Rogers won Pontiac's good will by his flattery and presents, and the chief told the visitors that so long as they acted rightly, no harm would befall them from his warriors. So Rogers and his party embarked in their whale boats once more, and in due time reached Detroit. The news they carried thither proved bitter medicine to the French commandant, and for a time he refused to swallow it, but there was no help for it, and in the end he submitted with the best grace possible. Few of the scowling Indians gathered round grasped the full meaning of this surrender. They could not understand how it was that a force so much larger than the English could yield to them. Another mystery was, why, after the French had submitted and laid down their arms, the English did not put every one to death. _That_ was the fashion among the red men, with whom mercy is a failing of which few are guilty at any time. [Illustration: ON THE WARPATH] There was one, however, in the dusky swarm who understood it all. "Because the English have conquered the French everywhere else," thought Pontiac, "those that are here are compelled to yield. The English will now become the masters of the Indians, and we have much more reason to hate them than we have to hate the French." The words of the Ottawa were true. The French from the first were wiser than their rivals in dealing with the red men. Naturally, therefore, the latter were generally the allies of the French in the wars between the two nations. Believing that the new masters would act cruelly--and there was good ground for such belief--Pontiac formed his great conspiracy. Like King Philip, three-quarters of a century before, his plan was to unite all the tribes he could reach into a confederation for keeping Detroit and all the western posts in the hands of the French, who had treated them better than the English. It was a plot of magnitude. In the formation of this conspiracy, Pontiac had the aid, to a certain extent, of the French themselves. They were soured because of their defeat, and many of the officers could not justify France in thus throwing away a continent. They were sure that with the help of the Indians, it could have been held against their rivals. Such, also, was the unshakable belief of Pontiac. But he went farther than his white friends. He was certain that although some of the forts had been given up, they could be retaken from the English and turned over again to the French. In reaching this belief, the Ottawa forgot the laws of civilized warfare. He reasoned as an Indian. Like King Philip also, he understood the necessity of thorough preparation. The plot would be ruined by impatience or by a blow delivered too soon. Weeks and months, and possibly years, were necessary to bring his plans to a head. He would not require the time taken by Opecancanough, but he meant to use all that was needed.