The Canadian Brothers | Page 7

elevation to this circumstance in part, or wholly to his own

merit, it is difficult to determine with certainty, but it is matter of
history, that plausible and powerful as the Prophet had rendered
himself, his more open and generous brother, while despising in his
heart the mummeries practised by his wily relative, was not long in
supplanting him in the affections, as he rapidly superseded him in
authority and influence, over his people--All looked up to him as the
defender and saviour of their race, and so well did he merit the
confidence reposed in him, that it was not long after his first
appearance as a leader in the war-path, that the Americans were made
sensible, by repeated defeat, of the formidable character of the chief
who had thrown himself into the breach of his nation's tottering
fortunes, resolved rather to perish on the spot on which he stood, than
to retire one foot from the home of their forefathers. What
self-ennobling actions the warrior performed, and what talent he
displayed during that warfare, the page of American history must tell.
With the spirit to struggle against, and the subsequent good fortune to
worst the Americans in many conflicts, these latter, although beaten,
have not been wanting in generosity to admire their formidable enemy
while living, neither have they failed to venerate his memory when
dead. If they have helped to bind the laurel around his living brow, they
have not been the less willing to weave the cypress that encircles his
memory.
In almost every encounter with them, Tecumseh was more or less
successful; but, like the conqueror of other days, he might have
exclaimed, "another such victory and I am lost." Weakened in a
constant succession of engagements, the Indians, and the Shawnees in
particular, now presented but a skeleton of their former selves, while
the Americans, on the contrary, with an indefatigability that would
have done credit to a better cause, kept pouring in fresh forces to the
frontier, until, in the end, opposition to their purpose seemed almost
hopeless. It is doubtful, however, what would have been the final result
of a contest against a warrior of such acknowledged ability and
resource as Tecumseh, had it not unfortunately happened that the
Americans, taking advantage of the performance of some of those
mummeries by which the Prophet still sought to uphold his fast
declining power, managed to surprise the Shawanee encampment in the
dead of night, when, favoured by circumstances, they committed

fearful havoc, nearly annihilating their enemies.
Finding every effort to preserve his situation on the Wabash unavailing,
Tecumseh, accompanied by the remnant of his followers, fell back on
the Ohio, Miami, and Detroit, where his first object was to enter into a
treaty, offensive and defensive, with the formidable nations of the
Delawares, Hurons, etc. An alliance with the English, then
momentarily apprehending a rupture with the United States, was,
moreover renewed, and then with the hope strong at his heart of
combating his enemies once more, with success, he had with exulting
spirit and bounding step, set out to win to the common interest, the
more distant tribes of the Sioux, Minouminies, Winnebagoes,
Kickapoos, etc., of whom he had secured the services of the warriors
just arrived.
It was amidst the blaze of an united salvo from the demi lune crowning
the bank, and from the shipping, that the noble chieftain, accompanied
by the leaders of those wild tribes, leaped lightly, yet proudly to the
beach; and having ascended the steep bank by a flight of rude steps cut
out of the earth, finally stood amid the party of officers waiting to
receive them. It would not a little have surprised a Bond street exquisite
of that day to have witnessed the cordiality with which the dark hand of
the savage was successively pressed in the fairer palms of the English
officers, neither would his astonishment have been abated, on
remarking the proud dignity of carriage maintained by the former, in
this exchange of courtesy, as though, while he joined heart to hand
wherever the latter fell, he seemed rather to bestow than to receive a
condescension.
Had none of those officers ever previously beheld him, the fame of his
heroic deeds had gone sufficiently before the warrior to have insured
him their warmest greeting and approbation, and none could mistake a
form that, even amid those who were a password for native majesty,
stood alone in its bearing: but Tecumseh was a stranger to few. Since
his defeat on the Wabash he had been much at Amherstburg, where he
had rendered himself conspicuous by one or two animated and highly
eloquent speeches, having for their object the consolidation of a treaty,
in which the Indian interests were subsequently bound in close union
with