5. Tecumtha, chief of the Shawnees--a brave and sagacious warrior--and his brother, called the Prophet, were the leaders of the revolt. Their plan was to unite all the nations of the Northwest Territory in a final effort to beat back the whites. When, in September of 1809, Governor Harrison met the chiefs of several tribes at Fort Wayne, and purchased three million acres of land, Tecumtha refused to sign the treaty, and threatened death to those who did. In 1810 he visited the nations of Tennessee and exhorted them to join his confederacy. 6. Governor Harrison stood firm, sent for soldiers, and mustered the militia of the Territory. The Indians began to prowl through the Wabash Valley, murdering and stealing. The governor then advanced to Terre Haute, built Fort Harrison, and hastened toward the town of the Prophet, at the mouth of the Tippecanoe. When within a few miles of this place, Harrison was met by Indian ambassadors, who asked for a conference on the following day. Their request was granted; and the American army encamped for the night. The place selected was a piece of high ground covered with oaks. [Sidenote: Battle of Tippecanoe.] 7. Before daybreak on the morning of November 7th, 1811, the savages, seven hundred strong, crept through the marshes, surrounded Harrison's position, and burst upon the camp. But the American militia fought in the darkness, held the Indians in check until daylight, and then routed them in several vigorous charges. On the next day, the Americans burned the Prophet's town, and soon afterwards returned to Vincennes. Such was the success of the campaign that the Indians were overawed, the peace of the white settlements secured, and the way made easy for the organization and admission of the State of Indiana into the Union five years afterwards. [Illustration: Western Battle-fields located relatively to Present Cities.] 8. Meanwhile, Great Britain and the United States had come into conflict on the ocean. On the 16th of May, Commodore Rodgers, commanding the frigate _President_, hailed a vessel off the coast of Virginia. Instead of a polite answer, he received a cannon-ball in the mainmast. Rodgers responded with a broadside, silencing the enemy's guns. In the morning--for it was already dark--the hostile ship was found to be the British sloop-of-war _Little Belt_. 9. On the 4th of November, 1811, the twelfth Congress of the United States assembled. Many of the members still hoped for peace; and the winter passed without decisive measures. On the 4th of April, 1812, an act was passed laying an embargo for ninety days on all British vessels within the harbors of the United States. But Great Britain would not recede from her hostile attitude. Before the actual outbreak of hostilities, Louisiana, the eighteenth State, was, on the 8th of April, admitted into the Union. Her population had already reached seventy-seven thousand. [Sidenote: Declaration of War.]