been apprehended,
whereupon the Governor recommended that if the act "should appear to
have proceeded from previous malice," that the offender should be
punished, "but if it should appear to be altogether accident, to let him
know it, and he would assist to make up the matter with the friends of
the deceased." The payment of wergild or "blood-money" among the Indian
tribes in compensation of the loss of life or limb, is strongly in
accord with the ancient Saxon law, yet it seems to have prevailed as far
back at least as the time of William Penn, for in one of his letters
describing the aborigines of America, he says: "The justice they (the
Indians) have is pecuniary; in case of any wrong or evil fact, be it
murder itself, they atone by feasts and presents of their wampum, which
is proportioned to the offense, or person injured, or of the sex they
are of; for, in case they kill a woman, they pay double, and the reason
they render, is that she can raise children, which men cannot do." Later
on, at Vincennes, the Governor had another and similar experience which
affords additional proof that the custom above mentioned was still
prevalent. A Potawatomi chieftain from the prairies came in attended by
some young men. He found there about one hundred and fifty of the
Kickapoos, who were receiving their annuity, and he immediately made
complaint to the Governor as follows: "My Father," said he, "it is now
twelve moons since these people, the Kickapoos, killed my brother; I
have never revenged it, but they have promised to cover up his blood,
but they have not done i