inhabitants, and we have therefore resolved to leave our bones in this small space to which we are now confined.”
The commissioners replied that to make the Ohio River the boundary was now impossible; that they sincerely regretted that peace could not be made; but, “knowing the upright and liberal views of the United States,” they trust that “impartial judges will not attribute the continuance of the war to them.”
Notice was sent to the governor that the Indians “refused to make peace;” and General Anthony Wayne, a few weeks later, wrote to the Secretary of War, “The safety of the Western frontiers, the reputation of the legion, the dignity and interest of the nation—all forbid a retrograde manœuvre, or giving up one inch of ground we now possess, till the enemy are compelled to sue for peace.”
The history of the campaigns that followed is to be found in many volumes treating of the pioneer life of Ohio and other North-western States. One letter of General Wayne's to the Secretary of War, in August, 1794, contains a paragraph which is interesting, as showing the habits and method of life of the people whom we at this time, by force of arms, drove out from their homes—homes which we had only a few years before solemnly guaranteed to them, even giving them permission to punish any white intruders there as they saw fit. By a feint of approaching Grand Glaize through the Miami villages, General Wayne surprised the settlement, and the Indians, being warned by a deserter, had barely time to flee for their lives. What General Wayne had intended to do may be inferred from this sentence in his letter: “I have good grounds to conclude that the defection of this villain prevented the enemy from receiving a fatal blow at this place when least expected.”
However, he consoles himself by the fact that he has “gained possession of the grand emporium of the hostile Indians of the West without loss of blood. The very extensive
