river--the great highway of emigration to
the west--and the facility with which the infant settlements in
Kentucky could be reached, rendered this warlike tribe an annoying and
dangerous neighbor. Led on by some daring chiefs; fighting for their
favorite hunting-grounds, and stimulated to action by British agents,
the Shawanoes, for a series of years, pressed sorely upon the new
settlements; and are supposed to have caused the destruction of more
property and a greater number of lives, than all the other tribes of
the north-west united. They participated in most of the predatory
excursions into Kentucky. They were present at the celebrated attack on
Bryant's station; they fought with their characteristic bravery in the
battle of the Blue Licks, and participated in colonel Byrd's hostile
excursion up Licking river, and the destruction of Martin's and
Riddle's stations. In turn, they were compelled to stand on the
defensive, and to encounter the gallant Kentuckians on the north side
of the Ohio. Bowman's expedition in 1779, to the waters of Mad river;
Clark's in 1780 and 1782, and Logan's in 1786, to the same point;
Edwards' in 1787, to the head waters of the Big Miami; and Todd's in
1788, into the Scioto valley--not to name several minor ones--were
chiefly directed against the Shawanoes; and resulted in the destruction
of two or three of their principal villages, but not without a fierce
and bloody resistance. The Shawanoes were likewise found in hostility
to the United States, in the campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne.
They united in the treaty of Greenville, in 1795; and with the
exception of a few who fought at Tippecanoe, remained at peace with
this government until the war with Great Britain, in 1812, in which a
considerable body of them became the allies of the latter power. Some
of the tribe, however, remained neutral in that contest, and others
joined the United States, and continued faithful until the peace of
1815.

WEYAPIERSENWAH, OR BLUE JACKET.

In the campaign of general Harmar, in the year 1790, Blue Jacket--an
influential Shawanoe chief--was associated with the Miami chief, Little
Turtle, in the command of the Indians. In the battle of the 20th of
August 1794, when the combined army of the Indians was defeated by
general Wayne, Blue Jacket had the chief control. The flight previous
to the battle, while the Indians were posted at Presque Isle, a council
was held, composed of chiefs from the Miam