One factor in our Indian troubles from the beginning was the encouragement offered the savages by the British in Canada. England had never reconciled herself to the occupancy by the Americans of the territory wrung from her by George Rogers Clark, and it is an established charge in our histories that, even during the period of peace between the nations, the Indians of the northwest received their arms and ammunition from our old-time foe and were secretly backed up by in their hostilities. When the brewing troubles between America and England culminated in a declaration of war in June, 1812, the latter nation found ready allies among the red people notwithstanding the fact that as late as May of that year, at a grand council on the Mississinewa, the majority of the tribes there professed a desire for peace with the United States. That summer there was little hostile demonstration, but during that time English successes emboldened the tribes and in early September there occurred in two places widely separated one of the fiercest assaults and the worst massacre in the history of Indiana.