Rapid strides were made by the brothers in the closing months of 1810. Not only were the village chiefs and sachems shorn of all their old-time authority, and the power of determination lodged in the hands of the warriors, but the belt of union circulated by the Prophet among the tribes "to confine the great water and prevent it from overflowing them," brought many accessions both to the confederacy and to the Shawnee influence. It was reported that when this belt was exhibited to Elliott and he saw that so many tribes had united against the United States that he danced with joy. About the first of November, Tecumseh himself arrived at Malden on a visit to the British agency. He remained there until some time after the twenty-fourth of December. The nature of his conferences with Elliott may be inferentially arrived at from the following. An Indian council had, during the preceding autumn, been convened at Brownstown, near Detroit. A resolution had there been entered into to prevent the sale of any more lands to the United States and this step had been taken at the suggestion of Elliott. According to the report of the Wea chiefs, the British agent had informed the tribes that England and France had now made peace, and would soon unite their arms "to dispossess the Americans of the lands they had taken from the Indians." The Shawnee land doctrine had become popular. "The Indians," writes Harrison, "appear to be more uneasy and dissatisfied than I ever before saw them, and I believe that the Prophet's principle, that their land should be considered common property, is either openly avowed or secretly favored by all the tribes west of the Wabash." The tribes of the Lakes looked upon the Wabash as the land of promise. The Winnebagoes were already present in considerable numbers at the Prophet's Town, and the Wyandots had formed a camp in close proximity to that place. The Six Nations were reported to be in motion and demanding the privilege of settling in the Wabash valley. Could all these tribes be assembled in the face of the advancing American settlements, they would serve the double purpose of checking this advance and furnishing a protective barrier to Canada in case of a war between Great Britain and the United States. Tecumseh and Elliott were joined in the fellowship of a mutual interest. The Miami chiefs looked upon this presumptuous conduct of the Shawnee leaders with high disapproval. Their tribes were the rightful proprietors of the soil, and the establishment of the Prophet had been effected without their consent. But much of their ancient authority had passed away. Many of their young warriors were carried away by the mad fanaticism of the Prophet and vainly imagined that they could drive the white man back across the Ohio. Unless the hands of the Miami leaders were upheld, they could not long resist the pressure of the surrounding tribes and must give their sanction to the Prophet's scheme.