g the lands on Mad River, and lodged one night at
the house of captain Abner Barrett, residing on the head waters of Buck
creek. In the course of the evening, he learned with apparent alarm,
that there were some Indians encamped within a short distance of the
house. Shortly after hearing this unwelcome intelligence, the door of
captain Barrett's dwelling was suddenly opened, and Tecumseh entered
with his usual stately air: he paused in silence, and looked around,
until at length his eye was fixed upon the stranger, who was
manifesting symptoms of alarm, and did not venture to look the stern
savage in the face. Tecumseh turned to his host, and pointing to the
agitated Kentuckian, exclaimed, "a big baby! a big baby!" He then
stepped up to him, and gently slapping him on the shoulder several
times, repeated with a contemptuous manner, the phrase "big baby! big
baby!" to the great alarm of the astonished man, and to the amusement
of all present.[A]

[Footnote A: James Galloway.]

In the early part of the year 1805, a portion of the Shawanoe nation,
residing at the Tawa towns on the headwaters of the Auglaize river,
wishing to re-assemble their scattered people, sent a deputation to
Tecumseh and his party, (then living on White river,) and also to a
body of the same tribe upon the Mississiniway, another tributary of the
Wabash, inviting them to remove to the Tawa towns, and join their
brethren at that place. To this proposition both parties assented; and
the two bands met at Greenville, on their way thither. There, through
the influence of Laulewasikaw, they concluded to establish themselves;
and accordingly the project of going to the Auglaize was abandoned.
Very soon afterwards, Laulewasikaw assumed the office of a prophet; and
forthwith commenced that career of cunning and pretended sorcery, which
enabled him to sway the Indian mind in a wonderful degree, and win for
himself a name on the page of history. A concise notice of his
prophetical achievements is subjoined. While it serves to display his
individual character and endowments, it also presents an interesting
and instructive phase of aboriginal character.

It happened about this time that an old Shawanoe, named Penagashega, or
the Change of Feathers, who had for some years been engaged in the
respectable calling of a prophet, fell sick and died. Laulewasikaw, who
had marked the old man's influence with the Indians, adroitly caught up
the mantle of the dying proph