That night the Governor reflected. If the words of Tecumseh as uttered in council, were sincere and genuine, they amounted to an open declaration of war--the government must either entirely recede from the ground it had taken, and restore the lands, or prepare for the coming conflict. Concerning this issue there must be no doubt. The Governor therefore resolved to repair to the headquarters of Tecumseh in person, and there, removed from the atmosphere of a council, hold private intercourse with the chieftain and read his intentions. He had hit upon this expedient once before in the proceedings at Fort Wayne, and the experiment had proven successful. Accordingly, the following morning, throwing aside all considerations of personal danger, he suddenly appeared at the tent of Tecumseh, accompanied only by the interpreter Barron. He was most politely received. Proceeding at once to the main point, he asked the chief if the declarations he had made in his two public interviews were his real sentiments. Tecumseh answered that they certainly were; that he had no grievance against the United States except the matter as to the purchase of the Indian lands, and that he would go to war with very great reluctance; that if Harrison would prevail upon the President to give back the lands, and promise never to consummate any more purchases, without the consent of all the tribes, that he would be the faithful ally of the Americans and assist them in all their wars with the British. "He said he knew the latter were always urging the Indians to war for their own advantage, and not to benefit his countrymen; and here he clapped his hands, and imitated a person who halloos at a dog, to set him to fight with another, thereby insinuating that the British thus endeavored to set the Indians on the Americans." He said further that he had rather be a friend of the Seventeen Fires, but if they would not accede to his demands that he would be forced to join the English. The memory of Wayne, the commanding figure and dauntless courage of the present Governor, had had their effect; compared to the vile and sneaking agents of the British government, who, in the security of their forts, had formerly offered bounties for American scalps, and urged the Indians to a predatory warfare, the American leaders stood out in bold relief as both men and warriors. Tecumseh recognized this, but the die was cast and his purposes were unchangeable. Stripped of all its savage propensities, the heart of the Shawnee was really of heroic mould. Concerning that great principle of the survival of the fittest, he knew nothing; of the onrushing forces of civilization and progress he had no just comprehension; but as the rising sun of the new republic appeared, he saw the light of his race fading into obscurity, and patriotically resolved to stand on his lands and resist to the last. Misinformed, misguided, he sought an alliance with the British to stem the tide; instead of delaying, this but