VIII.

arrived from Vincennes, and gave information that CHAP. Hamilton had weakened himself by sending out hordes of Indians; that he had not more than eighty 1779. soldiers in garrison, nor more than three pieces of cannon and some swivels mounted; but that he intended to collect in spring a sufficient number of men to clear the west of the Americans before the fall.

With a courage as desperate as his situation, Clark instantly resolved to attack Hamilton before he could call in his Indians. On the fourth of February, he despatched a small galley, mounting two four-pounders and four swivels, and carrying a company of men and military stores under Captain John Rogers, with orders to ascend the Wabash, take a station a few miles below Vincennes, suffer nothing to pass, and await further instructions. Of the young men of Illinois, thirty volunteered to be the companions of Clark; the rest he embodied to garrison Kaskaskia and guard the different towns. On the seventh of February, he began his march across the country with one hundred and thirty men. The inclemency of the season and high water threatened them with ruin. In eleven days they came within three leagues of Vincennes, on the edge of "the drowned lands" of the Wabash river. To cross these required five days more, during which they had to make two leagues, often up to the breast in water. Had not the weather been mild, they must have perished; but the courage and confidence of Clark and his troop never flagged.

All this time Hamilton was planning murderous expeditions. He wrote: "Next year there will be the greatest number of savages on the frontier that

7.

18.

23.

VIII.

Feb.

23.

CHAP. has ever been known, as the Six Nations have sent belts around to encourage their allies, who have made 1779. a general alliance." 1 On the twenty-third, a British gang returning with two prisoners reported to him, that they had seen the remains of fifteen fires; and at five o'clock in the afternoon he sent out one of his captains with twenty men in pursuit of a party that was supposed to have come from Pittsburgh.

Two hours after their departure, Clark and his companions got on dry land, and making no delay, with drum beating and a white flag flying, they entered Vincennes at the lower end of the village. The town surrendered immediately, and assisted in the siege of the fort, which was immediately invested. One captain, who lived in the village, with two Ottawa chiefs and the king of the Hurons, escaped to the wood, where they were afterwards joined by the chief of the Miamis and three of his people. The moon was new; and in the darkness Clark threw up an intrenchment within rifle shot of the fort. Under this protection, the riflemen silenced two pieces of cannon. The firing was continued for about fourteen hours, during which Clark purposely allowed La Motte and twenty men to enter the place. The rifle24. men aimed so well that, on the forenoon of the twentyfourth, Hamilton asked for a parley. At first Clark demanded his surrender at discretion. The garrison declared, "they would sooner perish to the last man;"" and offered to capitulate on the condition that they might march out with the honors of war, and return to Detroit. "To that," answered Clark,

Hamilton to the commandant

at Natchez, 13 Jan., 1779.

• Hamilton to Captain Lemoult, 28 Feb., 1779.

"I can by no means agree.

I will not again leave it CHAP.

in your power to spirit up the Indian nations to scalp men, women, and children.” About twelve o'clock 1779. the firing was renewed on both sides; and, before the twenty-fourth came to an end, Hamilton and his garrison, hopeless of succor and destitute of provisions, surrendered as prisoners of war.1

A very large supply of goods for the British force was on its way from Detroit. Sixty men, despatched by Clark in boats well mounted with swivels, surprised the convoy forty leagues up the river, and made a prize of the whole, taking forty prisoners. The joy of the party was completed by the return of their messenger from Virginia, bringing from the house of assembly its thanks voted on the twentythird of November, 1778, "to Colonel Clark and the brave officers and men under his command, for their extraordinary resolution and perseverance, and for the important services which they have thereby rendered their country."2

Since the time of that vote, they had undertaken a far more hazardous enterprise, and had obtained permanent " possession of all the important posts and settlements on the Illinois and Wabash, rescued the inhabitants from British dominion, and established civil government" in its republican form.3

The conspiracy of the Indians embraced those of the south. Early in the year 1779, Cherokees and warriors from every hostile tribe south of the Ohio, to the number of a thousand, assembled at Chicka

Hamilton to Captain Lemoult, Girardin's History of Vir28 Feb., 1779. ginia, 319. Butler's History of Kentucky, 113.

CHAP. mauga. To restrain their ravages, which had exVIII. tended from Georgia to Pennsylvania, the governments 1779. of North Carolina and Virginia appointed Evan Shelby

to command about a thousand men, called into service chiefly from the settlers beyond the mountains. To these were added a regiment of twelve-months men, that had been enlisted for the re-enforcement of Clark in Illinois. Their supplies and means of transportation were due to the unwearied and unselfish exertions of Isaac Shelby. In the middle of April, April. embarking in pirogues and canoes at the mouth of

Big Creek, they descended the river so rapidly as to surprise the savages, who fled to the hills and forests. They were pursued, and forty of their warriors fell. Their towns were burned; their fields laid waste; and their cattle driven away.

Thus the plans of the British for a combined attack, to be made by the northern and southern Indians upon the whole western frontier of the states from Georgia to New York, were defeated. For the rest of the year the western settlements enjoyed peace, and the continuous flow of emigration through the mountains to Kentucky and the country on the Holston so strengthened them, that they were never again in danger of being broken up by any alliance of the savages with the British. The prowess of the people west of the Alleghanies, where negro slavery had not yet been introduced and every man was in the full possession of a wild but self-restrained liberty, fitted them for self-defence. The men on the Holston exulted in all the freshness and gladsome hopefulness of political youth and enterprise; and, in this year, Robertson with a band of hunters took possession of

the surpassingly fertile country on the Cumberland CHAP. river.

VIII.

Clark could not pursue his career of victories, for 1779. the regiment designed for his support had been diverted, and thus the British gained time to reenforce and fortify Detroit.1 But Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, gave instructions to occupy a station on the Mississippi, between the mouth of the Ohio and the parallel of 36° 30′; and in the spring of 1780, Clark, choosing a strong and commanding situation five miles below the mouth of the Ohio, established 1780. Fort Jefferson as the watch on the father of rivers. Could the will of Charles the Third of Spain defeat the forethought of Jefferson? Could the intrigues of Florida Blanca stop the onward wave of the backwoodsmen ?

'Butler's History of Kentucky, 113.