There now comes into the story of how Brock saved Canada, a romantic figure, Tecumseh. Tecumseh was a Shawanese chief and a brave man. When the choice had to be made as to whom he and his should serve, he decided that his loyalty should be to Britain. “I have more confidence” he said to his tribesmen, “in the word of a Briton than in the word of a Big Knife!” Tecumseh’s decision was a very important factor in the War of 1812. Having set his hand to the plough he lost no time. He and all the Indians had been greatly impressed with Brock’s occupation of Sandwich and Hull’s fear and retreat. This was as Brock had surmised. By a clever trap Tecumseh ambushed a force under an American officer, Major Van Horne, which was bringing supplies from the Raisin River to Detroit. He had not yet met Brock. Arrived at Fort Malden, Brock received from Colonel Proctor there a number of papers captured by Tecumseh in his brief engagement with Van Horne. They turned out to be General Hull’s further instructions from his government and Hull’s replies. These latter revealed the fact that the braggart quality of Hull had gone. He was very much down in the mouth. Sickness was prevalent in his camp. His constant maraudings were his only source of food and supplies, it appeared, and as his communications had been cut off, starvation faced him and his men. Brock, like the great commander he was, saw that the real significance of the captured correspondence was its demonstration of the lowered _morale_ of Hull’s men even more than their dwindling supplies. He decided to act. He knew that it would not be easy to conquer a force of 2,500, but he remembered Nelson’s threat at Copenhagen and that it was successful. The old Greeks had a saying which might very well have been running through Brock’s mind at this time, “They did it because they thought they could do it.” He was not overwhelmingly confident, but he knew he could not afford to be unsure of himself. He sent his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonell, and Captain Glegg, under a flag of truce, to General Hull with this message: “The force at my disposal authorizes me to require of you the surrender of Fort Detroit. It is far from my inclination to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware that the numerous body of Indians, who have attached themselves to my troops, will be beyond my control the moment the contest commences.” Hull was caught between the devil of his own self-contempt and the deep sea of this supposed force of Indians. He longed to hand Brock his sword, but he dared not give in without some attempt at resistance. He had boasted so much that he was compelled to make some sort of showing. He said he was ready to meet the British forces.