Unless the Indians landed on the island and made a thorough search they would not be found.

Meanwhile the canoe was faithful to its trust.

The strong wind out of the north carried it on with few moments of hesitation as it poised on breaking waves, its striking similitude to life never being lost for an instant.

Robert began to believe with Tayoga that it was, in very fact and truth, alive and endowed with reason.

Why not?
The Iroquois believed that spirits could go into wood and who was he to argue that white men were right, and red men wrong?
His life in the forest had proved to him often that red men were right and white men wrong.
Whoever might be right the canoe was still a tantalizing object to the pursuit.