On July 14th, General Richard Butler wrote to General St. Clair that about eighty chiefs were present at the Detroit river, awaiting the arrival of Brant. On August the 10th that chieftain reached Detroit, but instead of meeting with unanimity of counsel, he found that the Wyandots were for "a private and separate meeting with the Americans to settle matters for themselves," while the warlike Miamis were against any peace at all and in favor of open hostilities. After five weeks of waiting and cajolery, Brant got them all together in the Miami valley, and the council started to deliberate. The Hurons, Chippewas, Ottawas, Potawatomi and Delawares stood with Brant, and in favor of surrendering up a small portion of their country, rather than of entering headlong into a destructive war. The Potawatomi, Ottawas and Chippewas were far to the north and were probably indifferent; the Wyandots and Delawares were sincerely for peace. But insuperable objections were now offered by the Miamis, Kickapoos and the Shawnees. Horse stealing was their "best harvest," and the plundering of the boats they would not forego. In vain did the Wyandots urge a treaty. They presented the Miamis with a large string of wampum, but this was refused. They then laid it on the shoulder of a principal Miami chieftain, but he turned to one side and let it fall on the ground without making any answer. In the end the Wyandots withdrew and the council broke up in confusion. It was plain that if any agreement was entered into with the American government that it would not be through any concerted action on the part of the tribes. Tribal jealousy and savage hate rendered that impossible.
It has been related that when Brant perceived that his confederacy was a failure, and that he could not secure united action, that he said "that if five of the Six Nations had sold themselves to the devil, otherwise the Yankees, that he did not intend that the fierce Miamis, Shawnees and Kickapoos should do so." However this may be, it is evident that from the time of the breaking up of the Indian council on the Miami, that Brant and the British agents did all that lay within their power to frustrate the American negotiations with the Wyandots and Delawares at Fort Harmar. According to reports reaching the ears of General St. Clair, stories were placed in circulation among the tribes that in case they attended the treaty, that the Americans would kill them all, either by putting poison in the spirits, or by inoculating the blankets that would be presented to them, with the dreaded smallpox. Brant, after coming within sixty miles of the fort, turned back to Detroit, taking all the Mohawks with him, and urging back the oncoming tribes of the Shawnees and Miamis. "It is notorious," says President Washington, in a letter to governor Clinton, of New York on December 1st, 1790, "that he (Brant) used all the art and influence of which he was possessed to prevent any treaty being held; and that, except in a small degree, General St. Clair aimed at no more land by the treaty of Muskingum than had been ceded by the preceding treaties."
Thus did the British government, through its duly authorized agents, its governor and army officers, retain the posts belonging to the new republic, encourage the tribes in their depredations, and defeat the pacific intentions of the American people, and all from the sordid motives of gain. On April 30th, 1789, when George Washington was inaugurated as the first President, every savage chieftain along the Wabash, or dwelling at the forks of the Maumee, was engaged in active warfare against the people of the United States, largely through the instrumentality of the British officials.
CHAPTER XI
JOSIAH HARMAR
—The first military invasion of the Northwest by the Federal Government after the Revolution.
The treaty of Fort Harmar, on January 9th, 1789, so far as the Wabash tribes were concerned, was unavailing. The raids of the Miamis and the Shawnees continued. Murders south of the Ohio were of almost daily occurrence. For six or seven hundred miles along that river the inhabitants were kept in a perpetual state of alarm. In Kentucky, killings and depredations took place in almost every direction; at Crab Orchard, Floyd's Fork and numerous other places. Boats were constantly attacked on the Ohio and whole families slaughtered, and their goods and cattle destroyed.
One hundred and forty-five miles northwest of the mouth of the Kentucky river were the Indian villages at Ouiatenon, on the Wabash river. On the south side of that stream and near the outlet of Wea creek, were the towns of the Weas; across the river from these towns was a Kickapoo village. About eighteen miles above Ouiatenon was the important trading post of Kethtipecanunck (Petit Piconne or Tippecanoe) near the mouth of the Tippecanoe river, commanded by the chieftain Little Face. About six miles above the present city of Logansport, and on the Eel river, was the Miami village of Kenapacomaqua or L'Anguille, commanded by "The Soldier." At the junction of the St. Marys and the St. Joseph, one hundred and sixty miles north of the Kentucky river, was the principal Indian village of Kekionga or Miamitown, commanded by Pecan and LeGris. All these towns were visited by the French and English traders who communicated with Detroit and all were under the domination and control of the British. The savages in these various Indian villages were so far away from the Kentucky settlements that they considered themselves immune from any attacks; they were taught by the English to look with contempt upon the American government, and were given to understand that as long as the British held the upper posts they would be fully protected. In war parties of from five to twenty they suddenly appeared upon the banks of the Ohio to pillage the boats of the immigrants and murder their crews, or crossing that stream they penetrated the settlements of the interior, to kill, burn and destroy, and lead away horses and captives to the Indian towns. Pursued, they were often lost in the almost impenetrable forests of the north, or the savage bands scattered far and wide in thicket and swamp.