f the British fort, and
even there many were slain. The British soldiery not only utterly failed
to come to the relief of their hard-pressed allies, but refused to
open the gates to give them shelter. The American loss was thirty-three
killed and one hundred wounded. But the victory was the most decisive as
yet gained over the Indians of the Northwest. A warfare of forty years
was ended in as many minutes.

From the lower Maumee, Wayne marched back to Fort Defiance, and thence
to the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers, where he built
a fort and gave it the name still borne by the thriving city that grew
up around it--Fort Wayne. Everywhere the American soldiers destroyed the
ripened crops and burned the villages, while the terrified inhabitants
fled. In November the army took up winter quarters at Fort Greenville.

At last the Americans had the upper hand. Their arms were feared; the
British promises of help were no longer credited by the Indians; and it
was easy for Wayne to convince the tribal representatives who visited
him in large numbers during the winter that their true interest was to
win the good-will of the United States. In the summer of 1795 there
was a general pacification. Delegation after delegation arrived at
Fort Greenville, until more than a thousand chiefs and braves were in
attendance. The prestige of Wayne was still further increased when the
news came that John Jay had negotiated a treaty at London under which
the British posts on United States soil were finally to be given up;
and on August 3rd Wayne was able to announce a great treaty wherein the
natives ceded all of what is now southern Ohio and southeastern Indiana,
and numerous tracts around posts within the Indian country, such as Fort
Wayne, Detroit, and Michilimackinac--strategic points on the western
waterways. "Elder Brother," said a Chippewa chief in the course of one
of the interminable harangues delivered during the negotiation, "you
asked who were the true owners of the land now ceded to the United
States. In answer, I tell you, if any nations should call themselves
the owners of it, they would be guilty of falsehood; our claim to it
is equal; our Elder Brother has conquered it." The United States
duly recognized the Indian title to all lands not expressly ceded and
promised the Indians annual subsidies. The terms of the treaty were
faithfully observed on both sides, and for fifteen years the pioneer
lived and toiled in