That end was not far distant. General Tecumseh and General Proctor together failed to take Fort Meigs. General Proctor ordered a retreat. General Harrison followed on the trail. General Tecumseh hated to retreat. At every step he was abandoning Indian country. The retreat northward to Canada continued. Tecumseh was fighting the battle of his people, not of the English; he wished to go no farther. He proposed to his warriors that they leave for another region, and let the Americans and British fight their own war. "They promised us plenty of soldiers, to help us. Instead, we are treated like the dogs of snipe-hunters; we are always sent ahead to rouse the game." "You got us into this war by your promises," retorted the Sioux and the Chippewas. "You have no right to break us." Any appeal to Tecumseh's honor was certain to win; he stuck. Then American ships under Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry fought British ships under Commodore Barclay, on Lake Erie, and gained a great victory. From an island near shore the Tecumseh warriors peered eagerly, to the sound of the heavy guns. "A few days since you were boasting that you commanded the waters," had said Tecumseh, to General Proctor. "Why do you not go out and meet the Americans? They are daring you to meet them; you must send out your fleet and fight them." Now, after the battle, the British general asserted: "My fleet has whipped the Americans, but the vessels are injured and have gone to Put-in Bay, to refit. They will be here in a few days." Tecumseh was no fool. He had before caught the general in a lie. Here at Fort Maiden opposite Detroit he challenged him in a hot speech. Father! Listen to your children. You have them now all before you. The war before this, our British father gave the hatchet to his red children, when our old chiefs were alive. They are now dead. In that war our father was thrown flat on his back by the Americans, and our father took them by the hand without our knowledge. We are afraid that our father will do so again. Summer before last, when I came forward with my red brothers, and was ready to take up the hatchet in favor of our British father, we were told not to be in a hurry--that he had not yet decided to fight the Americans. Listen! When war was declared, our father stood up and gave us the tomahawk, and told us that he was then ready to strike the Americans--that he wanted our aid--and that he would surely get us our lands back, which the Americans had taken from us. Listen! When we were last at the Rapids [Fort Meigs] it is true that we gave you little assistance. It is hard to fight people who live like ground-hogs.