the troops,
and the national dignity."

Accordingly, about the first of January, 1790, Governor Arthur St.
Clair, descended the river Ohio from Marietta, opposite Fort Harmar, to
Losantiville, opposite the mouth of the Licking river. Here was located
Fort Washington. He changed the name of Losantiville to Cincinnati,
organized the county of Hamilton, and proceeded to Fort Steuben or
Clarksville, at the Falls of the Ohio. There he dispatched a messenger
to Major John Hamtramck, the commandant at Vincennes, with friendly
speeches to be forwarded by him to the Indians of the Wabash. A sincere
and honest effort was to be made to bring about peace, although St.
Clair himself had but little faith in an amicable adjustment and
expressed the opinion that the Miamis and the renegade Shawnees,
Delawares and Cherokees, lying near them, were "irreclaimable by gentle
means." The heart "dried like a piece of dried venison" was ample proof
that St. Clair was right.

The first peace messenger sent by Hamtramck was Fred Gamelin, a
Frenchman. He proceeded no farther than the Vermilion river, where he
was informed by an Indian that if he went any farther his life would be
taken, and he returned to Vincennes. On the first of April, Hamtramck
sent forward Antoine Gamelin, an intelligent French merchant. The first
village he arrived at was close to Vincennes, and was named Kikapouguoi.
The Indians at this place were friendly, and he proceeded up the Wabash.
He next arrived at a town of the Vermilion Piankeshaws. The first chief
of the village and all the warriors seemed to be pleased with the words
of peace from the Americans, but said that they could not give a proper
answer before consulting their "eldest brethren," the Miamis. They
desired that Gamelin should go forward to Kekionga or Miamitown, and
bring back a report of what the head chiefs should say. Gamelin had now
fairly entered the sphere of British influence. He was told that the
nations of the lake had a bad heart and were ill disposed toward the
Americans; that the Shawnees of Miamitown would never receive his
speech.

Gamelin now advanced to the large Indian village of the Kickapoos,
situated on the Big Vermilion river, in what is now Vermilion County,
Indiana. Their principal town was on the site of what is now known as
"The Army Ford Stock Farm," a few miles from the present village of
Cayuga. This farm has been in the possession of the old Shelby family
for years. The ho