these tribes be assembled in
the face of the advancing American settlements, they would serve the
double purpose of checking this advance and furnishing a protective
barrier to Canada in case of a war between Great Britain and the United
States. Tecumseh and Elliott were joined in the fellowship of a mutual
interest.

The Miami chiefs looked upon this presumptuous conduct of the Shawnee
leaders with high disapproval. Their tribes were the rightful
proprietors of the soil, and the establishment of the Prophet had been
effected without their consent. But much of their ancient authority had
passed away. Many of their young warriors were carried away by the mad
fanaticism of the Prophet and vainly imagined that they could drive the
white man back across the Ohio. Unless the hands of the Miami leaders
were upheld, they could not long resist the pressure of the surrounding
tribes and must give their sanction to the Prophet's scheme.

Harrison was fully convinced that the old village chiefs would willingly
place themselves under the protection of the government, and surrender
their claims for a suitable annuity, rather than submit to any
domination on the part of their neighbors. The Governor was plainly in
favor of forming an alliance with the Miamis, of dispersing the
followers of the Prophet, and paving the way for further extinguishment
of the Indian title. He urged that the narrow strip on the west side of
the Greenville cession, in the eastern part of the Indiana territory,
would soon be filled with new settlers; that the backwoodsmen were not
men "of a disposition to content themselves with land of an inferior
quality when they see in their immediate neighborhood the finest country
as to soil in the world occupied by a few wretched savages;" that the
Territory was fast advancing to statehood, and that the members of the
Territorial legislature were heartily in favor of smoothing the way to
further purchases.

The Governor also earnestly pressed the government to establish a strong
post on the Wabash in the upper portion of the New Purchase. The
citizens of Vincennes had been thoroughly alarmed by the presence of so
large a gathering of red men at the council in August. Murders were
frequent, and horse-stealing was an everyday occurrence. To adopt a
policy of vacillation with a savage was to confess weakness. The Prophet
was openly declaring to Brouillette, the Governor's agent, that no
survey of the new lands would b