Meanwhile information that the war was not going well for the Americans began to trickle in to Fort Wayne or, rather, to the white men adjacent to it who enjoyed the confidence of the Indians. Owing to his Miami wife, Peter Bondie’s affiliations with the Indians were close and he received early news of all that took place at the front. Before any one else at Fort Wayne he knew that Hull had been driven back from Canada to Detroit. He learned almost instantly when Hull’s lines of communication were broken and the small force that was bringing cattle and other food to his aid was halted at the River Raisin, and he was kept well informed as the lines about Hull himself grew closer and closer. Lieutenant Hibbs and the garrison at the fort, meanwhile, seemed to dwell in a fool’s paradise. The first publicly admitted news that all was not going well was that of the surrender of the fifty-seven men who garrisoned Fort Michilimackinac, far to the northward. This, however, made little impression. Fort Michilimackinac was unimportant and was isolated; its surrender amounted to nothing. The next day, however, word was received from General Hull that Fort Dearborn, one hundred and fifty miles to the west, on the site where Chicago now stands, was to be evacuated. Lieutenant Hibbs was instructed to consult with Major Stickney and Captain Wells and to devise some means by which the order could be safely transmitted and the garrison safely withdrawn. The next day Captain Wells, with one white man and thirty-five supposedly friendly Miami Indians, set out for Fort Dearborn to carry the orders. Even this, however, did not disturb the optimism that ruled in the fort. Dearborn, like Michilimackinac, was isolated and unimportant. The first news of the British and Indian successes, slight though they were, bewildered Alagwa. In vain she assured herself that she ought to rejoice. Her friends were winning. They were driving back the braggart Americans. They were regaining all that the slow years had stolen from them. Tecumseh’s drama of a great Indian kingdom would come true. She ought to be glad! glad! glad! Nevertheless, her heart sank lower and lower. She could not understand why this should be so. She was no friend to the Americans, she told herself. She loved Jack, but she hated his people. She was still an ally to the Shawnees and to the British. She hoped, hoped, hoped that they would overwhelm the Americans and drive them back forever. But still the pain at her heart grew sharper and sharper.