This determination was hastened by several rencontres which had taken place in the outlying districts.
A small party of the red men, led by Maracota, had pillaged and destroyed a plantation.
Near the bay they had been met by some of the white settlers as they were returning from their work of destruction.
In the mêlée which ensued a number of Indians were killed, while their white adversaries met with little loss.
These and some individual cases of contest had worked the red men up to a pitch of savage earnestness that took all Wacora’s temporising power to restrain.
He knew the character of the people he had to deal with too well to hazard opposition to their will, the more so as his own desire for vengeance was as deep and earnest, but more deadly than theirs.
One thought occupied his mind nobler than that of revenge—the regeneration of the Indian race.
A chimera it may have been, but still his great ambition.
He thus spoke to the assembled chiefs—