on the Scioto was robbed; we are very poor, and the mischief that has since been done, was in retaliation for the injuries we then sustained.

"As soon as I received this belt, which you sent me by Blue Jacket, one of our great chiefs, and as soon as I was informed by him that the good work of peace was finished, I arose to come and see you, and brought with me these four prisoners. I now surrender them up to you, my father, and promise, sincerely, that we will do no more mischief.

"I hope, that for the future, we shall be permitted to live and hunt, in peace and quietness. We were poor ignorant children, astray in the woods, who knew not that our nation, and all the other tribes of Indians, had come in and made peace with you. I thank the Great Spirit for at length opening our eyes.

"Father! We beg you will forgive, and receive your repentant children. These people, whom I now deliver to you, must plead our forgiveness, and vouch for our sincere intention to alter our conduct for the future." [A white string.]

At the close of this speech, the Indians retired from Greenville, and returned to their respective homes.

CHAPTER XIII.

Surrender of the North-western posts by the British, in 1796.-Made to General Wayne, appointed for that purpose.-Death of General Wayne.-Sketch of his life.-Detroit.—Its Commerce and Society.—Their hospitality.-Celebration of the king's birth-day at Sandwich.-General invitation to the Americans at Detroit, including the General Court and the Bar.-Note.Gen. Wilkinson's charges against Gen. Wayne.-Unfounded.—Contrast between the two men.-Their controversies.-Their effect on the army.The officers take sides.-Two parties formed.-Note.-Canadian French at and near Detroit.-Their character.-Their habits.-Their objections to free government.—Delays in administering justice.-Judicial decisions of the military commandants-Acceptable to the French inhabitants.--Pawnee Indians bought and sold as slaves.

EARLY in 1796, the British government surrendered the northern posts, including Fort Miami, built in 1794, by Governor Simcoe, at the foot of the Rapids of the Maumee, together with the town of Detroit, and the military works, both there and on the island of Mackinaw, in pursuance of the treaty negotiated by Chief Justice Jay, in 1793.

The posts were delivered to General Wayne, who had been authorised to receive them, by the President of the United States. As soon as he had performed that duty, and had made the necessary arrangements to have the works properly garrisoned and supplied, he embarked for Erie, on his way to the seat of government, very late in the season. Unfortunately, he was seized, on the passage,

* One of the motives which induced General Wayne to proceed from Detroit, on his way to Philadelphia, after the surrender of the posts, was to meet and refute, a set of charges exhibited against him, by General Wilkinson, a copy of which he had received, from the War Department, though it was not generally known, that any thing of the kind existed. He had just conquered

with a violent attack of gout in the stomach, which terminated his life, before the vessel reached the port of her destination. He was buried at Erie. When the body was disinterred by his son, many years afterwards, for the pur

the Indians compelled them to sue for peace, and receive it on his own terms-and had redeemed the character of the nation, from the reproach cast on it, by the defeat, and almost total annihilation of one army, and by heavy losses, and an unexpected failure, in the anticipated results of another. Thus covered with laurels, and hailed by the nation as a hero and a conqueror, it would seem incredible, that he was going to the seat of government, to answer accusations, implicating his character, and his military fame; yet such was the fact.

It was said, that in conversation with his friends and others, with whom he conversed, he spoke of the charges as being unfounded, and malicious; as they were in the estimation of every person who knew his character, and knew also, that he prized it more highly than he did his life. No attempt was ever made to sustain any one of them-but few persons ever heard of their existence; and, at the War Department, they were entirely disregarded.

General Wilkinson, who was one of the most accomplished men of his day, either in, or out of the army, and had acquired the character of a brave officer, had unfortunately contracted an early prejudice against General Wayne; which commenced during the Revolutionary War, in which they both served with reputation, from its commencement to its close. That state of mind predisposed him to pursue an unfriendly course towards General Wayne, and to avail himself of every opportunity to diminish the respect and confidence in him, which military officers ought always to feel towards their Commander-inchief.

The opportunity General Wilkinson had, of making impressions on the minds of the army, unfriendly to General Wayne, may be learnt from the fact, that he received the appointment of a Brigadier General in the spring of 1792, and being then a Colonel at Fort Washington, immediately assumed the command of the army; and that General Wayne, although appointed Commander-in-chief previous to that time, did not arrive at Cincinnati till September, 1793, the arrangements necessary for the coming campaign, having detained him at Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In October, 1792, we find him at the latter place, perfecting those arrangements; and also taking testimony to elucidate the facts, connected with the assassination of Colonel Hardin and Major Trueman, who had been sent from Fort Washington, with flag to

the Indians.

In March following, the negotiations for peace with the North-western Indians commenced at Niagara, and were continued till late in August; during which time, the officers of the army were ordered to remain in statu quo, and not to permit any military movement whatever to be made. This order de

pose of being removed to the place of his nativity, the skin and flesh were sound, and exhibited no signs of decay. As the body had been committed to its mother earth without embalming, and without any other process intended to pre

tained the General at Pittsburgh, and at Legionville, till the close of the summer of 1793, when he repaired to Cincinnati. During this interval, General Wilkinson had the chief command at Fort Washington, and at all the outposts of that region, where his talents were successfully employed in winning over and concentrating on himself, the confidence and friendship of the officers, and others connected with the army-an undertaking for which no person could be better qualified than himself. His deportment was easy and graceful; and in his general intercourse, he manifested great suavity of manners. In these respects, he differed, very much, from the Commander-in-chief; who, though an accomplished, well educated gentleman, possessed a firmness, decision, and bluntness of character, which, at times, had the appearance of roughness, if not rudeness, and occasionally gave offence.

Most men, whose achievements have distinguished them above their fellows, have had some striking peculiarity, not common to others. This was the case with General Wayne, and must have induced the Indians, who were very acute in discriminating, and drawing comparisons, to select for him the name of the Big Wind,' meaning the tornado; there being no single word in their language, to express that idea. The fitness of the name they selected, will readily occur to those, who have a knowledge of his character; and of the promptness, energy and unflinching boldness of his movements. His official letter to General Washington, communicating the successful result of his desperate assault on Stony Point, has been referred to, as being somewhat peculiar; and as affording some indication of his cast of mind, and general deportment. It is in these words:

Dear General:

STONY POINT, July 16th, 1779, Two o'clock, A. M.

The fort and garrison, with Colonel Johnson, are ours-our officers and men, behaved like men determined to be free.

Yours, most sincerely,

ANTHONY WAYNE.

General WASHINGTON.

The contrast between the two men was very striking; and the efforts which had been made by General Wilkinson, and those who were most warmly attached to his person, had induced a very large majority of the officers to arrange themselves under the banner of one or the other of those distinguished men. This unpleasant state of feeling, prevailed during the whole of the eventful campaign of 1793-4; and until the lamented death of General Wayne. There were a few who kept aloof from the quarrel, and exhibited no appearance of

serve it from decay, the condition in which it was found by his son, must have been the result of some antiseptic influence, exerted by the surrounding earth, which, in process of time, might have converted it into a mummy.

bad feeling towards either of the parties. Their number, however, was small; and it speaks well for the Commander-in-chief, that the officers most intimately connected with him, were of that number.

There was much talent in the military family of Brigadier General Wilkinson. In this, as in almost every transaction of his life, he gave proof that his knowledge of human nature, enabled him, with great certainty, to select the men best calculated to accomplish his purpose. Campbell Smith, one of the distinguished family of that name, in Baltimore, was a volunteer Aid, and a favorite. He abounded in wit and pleasantry; and his means of annoying the person, against whom he directed his efforts, were very considerable.

The writer of this note, though wholly unconnected with the army, was an admirer of the Commander-in-chief; and was also on terms of the most friendly intercourse, with General Wilkinson, and his staff; which afforded an opportunity of ascertaining their feelings towards General Wayne.

After the decisive battle of August, 1794, the personal friends of Gen. Wilkinson, particularly the officers attached to his family, resorted to every expedient in their power, to undervalue the results of the victory, and to ascribe it to accident, or to any thing, other than the talents and skill of the commanding General. It was alledged, that the fate of the day was to be attributed, in a great measure, to a want of concert among the chiefs, of the tribes, engaged in the battle-that the attack made on the American troops, was premature that not more than half of the Indians had arrived on the ground, when the firing commenced-that Blue Jacket, the Shawanee, who had been chosen Commander-in-chief, of the Indians, rejected the plan of attack, recommended by Little Turtle, who afterwards became the confidential friend or General Wilkinson, and was one of the most talented of the Indian chiefs. It was also said, in the circle of the General's friends, that if the counsel of Little Turtle had prevailed, there would have been a simultaneous attack, of the entire Indian force; in which case, the American troops could not have outflanked them, as they did; which manœuvre alone, it was affirmed, settled the fate of the day.

The most authentic account, of the result of the battle, stated the number of Indians left dead on the field of battle, to be upwards of fifty, exclusive of those carried off by their comrades, and of such as were not discovered among the grass and fallen timber, in which they were concealed, which, it was supposed, amounted to as many more. The verity of that report was denied; and Major Smith, in support of the denial, very facetiously reported a dialogue which had taken place on the banks of the river Styx, between old Charon and the ghost of one of General Wayne's soldiers, who boasted of the great