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Rh ica from the aboriginal inhabitants is practically the story of the campaigns which resulted in the acquisition successively of the Allegheny, Beaver, Muskingum, Scioto, Miami, Maumee, and Wabash river valleys. Fallen Timber sealed the doom of the Indian and ended a struggle begun at Fort Necessity in 1754. The conquest would not have taken one-half the time it did had the Indian not become allied now to France and now to England, alliances which introduced perplexing and delicate international questions which prolonged the pitiful struggle.

On the sixth of October, 1789, President Washington, acting under the new powers conferred upon him, addressed a communication to Governor St. Clair requesting accurate information as to whether or not "the Wabash and Illinois Indians are most inclined for war or peace." If found to favor the former course the governor was empowered "to call on the lieutenants of the nearest counties of Virginia and Pennsylvania, for such detachments of militia as