em to fight on, it would soon be as he predicted; and then in,
wilder and louder strains, his inspiring battle song was heard
commingling with the sharp crack of the rifle and the shrill war-whoop
of his brave but deluded followers. Some of the Indians who were in the
conflict, subsequently informed the agent at Fort Wayne, that there were
more than a thousand warriors in the battle, and that the number of
wounded was unusually great. In the precipitation of their retreat, they
left thirty-eight on the field. Some were buried during the engagement
in their town. Others no doubt subsequently died of their wounds. Drake
places their number in killed at not less than fifty.

Of the whites, thirty-five were killed in the action, and twenty-five
died subsequently. The total number of killed and wounded was one
hundred and eighty-eight,--probably as great and possibly greater than
the loss of the Indians. Among the slain were Colonel Abraham Owen and
Major Joseph Hamilton Davies of Kentucky.

Though the battle of Tippecanoe, considered as a conflict from the
losses on each side, would to-day be regarded only as a skirmish, yet it
had a great moral influence in restraining the savages in the
northwest, and, but for the meddling of the British agents, a permanent
peace with the Indians could have been established.

Harrison burned the prophet's town. The prophet lost caste with his
people. When reproached for his falsehoods, he cunningly told them that
his predictions had failed of fulfilment, because, during his
incantations, his wife touched the sacred vessels and broke the charm.
His followers, superstitious as they were, would not accept such a
flimsy excuse and deserted him, flying to secure hiding-places where the
white man could not find them. After his town was burned, the prophet
took shelter among the Wyandots.

The events in the northwest aroused a war spirit among the patriotic
Americans, which could not be suppressed. Not only did British
emissaries incite the Indians to make war, but British orders in council
continued to be vigorously enforced. Insult was offered to the American
flag by British cruisers, and the press of Great Britain insolently
declared that the Americans "could not be kicked into a war."

Forbearance ceased to be a virtue; it became cowardice. President
Madison found himself the standard-bearer of his party, surrounded by
irrepressible young warriors eager for fight. Like a cautious
comman