Note 252 — Chapter VII
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On the remarkable occasion on which our forces were compelled, in 1813, to evacuate the Michigan territory, Tecumthé, in the name of his nation, refused to consent to retreat; he closed his denial with these words: "Our lives are in the hand of the Great Spirit: He gave the lands which we possess to our fathers; if it be his will, our bones shall whiten upon them, but we will never quit them." An old Oneida chief, who was blind from years, observed to Heckewelder, "I am an aged hemlock; the winds of one hundred years have whistled through my branches; I am dead at the top. Why I yet live, the great, good Spirit only knows." This venerable father of the forest lived long enough to be converted to Christianity.—Quarterly Review.