From the first invasion of the settlers to the close of the War of 1812, in which the power of the red man in this region was finally and effectually broken, constituted what may be called the danger period of Indiana history. During those years the frontier settlers were never free from the risk of savage warfare, and from time to time the smoldering hostility broke forth fiercely. The causes of this were, in the first instance, the Indians' resentment at the never-ending encroachment of the settlers, and, in the second, the unscrupulous conduct of very many of the settlers in their relations with the red men. The policy of the government toward the Indians, in theory, at least, was protecting and conciliatory, but its salutary intentions were continually overridden by an element that had small regard for an Indian's rights. Governor Harrison, who manifested a real interest in the welfare of the aborigines, had testified to the abuses they suffered. "Their people," he affirmed, "have been killed, their lands settled on, their game wantonly destroyed and their young men made drunk and cheated of the peltries which formerly procured them necessary articles of clothing, arms and ammunition to hunt with. The frontiersman," he said, "through the killing of an Indian meritorious," and he cited instances of Indian murders that went unpunished. While they bear this, as he said, with patience, and at that time showed no disposition for war, he feared their ready alliance with any enemy of the Unites States might have (Harrison's letter to Secretary of War in 1801). The disposition of adventurous settlers to ignore boundary lines and to intrude upon the Indian lands could never be prevented by the government, though it proclaimed that such parties intruded at their own risk and, in case of Indian vengeance, were beyond the pale of governmental protection.