encamped a little distance from the river. He did not send over any
troops, but was to do so, in case of an attack; when it was actually
made Colonel Clark crossed the river; and upon seeing the "long knives,"
as the Indians called his troops, they hastily retreated, having killed
seventy-two or seventy-three of the Spaniards, before his arrival. This
sudden appearance of Colonel Clark, upon the scene of action, explains
the conduct of the Indians. So large a body of warriors, making a
preconcerted attack, upon a town but badly protected, would not, it is
thought, have given up the assault so suddenly and before they had lost
a single man, unless alarmed by the presence of a superior force. On the
supposition that Colonel Clark actually crossed the river with his
troops, the flight of the Indians is easily explained. They were
probably apprised of Colonel Clark's being at Kaskaskia, and his name
was every where a terror to the Indians. As an evidence of this, a short
time afterwards, he sent a detachment of one hundred and fifty men, as
far up the country as Prairie des Chiens, and from thence across Rock
and Illinois rivers and down to Kaskaskia, meeting with no molestation
from the Indians, who were struck with terror at the boldness of the
enterprise, saying that if so few dared to come, they "would fight like
devils."

General William H. Harrison, long familiar with the North West Indians,
in an official letter to the secretary at War, dated H.Q. Cincinnati,
March 22d, 1814, giving an able view of the Indian tribes, makes the
following remarks on the descent of this northern confederacy, upon the
great Illini nation.

"The Miamies have their principal settlements on the forks of the
Wabash, thirty miles from fort Wayne; and at Mississineway, thirty miles
lower down. A band of them, under the name of Weas, have resided on the