Part 6 (2/2)

Tec.u.mseh was no more; but his memory was cherished by the race for whose freedom he had so valiantly fought.

In the light of the camp-fire his courageous deeds were long extolled by warriors and handed down by the sachems of his people. Many an ambitious brave felt his heart leap as he listened--like Tec.u.mseh when as a boy he drank in the stories of the heroic deeds of his ancestors.

The white men respected Tec.u.mseh as the Indians revered Brock. But how different the obsequies of the two heroes!

For Brock flags floated at half-mast. He was borne to the grave to the sound of martial music, followed by a sorrowing mult.i.tude. His valour was the theme of orators.

A stately monument perpetuates his memory and attracts pilgrims to his burial-place. The red hero fell fighting for the same flag-fighting on, though deserted by a British general in the hour of direst need. But no flag drooped her crimson folds for him. A few followers buried him stealthily by the light of a flickering torch. No funeral oration was uttered as he was lowered to his last resting-place. Night silently spread her pall; softly the autumn leaves covered the spot, and the wind chanted a mournful requiem over his lonely grave. No towering column directs the traveller to Tec.u.mseh's burial-place; not even an Indian totem-post marks the spot. The red man's secret is jealously guarded and to no white man has it ever been revealed.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The princ.i.p.al books dealing with Tec.u.mseh are Drake's _Life of Tec.u.mseh_, Eggleston's _Tec.u.mseh and the Shawnee Prophet_, and _The Story of Tec.u.mseh_, by Norman S. Gurd.

The last mentioned is a vividly written, interesting book.

The following general books on the Indians contain short sketches of, or reference to, the subject of this story: Thatcher's _Indian Biography_; Drake's _Indians of North America_; Hodge's _Handbook of American Indians_; White's _Handbook of Indians of Canada_ (based on Hodge); Roosevelt's _Winning of the West_; Trumbull's _Indian Wars_; Brownell's _The Indian Races of North and South America_; and Tupper's _Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock_.

All works dealing with the War of 1812 contain matter essential to the student of the career of Tec.u.mseh. Chief among these are: David Thompson's _War of 1812_; Richardson's _War of 1812_ (the edition edited by A. C.

Ca.s.selman (1902) contains many valuable notes); Coffin's _1812: The War end its Moral; a Canadian Chronicle_; Auchinleck's _History of the War_; Hannay's _War of 1812_; Lucas's _Canadian War of 1812_; Roosevelt's _Naval War of 1812_; and Adams's _History of the United States during the Administration of Jefferson and Madison_.

The life and character of Tec.u.mseh have formed the subject of three somewhat ambitious poems: Richardson's _Tec.u.mseh_; Jones's _Tec.u.mseh_, a tragedy in five acts; and Mair's _Tec.u.mseh_, a drama.

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