"Let us make war at once," he said, "and never bury the hatchet till our countrymen have been avenged. We cannot violate our faith or the laws of hospitality by staining our hands with the blood of those now in our power. They came to us as brothers, and have no blame for what evil men have done. Let them carry back the belts of wampum and then let us take up the hatchet and not rest till all these murderers have been destroyed." The man hated above all others by Great Warrior and the Cherokees was Captain Coitmore. He was the commandant at Fort George, had placed the ironed prisoners in their wretched quarters, and treated them with brutality. The continued confinement of the hostages enraged the Indians who laid siege to Fort George. It did not take Great Warrior long to learn he could make no impression on it, and he gave up his design for another, more subtle one. [Illustration: WILLIAM PENN TREATING WITH THE INDIANS] He hid a number of his bucks in a dense cane-brake at the river side, and sent a squaw, who was well known at the garrison, to the captain, with a request that he would come to the water where the chief was waiting to tell him important news. Captain Coitmore was rash enough to accept the invitation and went to the place named with two of his officers as companions. He soon saw Great Warrior standing on the other side of the Savannah with a bridle in his hand. This was to give color to his statement that he was going to Charleston to secure the release of the Cherokees held as hostages. As the distance was great, he hoped to be able to obtain a horse. As he said this, the chief turned about and swung the bridle over his head. The act was the signal to his hidden men, who instantly fired at the three officers. The captain was killed and his companions wounded. The garrison immediately started to put all the hostages in irons, they having been released a short time before. They resisted fiercely, killing one of the soldiers and wounding several. The prisoners expected their comrades outside to come to their help, but that was beyond their power, and the troops completed their crime by putting every one of the imprisoned hostages remorselessly to death. By a strange fatality the victims were related to nearly all the principal families among the Cherokees, who were driven to a frenzy against the whites. Great Warrior became as determined in his hostility as was ever Pontiac or Philip, while Little Carpenter, as grieved and angry as he, still saw that a war would only add to the sufferings of his people. He strove to keep them from taking the war path, but it was in vain. He stood almost alone. The scenes that followed were such as have spread woe and desolation times without number along the frontier.