among the Northern Indians to keep them in a state of
disaffection toward the United States. Meanwhile, the Indians were in
the midst of the great tragedy that has been enacted since the days of
Columbus. They were the victims of traders who sold them fire-water,
and for poor and cheap weapons, demanded furs whose value was out of
all proportion to that given in return. Many of their women married
white renegades who corrupted the morals of the tribes. They were
being dispossessed of the finest homes and best hunting grounds in
America, for the buffalo was then found in Kentucky in great herds,
and their position was thoroughly unhappy. They had then--and happily
this is not wholly the case at present--no rights that a white man was
bound to respect. But the Indians were still many and the settlers
were few. To a great leader, who of course could not take into account
the mighty force behind the Anglo-Saxon ranks that first marched over
the Alleghenies, it would still seem practical to band the red men
together in a vast confederation and drive the invaders back again
beyond the Ohio and the mountains. This was Tecumsch's splendid plan.
This was the design to which he devoted his life, and which he pursued
with such ardor and genius as to do what an Indian had never before
accomplished. Pontiac, it is true, at the siege of Detroit gathered a
number of tribes under his leadership, but he never dreamed of a
continental confederacy, as did Tecumseh. In this vast design he was
materially aided by his brother, best known by the name of the
Prophet, who, while lacking in judgment, was none the less a man of
extraordinary force of character. He proclaimed that he had received
power from the Great Spirit to confound the enemies of the Indians,
stay the march of disease and death, and that he was the Messiah to
lead his people to new and greater things. But as conditions to
success the Indians must stop drinking fire-water, they must cease
intermarrying with the whites or trading with them, and they must hold
all things as the property of all. They must return to their original
dress and manners, and forget that they had ever seen or known the
"pale faces." The fame and influence of the Prophet spread with almost
miraculous rapidity, and young men and warriors came from afar in
crowds to receive inspiration from him. Tecumseh with rare ability
turned this influence to advance his own plans. And of course this
constant stream of v