Tecumseh has left behind him,
under the protection of the Prophet, his wife, Mamatee, and his
niece, Iena. He is accompanied on his mission by Lefroy, an English
poet-artist, "enamoured of Indian life, and in love with Iena." The
Prophet, who is hostile to Lefroy, intends to marry Iena to Tarhay,
one of his chiefs, but Mamatee has gone to intercede with her
brother-in-law for Iena, and, if possible, to turn him from his
purpose.

[R] Tecumseh had long foreseen that nothing but combination could
prevent the encroachments of the whites upon the Ohio, and had long
been successfully endeavoring to bring about a union of the tribes
who inhabited its valley. The Fort Wayne treaties gave a wider scope
to his design, and he now originated his great scheme of a federation
of the entire red race. In pursuance of this object, his exertions,
hitherto very arduous, became almost superhuman. He made repeated
journeys, and visited almost every tribe from the Gulf of Mexico to
the Great Lakes, and even north of them, and far to the west of the
Mississippi. In order to further his scheme he took advantage of his
brother's growing reputation as a prophet, and allowed him to gain a
powerful hold upon the superstitious minds of his people by his
preaching and predictions. The Prophet professed to have obtained
from the Great Spirit a magic bowl, which possessed miraculous
qualities; also a mystic torch, presumably from Nanabush, the keeper
of the sacred fire. He asserted that a certain belt, said to make
those invulnerable who touched it whilst in his hands, was composed
of beans which had grown from his flesh; and this belt was circulated
far and wide by Indian runners, finding its way even to the Red River
of the North. These, coupled with his oratory and mummeries, greatly
enhanced an influence which was possibly added to by a gloomy and
saturnine countenance, made more forbidding still by the loss of an
eye. Unfortunately for Tecumseh's enterprise, the Prophet was more
bent upon personal notoriety than upon the welfare of his people;
and, whilst professing the latter, indulged his ambition, in
Tecumseh's absence, by a precipitate attack upon Harrison's force on
the Tippecanoe. His defeat discredited his assumption of supernatural
powers, led to distrust and defection, and wrecked Tecumseh's plan of
independent action. But the protection of his people was Tecumseh's
sole ambition; and, true statesman that he was, he joined the British