ot appeal instantly to the chieftains, for it took away--tribal
independence and undermined the chieftain's authority. Besides, its
author was not a chief, and had no sanction of birth or office. Its
success was dependent on the building of an intertribal association such
as Indian history had never known. And while there was nothing in it
which contravened the professed policy of the United States, it ran
counter to the irrepressible tendency of the advancing white population
to spread at will over the great western domain.

By these obstacles Tecumseh was not deterred. With indefatigable zeal he
traveled from one end of the country to the other, arguing with chiefs,
making fervid speeches to assembled warriors, and in every possible
manner impressing his people with his great idea. The Prophet went
with him; and when the orator's logic failed to carry, conviction, the
medicine-man's imprecations were relied upon to save the day. Events,
too, played into their hands. The Leopard-Chesapeake affair, * in 1807,
roused strong feeling in the West and prompted the Governor-General of
Canada to begin intrigues looking to an alliance with the redskins in
the event of war. And when, late in the same year, Governor Hull
of Michigan Territory indiscreetly negotiated a new land cession at
Detroit, the northern tribes at once joined Tecumseh's league, muttering
threats to slay the chiefs by whom the cession had been sanctioned.

* See "Jefferson and his Colleagues," by Allen Johnson (in "The
Chronicles of America").

In the spring of 1808 Tecumseh and his brother carried their plans
forward another step by taking up their residence at a point in
central Indiana where Tippecanoe Creek flows into the Wabash River.
The place--which soon got the name of the Prophet's Town--was almost
equidistant from Vincennes, Fort Wayne, and Fort Dearborn; from it
the warriors could paddle their canoes to any part of the Ohio or the
Mississippi, and with only a short portage, to the waters of the Maumee
and the Great Lakes. The situation was, therefore, strategic. A village
was laid out, and the population was soon numbered by the hundred.
Livestock was acquired, agriculture was begun, the use of whiskey was
prohibited, and every indication was afforded of peaceful intent.

Seasoned frontiersmen, however, were suspicious. Reports came in that
the Tippecanoe villagers engaged daily in warlike exercises; rumor had
it that emissaries of the Prop