Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/114

76 8. Resolved, That compensation ought to be made to the attorney General of the said territory, for service performed by him in behalf of the United States.

 3rd March 1803 Har. Pa. 109-123

Such has been the irregularity of the mails from the severity of the winter that your favor of the 17th of January did not reach me until a few days ago. The same cause must have retarded my letter of the 14th of Dec. which I suppose had not been received when yours of the above date was written.

Capt. [William] Wells has certainly not exerted himself to pacify the Indians who have taken offence at the late Treaties [Vincennes, Sept. 17, 1802] with the Delawares and Piankeshaws. It is equally certain that the disaffected are not as numerous as he has stated them to be and that those who have expressed discontent have been instigated thereto entirely by the Turtle. Whether the idea of opposition to those Treaties originated with himself or with Mr. Wells I cannot determine but that the opinions of the one are always the opinions of the other. I have long known The Turtle has considerable influence over the Five Medals and some others of the Potawatomi chiefs and I believe that Captain Wells and himself control entirely the small band of Eel River Indians. But when Wells spealis of the Miami Nation being of this or that opinion he must be understood as meaning no more than the Turtle and himself. Nine tenths of that Tribe who acknowledge Richardville and Peccan for their