It means, perhaps, the saving of a couple of hundred lives.

Besides, we should probably not have caught quarter of them; and the rest would have taken to the bush, and continued to give us trouble.
"Tell me exactly what the terms are, upon which they are willing to surrender." "Simply the lives and freedom of the chiefs; and permission to their men to retire, unmolested, to their villages." "Those are exactly the terms I have offered to some of their chiefs, who had sent in to ask for terms.

Now, I will speak to them myself." He accordingly walked forward, with Hallett, to where the chiefs were standing.
"I am glad, indeed, chiefs," he said, "that you have decided to take no further part in the war.

You will stay here with us, until I hear that your camp is broken up; and you will then be at liberty to return to your own grounds.

I thank you for receiving my messengers so kindly; as a reward for which I shall, when you leave, present you each with five hundred dollars.