There were chiefs of the Mississinewa, loud and defiant, who openly declared their connection with the British. There was Winamac, the Potawatomi, who afterwards slaughtered the surrendered garrison at Fort Dearborn, and boasted of his murder. There were Silver Heels and Pecan, Five Medals and The Owl. But above them all stood Little Turtle, the Miami. He had been present at the defeat of Harmar and the slaughter of St. Clair's army. He had fought against Wayne at Fallen Timbers. In 1797 he had visited the great white father at Philadelphia, President Washington, and had been presented with a brace of elegantly mounted pistols by the Baron Kosciusko. There were braves present whose hands had been besmeared with the blood of innocent women and children--who had raised the savage yell of terror while setting firebrands to the cabin and tomahawking its inmates. During the days that were to follow there were many loud and violent harangues; parties of warriors arrived with presents of the British emissaries in their hands, and saying that they had been advised never to yield another foot of territory; at one time, on September twenty-sixth, the Potawatomi, in open assembly, raised a shout of defiance against the Miamis, poured out torrents of abuse on the heads of their chieftains and withdrew from the council declaring that the tomahawk was raised. Amid all this loud jangling and savage quarreling the Governor remained unperturbed and steady to his purpose. Notwithstanding frequent demands, he constantly refused to deal out any liquor except in the most meager quantities--he restrained the Potawatomi and made them smoke the pipe of peace with their offended allies--he met and answered all the arguments suggested by the British agents--and after fifteen days of constant and unremitting effort won over the chiefs of the Mississinewa and gained the day. The official account of the proceedings as made by Peter Jones, secretary to the Governor, and now reposing in the archives of the United States government, shows that instead of attempting to make any purchase of Indian lands when only a small number of representatives of the tribes were present, that the Governor on the eighteenth of September, dispatched messengers to Detroit to summon certain Delawares and Potawatomi who were absent; that on the same day he also directed Joseph Barron to go to the Miami villages along the Wabash to call in Richardville, one of the principal chiefs of that tribe. The records also show that while the Governor had some private conferences with some of the principal chiefs for the purpose of urging their support to his plans, that he addressed all his principal remarks to the tribes in open council of all the warriors, and at a time when four interpreters were present, to-wit: William Wells, Joseph Barron, John Conner and Abraham Ash, to translate his observations.