against the enemy’s provinces.  We have the Canadas as much under our command as she (Great Britain) has the ocean; and the way to conquer her on the ocean is to drive her from the land.  I am not for stopping at Quebec, or any where else; but I would take the whole continent from them, and ask them no favors.  Her fleets cannot then rendezvous at Halifax, as now; and, having no place of resort in the north, cannot infest our coast as they have lately done.  It is as easy to conquer them on the land, as their whole navy would conquer ours on the ocean.  We must take the continent from them. I wish never to see a peace till we do. God has given us the power and the means:  we are to blame if we do not use them.  If we get the continent, she must allow us the freedom of the sea.’  This is the gentleman who, afterwards, in the character of a commissioner—­and it stands as a record of his unblushing apostacy—­signed the treaty of peace.”

Tecumseh, who was slain the year following, headed a party of his warriors on this occasion, and in the rough sketch already mentioned, Major-General Brock remarked:  “Among the Indians whom I found at Amherstburg, and who had arrived from distant parts of the country, there were some extraordinary characters.  He who most attracted my attention was a Shawanee chief, Tecumseh, the brother of the prophet, who for the two last years has carried on, contrary to our remonstrances, an active war against the United States.  A more sagacious or a more gallant warrior does not, I believe, exist.  He was the admiration of every one who conversed with him.  From a life of dissipation he has not only become in every respect abstemious, but he has likewise prevailed on all his nation, and many of the other tribes, to follow his example.”  Previously to crossing over to Detroit, Major-General Brock inquired of Tecumseh what sort of a country he should have to pass through in the event of his proceeding further.  Tecumseh, taking a roll of elm bark, and extending it on the ground, drew forth his scalping knife, and with the point presently edged upon the back a plan of the country, its hills, woods, rivers, morasses, and roads—­a plan which, if not as neat, was fully as intelligible as if a surveyor had prepared it.  Pleased with this unexpected talent in Tecumseh, with his defeat of the Americans near Brownstown, and with his having, by his characteristic boldness, induced the Indians, not of his own tribe, to cross the river prior to the embarkation of the white troops, Major-General Brock, soon after Detroit was surrendered, took off his sash and publicly placed it round the body of the chief.  Tecumseh received the honor with evident gratification, but was the next day seen without the sash.  The British general, fearing that something had displeased the Indian, sent his interpreter for an explanation.  Tecumseh told him, that not wishing to wear such a mark of distinction when an older, and, as he said, an abler warrior than himself was present, he had transferred the sash to the Wyandot chief, Roundhead.[74]