The Beginner's American History Part 21

198. The first steamboat in the west; the Great Shake.--Four years later Fulton built a steamboat for the west. In the autumn of 1811 it started from Pittsburg[7] to go down the Ohio River, and then down the Mississippi to New Orleans. The people of the west had never seen a steamboat before, and when the Indians saw the smoke puffing out, they called it the "Big Fire Canoe."

On the way down the river there was a terrible earthquake. In some places it changed the course of the Ohio so that where there had been dry land there was now deep water, and where there had been deep water there was now dry land. One evening the captain of the "Big Fire Canoe" fastened his vessel to a large tree on the end of an island.

In the morning the people on the steamboat looked out, but could not tell where they were; the island had gone: the earthquake had carried it away. The Indians called the earthquake the "Big Shake": it was a good name, for it kept on shaking that part of the country, and doing all sorts of damage for weeks.

[Footnote 7: Pittsburg: see map in paragraph 135.]

199. The "Big Fire Canoe" on the Mississippi; the fight between steam and the Great River; what steamboats did; Robert Fulton's grave.--When the steamboat reached the Mississippi, the settlers on that river said that the boat would never be able to go back, because the current is so strong. At one place a crowd had gathered to see her as she turned against the current, in order to come up to the landing-place. An old negro stood watching the boat. It looked as if in spite of all the captain could do she would be carried down stream, but at last steam conquered, and the boat came up to the sh.o.r.e.

Then the old negro could hold in no longer: he threw up his ragged straw hat and shouted, 'Hoo-ray! hoo-ray! the old Mississippi's just got her master this time, sure!'

Soon steamboats began to run regularly on the Mississippi, and in the course of a few years they began to move up and down the Great Lakes and the Missouri River. Emigrants could now go to the west and the far west quickly and easily: they had to thank Robert Fulton for that.

Robert Fulton lies buried in New York, in the shadow of the tower of Trinity Church. There is no monument or mark over his grave, but he has a monument in every steamboat on every great river and lake in America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOWER OF TRINITY CHURCH.]

200. Summary.--In 1807 Robert Fulton of Pennsylvania built the first steamboat which ran on the Hudson River, and four years later he built the first one which navigated the rivers of the west. His boats helped to fill the whole western country with settlers.

What did Mr. Livingston say about Louisiana? What did such people think we were like? What would a traveller going west then find? What is said of the country west of the Mississippi? Who helped emigration to the west? What did he find? Tell about Robert Fulton as a boy.

Tell about his paddle-wheel scow. What did Robert do for his mother?

Where did he go? How long did he stay abroad? Tell about his diving-boat. What did he do with it in France? What in England? What did the English people offer him? What did Fulton say? Where did Fulton make and try his first steamboat? Tell about the steamboat he made in New York. How far up the Hudson did it go? Tell about the first steamboat at the west. What did the Indians call it? What happened on the way down the Ohio River? Tell about the steamboat on the Mississippi River. What is said of steamboats at the west?

What about emigrants? Where is Fulton buried? Where is his monument?

GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON (1773-1841).

201. War with the Indians; how the Indians felt about being forced to leave their homes; the story of the log.--The year 1811, in which the first steamboat went west, a great battle was fought with the Indians. The battle-ground was on the Tippecanoe[1] River, in what is now the state of Indiana.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of Indiana and the Tippecanoe River.]

The Indians fought because they wanted to keep the west for themselves. They felt as an old chief did, who had been forced to move many times by the white men. One day a military officer came to his wigwam to tell him that he and his tribe must go still further west. The chief said, General, let's sit down on this log and talk it over. So they both sat down. After they had talked a short time, the chief said, Please move a little further that way; I haven't room enough. The officer moved along. In a few minutes the chief asked him to move again, and he did so. Presently the chief gave him a push and said, Do move further on, won't you? I can't, said the general.

Why not? asked the chief. Because I've got to the end of the log, replied the officer. Well, said the Indian, now you see how it is with us. You white men have kept pus.h.i.+ng us on until you have pushed us clear to the end of our country, and yet you come now and say, Move on, move on.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "MOVE ON."]

[Footnote 1: Tippecanoe (Tip-pe-ka-noo'): see map in this paragraph.]

202. What Tec.u.mseh[2] and his brother, the "Prophet,"[3] tried to do.--A famous Indian warrior named Tec.u.mseh determined to band the different Indian tribes together, and drive out the white men from the west.

Tec.u.mseh had a brother called the "Prophet," who pretended he could tell what would happen in the future. He said, The white traders come here, give the Indians whiskey, get them drunk, and then cheat them out of their lands. Once we owned this whole country; now, if an Indian strips a little bark off of a tree to shelter him when it rains, a white man steps up, with a gun in his hand, and says, That's my tree; let it alone, or I'll shoot you.

Then the "Prophet" said to the red men, Stop drinking "fire-water,"[4] and you will have strength to kill off the "pale-faces" and get your land back again. When you have killed them off, I will bless the earth. I will make pumpkins[5] grow to be as big as wigwams, and the corn shall be so large that one ear will be enough for a dinner for a dozen hungry Indians. The Indians liked to hear these things; they wanted to taste those pumpkins and that corn, and so they got ready to fight.

[Footnote 2: Tec.u.mseh (Te-k.u.m'seh).]

[Footnote 3: Prophet (prof'et): one who tells what will happen in the future.]

[Footnote 4: Fire-water: the Indian name for whiskey.]

[Footnote 5: Pumpkins (pump'kins).]

203. Who William Henry Harrison was; the march to Tippecanoe; the "Prophet's" sacred beans; the battle of Tippecanoe.--At this time William Henry Harrison[6] was governor of Indiana territory. He had fought under General Wayne[7] in his war with the Indians in Ohio.

Everybody knew Governor Harrison's courage, and the Indians all respected him; but he tried in vain to prevent the Indians from going to war. The "Prophet" urged them on at the north, and Tec.u.mseh had gone south to persuade the Indians there to join the northern tribes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOVERNOR HARRISON TALKING WITH THE "PROPHET."]

Governor Harrison saw that a battle must soon be fought; so he started with his soldiers to meet the Indians. He marched to the Tippecanoe River, and there he stopped.

While Harrison's men were asleep in the woods, the "Prophet" told the Indians not to wait, but to attack the soldiers at once. In his hand he held up a string of beans. These beans, said he to the Indians, are sacred.[8] Come and touch them, and you are safe; no white man's bullet can hit you. The Indians hurried up in crowds to touch the wonderful beans.

Now, said the "Prophet," let each one take his hatchet in one hand and his gun in the other, and creep through the tall gra.s.s till he gets to the edge of the woods. The soldiers lie there fast asleep; when you get close to them, spring up and at them like a wild-cat at a rabbit.

The Indians started to do this, but a soldier on guard saw the tall gra.s.s moving as though a great snake was gliding through it. He fired his gun at the moving gra.s.s; with a yell up sprang the whole band of Indians, and rushed forward: in a moment the battle began.

Harrison won the victory. He not only killed many of the Indians, but he marched against their village, set fire to it, and burned it to ashes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.]

After that the Indians in that part of the country would not listen to the "Prophet." They said, He is a liar; his beans didn't save us.

The battle of Tippecanoe did much good, because it prevented the Indian tribes from uniting and beginning a great war all through the west. Governor Harrison received high praise for what he had done, and was made a general in the United States army.

[Footnote 6: William Henry Harrison was born in Berkeley, Charles City County, Virginia, about twenty-five miles below Richmond. His father, Governor Harrison of Virginia, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.]

[Footnote 7: See paragraph 173.]

[Footnote 8: Sacred: something holy, or set apart for religious uses.]

204. Tec.u.mseh takes the "Prophet" by the hair; the War of 1812; General Harrison's battle in Canada; President Harrison.--When Tec.u.mseh came back from the south, he was terribly angry with his brother for fighting before he was ready to have him begin. He seized the "Prophet" by his long hair, and shook him as a terrier[9] shakes a rat. Tec.u.mseh then left the United States and went to Canada to help the British, who were getting ready to fight us.

The next year (1812) we began our second war with England. It is called the War of 1812. One of the chief reasons why we fought was that the British would not let our merchant s.h.i.+ps alone; they stopped them at sea, took thousands of our sailors out of them, and forced the men to serve in their war-s.h.i.+ps in their battles against the French.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CAPITOL AT WAs.h.i.+NGTON IN FLAMES IN THE WAR OF 1812.]

In the course of the War of 1812 the British burned the Capitol at Was.h.i.+ngton; but a grander building rose from its ashes. General Harrison fought a battle in Canada in which he defeated the British and killed Tec.u.mseh, who was fighting on the side of the English.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL AT WAs.h.i.+NGTON AS IT NOW APPEARS.]

Many years after this battle, the people of the west said, We must have the "Hero of Tippecanoe" for President of the United States.

They went to vote for him with songs and shouts, and he was elected.