aws,
between the Tennessee and the Mississippi; and the Chickasaws were
friendly to the Americans.

Power of the West.

Year by year the West grew better able to defend itself if attacked, and
more formidable in the event of its being necessary to undertake
offensive warfare. Kentucky and Tennessee had become populous States, no
longer fearing Indian inroads; but able on the contrary to equip
powerful armies for the aid of the settlers in the more scantily peopled
regions north and south of them. Ohio was also growing steadily; and in
the territory of Indiana, including what is now Illinois, and the
territory of Mississippi, including what is now northern Alabama, there
were already many settlers.

Dangers Threatening the West.

Nevertheless the shadow of desperate war hung over the West. Neither the
northern nor the southern Indians were yet subdued; sullen and angry
they watched the growth of the whites, alert to seize a favorable moment
to make one last appeal to arms before surrendering their hunting
grounds. Moreover in New Orleans and Detroit the Westerners possessed
two outposts which it would be difficult to retain in the event of war
with England, the only European nation that had power seriously to
injure them. These two outposts were sundered from the rest of the
settled Western territory by vast regions tenanted only by warlike
Indian tribes. Detroit was most in danger from the Indians, the British
being powerless against it unless in alliance with the formidable tribes
that had so long battled against American supremacy. Their superb navy
gave the British the power to attack New Orleans at will. The Westerners
could rally to the aid of New Orleans much more easily than to the aid
of Detroit; for the Mississippi offered a sure channel of communication,
and New Orleans, unlike Detroit, possessed some capacity for
self-defence; whereas the difficulties of transit through the
Indian-haunted wilderness south of the Great Lakes were certain to cause
endless dangers and delays if it became necessary for the Westerners
either to reinforce or to recapture the little city which commanded the
straits between Huron and Erie.

During the dozen years which opened with Wayne's campaigns, saw the
treaties of Jay and Pinckney, and closed with the explorations of Lewis,
Clarke, and Pike, the West had grown with the growth of a giant, and for
the first time had achieved peace; but it was not yet safe from danger