The Author who employs his pen on any work where the tale is partly drawn from history, is often accused of allowing his fancy to soar too far, and of pourtraying the hero, or heroine of his story, in an exaggerated manner, and giving fiction too great a scope over reality;—In the present instance, however,—from all that the	5
Author has been told of the character of this Indian warrior, by per- sons who were on the spot, when the circumstances (mentioned in the poem) occurred—he is enabled to assure the reader that the mind of Tecumthe, was one of those endow’d by nature, with a superior stamp of intellect, and which was indicated by his appearance,—his	10
manners, and that quick power of discernment of any thing that was offered to his observation,—shewing how far Nature had gifted him with a strong understanding,—and which, had it been placed where Education could have drawn forth the blossoms of genius to matu- rity, would have shone, as one of those great luminaries, a pride to	15
the past, and an ornament to posterity;—as it is, he must be noticed, as displaying undoubted powers of mind, and deciding in a great measure, that we are all born with different degrees of talent which will display their force and brilliancy, whether the mind which pos- sesses such, be the child of civilization, or offspring of the forest.	20