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No. 9.

EXHIBIT 379.

The Commissioners to Lord Castlereagh.1

GHENT, October 14, 1814.

We have the honour to transmit for the information of His Majesty's Government the Copy of a Note which we have this day received from the American Plenipotentiaries.

Your Lordship will observe that the American Plenipotentiaries have consented to admit as a provisional Article the modified proposition with respect to Indian pacification and rights which we were instructed to make; and have thus removed the principal obstruction to the further progress of the negotiation. Under these circumstances we have to request such further instructions as the state of the negotiation may appear to His Majesty's Government to require.

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We have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's dispatches of the 18th & 20th Inst.

In compliance with Your Lordship's instructions we lost no time in addressing to the American Plenipotentiaries the Note of which a copy is enclosed.

We hope His Majesty's Government will approve of the cursory manner in which we have therein stated the subject of the fisheries, when they are informed that our communication on that topic at the first conference with the American Plenipotentiaries was so explicit as fully to apprise them of the views of His Majesty's 1Foreign Office, America, Vol. 102. 'Foreign Office, America, Vol. 102.

Government, with the single exception of the marine league from the shore being taken as the common measure of territorial Jurisdiction. It appeared to us better to leave this last particular till the fisheries were again brought into discussion, with a view to wording of an Article in respect to them, as either repetition or detail at present might seem to imply a doubt as to the right of Great Britain to act upon the views of the subject.

We received this afternoon the inclosed reply from the American Plenipotentiaries, and transmit it for the information of His Majesty's Government, requesting at the same time their directions for our future proceedings.

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We have the honour of transmitting to Your Lordship the Copy of a Note which we have received from the American Plenipotentiaries together with the Projet of a Treaty which it inclosed.

As some of the Articles proposed by the American Plenipotentiaries relate to points upon which we are not in possession of the views and sentiments of His Majesty's Government, we are anxious, previously to replying to their Note, to receive such instructions as may enable us effectually to meet those propositions. We have, &c.

GAMBIER,

HENRY GOULBURN,
WILLIAM ADAMS.

1Foreign Office, America, Vol. 102.

EXHIBIT 382.

The Battle of Tippecanoe.1

Another power was, at this period, in the rapid process of development, through the influence attained by the Shawnee prophet, Ellksattawa, over the entire body of tribes. This person, though belonging to the reservation of his tribe, at Wappecanotta, had located his residence principally on the Wabash, in the vicinity of the mouth of the Tippecanoe river, which became the centre of his power, and whence emanated his oracular revelations. By the recital and interpretation of dreams, by fasting, and by an assumed indifference to all wordly considerations and rewards, he had attained a high position and influence. Ellksattawa had lost one eye, which defect he concealed by wearing a black veil or handkerchief over the disfigured organ. He affected great sanctity; did not engage in the secular duties of war or hunting; was seldom in public; devoted most of his time to fasting, the interpretation of dreams, and offering sacrifices to spiritual powers; pretended to see into futurity, and to foretell events, and announced himself to be the mouthpiece of God. The Indians flocked to him from every quarter; there was no name that carried such weight as his. They never ceased talking of his power, or expatiating on the miracles he wrought; and the more extraordinary the revelations he made, the more readily were they believed and confided in. He possessed a remarkably clear conception of the Indian character, great shrewdness, and astuteness. It being essential to his purposes that he, who was the concentrated wisdom of the Indian race, should have no rivals, the minor priests and powwows became but the retailers of his words and prophecies; and, when one was found who disputed his authority, or resisted his power, he did not proceed against him in a direct manner, but insidiously operated upon the superstitions of the Indian mind. In this way, he disposed of Tarhe, the wise and venerable sachem king of the Wyandots, who, being accused of witchcraft, was condemned to be burnt at the stake. The very knowledge that he possessed such an indomitable will, increased the fear and respect entertained for him by the Indians; which was, however, based on an implicit belief in his miraculous gifts. It 1H. R. Schoolcrafts "History of the Indian Tribes of the United States" (1857), pp. 353-355.

has been mentioned that the prophet was not a warrior; his sole object was to employ his power in furtherance of the projects of his brother Tecumseh.

There was a higher purpose concealed under these manifestations of Ellksattawa. He told the Indians that their pristine state, antecedent to the arrival of the Europeans, was most agreeable to the Great Spirit, and that they had adopted too many of the manners and customs of the whites. He counselled them to return to their primeval simple condition; to throw away their flints and steels, and resort to their original mode of obtaining fire by percussion. He denounced the woollen stuffs as not equal to skins for clothing; he commended the use of the bow and arrow. Like Pontiac, who, however, had made no pretensions to priestly power, he professed a profound respect for the ancient manners and customs of the Indians; whether influenced thereto by his knowledge, derived from tradition, of the potency of this argument, as made use of by that renowned chief; or, which might have been the case, the idea originated with himself. Fifty years only had passed since the era of Pontiac, and young men who had been engaged in that bold attempt to resist British power, might yet be on the stage of action. Now, however, the real purpose was not to resist, but to invite the co-operation of British power. This was the secret of his actions. This was the argument used by the subordinate emissaries of the Indian trading agencies located in Canada, who visited the Miami of the Lakes, the Wabash, the Scioto, the Illinois, and the upper Mississippi. In the course of a few years, the doctrines of Ellksattawa had spread among the tribes in the valley of the Missouri, over those located on the most distant shores of Lake Superior, and throughout all the Appalachian tribes of the South. They were as current on the Ockmulgee, the Chattahootchee, and the Alabama, as they were on the Wabash, and the Miami. He was himself a half-Creek.

The speeches of the Indians in their assemblages had, for some time, savored of these counsels, and the name of the Shawnee prophet was known, and the influence of his teaching disseminated throughout the country. In 1811, the congregation of large masses of Indians around the residence of this oracular personage, on the banks of the upper part of the Wabash, created considerable alarm, and General Harrison, who had closely watched this secret movement, reported it to the government, by which he was author

ized to march a military force from Vincennes, up the Wabash. This army, comprising one regiment of regular infantry, an auxiliary body of mounted Kentucky volunteers, and also volunteer militia from other Western States, left Vincennes in October, 1811, and, in November, reached the Indian villages located on eligible open grounds near the confluence of the Tippecanoe. A preliminary conference was immediately held with the Indians, who recommended a locality at a moderate distance inland, as a suitable one for an encampment. General Harrison had no reason to suspect Indian treachery, nor is it quite clear that any was originally intended. But that night the prophet was observed practising his secret rites of divination; and he reported that the omens were favorable for an immediate attack. The army was encamped with the skill and precaution indicated by the teachings of Wayne; and, agreeably to his rigid rules, General Harrison had arisen to order the reveille, and was in his tent engaged in drawing on his boots, when the chief musician stepped in to ask whether he should commence the beat. "Not yet; but presently," was his reply. The expression had scarcely passed his lips, when the Indian war-cry was heard. One of the sentinels on post had observed an arrow on the grass, which did not it seems reach its destination; and, his curiosity being aroused, he was endeavoring to peer through the intense darkness in the direction whence the arrow came, when the Indians made a sudden onslaught. A thousand wolves could not have produced a more horrific howl. The lines were driven in; the horses of the officers, fastened to stakes in the square, broke loose; confusion everywhere prevailed; and the army was assailed from all points. General Harrison gallantly mounted his horse, and endeavored to restore order at the principal points of attack. The mounted volunteers from Kentucky and Indiana charged, as well as they could, through the darkness. The fourth regiment of United States infantry, which was in a high state of discipline, restored confidence to the foot, and as soon as the dawn of day permitted them to act, they repulsed the Indians. At the same time the volunteer cavalry drove the enemy across the prairie to their coverts. There had been, however, a most severe and lamentable slaughter. Daylight rendered visible the dead bodies of the chivalric Colonel Davies, of Kentucky, Colonel Owens, of Indiana, a Senator in Congress, and of a vast number of brave officers and men.

The

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