This renowned aboriginal chief was a Shawanee, and was born in 1769 or 1770, about the same year as his "brave brother warrior," Sir Isaac Brock. He may be said to have been inured to war from his infancy, as the Indian nations continued in hostility against the United States after their independence was achieved, alleging that they infringed on their territories. In 1790, about which period Tecumseh first gave proofs of that talent and daring which so distinguished his after-life, General Harmer was dispatched with a competent force to punish the predatory incursions of the Indians; but he was glad to return, with the loss of many of his men. In the following year, General St. Clair proceeded with another army to ravage the Miami and Shawanee settlements, and was even more unfortunate than his predecessor, as the Indians boldly advanced to meet him on the way, attacked his encampment, and put his troops to a total rout, in which the greater part were cut off and destroyed. In 1794, however, a much more formidable expedition, under General Wayne, entered the Indian territory; the warriors gradually retired as the Americans advanced, but at length imprudently determined on making a stand. In the battle which ensued, the Indians were so completely discomfited, that, the following year, they agreed to the treaty of Greenville, by which they were compelled to cede a large tract of country as an indemnity for _past injuries_! As Tecumseh had then scarcely completed his twenty-fifth year, and as the Indians pay great deference to age, it is not probable that he had any hand in this treaty, the more especially as, from that period to 1812, he laboured incessantly to unite the numerous aboriginal tribes of the North American continent in one grand confederacy, for the threefold purpose of endeavouring to regain their former possessions as far as the Ohio, of resisting the further encroachments of the whites, and of preventing the future cession of land by any one tribe, without the sanction of all, obtained in a general council. With this object he visited the different nations; and having assembled the elders, he enforced his disinterested views in strains of such impassioned and persuasive eloquence, that the greater part promised him their co-operation and assistance. But, to form a general alliance of so many and such various tribes, required a higher degree of patriotism and civilization than the Indians had attained. From the numbers, however, who ranged themselves with Tecumseh under the British standard; on the breaking out of the war in 1812, it is evident that he had acquired no little influence over them, and that his almost incredible exertions, both of mind and body, had not been altogether thrown away.