The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark

  XVIII

  _ON THE RAMPARTS_

  In all his anguish about Detroit, with the energy of desperation Clarknow set to work making Louisville stronger than ever.

  "Boys, we must have defences absolutely impregnable; we know not atwhat moment cannon may be booming at our gates."

  A new stronghold was founded, and around it a moat eight feet deep andten feet wide; surrounding the moat itself, was built a breastwork oflog pens, filled with earth and picketed ten feet high on top of thebreastwork. An acre was thus enclosed, and in that acre was a springthat bubbles still in the streets of Louisville. Within were mounted adouble six-pounder captured at Vincennes, four cannon, and eightswivels, and heaped around were shells, balls, and grapeshot broughtfor the Detroit campaign. With bakehouse and blockhouse, bastion andbarrack, no enemy ever dared attack Fort Nelson.

  "General Clark is too hard on the militia," the soldier boyscomplained, but the hammering and pounding and digging went on untilLouisville was the strongest point beyond the Alleghanies.

  Back and back came the Indians, in battles and forays, and still inthis troublous time settlers were venturing by flatboat and over theWilderness Road into the Blue Grass country. They seemed to fancy thatClark had stilled the West, that here the cannon had ceased to rattle.

  Emigrants on packhorses bound for the land of cane and turkeys sawbodies of scalped white men every day. Logan and his forest rangers,like knights of old, guarded the Wilderness Road. Kenton and hisscouts patrolled the Ohio, crossing and recrossing on the track ofmarauding savages. Boone watched the Licking; Floyd held the BearGrass.

  Fort Nelson was done,--its walls were cannon-proof. Clark's gunboatlay on the water-front when a messenger passed the sentinel with aletter.

  In the little square room that Clark called his headquarters, theenvoy waited. The young commandant read and bowed his head,--was it amoment of irresolution? "Who could have brought this letter?"

  "Any Indian would bring it for a pint of rum," answered a well-knownvoice. Pulling off a mask, Connolly stood before him.

  It was as if Lord Dunmore had risen from the floor,--Connolly had beenLord Dunmore's captain commandant of all the land west of the BlueRidge. What was he saying?

  "As much boundary of land on the west bank of the Ohio as you maywish, and any title under that of a duke, if you will abandonLouisville. I am sent to you by Hamilton."

  "What!" gasped Clark. "Shall I become an Arnold and give up mycountry? Never! Go, sir, before my people discover your identity."

  Resolved to lock the secret in his own heart, Clark spoke to no one.But that same night a similar offer was made to John Floyd on the BearGrass. He mentioned it to Clark.

  "We must never tell the men," they agreed; "starving and discouragedthey might grasp the offer to escape the Indian tomahawk." But yearsafter Clark told his sister Lucy, and Floyd told his wife, JaneBuchanan,--and from them the tale came down to us.

  As if enraged at this refusal, British and Indians rallied for a finalonslaught.

  "The white men are taking the fair Kain-tuck-ee, the land of deer andbuffalo. If you beat Clark this time you will certainly recover yourhunting-grounds," said De Peyster at the council fire.

  In unprecedented numbers the redmen crossed the Ohio,--station afterstation was invested; then followed the frightful battle of Blue Lickswhere sixty white men fell in ten minutes. Kentucky was shrouded inmourning.

  Again Clark followed swift with a thousand mounted riflemen.

  Among the Indians dividing their spoils and their captives theresounded a sharp alarm, "The Long Knives! The Long Knives!"

  "A mighty army on its march!"

  Barely had the Shawnees time to fly when Clark's famished Kentuckiansentered Old Chillicothe. Fires were yet burning, corn was on theroasting sticks, but the foe was gone.

  "The property destroyed was of great amount, and the quantity ofprovisions burned surpassed all idea we had of the Indian stores,"Clark said in after years.

  This second destruction of their villages and cornfields chilled theheart of the Indians. Their power was broken. Never again did a greatarmy cross the Ohio.

  But standing again on the ruins of Old Chillicothe, "I swearvengeance!" cried the young Tecumseh.

  And Clark, the Long Knife, mourned in his heart.

  "This might have been avoided! this might have been avoided! Nevershall we have peace on this frontier until Detroit is taken!"