The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark
VI
_THE FEUDAL AGE_
What a summer for the little forts! Dressed in hunting shirt andmoccasins, his rifle on his shoulder, his tomahawk in his belt, nowleading his eager followers on the trail of the red marauders, nowgalloping at the head of his horsemen to the relief of somebeleaguered station, Clark guarded Kentucky.
No life was safe beyond the walls. Armed sentinels were ever on thewatchtowers, armed guards were at the gates. And outside, Indians layconcealed, watching as only Indians can watch, nights and days, to cutoff the incautious settler who might step beyond the barricades. Byinstinct the settlers came to know when a foe was near; the very dogstold it, the cattle and horses became restless, the jay in the treetopand the wren in the thorn-hollow chattered it. Even the night-owlhooted it from the boughs of the ghostly old sycamore.
In this, the feudal age of North America, every man became a captainand fought his own battles. Like knights of old, each borderer, fromTiconderoga to Wheeling and Boonsboro, sharpened his knife, primed hisflintlock, and started. No martial music or gaudy banner, no drum orbugle, heralded the border foray. Silent as the red man the starkhunter issued from his wooden fort and slid among the leaves. Silentas the panther he stole upon his prey.
But all at once the hill homes of the Cherokees emptied themselves toscourge Kentucky. Shawnees of the Scioto, Chippewas of the Lakes,Delawares of the Muskingum hovered on her shores.
March, April, May, June, July, August,--the days grew hot and stiflingto the people cooped up in the close uncomfortable forts. There hadbeen no planting, scarce even a knock at the gate to admit some forestrover, and still the savages sat before Boonsboro. Clark was walled inat Harrodsburg, Logan at Logansport.
Ammunition was failing, provisions were short; now and then there wasa sally, a battle, a retreat, then the dressing of wounds and theburial of the dead.
Every eye was watching Clark, the leader whose genius consistedlargely in producing confidence. In the height of action he broodedover these troubles; they knew he had plans; the powder exploit madethem ready to rely upon him to any extent. He would meet thoseIndians, somewhere. Men bound with families could not leave,--Clarkwas free. Timid men could not act,--Clark was bold. Narrow men couldnot see,--Clark was prescient. More than any other he had theNapoleonic eye. Glancing away to the Lakes and Detroit, the scalpmarket of the west, he reasoned in the secrecy of his own heart:
"These Indians are instigated by the British. Through easilyinfluenced red men they hope to annihilate our frontier. Never shallwe be safe until we can control the British posts."
Unknown to any he had already sent scouts to reconnoitre those veryposts.
"And what have you learned?" he whispered, when on the darkest nightof those tempestuous midsummer days they gave the password at thegate.
"What have we learned? That the forts are negligently guarded; thatthe French are secretly not hostile; that preparations are on foot foran invasion of Kentucky with British, Indians, and artillery."
"I will give them something to do in their own country," was Clark'sinward comment.
Without a word of his secret intent, Clark buckled on his sword,primed his rifle, and set out for Virginia. With regret and fear thepeople saw him depart, and yet with hope. Putting aside theirdetaining hands, "I will surely return," he said.
With almost superhuman daring the leather-armoured knight from thebeleaguered castle in the wood ran the gauntlet of the sleepingsavages. All the Wilderness Road was lit with bonfires, and woe to theemigrant that passed that way. Cumberland Gap was closed; fleet-wingedhe crossed the very mountain tops, where never foot of man or beasthad trod before.
Scarce noting the hickories yellow with autumn and the oaks crimsonwith Indian summer, the young man passed through Charlottesville, hisbirthplace, and reached his father's house in Caroline at ten o'clockat night.
In his low trundle-bed little William heard that brother's step andsprang to unclose the door. Like an apparition George Rogers Clarkappeared before the family, haggard and worn with the summer's siege.All the news of his brothers gone to the war was quickly heard.
"And will you join them?"
"No, my field is Kentucky. To-morrow I must be at Williamsburg."
The old colonial capital was aflame with hope and thanksgiving asClark rode into Duke of Gloucester Street. Burgoyne had surrendered.Men were weeping and shouting. In the _melee_ he met Jefferson andproposed to him a secret expedition. In the exhilaration of the momentJefferson grasped his hand,--"Let us to the Governor."
Crowds of people were walking under the lindens of the Governor'sPalace. Out of their midst came Dorothea, the wife of Patrick Henry,and did the honours of her station as gracefully as, thirty yearslater, Dolly Madison, her niece and namesake, did the honours of theWhite House.
Again Patrick Henry pushed his reading spectacles up into his brownwig and scanned the envoy from Kentucky.
"Well, sirrah, did you get the powder?"
"We got the powder and saved Kentucky. But for it she would have beenwiped out in this summer's siege. All the Indians of the Lakes arethere. I have a plan."
"Unfold it," said Patrick Henry.
In a few words Clark set forth his scheme of conquest.
"Destroy Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and you have quelled theIndians. There they are fed, clothed, armed, and urged to prey uponus. I have sent spies to reconnoitre, and have received word thatassures me that their capture is feasible."
The scintillating blue eyes burned with an inward light, emittingfire, as Patrick Henry leaned to inquire, "What would you do in caseof a repulse?"
"Cross the Mississippi and seek protection from the Spaniards,"answered the ready chief. With his privy council, Mason, Wythe, andJefferson, Patrick Henry discussed the plan, and at their instance theHouse of Delegates empowered George Rogers Clark "to aid anyexpedition against their western enemies."
"Everything depends upon secrecy," said the Governor as he gave Clarkhis instructions and twelve hundred pounds in Continental papercurrency. "But you must recruit your men west of the Blue Ridge; wecan spare none from here."
Kindred spirits came to Clark,--Bowman, Helm, Harrod and theirfriends, tall riflemen with long buckhorn-handled hunting-knives,enlisting for the west, but no one guessing their destination.
Despite remonstrances twenty pioneer families on their flat-boats atRedstone-Old-Fort joined their small fleet to his. "We, too, are goingto Kentucky."
Jumping in as the last boat pulled out of Pittsburg, Captain WilliamLinn handed Clark a letter. He broke the seal.
"Ye gods, the very stars are for us! The French have joined America!"
With strange exhilaration the little band felt themselves borne downthe swift-rushing waters to the Falls of the Ohio.
Before them blossomed a virgin world. Clark paused while the boatsclustered round. "Do you see that high, narrow, rocky island at thehead of the rapids? It is safe from the Indian. While the troops erecta stockade and blockhouse, let the families clear a field and planttheir corn."
Axes rang. The odour of hawthorn filled the air. Startled birds sweptover the falls,--eagles, sea gulls, and mammoth cranes turning uptheir snowy wings glittering in the sunlight. On the mainland, deer,bear, and buffalo roamed under the sycamores serene as in Eden.
"Halloo-oo!" It was the well-known call of Simon Kenton, paddling downto Corn Island with Captain John Montgomery and thirty Kentuckians.
"What news of the winter?"
"Boone and twenty-seven others have been captured by the Indians."
"Boone? We are laying a trap for those very Indians," and then andthere Major Clark announced the object of the expedition.
Some cheered the wild adventure, some trembled and deserted in thenight, but one hundred and eighty men embarked with no baggage beyonda rifle and a wallet of corn for each.
The snows of the Alleghanies were melting. A million rivulets leapedto the blue Ohio. It was the June rise, the river was booming. Polinghis l
ittle flotilla out into the main channel Clark and his borderersshot the rapids at the very moment that the sun veiled itself in anall but total eclipse at nine o'clock in the morning.
It was a dramatic dash, as on and on he sped down the river,bank-full, running like a millrace.