Assuming that Harrison was correct about Little Turtle’s ambition to form an Indian confederation, it is interesting to observe that had the Miami chief succeeded rather than Tecumseh, the league formed would have been inclined toward peace rather than war with the United States. Following the Treaty of Greenville Little Turtle often objected to further cessions of land, yet, at the same time, he endeavored to induce the red men to lay aside the tomahawk and scalping knife and take up the peaceful tools of agriculture. This fact made him unacceptable to the majority of Indians, as Harrison himself admitted at a later date. “It was the rock upon which the popularity of Tecumseh was founded”, he wrote, “and that upon which the influence of Little Turtle was wrecked.”[56] The truth of this assertion is made plain in the report of the visit of two Quakers who, in response to an appeal by Little Turtle, came to Fort Wayne in 1804 to attempt to introduce the best methods of agriculture among the Indians. From the official report of Gerard T. Hopkins to his church, the story as here reviewed has been obtained.[57] Mr. Hopkins was accompanied by George Ellicott, also of the Society of Friends, and Philip Dennis, a practical farmer who was engaged to serve as instructor. The Quakers arrived at Fort Wayne on March 30 and were conducted to Captain Whipple, then commandant of the fort, to whom they presented a letter of introduction and recommendation from Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War. This letter was a liberal commendation of the committee and their motives. General Dearborn was personally acquainted with the members of the committee, was in hearty sympathy with their mission, and rode on horseback from Washington to Ellicott’s home, a distance of forty miles to present the letter to the committee before leaving. The Quakers were surprised to find that no attention was given, either in the fort or the Indian village, to the proper observance of the Sabbath day. The Friends were entertained by John Johnston, and there the chiefs took supper with the mission committee. Under the guidance of Captain Wells the following days, the Friends went over the lands most suitable for cultivation, and at the same time observed the most historic places and listened to the stories as told by Wells of the Indian villages and of Harmar’s and St. Clair’s defeats. The rides to the country included visits to large sugar camps and the “prairie” between the St. Mary’s and Little River, the distance from one to the other being but four miles in the then swampy land; and the watershed ridge but five feet high with reports of canoes passing over in highest stages of water. The subject of a canal through this ridge was also mentioned. Indians were constantly coming and going, the women carrying the burdens of packs of skins and bark boxes of maple sugar each weighing about fifty pounds.