be
peace. He made it clear that in allowing the English to take the forts
of the French the Indians granted them no right to their lands. When he
promised friendship for the future, he called his hearers to witness how
true a friend he had been to the French, who had deceived him and given
him reason to transfer his friendship.

It would be hard to say how sincere Pontiac was, or how readily he would
have let go the chain of friendship he had been forced to take up, had
opportunity offered. He went back to his camp on the Maumee River, and
there among his own people tried to live the life of his fathers. Little
was heard of him for a year or two, but whenever an outbreak occurred
among the Indians there were those who said Pontiac was at the bottom of
it.

In the spring of 1769, anxious to see his French friends once more, he
made a visit to St. Louis. He was cordially received and spent several
days with his old acquaintances. Then he crossed the river with a few
chiefs to visit an assembly of traders and Illinois Indians.

After feasting and drinking with some of the Illinois, Pontiac sought
the quiet of the forest. He wandered through its dim aisles, living over
again the hopes and ambitions of the past, which his visit with the
French and the Illinois had vividly recalled. He had forgotten the
present and was again the mighty warrior who had made the hearts of the
palefaces quake with fear. Little he dreamed that behind him stood an
assassin with up-raised tomahawk.

The murderer of the great chief was an Illinois Indian who had been
bribed to do the deed by an English trader.

During his life Pontiac had tried to overcome the tribal feeling of the
Indians, and to unite them as one people. Over his grave the old tribal
instinct awoke. The Illinois rallied about their kinsman to protect him;
the Ottawas flew to arms to avenge their chief--such a sachem, such a
chief, could not be forgotten. Wrong to him could not be forgiven. The
fury of the Ottawas was not slaked until they had avenged the death of
their chief, through the destruction of the powerful tribes of the
Illinois.

THE STORY OF TECUMSEH

BY

FRANCES M. PERRY

THE STORY OF TECUMSEH

I. EARLY YEARS

The great Indian leader, Pontiac, died in 1769, disappointed in his
attempt to unite the Indians in a confederacy strong enough to withstand
the white race. But the struggle between the red man and the white was
not ended.

At a