From the very first he appears to have appreciated the fact of the superior power of the white race, and the eventual triumph of the civilization which it enjoyed; and to have been fully persuaded that in an alliance with and not in opposition to the followers of that civilization rested the safest hopes of his countrymen for protection and existence. Impressed with such convictions and imbued with a desire for personal improvement and tribal development, he cheerfully entered into pledges of amity which were on all occasions faithfully redeemed.