At the time when this battle was fought, Tecumseh was on a mission to the southern Indians, with the view of extending his warlike confederacy.  He had left instructions with the Prophet, to avoid any hostile collision with the whites; and from the deference which the latter usually paid to the wishes of the former, it is not probable that the battle would have occurred, had not extraneous influence been brought to bear upon the leader.  The reason assigned by the Prophet to his brother, for this attack upon the army under general Harrison, is not known; but some of the Indians who were in this engagement, subsequently stated that the Winnebagoes forced on the battle contrary to the wishes of the Prophet.  This is not improbable; yet, admitting it to be true, if he had taken a bold and decided stand against the measure, it might, in all probability, have been prevented.  The influence of the Prophet, however, even at this time, was manifestly on the wane, and some of his followers were beginning to leave his camp.  He doubtless felt that it was necessary to do something to sustain himself:  a signal victory over the whites would accomplish this end; and hence he consented the more readily, to the wishes of the Winnebagoes, that an attack should be made, in the hope that it would prove successful.

Within a few months after this battle, war was declared against England by the United States.  Tecumseh and the Prophet, discouraged in regard to their union of the tribes, decided on joining the British standard.  The love of fighting, however, was not a remarkable trait of the Prophet’s character.  He won no military laurels during the continuance of that war; and although in the vicinity of the Moravian town on the 5th of October, 1813, he did not choose to participate in the action at the Thames.  After the return of peace, he resided in the neighborhood of Malden for some time, and finally returned to Ohio:  from whence, with a band of Shawanoes, he removed west of the Mississippi, where he resided until the period of his death, which occurred in the year 1834.  It is stated, in a foreign periodical,[A] that the British government allowed him a pension from the year 1813, to the close of his life.

[Footnote A:  The United Service Journal—­London.]

In forming an estimate of the Prophet’s character, it seems unjust to hold him responsible for all the numerous aggressions which were committed by his followers upon the property and persons of the whites.  His first proselytes were from the most worthless and vicious portion of the tribes from which they were drawn.  “The young men especially, who gathered about him, like the young men who brought on the war of King Philip, were wrought up until the master spirit himself, lost his control over them; and to make the matter worse, most of them were of such a character in the first instance, that horse stealing and house breaking were as easy to them as breathing.  Like