; if not, he would
cast in his lot with the British. The governor promised
to notify the president of Tecumseh's views, without
holding out much prospect of a decision to surrender the
land to its former owners.

'Well,' returned Tecumseh, 'as the great chief is to
decide the matter, I hope the Great Spirit will put enough
sense into his head to induce him to direct you to give
up this land. It is true he is so far off he will not be
injured by the war; he may sit still in his town and
drink his wine, while you and I shall have to fight it out.'

In the following spring (1811), when the Americans were
distributing the annuity of salt to the Kickapoos and
Shawnees, the Prophet's Indians at Tippecanoe, on being
offered their share of five barrels, forcibly seized the
whole boat-load. This angered the Americans, who were
further incensed by the murder on the Missouri of four
white men by two Indians of the Potawatomi tribe. Tecumseh,
who was absent at the time either on a hunting expedition
or for the purpose of strengthening his confederation,
was summoned to Vincennes shortly after his return. He
arrived on July 27, attended by a party of three hundred
warriors. The governor referred to the recent seizure of
the salt by the Prophet's warriors and demanded an
explanation. Tecumseh replied that it was indeed difficult
to please the governor, since he seemed equally annoyed
if the salt were taken or rejected. When asked to deliver
up the Indians guilty of the murder, he replied that he
had no jurisdiction over them, since they were not of
his town. The white people, he said, were needlessly
alarmed at his active measures in uniting the northern
tribes; for he was but following the example which the
Seventeen Fires had set him when they joined the Fires
in one confederacy, and he boldly declared that he would
endeavour also to unite the various tribes of the south
with those of the north. The land question he hoped would
be left in abeyance until his return in the spring.

CHAPTER VI

THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE

Tecumseh was soon on his southern journey, with twenty
warriors to aid in the work which was now apparently
nearing completion. Inspired by patriotic zeal, he passed
from tribe to tribe, incessantly active. Through dismal
swamps and across wide plains he made his way, and in
his light canoe shot many a dangerous rapid. He laboured
diligently among the Indians to make them sensible of
their wrongs an