The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark

  XXVI

  _THE SPANIARD_

  Early in April of 1793 a company of French merchants sat at a dinnerin New Orleans. Before them magnolias bloomed in the plaza. Out in theharbour their vessels were flying the Spanish flag.

  "Spain has declared war against France. A French frigate is sailingfor the Gulf."

  Like a bomb the announcement burst in their midst.

  The fine and handsome face of Charles De Pauw was lit withdetermination. He had come over with Lafayette, and had invested afortune in the new world.

  "My ships are in danger. I will haul down the Spanish colours andfloat the American flag. Long enough have the Frenchmen of Missouriand Illinois endured the Spanish yoke. Long enough have our cargoesbeen confiscated and our trade ruined by unnecessary and tyrannicalrestrictions."

  "But America will not help us."

  "The Kentuckians will," answered De Pauw. "Already they are beggingGeorge Rogers Clark to march on New Orleans."

  A huzza rang round the table. "We shall be here to help him."

  "Every settlement that borders the Mississippi will join with us.Spain rules to Pittsburg, dictates prices, opens and closes markets.Will Americans endure that? From New Orleans to British America, Spainstretches an invisible cordon, 'thus far and no farther.' All beyondis the private park of Don Carlos IV."

  "What will Congress do?"

  "Congress?" echoed another. "What does it matter to those peoplebeyond the Alleghanies? They are very far away. Europe is not soremote. Our interests lie with Mississippi and the sea."

  "But that would dismember the Union."

  "Will it dismember the Union for the Louisianians to break theirfetter from Spain and thereby give us a market clear of duty? TheKentuckians, equally with us, are irritated at the Spanish Government.We have a right to strike Spain."

  Charles De Pauw renamed his schooner the "Maria" and sailed out of theGulf under the Stars and Stripes. On the way to New York he met thefrigate returning that brought the French minister, Charles Genet, toCharleston.

  Acres of flatboats lay freighted on the dimpling Ohio. Corn, wheat,oats, rye,--the worn-out tobacco lands of Virginia knew nothing likeit. But the Spaniard stood at the gate and locked up the river.

  "A King?" Americans laughed at the fancy. "A King to check or hinderus in our rights? Who shall refuse us? Are we not Americans?"

  "The Mississippi is ours," cried Kentucky. "By the law of nature, bythe authority of numbers, by the right of necessity. If Congress willnot give it to us, we must take it ourselves."

  And now France--

  George Rogers Clark was profoundly moved by the French crusade forliberty. "We owe it to France to help her. Was not France our friendin the time of trouble?"

  Then he wrote to the French minister, tendering his services to Francein her arduous struggle:

  "I would begin with St. Louis, a rich, large, and populous town, and by placing two or three frigates within the Mississippi's mouth (to guard against Spanish succours) I would engage to subdue New Orleans, and the rest of Louisiana. If farther aided I would capture Pensacola; and if Santa Fe and the rest of New Mexico were objects--I know their strength and every avenue leading to them, for conquest.--All the routes as well as the defenceless situation of those places are perfectly known to me and I possess draughts of all their defences, and estimates of the greatest force which could oppose me. If France will be hearty and secret in this business my success borders on certainty.--The route from St. Louis to Santa Fe is easy, and the places not very distant.... To save Congress from a rupture with Spain on our account, we must first expatriate ourselves and become French citizens. This is our intention."

  On its errand of good or ill the letter sped to the French minister tothe United States, and lo! that minister was Genet, just landed atCharleston.

  Genet had come from Revolutionary France, at this moment fighting allEurope, so frightfully had upblazed the tiny spark of liberty borneback by the soldiers of Rochambeau.

  Andre Michaux was instructed to hasten to the Falls of the Ohio withthis message to George Rogers Clark:

  "The French minister has filled out this blank commission from hisGovernment making you a Marshal of France, Major General andCommander-in-Chief of the French Legion on the Mississippi."

  Thus had Genet answered the letter.

  New Orleans was watching. "The Americans are threatening us with anarmy assembling on the Ohio," wrote Carondelet in alarm to Spain.

  "Ill-disposed and fanatical citizens in this Capital," he added,"restless and turbulent men infatuated with Liberty and Equality, areincreased with every vessel that comes from the ports of France."

  He begged Spain to send him troops from Cuba. He begged the CaptainGeneral of Cuba to send him troops from Havana.

  Gayoso put his fort at Vicksburg in defence and Carondelet sent up adivision of galleys to New Madrid and St. Louis.

  But Carondelet, the Governor of Louisiana, had his hands full.Frenchmen of his own city were signing papers to strike a blow forFrance. He would build defences,--they opposed and complained of hismeasures. Merchants and others whose business suffered by theuncertainties of commerce took no responsibility as the domineeringlittle Baron endeavoured to fortify New Orleans with palisaded wall,towers, and a moat seven feet deep and forty feet wide.

  "It may happen that the enemy will try to surprise the plaza on a darknight," said the Baron.

  All the artillery was mounted. Haughty Spanish cavaliers with swordsand helmets paced the parapets of the grim pentagonal bastions.Watchmen with spears and lanterns guarded the gates below. The citywas in terror of assault. At every rise of the river Carondelet lookedfor a filibustering army out of the north. By every ship runners weresent to Spain.

  News of the intended raid penetrated even the Ursuline Convent. SisterInfelice paled when she heard it, gave a little gasp, and fainted.

  "Clearly she fears, the gentle sister fears these northernbarbarians," remarked the Mother Superior. "Take her to her chamber."

  And St. Louis,--not since 1780 had she been so alarmed. The Governorconstructed a square redoubt flanked by bastions, dug a shallow moat,and raised a fort on the hill. Seventeen grenadiers with drawn sabresstood at the drawbridge.

  "Immediately on the approach of the enemy, retreat to New Madrid," wasthe order of this puissant Governor.

  George Rogers Clark, who had planned and executed the conquest ofIllinois, burned now for the conquest of Louisiana. And the Westlooked to him; she despised and defied the Spaniard as she despisedand defied the Indian. They blocked the way, they must depart.

  Clark's old veteran officers Christy, Logan, Montgomery, sent wordthey would serve under his command. The French squadron atPhiladelphia was to set sail for the Gulf.

  Major Fulton and Michaux, Clark's right-hand men, travelled all overthe West enlisting men, provisions, and money. De Pauw engaged tofurnish four hundred barrels of flour and a thousand-weight of bacon,and to send brass cannon over the mountains. In December Clark's menwere already cutting timber to build boats on the Bear Grass. Fivethousand men were to start in the Spring, provided Congress did notoppose and Genet could raise a million dollars.

  In despair Carondelet wrote home, saying that if the project plannedwas carried into effect, he would have no other alternative but tosurrender.

  "Having no reinforcements to hope for from Havana, I have no furtherhope than in the faults the enemy may commit and in accidents whichmay perhaps favour us."

  Carondelet gave up. In March he wrote again, "The commandant at PostVincennes has offered cannon for the use of the expedition."

  Early in January Clark was writing to De Pauw, "Have your stores atthe Falls by the 20th of February, as in all probability we shalldescend the river at that time."

  Montgomery reported, "arms and ammunition, five hundred bushels ofcorn and ten thousand pounds of pork, also twenty thousand weight ofbuffalo beef, eleven hund
red weight of bear meat, seventy-four pairvenison hams, and some beef tongues."

  With two hundred men Montgomery lay at the mouth of the Ohio ready tocross over. Not ninety Spaniards of regular troops were there todefend St. Louis, and two hundred militia, and the Governor had onlytoo much reason to fear that St. Louis would open her gates and jointhe invader. All that was lacking was money. Hundreds of Kentuckianswaited the signal to take down their guns and march on New Orleans.

  But the ministers of Spain and of Great Britain had not been quiet.They both warned Washington. Could he hold the lawless West? It was aproblem for statesmen.

  Jefferson wrote to Governor Shelby of Kentucky to restrain theexpedition.

  "I have grave doubts," Governor Shelby answered, "whether there is anylegal authority to restrain or to punish them. For, if it is lawfulfor any one citizen of the state to leave it, it is equally so for anynumber of them to do it. It is also lawful for them to carry anyquantity of provisions, arms, and ammunition.--I shall also feel butlittle inclination to take an active part in punishing or retainingany of my fellow citizens for a supposed intention only, to gratifythe fears of the ministers of a prince who openly withholds from us aninvaluable right, and who secretly instigates against us a most savageand cruel enemy."

  Washington promptly issued a proclamation of neutrality and requestedthe recall of Genet. From the new Minister of France Clark receivedformal notice that the conquest of Louisiana was abandoned. But Spainhad had her fright. She at once opened the river, and the mass ofcollected produce found its way unimpeded to the sea.

  In June Congress passed a law for ever forbidding such expeditions.

  "I have learned that the Spaniards have built a fort at ChickasawBluff, on this side of the river," said General Wayne, one night inSeptember, 1795, summoning William Clark to his headquarters. "Idesire you to go down to the commanding officer on the west side andinquire his intentions."

  Why, of all that army, had Wayne chosen the young lieutenant of theFourth Sub-Legion for this errand? Was it because he bore the name ofClark? Very well; both knew why Spain had advanced to the ChickasawBluff.

  As Washington went forty years before to inquire of the French, "Whyare you building forts on the Ohio?" so now William Clark, on boardthe galiot, "La Vigilante," dropped down to New Madrid and asked theSpaniard, "Why are you building forts on the Mississippi?"

  Down came Charles De Hault De Lassus, the Commandant himself. "Iassure you we have been very far from attempting to usurp theterritory of a nation with whom we desire to remain in friendship,"protested the courtly Commandant with a wave of his sword and aflutter of his plume. "But the threats of the French republicansliving in the United States,"--he paused for a reply.

  "Calm yourself," replied Lieutenant Clark. "Read here the pacificintentions of my country."

  None better than William Clark understood the virtues of conciliationand persuasion. "I assure you that the United States is disposed topreserve peace with all the powers of Europe, and with Spainespecially."

  With mutual expressions of esteem and cordial parting salvos,Lieutenant Clark left his Spanish friends with a mollified feelingtoward "those turbulent Americans."

  Nevertheless George Rogers Clark had opened the river, to be closedagain at peril.

  Among the soldiers at Wayne's camp that winter was LieutenantMeriwether Lewis, "just from the Whiskey Rebellion," he said. Betweenhim and William Clark, now Captain Clark, there sprang up the mostintimate friendship.

  "The nature of the Insurrection?" remarked Lewis in his camp talks withClark. "Why, the Pennsylvania mountaineers about Redstone-Old-Fortrefused to pay the whiskey tax, stripped, tarred, and feathered thecollectors! 'The people must be taught obedience,' said GeneralWashington, and, after all peaceable means failed, he marched fifteenthousand militia into the district. The thought that Washington wascoming at the head of troops made them reconsider. They sentdeputations to make terms about the time of Wayne's battle. We builtlog huts and forted for the winter on the Monongahela about fifteenmiles above Pittsburg."

  "And so the Spaniards have come to terms?" queried Lewis as Clarkstill remained silent.

  "Yes, they have opened the river."

  "I came near being in the midst of that," continued Lewis. "Michauxcame to Charlottesville. I was eighteen, just out of school and eagerfor adventure. Michaux was to explore the West. Mr. Jefferson had aplan for sending two people across the Rocky Mountains. I begged togo, and probably should, had not Michaux been recalled when the newFrench minister came in."

  "Rest assured," replied Clark solemnly, "no exploration of the Westcan ever be made while Spain holds Louisiana."