Pontiac's plan in brief was that the blow at all the western posts should be struck on the same day. Thus there would be no time for the forts to send warning to one another, or to give mutual help. Indeed, these forest garrisons were as a rule so weak that they were sure to have all they could do, after being warned of their danger, to defend themselves. Pontiac set grimly to work. He held under his direct control the Ottawas, Ojibwas and Pottawatomies,--all powerful tribes, who could be counted upon to do his will. But he needed many more warriors, and he set out to gain them. He plotted and schemed for nearly two years before sending his ambassadors to the more distant tribes. To each he gave as his credentials a tomahawk painted red, and a wampum war belt. Active and ceaseless as was the chieftain, he could not do more than a fraction of the work alone. It was necessary to travel hundreds of miles through the trackless wilderness, often in the depth of winter, or when the floods descended and the hurricanes uprooted the forest trees. But while he was forever planning, his faithful ambassadors were busy, and so perfect was the work done by him and them, that every tribe between the Ottawa and Lower Mississippi was visited, and many were won to the support of the iron-willed chieftain. [Illustration: THE WAMPUM OF PEACE BELT] Sir William Johnson held the Six Nations in New York in a tight grasp. He suddenly found Pontiac's messengers among them and doing dangerous work; but he was a warm friend of the English, as he proved when the Revolution broke out, and he succeeded in keeping his warlike wards from going to the support of the Ottawa leader, excepting only the fierce Senecas, who pledged the ambassadors that when Pontiac called them, they would be ready to fight against the English. He fixed upon May 7, 1763, as the day when the general attack should be made upon all the forest garrisons covering a wide area. Now, every one must see the impossibility of keeping secret this far-reaching conspiracy. The situation was different from that of Opecancanough in Virginia. That hoary leader of the Powhatans was able to do all his plotting in the depths of the woods, and his objective point was the settlements along the James. Pontiac's area of operations covered thousands of square miles; some of the tribes to whom he appealed were unfriendly to him, and the score and more of forts were widely separated. Here and there, the commandants, or those under them, had made warm friends of the red men, who could be counted upon to give them notice of any danger. It was impossible, therefore, to keep the plot secret during the two years it was coming to a head; the wonder is that it did not become generally known much earlier than was actually the fact.