"The Shawanees for many ages continued to be masters of the continent, using the knowledge which they had received from the Great Spirit, in such a manner as to be pleasing to him, and to secure their own happiness. In a great length of time, however, they became corrupt, and the Master of Life told them he would take away from them the knowledge they possessed, and give it to the white people, to be restored when, by a return to good principles, they would deserve it. Many years after that, they saw something white approaching their shores; at first they took it for a great bird, but they soon found it to be a monstrous canoe, filled with the very people who had got the knowledge which belonged to the Shawanees. After these white people landed, they were not content with having the knowledge which belonged to the Shawanees, but they usurped their lands also. They pretended, indeed, to have purchased these lands; but the very goods which they gave for them was more the property of the Indians than the white people, because the knowledge which enabled them to manufacture these goods actually belonged to the Shawanees. But these things will soon have an end. The Master of Life is about to restore to the Shawanees both their knowledge and their rights, and he will trample the Long-Knives under his feet." This speaker was supposed to be in the British interest, and to have been sent to Fort Wayne for the purpose of preventing a negotiation expected to be there settled. The probability is, that he derived his ideas of Shawanee dignity from the preaching of Elskwatawa. But the latter had more good sense than personally to _continue_ the same strain, after having secured about one hundred followers by the use of it. It was then abandoned, and other inducements and arguments brought forward, of a wider application. Some of the Shawanees grew cool and deserted him, but he still persevered. His brother was indefatigable in his cooperation; other agents and instruments were set to work; and stragglers of various tribes soon flocked to his quarters at Greenville from every direction. The minutiae of this proselyting or electioneering system are so well developed in the faithful and simple narrative of Tanner, as to justify extracting his account at length. It cannot fail to give a much clearer idea of the mode of operation, than any exposition whatever in general terms. The locality, it will be observed, is a quite remote one:--