avage foes.

The Indians Harass the Regular Troops.

The subalterns in command of the little detachments which moved between
the posts, whether they went by land or water, were forced to be ever on
the watch against surprise and ambush. This was particularly the case
with the garrison at Vincennes. The Wabash Indians were all the time out
in parties to murder and plunder; and yet these same thieves and
murderers were continually coming into town and strolling innocently
about the fort; for it was impossible to tell the peaceful Indians from
the hostile. They were ever in communication with the equally
treacherous and ferocious Miami tribes, to whose towns the war parties
often brought five or six scalps in a day, and prisoners, too, doomed to
a death of awful torture at the stake. There is no need to waste
sympathy on the northwestern Indians for their final fate; never were
defeat and subjection more richly deserved.

The bands of fierce and crafty braves who lounged about the wooden fort
at Vincennes watched eagerly the outgoing and incoming of the troops,
and were prompt to dog and waylay any party they thought they could
overcome. They took advantage of the unwillingness of the Federal
commander to harass Indians who might be friendly; and plotted at ease
the destruction of the very troops who spent much of the time in keeping
intruders off their lands. In the summer of 1788 they twice followed
parties of soldiers from the town, when they went down the Wabash, and
attacked them by surprise, from the river-banks, as they sat in their
boats. In one instance, the lieutenant in command got off with the loss
of but two or three men. In the other, of the thirty-six soldiers who
composed the party ten were killed, eight wounded, and the greater part
of the provisions and goods they were conveying were captured; while the
survivors, pushing down-stream, ultimately made their way to the
Illinois towns. [Footnote: State Dept. MSS., No. 150, vol. iii. Lt.
Spear to Harmar, June 2, 1788; Hamtranck to Harmar, Aug. 12, 1788.] This
last tragedy was avenged by a band of thirty mounted riflemen from
Kentucky, led by the noted backwoods fighter Hardin. They had crossed
the Ohio on a retaliatory foray, many of their horses having been stolen
by the Indians. When near Vincennes they happened to stumble on the war
party that had attacked the soldiers, slew ten, and scattered the others
to the winds, capturing thirty horses. [Footno