The great house of the Governor at Vincennes is situated inland from the Wabash river about six hundred feet, and there formerly stood in front of this house and next to the river a grove of walnut trees which afforded a gracious shade. It was here, that on a bright, sunshiny day in August, the dramatic meeting occurred between the Shawnee chief and Governor Harrison. Local tradition has preserved a tale that the Governor had secreted in the great parlor of his house a company of one hundred well-armed soldiers to provide against any treachery on the part of the red men, and computations, have been made to show that the room would accommodate that number of infantry, but this story must be regarded with suspicion. Tecumseh and his party seem to have arrived at the place of rendezvous in canoes and by way of the river. He appeared on the scene with a retinue of forty warriors accoutered in the elaborate costume of the ceremonial, with painted bodies and feathered headdress, and fully armed with war clubs and tomahawks. The chief himself, invariably wore a simple dress of Indian tanned buckskin, with a mantle of the same material thrown over the left shoulder. In his belt he carried an elegant silver mounted tomahawk and a hunting knife in a leathern case. "Tall, athletic and manly, dignified, but graceful," he stood as the chosen exponent of his people's wrongs, ready to voice their plaints in the "musical and euphonious" accents of the Shawnee tongue. A close observer of the savages of that day has stated that, "those who have been familiar with the Indians of the northwest, when they were Indians, and took sufficient interest in them as a race to study with care their customs, laws and usages, are aware that when attending councils with other nations or tribes, or with our agents, that they were always acting a part, a kind of diplomatic drama." To Tecumseh the moment appeared propitious. The time had arrived to put the youthful Governor of thirty-seven years to the test. Harrison was attended by the judges of the supreme court; General Gibson, the secretary; Major G. R. Floyd, and other officers of the regular army, and a guard of twelve men from the garrison under the command of Lieutenant Jennings; there was also a large assemblage of citizens present, who had been invited thither to hear what Tecumseh had to present. The stage was well set, and the bold and insolent heart of the savage rose high. "As he came in front of the dais, an elevated portion of the place upon which the Governor and the officers of the territory were seated, the Governor invited him, through his interpreter, to come forward and take a seat with him and his counsellors, premising the invitation by saying 'That it was the wish of the Great Father, the President of the United States, that he should do so'. The chief paused for a moment, as the words were uttered and the sentence finished, and raising his tall form to its