The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-12-26 00:00:00

all the wont %ices of their instructor nittinut

nog one viitue of civilised life in eachauge for those
which they have lost by the intercourse. No race of
men have furnished a stronger. or, for themselves,
more fatal illustration of this fact, then the Indians
of North America. It is impossible to conceive
human nature lower in the scale of depravity. than
the few tribes who hive escaped extermination td live
among the Canadians and the people of she United
States. Utterly sunken its filth and intemperance.
they have not preserved one spark of the warlike spirit
of itheir fathers, and resemble the hardy and un-
tameable bands who so long resisted the colonists of
the New World, as little as the Sybarite did She
Spartan : or at they do the tribes who have still main-
tsined their itidepetatetti e and bravery in the coun-
try west of the Mississippi. Just in proportion as
the dilflretit tribe* who extend from Montreal in
Canada to that river are less in the bosom of
European settlements, do they rise in character, or
rather rem .its with most features of resemblance to
the old fathers of their forests. The liid,an people
gerierally were, as is well known, our allies in the
lute war its America ; those dwelling in Lower
Canada were entirely useless as auxiliaries; the six
nations higher up in the country lying between the
Lakes Ontario and Huron, were of some service;
but to the tribes at the head of Like Erie, on the
western shores of Huron, and from thence towards
the Mississippi, is the preservation of Upper
Canada in the first years of the war mainly to be at-
tributed, however little the fact has been commonly
understood in this country. There are some cw-
conistestces of a singular and highly interesting
nature in the events which arose from the assistance
given by the Indians so our cause in that war ; and
as all who are acquainted with American history
are of opinion that the period is fast approaching,
alien the advance of European population will
cause this peculiar portion of our species silently
to disappear from the map of existerace. ►ome ac-
count of the estraordinary and superior individual
who had the greatest weight among them, and with
whose life their actions were of course interwoven,
may lint be unacceptable before they cease *huge.
titer to be known on the earth. Unhappily the
terms of the Treaty of Ghent. by which we lost the
opportunity of connecting their country with ours.
and the avowed policy of the Americans, that they
.4 shall be made to vanish before the snatch of
civilization. as snow before the suribeatn," will put
it out of our power to obtain their aid on a future

emergency.
Among the tribe of the Shawanees inhabiting the
country about a hundred miles to the south of Lake
Michigan. there were two brothers, who, a few years
before nor war with the United States, had gained
great influence over their fellow-warriors by quali-
ties usually most valued in savage life. The one,
who had persuaded the tribe that he possessed what
in Scotland would have been termed second-sight,
was Loosen animig them by the name of the Prophet,
and seems at first to have been the favourite of the
two ; the other, Tecunithe. had, without the aid of
such inspiration, raised himself to the situation
of a chief by his tried hardihood. and that
natural superiority of genius which sometimes in
civilized communities, and almost always in a rude
state of society, will challenge deference from
common minds. The tribe wider direction of
the Prophet ventured upon hostilities with their
old enemy, the back-settlers of the States ; and
for some time carried on a moat harassing cote
trot against them sifter the Indian mode of
warfare. At length. however, lulled into secu-
rity by confidruce in the supernatural powers of
their Prophet, and neglecting that caution
which is generally so marked a trait in the
Indian charseter, they were surprised by an
American corps in the dead of night, tot the banks
of the Wabash, and almost annihilated. It is pro-
bable that the survivors were too few to preserve the
separate existence of a tribe, for Tecumthe. sith a
small- Humber of warriors, having escaped the may-
same, jutued the Horons.o friendly pruplr, and canoe
I duwu with thew as their chief to the British troops
alien the war in Canada broke out. If be be rt-
oullected that the Indent chiefs are almost always old
men, ■nd that the spirit of clau►hip is as 'Rettig
among them as ever it could have been iii the High-
lands of Scotland, it will appear no small testimony
to the superior qualities of Tecumthe, that before
lie could have been forty years of age he should
have appeared as the recognised head of the Humor,

a tribe in which he was a stranger, sad which is one
of the finest bodies of the Indium people.
Tile first operation of the Americaus on the com-
mencement of the war was to collect a corps of be-
tween 3 and 4,000 men for the invasion of Canada,
from the frontier at the heed of Lake Erie. Some
of the Indian tribes were already at war with the
Stater, sod others hastened to join them when they
found a prospect of success from the co-operation
of the British. Thee began to collect in numbers in
the country behind. Detroit, from whence Hull, the
American) general, had already advanced in pro-
vecution of the intended invasion ; and the news of
their motions seems at since to have paralyzed him.
He fell back into Detroit, and not daring to attempt
• retreat through the line on which they had as-
sembled, he remained passive until his surrender to
a few hundred British and Canadian militia. This
event, and the occupation of the Michigan coun-
try, opened a direct communication with the
settlements of the various tribes, rapidly pro-
moted the alliance with them, and in the winter

of that year, 1812-1813, some time after the
surprise and entire destruction of General
chesier's corps, to winch the Indians had rages ly
contributed, Tecuothe and his Hurons joined Ge-
neral Procter, to lake up the hatchet with their
British Father against the " Long Knives," as they
ti, nominated the Americans. It was astonishing
how soots it isec4me evident that Teciamthe was the

closer smong chiefs of his countrymen ; and that this
man in some way invesessed the secret of swaying
them all to his purpose, though without any formal
authority, beyond the wei rims of this adopted tribe.
The number of Indians men who had united
with the British Commander et Detro t in the spring
of 180, awes near three thousand ; • larger body
of them than had beet, seen together in the memory

_of any of those assembled; and TeCUMille was still
the engine by which they could be moved. /lie in-
telligent mind caught at once the advantage to
be derived front flung them with their frouslies in the
newly-scquired Michigan territory ; and it was no
sooner proposed to him, than the whole were settled
in the district. which by its position gave strength to
their confederacy with the British. As soon** the see-
son ;remained. a small force of regulars and militia,
and the whole Indian body,wvre moved forward to at-
tack the enemy, who were assembling a strong corps
at Fort Mew, near the nowt of Lake Erie ; mod,
in the investment of that station which followed,
the Indians were emieseinly ureful. by the strictness
with which they watched event motion of the gar.
noon. They enemy attempted to relieve the place
by an attack from without, aided by a sortie of the
besieged. and were repulsed with dreadful slaughter.
in which the Indians greatly assisted. The garrison
were. however. relieved Ina manner which they could
not have stalemated ; fur the ['idioms, loaded with
plunder, and enriched by the prisoners they bad
token, could not be induced to continue the siege
even by the influence of their chief; sod the
British General, with his hautlful of ttoops, was
obliged to reuse to his frontier after he had been
weakened by their return to their families.
To secure the lives of prisoners, it was customary
with the British to pay head-money for every Ame-
rican delivered up Su safely by the Indians; and
this measure was generally successful, though the
Indians could not help remarking. that to take
men and let them live to fight another time, seemed
a piece of egregious folly ! The British and i whims
moved forward a second time in the same summer,
and again invested Fort Mogi', and afterward'
Smduaky. another fort near Lake Erie; but the
force of troops and artillery was insufficteut, tool
the Indians found it " hard to fight against people
who lived like ground hogs," or, in other words, were
strongly entrenched. At Sanduaky, in particular,
they .hewed no inclination to join in an assault upon
the works, fur their mode tit warfare is in bush-
fighting alone; and the whole force returned once
more to the frontier. Its the short period of mac-
non which followed, during the equipment of the
flotilla on Lake Erie, there were many opportu-
nities of observing the intelligence of Tecumthe.
whose support was so necessary to gain the consent of
the Indians to any measure of expedieocy, t hat he was
frequently, accompanied by Cul. Elliot, the 'maim
super intendant, or our of the officers of that depart-
ment. brought to the General's table. His habits
and depottment were perfectly free from whatever
could give offence to the most delicate female ; he
readily sod cheerfully accommodated himself to all
the novelties of his simatiors, and seemed amused,
without being at all emb d by limo. He could
never be induced to drink alirittmos liquor of soy
sort : 11l other respects he fed lice every one else at the
table. lie said that in his early youth lie had been
greatly addicted to drunkenness—the common vice
of the Indian—but that lie had Wood it was bad
for burn, and had resolved never again to taste any
liquid but water. That an triseducated being could
deny Isiniself an indulgessce of which he was pas-
sionately fond, and to which nu disgrace was attach.
ed its the opinion of his associates. proves, we think,
that he had views and feelings to raise him above the
level (Arm unenlightened savage. He had probably
outicipated the period whets lie was to appear US the
first man of his station, awl knew that intemperance
would disqualify him from holding such a station.
He evinced little respect fur the arts by which the
Prophet had goterned his unfortunate tube, and
always spoke of him as " his Windt brother." He
had a sun. a youth about limit ern or fifteen; but
shortly before his fall, whets he seemed to have a
preset iiiiii rot of what was In occur, he strongly en-
Joined his Hurons not to elect that young man for
their chief ; " he is ton fair cud like a while man,"
was his reason. Tecunathe way slut deficient in af-
fection fur his son, but he had some prejudice of ins
'Minn against a reeeetiblance to the European, the
author of all their woes ; and lie sacrificed his pa.
rental attachment to what he considered the advert-
lege of his people. In battle "f ecurothe was panned
and equipped like the rest of his brethreu ; but other-
wise his common dress was a leathern frock descend-
ing to his knees and confined at the waist by a
belt ; leggin* and mocassnis for the feet, of the
same material. completed his clothing. lie was
rather above the middle stature, the general ex-
pression of his features pleasing, and Ina eye fall
of fire and iutellogesice. Our fair readers will not
think that it detracted (sons Tecunithe's virtues,
that upon one occasion, before several persons, he
openly and keenly reproved an Europeau of the
Indian department for ill usage of his wife.
The exploits of a !Nudist of British troops had

hitherto, lo cogijunction with the Indians, protected
the north-west frontier of Canada against an enemy
always numerically superior; hut the period was ap-
proaching when the naval efforts of the Americans
on Lake Erie, and the neglect of the Governor-Gt.
neral of the Cansdas towards that division of hid com-
mand, were to t urn the tide of success. The British
naval officer who was at the head of the flotilla on that
lake, was obliged to inert the enemy wader every
disadvantage, notwithstanding the little assi.tatfee
which the exertions of General Procter were able to
afford him; and the event that etomeil was the capture
of the whole of the English squadron, alter an ob-
stinate engagement. Upon this dioiater, a retreat
of the troops became unavoidable, to prevent the
Americans landing a superior force in their rear ;
and it was foreseen, that to todoce the Indians to
retire with them, awl to quit their old bounty,
would he attended with much difficulty. An as-
sembly of their chiefs was, however, held at Ain-
herstburgh. where the General, by the mouth of
his interpreter, opened the business to them, and
proposed their accompanying hint in his retrograde
movement. The Indiana were somewhat prepared
to expect :inch an intention of wailidr.t*lng front that
frontier ; but they received the proposal with the
greatest indignation, and considered the measure
as a desertion of them.