ecumseh could prevail upon the Indians to
refuse their annuities under the treaty until the Governor "was
displaced, as he would be, and a good man appointed as his successor, he
would restore to the Indians all the lands purchased from them." How far
these representations may have deceived Tecumseh into the belief that he
was dealing with a man who was tottering to the fall, is not certainly
known. He determined at any rate, to make a show of force. If the
Governor was a weakling who sat insecurely in his seat, and was fearful
of public clamor, here was an opportunity to display that fact. As he
remarked to Barron, he had not seen the Governor since he was "a very
young man," sitting at the side of General Wayne. The Governor was
younger in years than Tecumseh, and no doubt the Shawnee was disposed to
regard him with contempt. To appear suddenly at the capital of the white
man with a band of armed warriors; to openly and haughtily declare his
purpose of resisting the pretensions of the Governor and to pour out his
insolence upon the heads of the chieftains who had dared to sell the
lands--what a grand culmination of all his plans this would be, if it
had the desired effect! There was nothing to lose, everything to gain.
He resolved to try it. Accordingly, on the 12th day of August, there
swept down the river to Fort Knox, eighty canoes, filled with naked
savages painted in the most terrific manner. All of them were armed and
ready for attack. At their head was the great war chief, described by
Major George R. Floyd, commandant at the fort, as "about six feet high,
straight, with large, fine features, and altogether a daring, bold
looking fellow." The conference with the Governor was appointed for the
morrow.

CHAPTER XXI

THE COUNCIL AT VINCENNES

--_The dramatic meeting between Harrison and Tecumseh.--Tecumseh
announces his doctrine of the common ownership of the Indian lands._

The great house of the Governor at Vincennes is situated inland from the
Wabash river about six hundred feet, and there formerly stood in front
of this house and next to the river a grove of walnut trees which
afforded a gracious shade. It was here, that on a bright, sunshiny day
in August, the dramatic meeting occurred between the Shawnee chief and
Governor Harrison. Local tradition has preserved a tale that the
Governor had secreted in the great parlor of his house a company of one
hundred well-armed soldiers to provide against a