of a council. I had determined to inflict death upon you for your base attempt, and you yourselves must be sensible that you have justly forfeited your lives; but on considering the meanness of watching a bear and catching him asleep, I have found out that you are not warriors, only old women, and too mean to be killed by the Big Knife. But," continued hę, "as you ought to be punished for putting on breech cloths like men, they shall be taken away from you, plenty of provisions shall be given for your journey home, as women don't know how to hunt, and during your stay you shall be treated in every respect as squaws." These few cutting words concluded, the Colonel turned away to converse with others. The children of the prairie, who had looked for anger, not contempt-punishment, not freedom-were unaccountably stirred by this treatment. They took counsel together, and presently a chief . came forward with a belt and pipe of peace, which, with proper words, he laid upon the table. The interpreter stood ready to translate the words of friendship, but, with curling lip, the American said he did not wish to hear them, and lifting a sword which lay before him, he shattered the offered pipe, with the cutting expression that "he did not treat with women." The bewildered, overwhelmed Meadow Indians, next asked the intercession of other red men, already admitted to friendship, but the only reply was, "The Big Knife has made no war upon these people; they are of a kind that we shoot like wolves when we meet them in the woods, lest they eat the deer." All this wrought more and more upon the offending tribe; again they took counsel, and then two young men came forward, and, covering their heads with their blankets, sat down before the impenetrable commander; then two chiefs arose, and stating that these young warriors offered their lives as an atonement for the misdoings of their relatives, again they presented the pipe of peace. Silence reigned in the assembly, while the fate of the proffered victims hung in suspense; all watched the countenance of the American leader, who could scarce master the emotion which the incident excited. Still, all sat noiseless, nothing heard but the deep breathing of those whose lives thus hung by a thread. Presently, he upon whom all depended,

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arose, and, approaching the young men, he bade them be uncovered and stand up. They sprang to their feet. "I am glad to find," said Clark, warmly, "that there are men among all nations. who alone are fit to be chiefs of your With you, tribe, I am willing to treat; through you I am ready to grant peace to your brothers; I take you by the hands as chiefs, worthy of being such." Here again the fearless generosity, the generous fearlessness of Clark, proved perfectly successful, and while the tribe in question became the allies of America, the fame of the occurrence, which spread far and wide through the Northwest, made the name of the white negotiator everywhere respected.

CHAPTER XXI.

CONQUEST OF ILLINOIS CONTINUED - BRAVERY OF GEORGE ROGERS CLARK RE-TAKING OF POST VINCENNES BY COL. HAMILTON COURAGE OF CAPT. HELM CLARK'S EXPEDITION AGAINST HAMILTON HAMILTON TAKEN PRISONER - RESULTS OF CLARK'S CAMPAIGN.

It was not long before Vincennes (Vincent) was recaptured by Henry Hamilton, the British Lieut.-Governor of Detroit. He collected an army of thirty regulars, fifty French volunteers, and four hundred Indians, and went down from Detroit, to the Wabash, and thence to Vincennes, where he appeared on the fifteenth of December, 1778. The people did not attempt to defend the place, as Capt. Helm and a man named Henry were the only Americans in the post. Helm, however, placed a cannon in the open gateway, and stood beside it with a lighted match, and as Col. Hamilton's party approached within hailing distance, the bold captain commanded them to halt, whereupon the British commander stopped and summoned the garrison to surrender. "No man shall enter here until I know the terms," said Helm. Seeing this firmness, Hamilton replied: "You shall have the honors of war." The fort was then surrendered, and the one officer and the one soldier received due marks of respect for their bravery. Helm was held in the fort as a prisoner, the French were disarmed, and, bands of hostile Indians began to appear around the other posts. Col. Clark's situation now became dangerous. He ordered Major Bowman to evacuate the fort at Cahokia, and join him at Kaskaskia. "I could see," says Clark, "but little probability of keeping possession of the country, as my number of men was too small to stand a seige, and my situation too remote to call for assistance. I made all the preparations

I possibly could for the attack, and was necessitated to set fire to some of the outhouses in the town to clear them out of the way." At this time Clark was trying to conceive a plan for capturing Col. Hamilton, and retaking Post Vincennes. He engaged Col. Francis Vigo, then a wealthy resident of St. Louis, to go to Vincennes and investigate its strength. At Clark's request this brave Spanish officer, with a single attendant, started for Vincennes, but was captured at the Embarrass by a party of Indians, who plundered him and brought him to Col. Hamilton. Being a Spanish subject, Hamilton had no power to hold him prisoner, but, set him at liberty only on the condition that he would return direct to St. Louis. This Vigo did, but remained only long enough to change his dress, when he returned to Kaskaskia, and gave Col. Clark full information of the condition of the British post at Vincennes, the projected movement of Hamilton, and the friendly feelings of the French towards the Americans. From him Col. Clark learned that a portion of the British troops were absent on marauding parties with the Indians, that the garrison consisted of about eighty regular soldiers, three brass field pieces, and some swivels, and that Gov. Hamilton meditated the re-capture of Kaskaskia early in the spring. Col. Clark determined on the bold project of an expedition to Vincennes, of which he wrote to Gov. Henry, and sent an express to Virginia. As a reason for this hazardous project, Col. Clark urged the force and designs of Hamilton, saying to Governor Henry in his letter, "I knew if I did not take him he would take me."

A boat was prepared, carrying two four pounders, and four swivels, and commanded by Capt. John Rogers, with forty-six men, and provisions, was dispatched from Kaskaskia to the Ohio, with orders to proceed up the Wabash as secretly as possible to a place near the mouth of the Embarrass. Two companies of men were raised from Cahokia, and Kaskaskia, commanded by Captains McCarty and Charleville, which, with the Americans, amounted to one hundred and seventy men. The winter was exceedingly wet, and all the streams and low land in that section of the country were overflowed, but notwithstanding this, the fragment of an army, on the seventh of

February, 1779, commenced its march from Kaskaskia. Their route lay through the prairies and points of timber east of the Kaskaskia river- a northeasterly course, through Washington and Marion counties, into Clay county, where the trail, noticeable as late as 1830, crossed the route from St. Louis to Vincennes. "This was one of the most dreary and fatiguing expeditions of the Revolutionary War." After inexpressible hardships, the little army reached the Little Wabash, the low bottoms of which, for many miles, were covered with water from three to four feet deep. On the thirteenth of February they arrived at the mouth of "Muddy River," as it was then called, where they made a canoe and ferried over their baggage, which they placed on a scaffold on the opposite bank, to keep it out of the water. Rains fell nearly every day, but the weather was not extremely cold. Up to this point they had borne their hardships with great fortitude, but now the spirits of many began to flag. Among the party was an Irishman who could sing many comic songs, and as the party were wading in the water up to their waists, this curious fellow sat upon his large drum, which readily floated him, and entertained the half perishing troops with his comic musical talents. On the eighteenth of the same month they heard the morning gun of the fort, and on the evening of the same day they were on the Great Wabash, below the mouth of the Embarrass. This is the spot where, as we have seen, they were to meet the boat with supplies. But now there were no signs of it, and the troops were in the most exhausted, destitute and starving condition. The river had overflowed its banks, all the low ground was covered with water, and canoes could not be constructed to carry them over before the British garrison would discover and capture the whole party. On the twentieth of February they captured a boat from Post Vincennes, and from the crew, whom they detained, they learned that the French population were friendly to the Americans, and that no suspicion of the expedition had reached the British garrison.

The remainder of the march is so full of incident, and so worthy of preservation, that I will permit Col. Clark to give the narrative in his own peculiar language: