d have been no bloodshed at that time.

* * * * *

"It is true, we have endeavored to give all our brothers good advice,
and if they have not listened to it we are sorry for it. We defy a
living creature to say we ever advised any one, directly or indirectly,
to make war on our white brothers. It has constantly been our misfortune
to have our view misrepresented to our white brothers. This has been
done by the Pottawottomies and others who sell to the white people land
that does not belong to them."

XII. TECUMSEH AND THE BRITISH

Greatly as Tecumseh wished the Indians to remain at peace with the
citizens of the United States, he saw that it was impossible for them to
do so unless they were willing to give up their lands. The British,
meanwhile, promised to regain for the Indians all the land north of the
Ohio River and east of the Alleghany Mountains. They roused in the heart
of Tecumseh the hope that the old boundaries between the territory of
the Indians and the territory of the white man would be reestablished.
When war broke out in 1812, between Great Britain and the United States,
Tecumseh joined the British at Malden. In making this alliance he was
not influenced by any kindly feeling toward the British. He simply did
what seemed to him for the best interests of the Indians.

At the outset, fortune favored the British flag. Fort Mackinac, in
northern Michigan, fell into the hands of a force of British and
Indians. Detroit was surrendered to General Brock without resistance.
Fort Dearborn, at Chicago, was burned and its garrison was massacred by
the Indians. The English seemed in a fair way to fulfill their promise
of driving the American settlers from the Northwest. Fort Harrison and
Fort Wayne were the only strongholds of importance left to guard the
frontier. These forts Tecumseh planned to take by stratagem.

[Illustration: FORT DETROIT IN 1812]

The victories of the British won to their side the tribes that had
hesitated, and hundreds of warriors flocked to the standard of Tecumseh.
He became an important and conspicuous figure in the war. His bravery,
his knowledge of the country, and his large following made it possible
for him to give his allies invaluable aid. Without Tecumseh and his
Indians the British war in the West would have been a slight affair.

The Americans fitted out a large military force to retake Detroit, and
overthrow the Indians who threatened