Defending the prisoners with knife and tomahawk, he sprang for the British general.
"Sir, your Indians cannot be controlled."
"Begone!" roared Tecumseh. "You are unfit to command; go and put on petticoats."
After that he openly despised General Proctor.
He sent a note in to his American foeman:
"General Harrison: I have with me eight hundred braves. You have an equal number in your hiding place. Come out with them and give me battle. You talked like a brave when we met at Vincennes, and I respected you; but now you hide behind logs and in the earth, like a ground-hog. Give me answer. Tecumseh."
But General Harrison knew his business, and carried on to the successful end.
That end was not far distant. General Tecumseh and General Proctor together failed to take Fort Meigs. General Proctor ordered a retreat. General Harrison followed on the trail. General Tecumseh hated to retreat. At every step he was abandoning Indian country.
The retreat northward to Canada continued. Tecumseh was fighting the battle of his people, not of the English; he wished to go no farther.
He proposed to his warriors that they leave for another region, and let the Americans and British fight their own war.
"They promised us plenty of soldiers, to help us. Instead, we are treated like the dogs of snipe-hunters; we are always sent ahead to rouse the game."
"You got us into this war by your promises," retorted the Sioux and the Chippewas. "You have no right to break us."
Any appeal to Tecumseh's honor was certain to win; he stuck. Then American ships under Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry fought British ships under Commodore Barclay, on Lake Erie, and gained a great victory.
From an island near shore the Tecumseh warriors peered eagerly, to the sound of the heavy guns.
"A few days since you were boasting that you commanded the waters," had said Tecumseh, to General Proctor. "Why do you not go out and meet the Americans? They are daring you to meet them; you must send out your fleet and fight them."
Now, after the battle, the British general asserted:
"My fleet has whipped the Americans, but the vessels are injured and have gone to Put-in Bay, to refit. They will be here in a few days."
Tecumseh was no fool. He had before caught the general in a lie. Here at Fort Maiden opposite Detroit he challenged him in a hot speech.