of the traders, saying that they had a plenty, and could get
plenty more without paying for it; that Matthew Elliott, the British
agent at Malden, was busy with plot and intrigue against the United
States. But Harrison was surrounded by some of the best scouts and
confidential agents that a frontier official ever commanded--among them
Touissant Dubois, Joseph Barron and Michael Brouillette. He kept awake
and on the alert.

Tecumseh now assumed a more active leadership. The day had arrived for
the statesman and warrior to sound the alarm, form an active league and
confederacy of all the tribes, and with tomahawk in hand, resist any
further advancement on the part of the whites. As Harrison afterwards
remarked, he appeared today on the Wabash, a short time later on the
shores of Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, and then upon the Mississippi.
Everywhere he was masterful, eloquent, convincing, and "made an
impression favorable to his purpose." At one time during the early
summer it is known that he was at Detroit, and he was probably in close
communication with his British allies, although he professed to hate
them.

About May, 1810, a council of all the tribes of the Wabash and those to
the north was called at the river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. The whole
situation was fraught with danger, for Harrison had reason to believe
that many of the tribes had already received the tomahawk and were
meditating a combined attack on the settlements. Subsequent events
proved that his fears were well founded. He immediately dispatched John
Conner to the Delawares and "pointed out to them the unavoidable
destruction which awaited all the tribes which should dare to take up
the hatchet against their fathers, and the great danger that the
friendly tribes would incur, if war should be kindled, from the
difficulty of discriminating friend from foe."

A messenger was dispatched in haste after the deputies of the tribes
deputed to the council, with full instructions dictated by the Governor,
to urge these facts upon the assembled tribes. In addition, the Governor
in response to the demand of a company of officers, merchants, and
others at Vincennes, at once called two companies of militia into active
service, established alarm posts upon the frontier, and used all
available means at hand to put himself in readiness for war.
Fortunately, the Delawares remained faithful. If Winamac is to be
believed, the Prophet in person urged upon the council