[181] James, op. cit., 141-42.
[182] For a statement of them, see ibid.
In 1776 Clark had cast in his lot with the young settlements of Kentucky.[183] These were nominally a part of Virginia, but in fact they were too remote to receive much protection from the mother colony. It was congenial, too, to the spirit of the American frontiersman to depend upon himself, and Clark, who had come to the conclusion that the only means of obtaining safety was to carry the war into the enemy's country, was one of those who favored action independently of authorization from the government of Virginia.
[183] Many of the original documents pertaining to Clark's career in the Northwest have been printed in the Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. I; the Michigan Pioneer Collections; and the Wisconsin Historical Collections. Among the secondary accounts may be mentioned Dunn, Indiana; Winsor, Westward Movement, chap, viii; Thwaites, How George Rogers Clark Won the Northwest.
Other counsels prevailed, however. The protection of the parent colony was sought, and as a result the Virginia Assembly declared the extension of its authority over the region and in December, 1776, created the county of Kentucky.[184] The next summer Clark learned from spies whom he had sent into the Illinois settlements that the French settlers were lukewarm in their allegiance to Great Britain and that only a few of them were participating in the raids against the Americans, which, fomented from Detroit, made these settlements their starting-point and base of operations. Fired by these reports with the purpose to conquer the Illinois settlements, he proceeded the same summer to Virginia. Here he laid his project before Governor Henry and received his authorization to raise and equip a force of troops for the work, and with this and a scanty supply of money he returned to Kentucky and launched the enterprise.
[184] Winsor, Westward Movement, 116.
In the spring of 1778 Clark collected a little army of about one hundred and fifty men at Redstone, now Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and dropped down the Monongahela and Ohio, taking on supplies and reinforcements at Pittsburgh and other places along the way. At the Falls of the Ohio, where the metropolis of Kentucky now stands, he paused long enough to build a blockhouse on Corn Island. On June 24, while the sun was obscured by a great eclipse, the journey was renewed, the objective being Kaskaskia, the principal settlement of the Illinois country. At Fort Massac the little party landed and began the overland march of one hundred and twenty miles to Kaskaskia. On the way the hunter who had been engaged to guide them lost his bearings. This created some excitement, and caused Clark, who suspected treachery, to threaten him with death unless he found the way that evening. In this he succeeded, and accordingly the afternoon of July 4 found the party within three miles of the goal.
Clark halted his little army until nightfall, when he advanced to a farmhouse a mile from the town, and seizing the family secured information of the conditions that prevailed there. Thus armed, the party moved forward in two divisions and surrounded the place. We may safely dismiss to the limbo of myth the romantic story of Clark's appearance, alone, at the ball where garrison and villagers were disporting themselves, and his dramatic announcement to the merrymakers that the dance might go on, but it must be under the banner of Virginia.[185] The story betrays too conspicuously the handiwork of the romancer. It is clear, however, that garrison and townsmen were completely surprised, and surrendered without a blow being struck or a gun fired. By a judicious mixture of bluster and leniency Clark soon succeeded in gaining the hearty support of the villagers. One of his most effective allies was the priest. Father Gibault, who assured Clark that although, by reason of his calling, he had "nothing to do with temporal business, that he would give them such hints in the Spiritual way, that would be very conducive to the business."[186]
[185] On this see Thwaites, op. cit. , 28-31. I have drawn freely on this reference and on Winsor, Westward Movement, for the facts concerning Clark's expedition.
[186] Thwaites, op. cit., 33. That he kept his promise is sufficiently attested by Hamilton, who describes him as a "wretch," "who absolved the French inhabitants from their allegiance to the King of Great Britain," and "an active agent for the rebels & whose vicious & immoral conduct was sufficient to do infinite mischief in a country where ignorance & bigotry give full scope to the depravity of a licentious ecclesiastic."—Michigan Pioneer Collections, XIX, 487.