, the Miamis remained the undisputed lords and
masters of most of the territory watered by the two Miamis of the Ohio,
and by the Wabash and its tributaries down to the Ohio. The great head
and center of their power was at Kekionga (now Fort Wayne), always
referred to by President Washington as "the Miami Village." It was a
pleasant situation in the heart of the great northwest, at the junction
where the swift flowing St. Joseph and the more gentle stream of the
Saint Marys, formed the headwaters of the Maumee. On the eastern side
of the St. Joseph was the town of Pecan, a head chief of the Miami, and
the same savage who had supplied deer and buffalo meat for Brigadier
General Harmar on his mission to Kaskaskia in 1787. Pecan was an uncle
of the famous chief, Peshewah, or Jean Baptiste Richardville, who after
the death of Little Turtle in 1812, became the head chief of the Miami
tribe, and was reputed to be the richest Indian in North America. The
southern end of this town was near the point of juncture of the St.
Marys and St. Joseph, and the village extended north along what is now
known as Lakeside, in the present city of Fort Wayne, a pleasant drive
revealing at times the rippling waters of the river to the west. To the
south of this village lay the Indian gardens, and east of the gardens
the extensive corn fields and meadows. On the northern side of the town
more corn fields were found, and north and west of it extended the
forests. The banks of the Maumee just below the junction, and south of
this old village, are quite high and steep, and along the northern side
now runs the beautiful avenue known as Edgewater. Traveling down
Edgewater to the eastward one comes to a great boulder with a brass
tablet on it. You are at Harmar's Ford, and at the exact point where the
regulars crossed the river just after sunrise of October 22nd, 1790, to
attack the Indians. Here it was that Major John Wyllys fell leading the
charge. Along the southern bank of the Maumee the ground is elevated and
crowning these elevations were the forests again. It was through these
forests that Hardin's forces approached the fatal battlefield.

On the western bank of the St. Joseph was a mixed village of French and
Indians known as LeGris' Town, and it in turn was surrounded by more
corn fields. LeGris was also an important chief of the Miamis, and named
in Henry Hay's journal as a brother-in-law of the Little Turtle. He
signed the treaty of Greenvi