rced into the English service by thousands, they could
feel the insult. They were used to fighting, and they welcomed the war
which at least unmasked their enemies. Their ardor was chilled, however,
by one of its first events, which was the surrender of Detroit by
General Hull. This threw the state open to invasion by the British and
Indians, and the danger was felt in every part of it. The militia were
called out, troops poured in from Kentucky, and General Harrison marched
into the northwest to recapture Detroit. A detachment of his army was
beaten in the first action, which took place beyond the Ohio limits,
and after yielding to the British was butchered in cold blood by their
Indian allies. The next spring Harrison built Fort Meigs on the Maumee;
from this point he hoped to strike a severe blow at the enemy in Canada,
but he was himself attacked here by General Proctor, who marched down
from Maiden with a large force of British regulars, Canadian militia,
and Indians led by Tecumseh.

Proctor planted batteries on the shore of the river, and Tecumseh's
Indians climbed trees and poured down a galling fire on the besieged.
The British commander then summoned the fort to surrender, but Harrison
answered his messenger, "As General Proctor did not send me a summons on
his first arrival, I had supposed that he believed me determined to do
my duty," and he dismissed the envoy with the assurance that if the post
fell into Proctor's hands it would be in a manner to do him more honor
than any surrender could do. The fight then continued until the British
general found his fickle savage friends deserting him, and on the 12th
day raised the siege.

It is probable that the Indians were following their old custom of
leaving off fighting to enjoy a sense of victory when they had won it.
A large body of Kentucky horse had by Harrison's orders attacked one of
the British positions, and carried it. After spiking the enemy's guns
they pursued the flying British, and suddenly fell into an ambush of
Indians. Out of eight hundred only one hundred escaped, and the work
of murdering the prisoners at once began. It was on this occasion that
Tecumseh tried to save the lives of the helpless Americans, appealing
to the British general to support him, and even tomahawking with his own
hatchet a disobedient chief who would not give up the work of death.

The allies made a second attempt on Fort Meigs, but they were foiled in
this too, and then