CHAPTER XII
1811 IN CANADA AND EUROPE
Early in 1811 there was some correspondence between Sir James Craig and General Brock as to the treatment of the Indians. The question was, whether in case of hostilities breaking out as threatened between the Americans and the Indians, the latter should be supplied, as usual, with arms and ammunition by the British. No doubt the Americans would expect a strict neutrality to be observed; but by stopping supplies, Brock thought the British might lose all their influence over the tribes. There had been a council held in which the chiefs had resolved to go to war with the Americans, and they seemed to have had a firm conviction that although they could not expect active coöperation, yet they might rely on receiving from the British the requisites of war.
They had suffered much of late. Napoleon's decrees and the English orders-in-council had put a stop to their trade in furs. They could obtain nothing for their peltries, for the warehouses of the great companies were filled with costly furs for which there was no market. The Americans, too, of late had encroached more and more on their hunting-grounds. It had been tacitly understood in the treaty of 1783 that the Indian country west of the Ohio was to be left to the tribes, but on one pretence and another, by strategy and persuasion, different Indian tribes had been induced to sell their lands for a nominal price, and were being pushed further and further back from the plains and forests and rivers which gave them their sustenance. One chief had foreseen the doom that awaited them, and planned to avert it. This was Tecumseh, a Shawanese warrior and statesman. He dreamed of a confederation of all the tribes of North America, in order to regain, if possible, their old boundaries, and to resist the further encroachments of the white race.
Indian affairs
The Indians knew quite well the unsettled relations between the United States and England, and had not made up their minds in 1811 as to which country they would ally themselves to. They had been threatened with retaliation on their wives and children if they dared to serve the British.
Tecumseh was willing to be friendly to the United States if the latter would agree to give up some lands lately purchased, and would agree not to enter into treaties without the consent of all the tribes. Tecumseh pledged himself on these conditions to be a faithful ally to the United States and to assist them in war against the English, otherwise he would enter into an English alliance. At an interview with General Harrison, when he was told that the matter rested with the president, Tecumseh replied: "If the great chief is to decide the matter I hope the Great Spirit will put sense enough in his head to induce him to direct you to give up the land. It is true he is so far off he will not be injured by the war. He may sit still in his town and drink his wine, while you and I will have to fight it out." The demands of Tecumseh as to lands and treaties were not complied with, therefore he summoned his people to go to war against the Americans.
Brock wrote in February as to the recent distribution of stores among the tribes. "Our cold attempt to dissuade that much injured people from engaging in such a rash enterprise could scarcely be expected to prevail, particularly after giving such manifest indications of a contrary sentiment, by the liberal quantity of military stores with which they were dismissed." For information about them, General Brock said he had to rely on the reports of officers commanding at the outposts, as "the lieutenant-governor withholds all communication on the subject."
The management of the Indians was in the hands of the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, and agents were employed by him to administer their affairs. Mr. Elliott was then in charge at Amherstburg. Brock speaks of him as an exceedingly good man, who having lived much among the Indians, sympathized with their wrongs, but he thought that he was rather biased and prejudiced in their favour. The general was of the opinion, however, that if Mr. Elliott had delayed giving them presents until he reported their mission to Lieutenant-Governor Gore, they would have returned to their companions with different impressions as to the sentiments of government.