FOOTNOTES:
[195] The brother-in-law and elder brother of the writer were ordered by General Brock to select the fleetest horses of those captured from the Americans, in order to convey the intelligence of the capture of Detroit, and of General Hull and army, to Colonel Talbot, at Port Talbot, and to General Vincent, commander of the forces at Burlington Heights. They had wrought all night before they received their orders, and travelled, one of them two days and two nights, and the other two nights and three days without sleep. But these deeds were not peculiar; similar deeds were performed on the Niagara and Lower Canada frontiers during that and the following years. The Loyalist defenders of Canada of those days were patriots and soldiers to the heart's core; and they had wills, and nerves, and muscles "to endure hardness as good soldiers," in the hardest and darkest hours of our country's trials and struggles.
It may be added, that the horse on which the elder brother of the writer of these pages rode, in execution of the orders of General Brock, was afterwards stolen by the traitor Wilcox, who escaped to the United States, but was afterwards killed while invading Fort Erie.
[196] I think the reader will be interested in the following particulars, which I have collected of this remarkable Indian Chief:
"In the year 1809, Tecumseh, attended by several hundred warriors, encamped near Vincennes, then capital of Indiana, and demanded an interview with the Governor of the State; for which interview was assembled a Council, when it was observed there was no vacant seat for the noble chief, Tecumseh. One of the Council officers hastily offered his seat, and having respectfully said to him, 'Warrior, your Father, General Harrison, offers you a seat.' 'My Father,' exclaimed Tecumseh, extending his arms towards the heavens, 'There, son, is my Father, and the earth is my mother; she giving me nourishment, and I dwell upon her bosom.' He then sat himself upon the ground."
"The Indian warrior Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, himself and warriors, attached themselves to the cause of Great Britain, on the declaration of the American war of 1812. * *
"Tecumseh's first engagement, under the British Colonel Proctor, then in command of the Western District, was attacking and defeating a detachment of Americans under Major Howe, from Detroit to the Beaver river. In this affair, General Hull's despatches, and correspondence of his troops, fell into the hands of Tecumseh; and it was partly from the discouraging nature of their contents that General Brock attempted the capture of the American army under General Hull."
"On the 16th of July, Tecumseh and a few of his warriors pursued near Sandwich [on the Canadian side of the river] a detachment of the American army, under Colonel McArthur, and fired on the rear guard. 'The colonel suddenly faced about and gave orders for a volley, when all the Indians fell flat on the ground, with the exception of Tecumseh, who stood firm on his feet, with apparent unconcern."
"As Colonel Proctor retired to Nassau (Moravian town), on the Thames, and when the regulars and militia had surrendered on the right, the Indians carried on the contest on the left, and did not retreat until the day was lost, and thirty-three of their number had been slain, including the noble warrior, Tecumseh. After his fall, his lifeless corpse was recovered with great interest by the American officers, who declared that the contour of his features was majestic even in death. He left a son who fought by his side when he fell, and was seventeen years of age.
"The Prince Regent, in 1815, as a mark of respect to the memory of his father, sent a handsome sword as a present to his son."