attention of
Governor Harrison by the then acting governor of the Louisiana
Territory. Later, documentary proof was furnished by Governor Howard.
Harrison sent William Wells and John Conner to Tippecanoe to demand
restitution of the stolen property. Four horses were delivered up, and a
promise made by the Shawnee leaders to procure the remainder, but this
was never done. Wells found out that the Potawatomi banditti who had
committed these murders were directly under the influence of Tecumseh
and the Prophet, but he was given to understand that the murderers had
fled to the Illinois river, and that no attempt would be made to
apprehend them. Tecumseh boldly attempted to excuse all these outrages
in a subsequent conference with the Governor.

Wells had much conversation at this time with Tecumseh, who "openly and
positively avowed his determination to resist the encroachments of the
white people." Wells told the Shawnee chief that he would never be able
to accomplish his designs, but Tecumseh replied that Wells would live to
see the contrary. About this time a friendly Kickapoo chief arrived at
Vincennes and told the Governor that he was determined to put him on his
guard against the Prophet and his brother. "He said that their pacific
professions were not to be relied upon; that he had heard them speaking
to the Indians for several years and in that time he had never heard
anything that they said but war and hatred against the United States.
That the delivering up of the horses which were occasionally stolen was
merely intended to lull our vigilance and to prevent us from discovering
their designs until they were ripe for execution. That they frequently
told their young men that they would defeat their plans by their
precipitancy. That in their harangues to the Indians they frequently
requested those who would not join their confederacy, to keep their
secret. That they always promised them a rich harvest of plunder and
scalps, declaring that the first stroke would put them in possession of
an ample supply of arms, ammunition and provisions."

On the second of May, General William Clark, of St. Louis, wrote to the
Governor informing him that the Prophet had sent the belt to the
Mississippi tribes, inviting them to join in a war against the United
States, and declaring that the war would be begun by an attack on
Vincennes. About the same time word was brought that the Sacs had
acceded to the hostile confederacy, and that