“To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is;—
On the wilderness, where there is no man.”
[104] The next day the weather was severe. The ice among the bushes had become harder; but still it would not bear me, and the water was exceedingly cold. Icicles formed upon my clothes almost immediately. I was continually wading in a greater or less depth of water during the whole day; and sometimes travelled for miles in three or four feet of it without cessation. Travelling through such a depth of water where the ice breaks at almost every step is exceedingly laborious. During this day too, I passed several deep and rapid creeks in the usual way. At dusk I fell in with about twenty Indians of the Wyandot Tribe. They were encamped on a small rise of land which, however, was rather wet. They had recently come from the vicinity of Fort Meigs, and were travelling to some hunting ground. Their condition was deplorable. They had, the day before, buried one of their company, another of them was very sick, and they had no provisions. I had but a trifle myself, and the wants of the sick Indian rendered me supperless.
These Indians surveyed me with rather a grave and distant aspect; but with one of them, who could speak English, I became well acquainted. In the course of the evening some strips of bark were prepared to keep me from the ground; but my clothes being wet, and having no covering it was impossible for me to sleep. Indeed so cold was the night, that the next morning the swamp was frozen very hard. My Indian friend called himself Will Siscomb; and with him I conversed respecting the Great Spirit. During the night I perceived, that the poor Indians suffered much from cold, and from the smoke of their fire. They, however, beguiled the time by their rude songs.
Very early the next morning I left this tawny group, and in the course of the day arrived at Fort Meigs.
[105] Here the Black, or Miami Swamp terminates; but for fifty miles east of this tract, and for the same distance west of Fort Meigs, the country is generally level, covered with trees, bushes, and long grass, and in the spring of the year very wet.
I had long been wishing to see Fort Meigs; and there I rested, for an hour, my weary feet.[[93]] The Fort is very large, and its situation is somewhat commanding. The Miami of the Lake runs about a half mile west of the Fort; and the river is here about one third of a mile wide.
I have understood, of late, that the courage and conduct of General Harrison, who commanded at Fort Meigs in the course of the last war, was questionable. I shall take the liberty to express a few ideas upon this topic, because it is natural for one to advocate the cause of a brave man, whose courage has been denied, and that too, perhaps, by the most contemptible combination of cowardice and envy.
The spirit of detraction is at once malignant and cowardly. It possesses the capacity to injure, and at the same time the means of shielding itself from detection. A single breath may tarnish the brightest character; the world, therefore, for its own sake, as well as for the sake of justice and humanity, should listen with a jealous ear to the tongue of slander.
I never had the honour of seeing General Harrison; but what, I ask, are the grounds of the charge against him? General Harrison was a fellow soldier and disciple of the wary and energetic General Wayne. His knowledge of military tactics is very extensive, and his courage, for ought I can see, is of a high order. Up to the time of the bloody battle of Tippecanoe, the government, no doubt, thought him brave; and here he was truly so. At Fort Meigs too, he undauntedly maintained [106] his position, in the midst of a wilderness, surrounded by hordes of savages, headed by Tecumseh, and supported by regular troops commanded by the blood-thirsty Proctor. Afterwards he met and defeated the enemy at the River Thames.