et, and assumed his sacred office. He
changed his name from Laulewasikaw, to Tenskwautawau,[A] meaning the
Open Door, because he undertook to point out to the Indians the new
modes of life which they should pursue. In the month of November, of
this year, he assembled a considerable number of Shawanoes, Wyandots,
Ottaways and Senecas, at Wapakonatta, on the Auglaize river, when he
unfolded to them the new character with which he was clothed, and made
his first public effort in that career of religious imposition, which,
in a few years, was felt by the remote tribes of the upper lakes, and
on the broad plains which stretch beyond the Mississippi. At this time
nothing, it is believed, was said by him in regard to the grand
confederacy of the tribes, for the recovery of their lands, which
shortly afterwards became an object of ambition with his brother; and,
in the furtherance of which he successfully exerted his power and
influence, as a prophet. In this assemblage he declaimed against
witchcraft, which many of the Indians practised and still more
believed. He pronounced that those who continued bewitched, or exerted
their arts on others, would never go to heaven nor see the Great
Spirit. He next took up the subject of drunkenness, against which he
harangued with great force; and, as appeared subsequently, with much
success. He told them that since he had become a prophet, he went up
into the clouds; that the first place he came to was the dwelling of
the Devil, and that all who had died drunkards were there, with flames
issuing out of their mouths. He acknowledged that he had himself been a
drunkard, but that this awful scene had reformed him. Such was the
effect of his preaching against this pernicious vice, that many of his
followers became alarmed, and ceased to drink the "fire-water," a name
by which whiskey is significantly called among the Indians. He
likewise, declaimed against the custom of Indian women intermarrying
with white men, and denounced it as one of the causes of their
unhappiness. Among other doctrines of his new code, he insisted on a
community of property--a very comfortable regulation for those, who
like himself, were too indolent to labor for the acquisition of it. A
more salutary and rational precept, and one which he enforced with
considerable energy, was the duty of the young, at all times and under
all circumstances, to support, cherish and respect the aged and infirm.
He declaimed with vehemence