Nor were the little band of heroes on board the Intrepid the only exulting spectators of the scene.  Lieutenant Stewart and his companions on board the Siren, watching with intense interest, beheld in the conflagration a pledge of Decatur’s success; and Captain Bainbridge, with his fellow-captives in the dungeons of Tripoli, saw in it a motive of national exultation, and an earnest that a spirit was at work to hasten the day of their liberation.

* * * * *

=_I.F.H.  Claiborne,[31] About 1804-._=

From “Life and Times of General Samuel Dale.”

=_107._= TECUMSEH’S SPEECH TO THE CREEK INDIANS.

I saw the Shawnees issue from their lodge; they were painted black, and entirely naked except the flap about their loins.  Every weapon but the war-club,—­then first introduced among the Creeks,—­had been laid aside.  An angry scowl sat on all their visages; they looked like a procession of devils.  Tecumseh led, the warriors followed, one in the footsteps of the other.  The Creeks, in dense masses, stood on each side of the path, but the Shawnees noticed no one; they marched to the pole in the centre of the square, and then turned to the left.

...  They then marched in the same order to the Council, or King’s house,—­as it was termed in ancient times, and drew up before it.  The Big Warrior and the leading men were sitting there.  The Shawnee chief sounded his war-whoop,—­a most diabolical yell, and each of his followers responded.  Tecumseh then presented to the Big Warrior a wampum belt of five different-colored stands, which the Creek chief handed to his warriors, and it was passed down the line.  The Shawnee pipe was then produced; it was large, long, and profusely decorated with shells, beads, and painted eagle and porcupine quills.  It was lighted from the fire in the centre, and slowly passed from the Big Warrior along the line.  All this time not a word had been uttered; every thing was still as death; even the winds slept, and there was only the gentle rustle of the falling leaves.  At length Tecumseh spoke, at first slowly, and in sonorous tones, but soon he grew impassioned, and the words fell in avalanches from his lips.  His eyes burned with supernatural lustre, and his whole frame trembled with emotion; his voice resounded over the multitude,—­now sinking in low and musical whispers, now rising to its highest key, hurling out his words like a succession of thunderbolts.  His countenance varied with his speech; its prevalent expression was a sneer of hatred and defiance; sometimes a murderous smile; for a brief interval a sentiment of profound sorrow pervaded it; and at the close, a look of concentrated vengeance, such, I suppose, as distinguishes the arch-enemy of mankind, I have heard many great orators, but I never saw one with the vocal powers of Tecumseh, or the same command of the muscles of his face.