league. He was not in the battle of Tippecanoe. (See Harrison, William Henry.) That defeat ruined his plans, yet he continued his efforts among the southern tribes, and in the autumn of 1812 attended a great council at Toockabatcha, Ala., which had been called by the U. S. Indian agent, Col. Hawkins. Here he made a passionate speech, telling the Creeks that they would know when to begin war on the whites by the appearance of the arm of Tecumseh stretching across the heavens like pale fire. He had been told by the British that a comet would soon appear. To the chief Tustinugee-Thlucco, who opposed him, he said: “You do not believe that the Great Spirit has sent me. You shall believe it. I will go straight to Detroit, and when I get there I will stamp my foot upon the ground and shake down every house in Toockabatcha.” In the following December there was an earthquake shock, and the affrighted Creeks ran from their dwellings shouting: “Tecumseh is at Detroit!” This, and the appearance of the promised sign in the heavens, caused the Creek nation to rise in arms, and brought about their speedy ruin. Tecumseh now joined the English, and commanded the Indian allies in the campaigns of 1812-'13. He refused to meet the American commanders in council, was in the action on Raisin river, and, after being wounded at Maguaga, was made a brigadier-general in the royal army. He led 2,000 warriors in the siege of Fort Meigs, where he saved American prisoners from massacre. After the battle of Lake Erie he urged Gen. Henry Proctor to engage Gen. William Henry Harrison when he landed, but took part in the British retreat, and was wounded while holding the passage of a stream. He aided Proctor in selecting the battle-ground at the Thames, and commanded the right wing, laying aside his sword and uniform and putting on his hunting-dress, in the conviction that he must fall. His Indians were driven back, and he fought desperately till he was killed. His death was unknown to the Americans for several days. Afterward it was claimed for Col. Richard Malcolm Johnston, who had killed a powerful Indian in hand-to-hand combat, that his antagonist was Tecumseh, and the claim occasioned a long controversy, but the fact has not been established satisfactorily. Tecumseh possessed great executive ability, and with proper training would have been distinguished as a general. Says a Canadian historian: “No one can fully calculate the inestimable value of those devoted red men, led on by the brave Tecumseh during the struggle of 1812. But for them it is probable that we should not now have a Canada; and if we had we would not enjoy the liberty and privileges which we possess in so eminent a degree.” See “Life of Tecumseh, and his Brother, the Prophet, with an Historical Sketch of the Shawnee Indians,” based on the accounts of various persons that knew the chief personally (Cincinnati, 1841), and “Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet,” by Edward Eggleston (New York, 1878).
TECUM-UMAN (tay-coom), last king of Quiche,
d. near Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, in 1524. He
was the son of King Kicab-Tanub, who died during
a war with his neighbors the Zutuhiles and
Manies, and Tecum-Uman, hearing of the approach
of the Spaniards, tried to form an alliance with his
former enemies against the invaders. Only the
Mames accepted his offer, and with their auxiliary
troops Tecum-Uman is said, by the Spanish
chroniclers, to have gathered an army of 230,000
warriors; but they could not resist the superior arms
and discipline of Alvarado's army of 450 Spaniards
and about 5,000 auxiliary Mexican Indians. The
first battle, in the ford of the river Tilapa, 24 Feb.,
1524, was sharp and not decisive, but a few days
afterward Tecum-Uman was totally defeated on
Olintepeque river, and it was afterward called
Xequigel, or river of blood. Tecum-Uman retired
with the rest of his army, but was overtaken in a
valley between Quezaltenango and Totonicapan,
where he made the last desperate stand, and was
killed by the lance of Alvarado.
TEEDYUSCUNG, Delaware chief, b. near Trenton,
N. J., about 1700; d. in Wyoming valley, Pa.,
16 April, 1763. He was also known as Honest
John and War Trumpet. His father, “Old
Captain Harris,” and his brothers and half-brothers,
“Captain John,” “Young Captain Harris,” “Tom,”
“Joe,” and “Sam Evans” (names given them by
the English), were all high-spirited men. In 1730 he
settled in the forks of the Delaware, and he united
in 1749 with the Moravian Indian mission at
Gnadenhuetten, Carbon co., Pa., where, on 12 March,
1750, he was baptized by Bishop Cammerhoff,
receiving the name of Gideon. Aware of how his
countrymen were being injured by the whites and
oppressed by the Six Nations, in 1754, when the
Delawares and their allies appealed to him to lead
them and be their king, he deserted the Moravian
mission. Henceforward his name is conspicuous
in the provincial history of Pennsylvania. After
the repulse of Braddock in July, 1755, he assembled
the Delawares, Mohicans, and Shawnees in the
Wyoming valley, and in the winter began to wage
war among the whites that resided within the
“Walking Purchase.” In 1756 the government
sought the pacification of the Delaware king, which,
through treaties at Easton in July and November,
1756, and November, 1757, was accomplished. In
the following spring, agreeably to his request and
the conditions of the treaty, a town was built for
him and his followers in the Wyoming valley.
One of the objects of his life was to recover for
the Lenni Lenape that dignity which the Iroquois
had treacherously wrested from them in 1742. He
was burned to death with his house while asleep
under the influence of liquor, the incendiary being
instigated by his enemies. Teedyuscung was a
fine-looking man, endowed with good sense, quick of
comprehension, ambitious, and a patriot.
TEFFT, Benjamin Franklin, clergyman, b. in Floyd, Oneida co., N. Y., 20 Aug., 1813 ; d. in Brewer, Penobscot co., Me., 16 Sept., 1885. He was graduated at Wesleyan university in 1835, taught four years in Maine Wesleyan seminary, and then, entering the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, was pastor at Bangor, Me., in 1839-'41. He then taught in East Greenwich, R. I., and in 1842 accepted a charge in Boston, but his health failed in 1843, and after travelling in the south and west he was for three years professor of Greek and Hebrew in Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw) university. In 1846 he became editor of the books and magazines of the Methodist book concern in Cincinnati, where he conducted the " Ladies' Repository " in 1846-'52, and in 1851-4 he was president of Genesee college, Lima, N. Y., also editing in 1852-'4 the " Northern New Yorker," published at Canandaigua. He was pastor of different churches in Bangor, Me., from 1858 till 1861, when he was made U. S. consul at Stockholm and acting minister to Sweden, and in 1864 he was commissioner of immigration from the north of Europe for the state of Maine. In 1866 he became pastor of a church in Portland, and from 1873 till 1878 he edited " The Northern Border," published at Bangor, Me. During the last two years of his
