Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/644

 602 the Honor to inclose to you the result of a Council which I have held with my superior officers on the occasion. With their opinion I entirely coincide. I have sent for four Companies. Three only were contemplated by me but to secure them it was necessary to send for four. I shall not wait for them but move with cautious steps for twenty-five or thirty miles higher up so that we shall not have but forty or forty five miles to march when the reinforcement comes up. I have directed them to come on mounted. In the meantime my own and the exertions of my officers shall be used to inspire the men with confidence in themselves and contempt for the enemy.

I would have believed that the message which was sent by the Prophet was an empty boast if his parties had not been sent to fire on our centinels. But however unsuccessful our advance may have been in making a favourable impression upon the prophet it is certain that it has made such a one on the Weas and Miamis. The Chiefs of the former who have just returned from Malden are now collecting their women and Children (who had fled on our approach) at their village about two miles from us. The Miami Chiefs are also on their way to visit me, and the Weas say that the Wyandots have opened the Eyes of them all and that they will never again listen to the Prophet. I am extremely glad that the return of Colonel Boyd's Regiment to Pittsburg may be dispensed with. It will certainly be of considerable service here and the season will be so far advanced before they can commence their voyage as to leave scarcely a probability of their being able to get them, and it would be exceeding harrassing to the men. This Regiment is not more sickly than when I wrote to you last week altho the weather has been uncommonly warm and consequently unfavourable. Two men have indeed died in camp within this week and one within a few hours after my last letter was written but he was so well in the morning as to be able to walk out and killed himself by eating heartily of fried liver.

I have the Honor to enclose to you herewith a letter from Dr. [Josiah] Foster. He says that his private affairs so imperiously require his presence that unless he can get a Furlough he must resign. I think him so valuable an officer that he ought if possible to be kept in service. His presence can be dispensed with for you may rest assured that the autumnal