he Prophet, and
sustained by the burning words of a new leader, who promised them a
restoration of their former glory, cast aside with contempt all the
articles and solemn agreements of the past, and were ready to take up
the tomahawk in patriotic defense of their lands and homes. Thus did
Tecumseh look forward to the establishment of "a great and permanent
confederation--an empire of red men, of which he should be the leader
and emperor."

CHAPTER XIX

PROPHET'S TOWN

--_The capital of the Shawnee Confederacy in the heart of the Miami
country._

Before entering upon the final details of the struggle between Harrison
and Tecumseh, it may not be uninteresting to recur to a point of time
just before the Treaty of Fort Wayne, when the two Indian leaders
removed from the neighborhood of the white settlements at Greenville,
Ohio, and established the Prophet's Town on the Wabash river in the
month of June, 1808. This was to be the spot from whence should emanate
all those brilliant schemes of the brothers to merge the broken tribes
into a confederacy; to oppose the further advance of the white settlers,
and with the aid of the British power in Canada, to drive them back
beyond the waters of the Ohio. It was, as General Richard P. DeHart has
aptly remarked, "the seat of Indian diplomacy and strategy for many
years."

In leading their followers to this new field, the brothers were guided
by certain lines of policy which were both remarkable in their
conception, and signal for their farsightedness. The rendezvous at
Greenville had been marked by intense enthusiasm, hundreds of red men
flocking thither to imbibe the new faith and to commune with the
Prophet; so many in fact, that Governor Harrison had ordered them to be
supplied from the public stores at Fort Wayne in order to avert trouble.
But it was evident to the new leaders that all this congregating did not
turn aside starvation; that warriors could not be held together who were
hungry and who lacked corn; that the proximity of white traders was
conducive to drunkenness; that if back of outward appearances any
warlike exercises were to be indulged, or the emissaries and arms of the
British were to be received, that these things would require secrecy and
seclusion until the plot was ripe; that some strategic position must be
secured on one of the great waterways of the interior, within quick
striking distance of the settlements and easily accessible to the
Br