The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark

  XXI

  _DOWN THE OHIO_

  There was truce on the border. The wondering redmen heard that thegreat King had withdrawn across the Big Water and that the Long Kniveswere victors in the country.

  With wondering minds Shawnee and Delaware, Wyandot and Miami,discussed around their council fires the changed situation. Very greathad the redcoats appeared in the eyes of the savages, with theirdazzling uniforms, and long, bright, flashing swords. But how terriblewere the Virginians of the Big Knives!

  The continental armies had been dispersed, but now from their oldwar-ravaged homes of the Atlantic shore they looked to the new landsbeyond the Alleghanies. Congress would pay them in these lands, and sothe scarred veterans of a hundred battles launched on the emigranttrail.

  In the Clark home there was busy preparation. Out of attic and cellarold cedar chests were brought and packed with the precious linen,fruit of many a day at the loom. Silver and pewter and mahoganybureaus, high-post bedsteads and carved mirrors, were carefully piledin the waggons as John Clark, cavalier, turned his face from tidewaterVirginia.

  Neighbours called in to bid them farewell. Mrs. Clark made a lastprayer at the grave of her son, the victim of the prison ship.

  "William, have you brought the mulberry cuttings?" called the motherlyLucy.

  "William, have you the catalpa seeds?" cried Fanny.

  Leaving the old home with Jonathan to be sold, the train startedout,--horses, cattle, slaves, York riding proudly at the side of hisyoung master William, old York and Rose, Nancy, Jane, Julia, Cupid andHarry and their children, a patriarchal caravan like that of Abrahamfacing an earlier west two thousand years before.

  Before and behind were other caravans. All Virginia seemed on the move,some by Rockfish Gap and Staunton, up the great valley of Virginia tothe Wilderness Road, on packhorses; others in waggons, like theClarks, following the Braddock route down to Redstone-Old-Fort on theMonongahela, where boats must be built.

  And here at Redstone was George Rogers Clark, come up to meet themfrom the Falls. In short order, under his direction, boatbuilders werebusy. York and old York took a hand, and William, in a firstexperience that was yet to find play in the far Idaho.

  The teasing Fanny looked out from her piquant sun-bonnet. Lucy, moresedate, was accompanied by her betrothed, Major Croghan.

  "My uncle, George Croghan, has lately died in New York and left me hisheir. I shall locate in Louisville," was the Major's explanation tohis friend's inquiry.

  "And what is the news from Virginia?"

  "Your old friend Patrick Henry is Governor again. Jonathan visited himlast week," was William's reply.

  "And Jonathan's wife, Sarah Hite, bids fair to secure her fortune,"added Fanny. "You see, when old Lord Fairfax heard of Cornwallis'ssurrender he gave up. 'Put me to bed, Jo,' he said, 'it is time for meto die,' and die he did. Now his lands are in the courts."

  "Mrs. Jefferson, who was ill, died as a result of the excitement ofthe flight from Tarleton," said Lucy. "To get away from his sorrow,Mr. Jefferson has accepted the appointment of minister to France tosucceed Dr. Franklin, and has taken Martha and Maria with him. Theywill go to school in Paris."

  George Rogers Clark was a silent man. He spoke no word of his recenttrip to Philadelphia, in which Dr. Franklin had grasped his hand andsaid, "Young man, you have given an empire to the Republic."

  "General Washington has just returned from a horseback journey downinto this country," added Major Croghan. "He has lands on the Ohio."

  "And have _you_ no word of yourself or of Kentucky?"

  General Clark handed his father a notification from the Assembly ofVirginia. He read it aloud.

  "The conclusion of the war, and the distressed situation of the Statewith respect to its finances, call on us to adopt the most prudenteconomy. You will, therefore, consider yourself out of command."

  "And you are no longer in the army?"

  "No, nor even on a footing with the Continentals. I was simply asoldier of the Virginia militia, and, as such, have no claim even forthe half pay allotted to all Continental officers."

  "But Virginia has ceded her western territories to Congress with thedistinct stipulation that expenses incurred in subduing any Britishposts therein, or in acquiring any part of the territory, shall bereimbursed by the United States."

  "Is there any hope there? What has Congress? An empty treasury. Andwho is to pay the bills incurred in the Illinois conquest? Shall I, aprivate individual?"

  "That would be impossible," commented the father.

  "But I am not disheartened," continued George Rogers. "When theIndians are quiet, my men hope to build a city on the land granted usopposite the Falls. And here is something from Jefferson, writtenbefore he left for Europe."

  William stood attentive while the letter was read.

  "ANNAPOLIS, December 4, 1783.

  DEAR SIR,--I find they have subscribed a very large sum of money in England for exploring the country from the Mississippi to California. They pretend it is only to promote knowledge. I am afraid they have thought of colonising into that quarter. Some of us have been talking here in a feeble way of making an attempt to search that country, but I doubt whether we have enough of that kind of spirit to raise the money. How would you like to lead such a party? Though I am afraid our prospect is not worth the question.

  Your friend and humble servant, THOMAS JEFFERSON."

  "Does he want you to lead an exploring party to the Pacific Ocean?"inquired William with intense interest.

  "That is the substance of it. And I should want you to accompany me."

  Little did either then dream that William Clark would lead that party,with another.

  The boats were ready. Surmounted by the Stars and Stripes of the "oldthirteen" they started on their journey. Suddenly the Monongahelaclosed with ice and locked them at Pittsburg, where flurries of snowset the sleigh-bells ringing.

  Through deep drifts, under the guns of Fort Pitt, files ofPhiladelphia traders were buying up skins and tallow, to carry backover the mountains in their packsaddles that had come out loaded withsalt and gunpowder. Squaws were exchanging peltries for the whiteman's tea and sugar. A great concourse of emigrants was blocked forthe winter. Every cabin was crowded.

  After great exertions George had secured quarters quite unlike theroomy old Virginian home.

  "I must be gone to make peace with those Indians who have been actingwith the British, and take steps toward securing titles beyond theOhio."

  Accompanied by two other commissioners, General Clark set out for FortMcIntosh. It was January before the Indians gathered with PierreDrouillard, interpreter now for the United States.

  "By the treaty of peace with England this land belongs to the ThirteenFires," was the basis of argument. "You have been allies of England,and now by the law of nations the land is ours."

  "No! No!" fiercely cried Buckongahelas.

  "But we will divide with you. You are to release your white captives,and give up a part of your Ohio lands. The rest you can keep. Detroitand Michilimackinac belong to the Thirteen Fires." Then boundarieswere drawn.

  "No! No!" cried Buckongahelas. Clark heeded not.

  After deliberation the chiefs signed,--Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa,--allbut Buckongahelas. "I am a friend of Great Britain!" roared theDelaware King. Then to the surprise of all, suddenly striding past theother commissioners, the swarthy chief took the hand of General Clark."I thank the Great Spirit for having this day brought together twosuch warriors as Buckongahelas and the Long Knife." Clark smiled andreturned the compliment.

  "Will the gorge break?" every frontiersman was asking when Georgereturned to Pittsburg.

  Piled back for seventy miles the Alleghany was a range of ice, heapedfloe on floe. Where the muddy Monongahela blends with the crystalAlleghany the boats lay locked with a hundred others, awaiting thedeluge.

  Suddenly the melting snows of the Alleghanies b
urst; the iceloosened, tearing and cutting the branches of trees overhanging theriver; and slowly, with the ice, moved the great fleet of flatboats.

  Ever narrower and deeper and swifter, the Ohio leaped with tremendousrush down its confined channel. The trees on the uninhabited shores,never yet cut away, held the embankment firm, and racing down on theperilous flood came the Clarks to the Falls of the Ohio, in March of1785.

  Fascinated by the rush of waves, fourteen-year-old William poled likea man. Could he dream what destruction lay in their course? "_L'anneedes grandes eaux_," 1785, is famous in the annals of the West as theyear of great waters. The floods came down and drowned out old Ste.Genevieve and drove the inhabitants back to the higher terrace onwhich that village stands to-day. Above, the whole American Bottom wasa swift running sea, Kaskaskia and Cahokia were submerged by thesimultaneous melting of the snows, and nothing but its high bold shoreof limestone rock saved St. Louis itself. Paddling around in his boat,Auguste Chouteau ate breakfast on the roofs of Ste. Genevieve.

  At Louisville barely could boats be pulled in to the Bear Grass.Below, waves foamed and whirled among the rocks, that to-day have beensmoothed by the hand of man into a shallow channel.

  Guided by skilful hands, many a trader's boat that year took the chuteof the Falls like an arrow; over the ledges that dammed the waterback, down, down they slid out of sight into that unknown West, whereWilliam knew not that his brother had paved the way to Louisiana.

  "Have you found us a tract?" inquired the anxious mother.

  "Land, mother? I own a dukedom, my soldiers and I, one hundred andfifty thousand acres, on the Indian side of the river. We haveincorporated a town there, Clarksville they call it. It will be agreat city,--but Louisville is safer at present."

  That Spring they lived at Fort Nelson, with watchmen on the ramparts.

  "But we saw no Indians in coming down!"

  "True enough, the flood was a surprise so early in the year. Wait alittle, and you will hear more of this terrifying river-route, wherein low water it takes seven weeks to run from Redstone to the BearGrass. Then the murderous clutches of the Indians have free play amongthe helpless emigrants. Let us be thankful for what you escaped."

  Almost while they were speaking a band of Indians glided out of thewoods not far away, snatched a boy from a fence, and shot his fatherin the field.

  "Don't kill me, just take me prisoner," said little Tommy, looking upinto the warrior's face.

  At that instant an elder brother's rifle felled the Indian, and theboy was saved to become the father of Abraham Lincoln.