were,--fortunately for the interest which they lived and labored to resist,--alike unsuccessful in their issue; but none the less credit should for _that_ reason be allowed to their motives or their efforts. They were still statesmen, though the communities over which their influence was exerted, were composed of red men instead of white. They were still patriots, though they fought only for wild lands and for wild liberty. Indeed, it is these very circumstances that make these very efforts,--and especially the extraordinary degree of success which attended them,--the more honorable and the more signal; while they clearly show the necessity of their ultimate failure, which existed in the nature of things. They are the best proof, at once, of genius and of principle. CHAPTER XV. Michikinaqwa, or the Little Turtle--Early History--Engages in a combination of the Indians against the United States--Blue-Jacket--The Turtle defeats two detachments of American troops--Some account of the North-Western war from 1791 to 1795--The Turtle defeated by General Wayne--He becomes unpopular after the peace--Some or the charges against him examined--Anecdotes of his intercourse with distinguished Americans--His letter to Gen. Harrison--His death in 1812--His character. In the Life of Buckongahelas, we have alluded to the powerful influence of "one individual," as having enabled Governor Harrison, despite the exertions or that chieftain, to effect the important negotiations concluded at Fort Wayne in 1803. That individual was the Little Turtle, a personage of both talent and celebrity, second in modern times only to those of Tecumseh. Indeed, he may be considered in some respects one of the most remarkable Indians of any age; and although he has been deceased about twenty years, his grave, in the neighborhood of the station just named, is not only still shown, but still visited by Indians from various quarters, who cherish the memory of the old warrior with the deepest veneration. The vernacular name of the Turtle was Michikinaqwa or Mechecunaqua. He was the son of a Miami chief, but his mother was a Mohegan woman; and as the Indian maxim in relation to descents is generally the same with that of the civil law in relation to slaves--that the condition of the offspring follows the condition of the mother [FN]--the Turtle had no advantage whatever from his father's rank. He however became a chief at an early age, for his extraordinary talents attracted the notice of his countrymen even in boyhood. * * * * * [FN] "Partus sequitur ventrem."