LIBRARY 
 
 ERSITY OF 
 PAVIS 
 
 JUST READY 
 
 WILLIAM CLARK 
 
 MERIWETHER LEWIS 
 
 THE EXPEDITION 
 
 of 
 
 LEWIS AND CLARK 
 
 Reprinted from the Edition of 1814 
 With an Introduction and Index 
 
 By JAMES K. HOSMER, LL.D. 
 
 N 
 
 OTWITHSTANDING that in America few names 
 are more familiar upon the tongue than those of 
 Lewis and Clark, it is a singular fact that the Journals 
 of their expedition have for a long time been practically 
 unattainable. The lack thus existing, felt now more and 
 more as the centenary of the great exploration draws near, 
 this new edition has been planned to fill. The text used 
 is that of the 1814 edition, which must hold its place as 
 the only account approaching adequacy. 
 
 Dr. Hosmer, well-known for his work in Western his 
 tory, has furnished an Introduction, giving the events 
 which led up to the great expedition and showing the vast 
 development that has flowed from it, in a way to make 
 plain the profound significance of the achievement. There 
 lias also been added an elaborate analytic Index, a feature 
 which the original edition lacked. 
 
 The publishers offer this work in the belief that it will 
 fill all requirements and become the standard popular 
 edition of this great American classic. 
 
 In t<wo square octavo volumes, printed from new type of 
 
 a large clear face ', ivith new photogravure 
 
 portraits and fac -simile maps. 
 
 In box, $5.00 net; delivered, $5.36. 
 
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THE CONQUEST 
 
B T MR S. D T E 
 
 McLOUGHLIN fc? 
 OLD OREGON 
 
 A Chronicle 
 
 FOUR TH EDITION 
 
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 American pioneer." N. T. Mai! 
 and Express. 
 
THE CONQUEST 
 
 The True Story of Lewis 
 and Clark 
 
 BT 
 
 EVA EMERT DTE 
 
 Author of 
 "McLoughlin and Old Oregon " 
 
 Chicago 
 
 A. C. McCLURG fcf COMPANY 
 1902 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 tT ^TVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 DAVIS 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 
 A. C. MCCLURG & Co 
 1902 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 
 PUBLISHED Nov. 12, 1902 
 
 UNIVERSITY PRESS . JOHN WILSON 
 AND SON CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. 
 
NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 
 THE author hereby acknowledges obligation to the 
 Lewis and Clark families, especially to William 
 Hancock Clark of Washington, D.C., and John 
 O'Fallon Clark of St. Louis, grandsons of Governor Clark, 
 and to C. Harper Anderson of Ivy Depot, Virginia, the 
 nephew and heir of Meriwether Lewis, for letters, docu 
 ments, and family traditions ; to Mrs. Meriwether Lewis 
 Clark of Louisville and Mrs. Jefferson K. Clark of New 
 York, widows of Governor Clark's sons, and to more than 
 twenty nieces and nephews ; to Reuben Gold Thwaites of 
 the University of Wisconsin, for access to the valuable 
 Draper Collection of Clark, Boone, and Tecumseh manu 
 scripts, and for use of the original journals of Lewis and 
 Clark which Mr. Thwaites is now editing ; to George W. 
 Martin of the Kansas Historical Society at Topeka, for 
 access to the Clark letter-books covering William Clark's 
 correspondence for a period of thirty years; to Colonel 
 Reuben T. Durrett of Louisville, for access to his valuable 
 private library; to Mr. Horace Kephart of the Mercantile 
 Library, and Mr. Pierre Chouteau, St. Louis ; to the His 
 torical Societies of Missouri, at St. Louis and Columbia; 
 to Mrs. Laura Howie, for Montana manuscripts at Helena ; 
 to Miss Kate C. McBeth, the greatest living authority on 
 Nez Perce tradition ; to the descendants of Dr. Saugrain, 
 and to the families and friends of Sergeants Pryor, Gass, 
 Floyd, Ordway, and privates Bratton, Shannon, Drouillard, 
 of the Lewis and Clark Expedition ; also to the Librarian 
 of Congress for copies of Government Documents. 
 
 E. E. D. 
 
 OREGON CITY, OREGON, 
 September i, 1902. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 WHEN RED MEN RULED 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. A CHILD is BORN i 
 
 II. THE CLARK HOME 7 
 
 III. EXIT DUNMORE 12 
 
 IV. THE WILDERNESS ROAD 14 
 
 V. A BARREL OF GUNPOWDER 17 
 
 VI. THE FEUDAL AGE 19 
 
 VII. KASKASKIA 24 
 
 VIII. THE SPANISH DONNA 28 
 
 IX. VlNCENNES 32 
 
 X. THE CITY OF THE STRAIT 38 
 
 XI. A PRISONER OF WAR 41 
 
 XII. Two WARS AT ONCE 43 
 
 XIII. THE KEY OF THE COUNTRY 47 
 
 XIV. BEHIND THE CURTAIN 50 
 
 XV. THE ATTACK ON ST. Louis 53 
 
 XVI. OLD CHILLICOTHE 60 
 
 XVII. "DETROIT MUST BE TAKEN" 63 
 
 XVIII. ON THE RAMPARTS 69 
 
 XIX. EXIT CORNWALLIS 72 
 
 XX. THE OLD VIRGINIA HOME 77 
 
 XXI. DOWN THE OHIO 81 
 
 XXII. MULBERRY HILL 87 
 
 XXIII. MISSISSIPPI TROUBLES 91 
 
 XXIV. ST. CLAIR 97 
 
 XXV. THE SWORD OF "MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE 102 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XXVI. THE SPANIARD 106 
 
 XXVII. THE BROTHERS 113 
 
 XXVIII. THE MAID OF FINCASTLE 119 
 
 * XXIX. THE PRESIDENT'S SECRETARY 122 
 
 XXX. THE PRESIDENT TALKS WITH MERIWETHER . . 131 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 INTO THE WEST 
 
 I. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 139 
 
 II. THE KNIGHT OF THE WHITE HOUSE . . . . 144 
 
 III. RECRUITING FOR OREGON 149 
 
 IV. THE FEUD is ENDED 154 
 
 V. THE CESSION OF ST. Louis 157 
 
 VI. SERGEANT ORDWAY WRITES A LETTER . . . . 166 
 
 VII. INTO THE LAND OF ANARCHY 167 
 
 VIII. "THE Sioux! THE Sioux!" 176 
 
 IX. THE ROMANCE OF THE MANDANS . . . . . 185 
 
 X. THE FIRST DAKOTA CHRISTMAS 192 
 
 XL THE BRITISH FUR TRADERS 199 
 
 XII. FAREWELL TO FORT MANDAN 204 
 
 XIII. TOWARD THE SUNSET 208 
 
 XIV. THE SHINING MOUNTAINS 214 
 
 XV. A WOMAN PILOT 221 
 
 XVI. IDAHO 228 
 
 XVII. DOWN THE COLUMBIA 235 
 
 XVIII. FORT CLATSOP BY THE SEA 242 
 
 XIX. A WHALE ASHORE 249 
 
 XX. A RACE FOR EMPIRE 257 
 
 XXI. "A SHIP! A SHIP!" 259 
 
 XXII. BACK TO CIVILISATION 265 
 
 XXIII. CAMP CHOPUNNISH 272 
 
 XXIV. OVER THE BITTER ROOT RANGE 277 
 
 XXV. BEWARE THE BLACKFEET -279 
 
CONTENTS ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XXVI. DOWN THE YELLOWSTONE 283 
 
 XXVII. THE HOME STRETCH 288 
 
 XXVIII. THE OLD STONE FORTS OF ST. Louis . . . . 296 
 
 XXIX. To WASHINGTON 33 
 
 XXX. THE PLAUDITS OF A NATION 307 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 THE RED HEAD CHIEF 
 
 I. THE SHADOW OF NAPOLEON 315 
 
 II. AMERICAN RULE IN ST. Louis , . 319 
 
 III. FAREWELL TO FINCASTLE 322 
 
 IV. THE BOAT HORN 327 
 
 V. A BRIDE IN ST. Louis 331 
 
 VI. THE FIRST FORT IN MONTANA 335 
 
 VII. A MYSTERY 337 
 
 VIII. A LONELY GRAVE IN TENNESSEE 343 
 
 IX. TRADE FOLLOWS THE FLAG 344 
 
 X. TECUMSEH 352 
 
 XL CLARK GUARDS THE FRONTIER 360 
 
 XII. THE STORY OF A SWORD 369 
 
 XIII. PORTAGE DES Sioux 376 
 
 XIV. "FOR OUR CHILDREN, OUR CHILDREN" .... 386 
 XV. Too GOOD TO THE INDIANS 390 
 
 XVI. THE RED HEAD CHIEF 397 
 
 XVII. THE GREAT COUNCIL AT PRAIRIE DU CHIEN . . 404 
 
 XVIII. THE LORDS OF THE RIVERS 415 
 
 XIX. FOUR INDIAN AMBASSADORS 421 
 
 XX. BLACK HAWK 429 
 
 XXI. A GREAT LIFE ENDS 434 
 
 XXII. THE NEW WEST 438 
 
THE CONQUEST 
 
 Book I 
 
 WHEN RED MEN RULED 
 
 I 
 
 A CHILD IS BORN 
 
 THE old brick palace at Williamsburg was in a 
 tumult. The Governor tore off his wig and 
 stamped it under foot in rage. 
 
 " I '11 teach them, the ingrates, the rebels ! " Snatch 
 ing at a worn bell-cord, but carefully replacing his wig, 
 he stood with clinched fists and compressed lips, waiting. 
 
 " They are going to meet in Williamsburg, eh? I'll 
 circumvent them. These Virginia delegates ! These re 
 bellious colonists ! I '11 nip their little game ! The land is 
 ripe for insurrection. Negroes, Indians, rebels! There 
 are enough rumblings now. Let me but play them off 
 against each other, and then these colonists will know 
 their friends. Let but the Indians rise like naked 
 chicks they '11 fly to mother wings for shelter. I '11 show 
 them ! I '11 thwart their hostile plans ! " 
 
 Again Lord Dunmore violently rang the bell. A ser 
 vant of the palace entered. 
 
 " Here, sirrah ! take this compass and dispatch a mes 
 senger to Daniel Boone. Bade him be gone at once to 
 summon in the surveyors at the Falls of the Ohio. An 
 Indian war is imminent. Tell him to lose no time." 
 
 The messenger bowed himself out, and a few minutes 
 later a horse's hoofs rang down the cobblestone path be 
 fore the Governor's Mansion of His Majesty's colony of 
 Virginia in the year of our Lord 1774. 
 
 Lord Dunmore soliloquised. "Lewis is an arrant rebel, 
 but he is powerful as old Warwick. I '11 give him a jour 
 ney to travel." Again he rang the bell and again a ser 
 vant swept in with low obeisance. 
 
2 THE CONQUEST 
 
 ' You, sirrah, dispatch a man as fast as horse or boat 
 can speed to Bottetourt. Tell Andrew Lewis to raise at 
 once a thousand men and march from Lewisburg across 
 Mt. Laurel to the mouth of the Great Kanawha. Here 
 are his sealed orders." The messenger took the packet 
 and went out. 
 
 " An Indian war will bring them back. I, myself, will 
 lead the right wing, the pick and flower of the army. 
 I '11 make of the best men my own scouts. To myself 
 will I bind this Boone, this Kenton, Morgan, and that 
 young surveyor, George Rogers Clark, before these agi 
 tators taint their loyalty. I, myself, will lead my troops 
 to the Shawnee towns. Let Lewis rough it down the 
 Great Kanawha." 
 
 It was the sixth of June when the messenger drew rein 
 at Boone's door in Powell's Valley. The great frontiers 
 man sat smoking in his porch, meditating on the death 
 of that beloved son killed on the way to Kentucky. The 
 frightened emigrants, the first that ever tried the perilous 
 route, had fallen back to Powell's Valley. 
 
 Boone heard the message and looked at his faithful 
 wife, Rebecca, busy within the door. She nodded assent. 
 The messenger handed him the compass, as large as a 
 saucer. For a moment Boone balanced it on his hand, 
 then slipped it into his bosom. Out of a huge wooden 
 bowl on a cross-legged table near he filled his wallet with 
 parched corn, took his long rifle from its peg over the 
 door, and strode forth. 
 
 Other messengers were speeding at the hest of Lord 
 Dunmore, hither and yon and over the Blue Ridge. 
 
 Andrew Lewis was an old Indian fighter from Din- 
 widdie's day, Dinwiddie, the blustering, scolding, 
 letter-writing Dinwiddie, who undertook to instruct 
 Andrew Lewis and George Washington how to fight 
 Indians ! Had not the Shawnees harried his border for 
 years? Had he not led rangers from Fairfax's lodge to 
 the farthest edge of Bottetourt ? Side by side with Wash 
 ington he fought at Long Meadows and spilled blood with 
 the rest on Braddock's field. More than forty years 
 before, his father, John Lewis, had led the first settlers up 
 
A CHILD IS BORN 3 
 
 the Shenandoah. They had sown it to clover, red clover, 
 red, the Indians said, from the blood of red men slain 
 by the whites. 
 
 But what were they to do when peaceful settlers, fugi 
 tives from the old world, staked their farms on vacant 
 land only to be routed by the scalp halloo? Which was 
 preferable, the tyranny of kings or the Indian firestake? 
 Hunted humanity must choose. 
 
 The Shawnees, too, were a hunted people. Driven 
 from south and from north, scouted by the Cherokees, 
 scalped by the Iroquois, night and day they looked for a 
 place of rest and found it not. Beside the shining Shen 
 andoah, daughter of the stars, they pitched their wig 
 wams, only to find a new and stronger foe, the dreaded 
 white man. Do their best, interests would conflict. 
 Civilisation and savagery could not occupy the same 
 territory. 
 
 And now a party of emigrants were pressing into the 
 Mingo country on the upper Ohio. Early in April the 
 family of Logan, the noted Mingo chief, was slaugh 
 tered by the whites. It was a dastardly deed, but what 
 arm had yet compassed the lawless frontier? All In 
 dians immediately held accountable all whites, and burn 
 ings and massacres began in reprisal. Here was an 
 Indian war at the hand of Lord Dunmore. 
 
 Few white men had gone down the Kanawha in those 
 days. Washington surveyed there in 1770, and two years 
 later George Rogers Clark carried chain and compass in 
 the same region. That meant settlers, now, war. 
 But Lewis, blunt, irascible, shrank not. Of old Crom- 
 wellian stock, sternly aggressive and fiercely right, he 
 felt the land was his, and like the men of Bible times 
 went out to smite the heathen hip and thigh. Buckling 
 on his huge broadsword, and slipping into his tall boots 
 and heavy spurs, he was off. 
 
 At his call they gathered, defenders of the land be 
 yond the Blue Ridge, Scotch-Irish, Protestants of Pro 
 testants, long recognised by the Cavaliers of tidewater 
 Virginia as a mighty bulwark against the raiding red 
 men. Charles Lewis brought in his troop from Augusta, 
 
4 THE CONQUEST 
 
 kinsfolk of the Covenanters, fundamentally democratic, 
 Presbyterian Irish interpreting their own Bibles, believ 
 ing in schools, born leaders, dominating their commu 
 nities and impressing their character on the nation yet 
 unborn. 
 
 It was August when, in hunting shirts and leggings, 
 they marched into rendezvous at Staunton, with long 
 knives in their leathern belts and rusty old firelocks above 
 their shoulders. In September they camped at Lewis- 
 burg. Flour and ammunition were packed on horses. 
 Three weeks of toil and travail through wilderness, 
 swamp, and morass, and they were at the mouth of the 
 Great Kanawha. 
 
 But where was Dunmore? With his thousand men 
 he was to march over the Braddock Road to meet them 
 there on the Ohio. Rumour now said he was marching 
 alone on the Shawne towns. 
 
 " And so expose himself!" ejaculated Lewis, 
 
 But just then a runner brought word from Lord Dun- 
 more, " Join me at the Shawnee towns." 
 
 " What does it mean? " queried Lewis of his colonels, 
 Charles Lewis of Augusta, Fleming of Bottetourt, Shelby 
 and Field of Culpepper. " It looks like a trap. Not in 
 vain have I grown gray in border forays. There 's some 
 mistake. It will leave the whole western portion of Vir 
 ginia unprotected." 
 
 Brief was the discussion. Before they could cross 
 the Ohio, guns sounded a sharp surprise. Andrew Lewis 
 and his men found themselves penned at Point Pleasant 
 without a hope of retreat. Behind them lay the Ohio and 
 the Kanawha, in front the woods, thick with Delawares, 
 Iroquois, Wyandots, Shawnees, flinging themselves upon 
 the entrapped army. 
 
 Daylight was just quivering in the treetops when the 
 battle of Point Pleasant began. At the first savage onset 
 Fleming, Charles Lewis, and Field lay dead. It was 
 surprise, ambuscade, slaughter. 
 
 Grim old Andrew Lewis lit his pipe and studied the 
 field while his riflemen and sharp-shooters braced them 
 selves behind the white-armed sycamores. There was a 
 
A CHILD IS BORN 5 
 
 crooked run through the brush unoccupied. While the 
 surging foes were beating back and forth, Andrew Lewis 
 sent a party through that run to fall upon the Indians 
 from behind. A Hercules himself, he gathered up his 
 men with a rush, cohorns roaring. From the rear there 
 came an answering fire. Above the din, the voice of 
 Cornstalk rose, encouraging his warriors, " Be strong ! 
 be strong!" But panic seized the Indians; they broke 
 and fled. 
 
 Andrew Lewis looked and the sun was going down. 
 Two hundred whites lay stark around him, some dead, 
 some yet to rise and fight on other fields. The ground 
 was slippery with gore; barked, hacked, and red with 
 blood, the white-armed sycamores waved their ghostly 
 hands and sighed, where all that weary day red men and 
 white had struggled together. And among the heaps of 
 Indian slain, there lay the father of a little Shawnee boy, 
 Tecumseh. 
 
 Cornstalk, chief of the Shawnees, Red Hawk, pride of 
 the Delawares, and Logan, Logan the great Mingo, were 
 carried along in the resistless retreat of their people, down 
 and over the lurid Ohio, crimson with blood and the tint 
 of the setting sun. 
 
 On that October day, 1774, civilisation set a milestone 
 westward. Lewis and his backwoodsmen had quieted the 
 Indians in one of the most hotly contested battles in all 
 the annals of Indian warfare. 
 
 " Let us go on," they said, and out of the debris of 
 battle, Lewis and his shattered command crossed the Ohio 
 to join Lord Dunmore at the Shawnee towns. 
 
 " We have defeated them. Now let us dictate peace at 
 their very doors," said Lewis. But Dunmore, amazed at 
 this success of rebel arms, sent the flying word, " Go 
 back. Retrace your steps. Go home." 
 
 Lewis, astounded, stopped. " Go back now? What 
 does the Governor mean? We must go on, to save him 
 if nothing else. He is in the very heart of the hostile 
 country." And he pressed on. 
 
 Again the messenger brought the word, " Retreat." 
 
 " Retreat?" roared Lewis, scarce believing his ears. 
 
6 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " We 've reached this goal with hardship. We 've pur 
 chased a victory with blood ! " There was scorn in the 
 old man's voice. " March on! " he said. 
 
 But when within three miles of the Governor's camp, 
 Lord Dunmore himself left his command and hastened 
 with an Indian chief to the camp of Lewis. Dunmore 
 met him almost as an Indian envoy, it seemed to Lewis. 
 
 " Why have you disobeyed my orders? " thundered the 
 Governor, drawing his sword and reddening with rage. 
 " I say go back. Retrace your steps. Go home. I will 
 negotiate a peace. There need be no further movement 
 of the southern division." 
 
 His manner, his tone, that Indian! the exhausted and 
 overwrought borderers snatched their bloody knives and 
 leaped toward the Governor. Andrew Lewis held them 
 back. " This is no time for a quarrel. I will return." 
 And amazed, enraged, silenced, Andrew Lewis began his 
 retreat from victory. 
 
 But suspicious murmurings rolled along the line. 
 
 " He ordered us there to betray us." 
 
 "Why is my lord safe in the enemy's country?" 
 
 " Why did the Indians fall upon us while the Gov 
 ernor sat in the Shawnee towns ? " 
 
 " That sword " 
 
 Andrew Lewis seemed not to hear these ebullitions of 
 his men, but his front was stern and awful. As one long 
 after said, " The very earth seemed to tremble under his 
 tread." 
 
 All Virginia rang with their praises, as worn and torn 
 and battered with battle, Lewis led his troop into the 
 settlements. Leaving them to disperse to their homes 
 with pledge to reassemble at a moment's notice, he set 
 forth for Williamsburg where news might be heard of 
 great events. On his way he stopped at Ivy Creek near 
 Charlottesville, at the house of his kinsman, William 
 Lewis. An infant lay in the cradle, born in that very 
 August, while they were marching to battle. 
 
 " And what have you named the young soldier ? " 
 asked the grim old borderer, as he looked upon the sleep 
 ing child. 
 
THE CLARK HOME 7 
 
 " Meri wether Lewis, Meri wether for his mother's 
 people/' answered the proud and happy father. 
 " And will you march with the minute men ? " 
 " I shall be there," said William Lewis. 
 
 II 
 
 THE CLARK HOME 
 
 HAT do you see, William? " 
 
 A red-headed boy was standing at the 
 door of a farmhouse on the road between 
 Fredericksburg and Richmond, in the valley of the 
 Rappahannock. 
 
 " The soldiers, mother, the soldiers! " 
 
 Excitedly the little four-year-old flew down under the 
 mulberry trees to greet his tall and handsome brother, 
 George Rogers Clark, returning from the Dunmore war. 
 
 Busy, sewing ruffles on her husband's shirt and darn 
 ing his long silk stockings, the mother sat, when sud 
 denly she heard the voice of her son with his elder 
 brother. 
 
 " I tell you, Jonathan, there is a storm brewing. But 
 I cannot take, an oath of allegiance to the King that my 
 duty to my country may require me to disregard. The 
 Governor has been good to me, I admit that. I can 
 not fight him and I will not fight my own people. 
 Heigh-ho, for the Kentucky country." 
 
 Dropping her work, Mrs. Clark, Ann Rogers, a de 
 scendant of the martyr of Smithfield, and heir through 
 generations of " iron in the blood and granite in the back 
 bone," looked into the approaching, luminous eyes. 
 
 " I hope my son has been a credit to his country ? " 
 
 "A credit?" exclaimed Jonathan. "Why, mother, 
 Lord Dunmore has offered him a commission in the 
 British army ! " 
 
 " But I cannot take it," rejoined George Rogers, bend- 
 
8 THE CONQUEST 
 
 ing to press a kiss on the cheek of his brown-eyed little 
 mother. " Lord Dunmore means right, but he is misun 
 derstood. And he swears by the King." 
 
 "And do we not all swear by the King?" almost 
 wrathfully exclaimed John Clark, the father, entering 
 the opposite door at this moment. 
 
 " Who has suffered more for the King than we self 
 same Cavaliers, we who have given Virginia her most 
 honourable name ' The Old Dominion ' ? Let the 
 King but recognise us as Britons, entitled to the rights 
 of Englishmen, and we will swear by him to the end." 
 
 It was a long speech for John Clark, a man of few 
 words and intensely loyal, the feudal patriarch of this 
 family, and grandson of a Cavalier who came to Virginia 
 after the execution of Charles I. But his soul had been 
 stirred to the centre, by the same wrongs that had kindled 
 Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. These were his 
 friends, his neighbours, who had the same interests at 
 stake, and the same high love of liberty. 
 
 " If the King would have us loyal, aye, then, let him be 
 loyal to us, his most loyal subjects. Did not Patrick 
 Henry's father drink the King's health at the head of 
 his regiment? Did not Thomas Jefferson's grandsires 
 sit in the first House of Burgesses in the old church at 
 Jamestown, more than a century before the passage of 
 the Stamp Act? And who swore better by the King? 
 None of us came over here from choice! We came be 
 cause we loved our King and would not bide his enemies." 
 
 George Rogers Clark looked approvingly at his father, 
 and yet, he owed fealty to Lord Dunmore. Even as a 
 stripling he had been singled out for favours. 
 
 "I see the storm gathering," he said. " If I choose, it 
 must be with my people. But I need not choose, I will 
 go to Kentucky." 
 
 It was the selfsame thought of Daniel Boone. 
 
 " But here are the children ! " 
 
 Nine-year-old Lucy danced to her brother, William still 
 clung to his hand, and their bright locks intermingled. 
 
 " Three red-headed Clarks," laughed the teasing Jona 
 than. 
 
THE CLARK HOME 9 
 
 More than a century since, the first John Clark settled 
 on the James, a bachelor and tobacco planter. But one 
 day Mary Byrd of Westover tangled his heart in her 
 auburn curls. In every generation since, that red hair 
 had re-appeared. 
 
 " A strain of heroic benevolence runs through the red 
 headed Clarks," said an old dame who knew the family. 
 " They win the world and give it away." 
 
 But the dark-haired Clarks, they were the money 
 makers. Already Jonathan, the eldest, had served as 
 Clerk in the Spottsylvania Court at Fredericksburg, where 
 he often met Colonel George Washington. Three younger 
 brothers, John, Richard, and Edmund, lads from twelve 
 to seventeen, listened not less eagerly than Ann, Eliza 
 beth, Lucy, and Fanny, the sisters of this heroic family. 
 
 But George was the adventurer. When he came home 
 friends, neighbours, acquaintances, gathered to listen. 
 The border wars had kindled military ardour with deeds 
 to fire a thousand tales of romance and fireside narrative. 
 Moreover, George was a good talker. But he seemed 
 uncommonly depressed this night, the choice of life 
 lay before him. 
 
 At sixteen George Rogers Clark had set out as a land 
 surveyor, like Washington and Boone and Wayne, pene 
 trating and mapping the western wilds. 
 
 To survey meant to command. Watched by red men 
 over the hills, dogged by savages in the brakes, scalped 
 by demons in the wood, the frontier surveyor must be 
 ready at any instant to drop chain and compass for the 
 rifle and the knife. 
 
 Like Wayne and Washington, Clark had drilled boy 
 troops when he and Madison were pupils together under 
 the old Scotch dominie, Donald Robertson, in Albemarle. 
 
 While still in his teens George and a few others, reso 
 lute young men, crossed the Alleghanies, went over 
 Braddock's route, and examined Fort Necessity where 
 Washington had been. They floated down the Monon- 
 gahela to Fort Pitt. In the angle of the rivers, overlook 
 ing the flood, mouldered the remains of old Fort Du 
 Ouesne, blown up by the French when captured by the 
 
io THE CONQUEST 
 
 English. The mound, the moat, the angles and bastions 
 yet remained, but overgrown with grass, and cattle grazed 
 where once an attempt had been made to plant mediaeval 
 institutions on the sod of North America. As if born for 
 battles, Clark studied the ground plans. 
 
 " Two log gates swung on hinges here/' explained the 
 Colonel from Fort Pitt, " one opening on the water and 
 one on the land side with a mediaeval drawbridge. Every 
 night they hauled up the ponderous bridge, leaving only 
 a dim dark pit down deep to the water." 
 
 With comprehensive glance George Rogers Clark took 
 in the mechanism of intrenchments, noted the convenient 
 interior, with magazine, bake-house, and well in the 
 middle. 
 
 " So shall I build my forts." Pencil in hand the young 
 surveyor had the whole scheme instantly sketched. The 
 surprised Colonel took a second look. Seldom before had 
 he met so intelligent a study of fortifications. 
 
 " Are you an officer? " 
 
 " I am Major of Virginia militia under Lord Dun- 
 more." 
 
 With a missionary to the Indians, Clark slid down the 
 wild Ohio and took up a claim beyond the farthest. Here 
 for a year he lived as did Boone, beating his corn on a 
 hominy block and drying his venison before his solitary 
 evening fire. Then he journeyed over into the Scioto. 
 
 So, when the Dunmore war broke out, here was a 
 scout ready at hand for the Governor. Major Clark 
 knew every inch of the Braddock route and every trail 
 to the Shawnee towns. When a fort was needed, it was 
 the skilled hand and fertile brain of George Rogers Clark 
 that planned the bastioned stockade that became the nu 
 cleus of the future city of Wheeling. 
 
 Then Dunmore came by. Like a war-horse, Clark 
 scented the battle of Point Pleasant afar off. 
 
 " And I not there to participate ! " he groaned. But 
 Dunmore held him at his own side, with Morgan, Boone, 
 and Kenton, picked scouts of the border. When back 
 across the Ohio the Mingoes came flying, Clark wild, 
 eager, restless, was pacing before Dunmore's camp. 
 
THE CLARK HOME n 
 
 Beaten beyond precedent by the mighty valour of An 
 drew Lewis, Cornstalk and his warriors came pleading 
 for peace. 
 
 " Why did you go to war? " asked Dunmore. 
 
 " Long, long ago there was a great battle between the 
 red Indians and the white ones," said Cornstalk, " and 
 the red Indians won. This nerved us to try again against 
 the whites." 
 
 But Logan refused to come. 
 
 " Go," said Lord Dunmore, to George Rogers Clark 
 and another, " go to the camp of the sullen chief and see 
 what he has to say." 
 
 They went. The great Mingo gave a vehement talk. 
 They took it down in pencil and, rolled in a string of 
 wampum, carried it back to the camp of Lord Dunmore. 
 
 In the council Clark unrolled and read the message. 
 Like the wail of an old Roman it rang in the woods of 
 Ohio. 
 
 " I appeal to any white man if ever he entered Logan's 
 cabin and he gave him not meat; if he ever came cold 
 and naked and he clothed him not. During the course 
 of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in 
 his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for 
 the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed 
 and said, ' Logan is the friend of the white man.' I had 
 even thought to have lived with you but for the injuries 
 of one man. Colonel Cresap, last Spring, in cold blood 
 and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, 
 not even sparing my women and children. There runs 
 not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. 
 This drove me to revenge. I have sought it; I have 
 killed many ; I have fully glutted my vengeance.; for my 
 country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not 
 harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan 
 never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save 
 his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not 
 one." 
 
 One by one, half a dozen of Clark's army comrades had 
 dropped in around the hickory flame, while the substance 
 of Logan's tale unfolded. 
 
12 THE CONQUEST 
 
 "And was Cresap guilty?" 
 
 " No," answered George Rogers Clark, " I perceived 
 he was angry to hear it read so before the army and I 
 rallied him. I told him he must be a very great man 
 since the Indians shouldered him with everything that 
 happened." 
 
 Little William had fallen asleep, sitting in the lap of 
 his elder brother, but, fixed forever, his earliest memory 
 was of the Dunmore war. There was a silence as they 
 looked at the sleeping child. A little negro boy crouched 
 on the rug and slumbered, too. His name was York. 
 
 Ill 
 
 EXIT DUNMORE 
 
 ON the last day of that same August in which Meri- 
 wether Lewis was born and Andrew Lewis was 
 leading the Virginia volunteers against the Shaw- 
 nees, Patrick Henry and George Washington set out on 
 horseback together for Philadelphia, threading the bridle 
 paths of uncut forests, and fording wide and bridgeless 
 rivers to the Continental Congress. 
 
 It had been nine years since Patrick Henry, " alone 
 and unadvised," had thrilled the popular heart with his 
 famous first resolutions against the Stamp Act. From 
 the lobby of the House of Burgesses, Thomas Jefferson, 
 a student, looked that morning at the glowing orator and 
 said in his heart, " He speaks as Homer wrote." It was 
 an alarm bell, a call to resistance. " Csesar had his 
 Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the 
 Third " - how the staid, bewigged, beruffled old Bur 
 gesses rose in horror ! " and George the Third may 
 profit by their example." 
 
 " Most indecent language," muttered the Burgesses as 
 they hurried out of the Capitol, pounding their canes on 
 the flagstone floor. But the young men lifted him up, 
 
EXIT DUNMORE 13 
 
 and for a hundred years an aureole has blazed around 
 the name of Patrick Henry. 
 
 The Congress at Philadelphia adjourned, and the dele 
 gates plodded their weary way homeward through winter 
 mire. From his Indian war Lord Dunmore came back to 
 Williamsburg to watch the awakening of Virginia. 
 
 Then came that breathless day when Dunmore seized 
 and carried off the colony's gunpowder. 
 
 The Virginians promptly demanded its restoration. 
 The minute men flew to arms. 
 
 " By the living God ! " cried Dunmore, " if any insult 
 is offered to me or to those who have obeyed my orders, 
 I will declare freedom to the slaves and lay the town in 
 ashes." 
 
 Patrick Henry called together the horsemen of Han 
 over and marched upon Williamsburg. The terrified 
 Governor sent his wife and daughters on board a man- 
 of-war and fortified the palace. And on came Patrick 
 Henry. Word flew beyond the remotest Blue Ridge. 
 Five thousand men leaped to arms and marched across 
 country to join Patrick Henry. But at sunrise on the 
 second day a panting messenger from Dunmore paid him 
 for the gunpowder. Patrick Henry, victorious, turned 
 about and marched home to Hanover. 
 
 Again Lord Dunmore summoned the House of Bur 
 gesses. They came, grim men in hunting shirts and 
 rifles. Then his Lordship set a trap at the door of the 
 old Powder Magazine. Some young men opened it for 
 arms and were shot. Before daylight Lord Dunmore 
 evacuated the palace and fled from the wrath of the 
 people. On shipboard he sailed up and down for weeks, 
 laying waste the shores of the Chesapeake, burning Nor 
 folk and cannonading the fleeing inhabitants. 
 
 Andrew Lewis hastened down with his minute men. 
 His old Scotch ire was up as he ran along the shore. 
 He pointed his brass cannon at Dunmore' s flagship, 
 touched it off, and Lord Dunmore' s best china was shat 
 tered to pieces. 
 
 " Good God, that I should ever come to this ! " ex 
 claimed the unhappy Governor, 
 
I 4 THE CONQUEST 
 
 He slipped his cables and sailed away in a raking fire, 
 and with that tragic exit all the curtains of the past were 
 torn and through the rent the future dimly glimmered. 
 
 After Dunmore's flight, every individual of the nobler 
 sort felt that the responsibility of the country depended 
 upon him, and straightway grew to that stature. Men 
 looked in one another's faces and said, " We ourselves 
 are Kings." 
 
 Around the great fire little William Clark heard his 
 father and brothers discuss these events, and vividly re 
 membered in after years the lightning flash before the 
 storm. He had seen his own brothers go out to guard 
 Henry from the wrath of Dunmore on his way to the 
 second Continental Congress. And now Dunmore had 
 fled, and as by the irony of fate, on the day after the 
 signing of the Declaration of Independence, Patrick 
 Henry became the first American Governor of Virginia, 
 with headquarters at the palace. 
 
 IV 
 
 THE WILDERNESS ROAD 
 
 DANIEL BOONE threw back his head and laughed 
 silently. 
 For a hundred miles in the barrier ridge of the 
 Alleghanies there is but a single depression, Cumberland 
 Gap, where the Cumberland river breaks through, with 
 just room enough for the stream and a bridle path. 
 Through this Gap as through a door Boone passed into 
 the beautiful Kentucky, and there, by the dark and rush 
 ing water of Dick's River, George Rogers Clark and 
 John Floyd were encamped. 
 
 The young men leaped to their feet and strode toward 
 
 the tall, gaunt woodsman, who, axe in hand, had been 
 
 vigorously hewing right and left a/path for the pioneers. 
 
 " They are coming, Boone' s trace must be ready. 
 
THE WILDERNESS ROAD 15 
 
 Can you help?" Boone removed his coonskin cap and 
 wiped his perspiring face with a buckskin handkerchief. 
 His forehead was high, fine-skinned, and white. 
 
 " That is our business, to settle the country," an 
 swered the young surveyors, and through the timber, 
 straight as the bird flies over rivers and hills, they helped 
 Boone with the Wilderness Road. 
 
 It was in April of 1775. Kentucky gleamed with the 
 dazzling dogwood as if snows had fallen on the forests. 
 As their axes rang in the primeval stillness, another 
 rover stepped out of the sycamore shadows. It was 
 Simon Kenton, a fair-haired boy of nineteen, with laugh 
 ing blue eyes that fascinated every beholder. 
 
 " Any more of ye? " inquired Boone, peering into the 
 distance behind him. 
 
 " None. I am alone. I come from my corn-patch on 
 the creek. Are you going to build?" 
 
 " Yes, when I reach a certain spring, and a bee-tree on 
 the Kentucky River." 
 
 " Let us see," remarked Floyd. " We may meet In 
 dians. I nominate Major Clark generalissimo of the 
 frontier." 
 
 " And Floyd surveyor-in-chief," returned Clark. 
 
 " An' thee, boy, shall be my chief guard," said Daniel 
 Boone, laying his kindly hand on the lad's broad shoul 
 der. " An' I am the people." The Boones were 
 Quakers, the father of Daniel was intimate with Penn; 
 his uncle James came to America as Penn's private 
 secretary; sometimes the old hunter dropped into their 
 speech. 
 
 But people were coming. One Richard Henderson, at a 
 treaty in the hill towns of the Cherokees, had just paid ten 
 thousand pounds for the privilege of settling Kentucky. 
 Boone left before the treaty was signed and a kindly old 
 Cherokee chieftain took him by the hand in farewell. 
 
 " Brother," he said, " we have given you a fine land, 
 but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it." 
 
 They were at hand. Through the Cumberland Gap, 
 as through a rift in a Holland dyke, a rivulet of settlers 
 came trickling down the newly cut Wilderness Road. 
 
1 6 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Under the green old trees a mighty drama was unfold 
 ing, a Homeric song, the epic of a nation, as they piled up 
 the bullet-proof cabins of Boonsboro. This rude forti 
 fication could not have withstood the smallest battery, 
 but so long as the Indians had no cannon this wooden 
 fort was as impregnable as the walls of a castle. 
 
 In a few weeks other forts, Harrodsburg and Logans- 
 port, dotted the canebrakes, and the startled buffalo stam 
 peded for the salt licks. 
 
 In September Boone brought out his wife and daugh 
 ters, the first white women that ever trod Kentucky soil. 
 
 "Ugh! ugh! ugh!" 
 
 A hundred Shawnees from their summer hunt in the 
 southern hills came trailing home along the Warrior's 
 Path, the Indian highway north and south, from Cum 
 berland Gap to the Scioto. 
 
 " Ugh ! ugh ! ugh ! " 
 
 They pause and point to the innumerable trackings of 
 men and beasts into their beloved hunting grounds. As 
 tonishment expands every feature. They creep along 
 and trace the road. They see the settlements. It can 
 not be mistaken, the white man has invaded their sacred 
 arcanum. 
 
 Amazement gives place to wrath. Every look, every 
 gesture bespeaks the red man's resolve. 
 
 "We will defend our country to the last; we will 
 give it up only with our lives." 
 
 Forthwith a runner flies over the hills to Johnson Hall 
 on the Mohawk. Sir William is dead, dead endeavour 
 ing to unravel the perplexities of the Dunmore war, but 
 his son, Sir Guy, meets the complaining Shawnees. 
 
 "The Cherokees sold Kentucky? That cannot be. 
 Kentucky belongs to the King. My father bought it for 
 him at Fort Stanwix, of the Iroquois. The Cherokees 
 have no right to sell Kentucky. Go in and take the 
 land." And so, around their campfires, and at the lake 
 forts of the British, the Shawnee-Iroquois planned to re 
 cover Kentucky. 
 
A BARREL OF GUNPOWDER 17 
 
 V 
 
 A BARREL OF GUNPOWDER 
 
 SCARCELY was Jefferson home from signing the 
 Declaration when back from Kentucky came little 
 William's tall strong brother, George Rogers Clark, 
 elected by those far-away settlers, in June of 1776, to 
 represent them in the assembly of Virginia. 
 
 Cut by a thousand briars, with ragged clothes and blis 
 tered feet, Clark looked in at the home in Caroline and 
 hurried on to Williamsburg. 
 
 " The Assembly adjourned? Then I must to the Gov 
 ernor. Before the Assembly meets again I may effect 
 what I wish." 
 
 Patrick Henry was lying sick at his country-home in 
 Hanover when the young envoy from Kentucky was 
 ushered to his bedside. Pushing his reading spectacles 
 up into his brown wig, the Governor listened keenly as 
 the young man strode up and down his bed-chamber. 
 
 The scintillant brown eyes flashed. " Your cause is 
 good. I will give you a letter to the Council." 
 
 " Five hundredweight of gunpowder ! " The Council 
 lifted their eyebrows when Clark brought in his request. 
 
 " Virginia is straining every nerve to help Washing 
 ton; how can she be expected to waste gunpowder on 
 Kentucky?" 
 
 " Let us move those settlers back to Virginia at the 
 public expense," suggested one, " and so save the sum 
 that it would take to defend them in so remote a 
 frontier." 
 
 "Move Boone and Kenton and Logan back?" Clark 
 laughed. Too well he knew the tenacity of that border 
 germ. " So remote a frontier ? It is your own back 
 door. The people of Kentucky may be exterminated for 
 the want of this gunpowder which I at such hazard have 
 sought for their relief. Then what bulwark will you 
 
18 THE CONQUEST 
 
 have to shield you from the sava'ges? The British 
 are employing every means to engage those Indians in 
 war." 
 
 Clark knew there was powder at Pittsburg. One hun 
 dred and thirty-six kegs had just been brought up by 
 Lieutenant William Linn with infinite toil from New 
 Orleans, the first cargo ever conveyed by white men up 
 the Mississippi and Ohio. 
 
 " We will lend you the powder as to friends in dis 
 tress, but you must be answerable for it and pay for its 
 transportation." 
 
 Clark shook his head, "I cannot be answerable, nor 
 can I convey it through that great distance swarming 
 with foes." 
 
 " We can go no farther," responded the Council, con 
 cluding the interview. " God knows we would help you 
 if we could, but how do we even know that Kentucky will 
 belong to us ? The assistance we have already offered is 
 a stretch of power." 
 
 " Very well," and Clark turned on his heel. " A coun 
 try that is not worth defending is not worth claiming. 
 Since Virginia will not defend her children, they must 
 look elsewhere. Kentucky will take care of herself." 
 
 His words, that manner, impressed the Council. "What 
 will Kentucky do?" 
 
 To his surprise, the next day Clark was recalled and an 
 order was passed by the Virginia Council for five hun 
 dred pounds of gunpowder, " for the use of said inhabi 
 tants of Kentucki," to be delivered to him at Pittsburg. 
 Hardly a month old was the Declaration of Independence 
 when the new nation reached out to the west. 
 
 " Did you get the powder ? " was the first greeting of 
 young William Clark as his brother re-entered the home 
 in Caroline. 
 
 " Yes, and I fancy I shall get something more." 
 
 " What is it? " inquired the little diplomat, eager as his 
 brother for the success of his embassy. 
 
 " Recognition of Kentucky." And he did, for when he 
 started back Major Clark bore the word that the As 
 sembly of Virginia had made Kentucky a county. With 
 
THE FEUDAL AGE 19 
 
 that fell Henderson's proprietary claim and all the land 
 was free. 
 
 With buoyant heart Clark and Jones, his colleague, 
 hastened down to Pittsburg. Seven boatmen were en 
 gaged and the precious cargo was launched on the Ohio. 
 
 But Indians were lurking in every inlet. Scarce were 
 they afloat before a canoe darted out behind, then another 
 and another. 
 
 With all the tremendous energy of life and duty in 
 their veins, Clark and his boatmen struck away and away. 
 For five hundred miles the chase went down the wild 
 Ohio. At last, eluding their pursuers, almost exhausted, 
 up Limestone Creek they ran, and on Kentucky soil, 
 dumped out the cargo and set the boat adrift. 
 
 While the Indians chased the empty canoe far down 
 the shore, Clark hid the' powder amid rocks and trees, 
 and struck out overland for help from the settlements. 
 At dead of night he reached Harrod's Station. Kenton 
 was there, and with twenty-eight others they set out for 
 the Creek and returned, each bearing a keg of gunpowder 
 on his shoulder. 
 
 VI 
 
 THE FEUDAL AGE 
 
 WHAT a summer for the little forts ! Dressed in 
 hunting shirt and moccasins, his rifle on his 
 shoulder, his tomahawk in his belt, now leading 
 his eager followers on the trail of the red marauders, 
 now galloping at the head of his horsemen to the relief 
 of some beleaguered station, Clark guarded Kentucky. 
 
 No life was safe beyond the walls. Armed sentinels 
 were ever on the watchtowers, armed guards were at 
 the gates. And outside, Indians lay concealed, watching 
 as only Indians can watch, nights and days, to cut off 
 the incautious settler who might step beyond the barri- 
 
20 THE CONQUEST 
 
 cades. By instinct the settlers came to know when a foe 
 was near; the very dogs told it, the cattle and horses 
 became restless, the jay in the treetop and the wren in 
 the thorn-hollow chattered it. Even the night-owl hooted 
 it from the boughs of the ghostly old s'ycamore. 
 
 In this, the feudal age of North America, every man 
 became a captain and fought his own battles. Like 
 knights of old, each borderer, from Ticonderoga to 
 Wheeling and Boonsboro, sharpened his knife, primed 
 his flintlock, and started. No martial music or gaudy 
 banner, no drum or bugle, heralded the border foray. 
 Silent as the red man the stark hunter issued from his 
 wooden fort and slid among the leaves. Silent as the 
 panther he stole upon his prey. 
 
 But all at once the hill homes of the Cherokees emp 
 tied themselves to scourge Kentucky. Shawnees of the 
 Scioto, Chippewas of the Lakes, Delawares of the Musk- 
 ingum hovered on her shores. 
 
 March, April, May, June, July, August, the days 
 grew hot and stifling to the people cooped up in the close 
 uncomfortable forts. There had been no planting, scarce 
 even a knock at the gate to admit some forest rover, and 
 still the savages sat before Boonsboro. Clark was walled 
 in at Harrodsburg, Logan at Logansport. 
 
 Ammunition was failing, provisions were short; now 
 and then there was a sally, a battle, a retreat, then the 
 dressing of wounds and the burial of the dead. 
 
 Every eye was watching Clark, the leader whose genius 
 consisted largely in producing confidence. In the height 
 of action he brooded over these troubles; they knew he 
 had plans; the powder exploit made them ready to rely 
 upon him to any extent. He would meet those Indians, 
 somewhere. Men bound with families could not leave, - 
 Clark was free. Timid men could not act, Clark was 
 bold. Narrow men could not see, Clark was prescient. 
 More than any other he had the Napoleonic eye. Glanc 
 ing away to the Lakes and Detroit, the scalp mar 
 ket of the west, he reasoned in the secrecy of his own 
 heart : 
 
 " These Indians are instigated by the British. Through 
 
THE FEUDAL AGE 21 
 
 easily influenced red men they hope to annihilate our fron 
 tier. Never shall we be safe until we can control the 
 British posts." 
 
 Unknown to any he had already sent scouts to recon 
 noitre those very posts. 
 
 " And what have you learned ? " he whispered, when 
 on the darkest night of those tempestuous midsummer 
 days they gave the password at the gate. 
 
 "What have we learned? That the forts are negli 
 gently guarded ; that the French are secretly not hostile ; 
 that preparations are on foot for an invasion of Kentucky 
 with British, Indians, and artillery." 
 
 " I will give them something to do in their own coun 
 try," was Clark's inward 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 the people saw him depart, and yet 
 with hope. Putting aside their 'detaining hands, " I will 
 surely return," he said. 
 
 With almost superhuman daring the leather-armoured 
 knight from the beleaguered castle in the wood ran the 
 gauntlet of the sleeping savages. All the Wilderness 
 Road was lit with bonfires, and woe to the emigrant that 
 passed that way. Cumberland Gap was closed; fleet- 
 winged he crossed the very mountain tops, where never 
 foot of man or beast had trod before. 
 
 Scarce noting the hickories yellow with autumn and 
 the oaks crimson with Indian summer, the young man 
 passed through Charlottesville, his birthplace, and reached 
 his father's house in Caroline at ten o'clock at night. 
 
 In his low trundle-bed little William heard that 
 brother's step and sprang to unclose the door. Like an 
 apparition George Rogers Clark appeared 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 
 
22 THE CONQUEST 
 
 thanksgiving as Clark rode into Duke of Gloucester 
 Street. Burgoyne had surrendered. Men were weeping 
 and shouting. In the melee he met Jefferson and pro 
 posed to him a secret expedition. In the exhilaration of 
 the moment Jefferson grasped his hand, " Let us to the 
 Governor." 
 
 Crowds of people were walking under the lindens of 
 the Governor's Palace.. Out of their midst came Doro 
 thea, the wife of Patrick Henry, and did the honours of 
 her station as gracefully as, thirty ^ ears later, Dolly 
 Madison, her niece and namesake, did the honours of 
 the White House. 
 
 Again Patrick Henry pushed his reading spectacles up 
 into his brown wig 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 been wiped out in this summer's siege. 
 All the Indians of the Lakes are there. 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 the Indians. There they are fed, clothed, armed, 
 and urged to prey upon us. I have sent spies to recon 
 noitre, and have received word that assures me that their 
 capture is feasible." 
 
 The scintillating blue eyes burned with an inward light, 
 emitting fire, as Patrick Henry leaned to inquire, " What 
 would you do in case of a repulse? " 
 
 " Cross the Mississippi and seek protection from the 
 Spaniards," answered the ready chief. With his privy 
 council, Mason, Wythe, and Jefferson, Patrick Henry 
 discussed the plan, and at their instance the House of 
 Delegates empowered George Rogers Clark " to aid any 
 expedition against their western enemies." 
 
 " Everything depends upon secrecy," said the Governor 
 as he gave Clark his instructions and twelve hundred 
 pounds in Continental paper currency. " But you must 
 recruit your men west of the Blue Ridge; we can spare 
 none from here." 
 
 Kindred spirits came to Clark, Bowman, Helm, 
 
THE FEUDAL AGE 23 
 
 Harrod and their friends, tall riflemen with long buck- 
 horn-handled hunting-knives, enlisting for the west, but 
 no one guessing their destination. 
 
 Despite remonstrances twenty pioneer families on their 
 flat-boats at Redstone-Old-Fort joined their small fleet 
 to his. " We, too, are going to Kentucky." 
 
 Jumping in as the last boat pulled out of Pittsburg, 
 Captain William Linn 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 them 
 selves borne down the swift-rushing waters to the Falls 
 of the Ohio. 
 
 Before them blossomed a virgin world. Clark paused 
 while the boats clustered round. " Do you see that high, 
 narrow, rocky island at the head of the rapids ? It is safe 
 from the Indian. While the troops erect a stockade and 
 blockhouse, let the families clear a field and plant their 
 corn." 
 
 Axes rang. The odour of hawthorn filled the air. 
 Startled birds swept over the falls, eagles, sea gulls, 
 and mammoth cranes turning up their snowy wings glit 
 tering 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 down to 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 In 
 dians," and then and there Major Clark announced the 
 object of the expedition. 
 
 Some cheered the wild adventure, some trembled and 
 deserted in the night, but one hundred and eighty men 
 embarked with no baggage beyond a rifle and a wallet 
 of corn for each. 
 
 The snows of the Alleghanies were melting. A mil 
 lion rivulets leaped to the blue Ohio. It was the June 
 
24 THE CONQUEST 
 
 rise, the river was booming. Poling his little flotilla out 
 into the main channel Clark and his borderers shot the 
 rapids at the very moment that the sun veiled itself in an 
 all 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. 
 
 VII 
 
 KASKASKIA 
 
 DOUBLE manned, relays of rowers toiled at the 
 oars by night and by day. 
 " Do you see those hunters ? " 
 
 At the mouth of the Tennessee, almost as if pre 
 arranged, two white men emerged from the Illinois 
 swamps as Clark shot by. He paused and questioned 
 the strangers. 
 
 " We are just from Kaskaskia. Rocheblave is alone 
 with neither troops nor money. The French believe you 
 Long Knives to be the most fierce, cruel, and bloodthirsty 
 savages that ever scalped a foe." 
 
 " All the better for our success. Now pilot us." 
 
 Governor Rocheblave, watching St. Louis and dream 
 ing of conquest, was to be rudely awakened. All along 
 the Mississippi he had posted spies and was watching the 
 Spaniard, dreaming not of Kentucky. 
 
 Out upon the open, for miles across the treeless 
 prairies, the hostile Indians might have seen his little 
 handful of one hundred and eighty men, but Clark of 
 twenty-six, like the Corsican of twenty-six, " with no 
 provisions, no munitions, no cannon, no shoes, almost 
 without an army," was about to change the face of three 
 nations. 
 
 Twilight fell as they halted opposite Kaskaskia on the 
 night of July 4, without a grain of corn left in their 
 wallets. 
 
KASKASKIA 25 
 
 "Boys, the town must be taken to-night at all hazards." 
 
 Softly they crossed the river, the postern gate was 
 open. 
 
 " Brigands ! " shouted Governor Rocheblave, leaping 
 from his bed at midnight when Kenton tapped him on 
 the shoulder. It was useless to struggle; he was bound 
 and secured in the old Jesuit mansion which did duty as 
 a fort at Kaskaskia. 
 
 " Brigands ! " screamed fat Madame Rocheblave in a 
 high falsetto, tumbling out of bed in her frilled nightcap 
 and gown. Seizing her husband's papers, plump down 
 upon them she sat. " No gentleman would ever enter 
 a lady's bed-chamber." 
 
 " Right about, face ! " laughed Kenton, marching away 
 the Governor. " Never let it be said that American 
 soldiers bothered a lady." 
 
 In revenge Madame tore up the papers, public archives, 
 causing much trouble in future years. 
 
 " Sacred name of God ! " cried the French habitants, 
 starting from their slumbers. From their windows they 
 saw the streets filled with men taller than any Indians. 
 "What do they say?" 
 
 " Keep in your houses on pain of instant death ! " 
 
 " Keep close or you will be shot ! " 
 
 In a moment arose a dreadful shriek of men, women, 
 and children, "The Long Knives! The Long Knives!" 
 
 The gay little village became silent as death. Before 
 daylight the houses of Kaskaskia were disarmed. The 
 wild Virginians whooped and yelled. The timid people 
 quaked and shuddered. 
 
 " Grant but our lives and we will be slaves to save our 
 families." It was the pleading of Father Gibault, inter 
 ceding for his people. " Let us meet once more in the 
 church for a last farewell. Let not our families be sep 
 arated. Permit us to take food and clothing, the barest 
 necessities for present needs." 
 
 "Do you take us for savages?" inquired Clark in 
 amaze. " Do you think Americans would strip women 
 and children and take the bread out of their mouths ? My 
 countrymen never make war on the innocent. It was to 
 
26 THE CONQUEST 
 
 protect our own wives and children that we have pene 
 trated this wilderness, to subdue these British posts 
 whence the savages are supplied with arms and ammuni 
 tion to murder us. We do not war against Frenchmen. 
 The King of France is our ally. His ships and soldiers 
 fight for us. Go, enjoy your religion and worship when 
 you please. Retain your property. Dismiss alarm. We 
 are your friends come to deliver you from the British." 
 
 The people trembled; then shouts arose, and wild 
 weeping. The bells of old Kaskaskia rang a joyous peal. 
 
 " Your rights shall be respected," continued Colonel 
 Clark, " but you must take the oath of allegiance to 
 Congress." 
 
 From that hour Father Gibault became an American, 
 and all his people followed. 
 
 " Let us tell the good news to Cahokia," was their next 
 glad cry. Sixty miles to the north lay Cahokia, opposite 
 the old Spanish town of St. Louis. The Kaskaskians 
 brought out their stoutest ponies, and on them Clark sent 
 off Bowman and thirty horsemen. 
 
 ' The Big Knives? " Cahokia paled. 
 
 " But they come as friends," explained the Kaskas 
 kians. 
 
 Without a gun the gates were opened, and the de 
 lighted Frenchmen joyfully banqueted the Kentuckians. 
 
 The Indians were amazed. " The Great Chief of the 
 Long Knives has come," the rumour flew. For five 
 hundred miles the chiefs came to see the victorious 
 Americans. 
 
 " I will not give them presents. I will not court them. 
 Never will I seem to fear them. Let them beg for peace." 
 And with martial front Clark bore himself as if about to 
 exterminate the entire Indian population. The ruse was 
 successful; the Indians flocked to the Council of the 
 Great Chief as if drawn by a magnet. 
 
 Eagerly they leaned and listened. 
 
 " Men and warriors : I am a warrior, not a counsellor." 
 
 Holding up before them a green belt and another the 
 colour of blood, " Take your choice," he cried, " Peace 
 or War." 
 
KASKASKIA 27 
 
 So careless that magnificent figure stood, so indifferent 
 to their choice, that the hearts of the red men leaped in 
 admiration. 
 
 " Peace, Peace, Peace," they cried. 
 
 From all directions the Indians flocked ; Clark became 
 apprehensive of such numbers, Chippewas, Ottawas, 
 Pottawattamies, Sacs, Foxes, Maumees. 
 
 " The Big Knives are right," said the chiefs. " The 
 Great King of the French has come to life." 
 
 Without the firing of a gun or the loss of a life, the 
 great tactician subjugated red men and white. Clark 
 had no presents to give, he awed the Indians. He de 
 voted great care to the drilling of his troops, and the na 
 tions sat by to gaze at the spectacle. The Frenchmen 
 drilled proudly with the rest. 
 
 While Clark was holding his councils Kenton had gone 
 to Vincennes. Three days and three nights he lay recon 
 noitring. He spoke with the people, then by special mes 
 senger sent word, " The Governor has gone to Detroit. 
 You can take Vincennes." 
 
 Clark was ready. 
 
 " Do not move against Vincennes," pleaded Father 
 Gibault, " I know my people. Let me mediate for 
 you." 
 
 Clark accepted Gibault' s offer, and the patriot priest 
 hastened away on a lean-backed pony to the Wabash. 
 With his people gathered in the little log church he told 
 the tale of a new dominion. There under the black 
 rafters, kissing the crucifix to the United States, the 
 priest absolved them from their oath of allegiance to 
 the British king. 
 
 " Amen," said Gibault solemnly, " we are new men. 
 We are Americans." 
 
 To the astonishment of the Indians the American flag 
 flew over the ramparts of Vincennes. 
 
 " What for? " they begged to know. 
 
 ' Your old father, the King of France, has come to life 
 again. He is mad at you for fighting for the English. 
 Make peace with the Long Knives, they are friends of the 
 Great King." 
 
28 THE CONQUEST 
 
 The alarmed Indians listened. Word went to all the 
 tribes. From the Wabash to the Mississippi, Clark, abso 
 lute, ruled the country, a military dictator. 
 
 But the terms of the three-months militia had expired. 
 
 " How many of you can stay with me? " he entreated. 
 
 One hundred re-enlisted; the rest were dispatched to 
 the Falls of the Ohio under Captain William Linn. 
 
 " Tell the people of Corn Island to remove to the main 
 land and erect a stockade fort." Thus was the beginning 
 of Louisville. 
 
 Captain John Montgomery and Levi Todd (the grand 
 father of the wife of Abraham Lincoln) were dispatched 
 with reports and Governor Rocheblave as a prisoner-of- 
 war to Virginia. 
 
 On arrival of the news the Virginia Assembly im 
 mediately created the county of Illinois, and Patrick 
 Henry appointed John Todd of Kentucky its first Ameri 
 can Governor. 
 
 VIII 
 
 THE SPANISH DONNA 
 
 IN the year that Penn camped at Philadelphia the 
 French reared their first bark huts at Kaskaskia, in 
 the American bottom below the Missouri mouth. 
 Here for a hundred years around the patriarchal, 
 mud-walled, grass-roofed cabins had gathered children 
 and grandchildren, to the fourth and fifth generation. 
 Around the houses were spacious piazzas, where the 
 genial, social Frenchmen reproduced the feudal age of 
 Europe. Gardens were cultivated in the common fields, 
 cattle fed in the common pastures, and lovers walked 
 in the long and narrow street. The young men went 
 away to hunt furs; their frail bark canoes had been to 
 the distant Platte, and up the Missouri, no one knows 
 how far, 
 
THE SPANISH DONNA 29 
 
 Sixty miles north of Kaskaskia lay Cahokia, and oppo 
 site Cahokia lay St. Louis. 
 
 Now and then a rumour of the struggle of the 
 American Revolution came to St. Louis, brought by 
 traders over the Detroit trail from Canada. But the 
 rebellious colonies seemed very far away. 
 
 In the midst of his busy days at Kaskaskia, Colonel 
 Clark was surprised by an invitation from the Spanish 
 Governor at St. Louis, to dine with him at the Govern 
 ment House. 
 
 Father Gibault was well acquainted in St. Louis. He 
 dedicated, in 1770, the first church of God west of the 
 Mississippi, and often went there to marry and baptise 
 the villagers. So, with Father Gibault, Colonel Clark 
 went over to visit the Governor. 
 
 " L'Americain Colonel Clark, your Excellency." 
 
 The long-haired, bare-headed priest stood chapeau in 
 hand before the heavy oaken door of the Government 
 House, at St. Louis. Then was shown the splendid hos 
 pitality innate to the Spanish race. 
 
 The Governor of Upper Louisiana, Don Francisco de 
 Leyba, was friendly even to excess. He extended his 
 hand to Colonel Clark. 
 
 " I feel myself flattered by this visit of de Sefior le 
 Colonel, and honoured, honoured. De fame of your 
 achievement haf come to my ear and awakened in me 
 emotions of de highest admiration. De best in my house 
 is at your service; command me to de extent of your 
 wishes, even to de horses in my stable, de wines in my 
 basement. My servant shall attend you." 
 
 Colonel Clark, a man of plain, blunt speech, was abashed 
 by this profusion of compliment. His cheeks reddened. 
 " You do me too much honour," he stammered. 
 
 All his life, the truth, the plain truth, and nothing but 
 the truth, had been Clark's code of conversation. Could 
 it be possible that the Governor meant all these fine 
 phrases ? But every succeeding act and word seemed to 
 indicate his sincerity. 
 
 " My wife, Madam Marie, zis ees de great Ameri- 
 cain General who haf taken de Illinoa, who haf terri- 
 
30 THE CONQUEST 
 
 fied de sauvages, and sent de Briton back to Canada. 
 And my leetle children, dees ees de great Command- 
 ante who ees de friend of your father. 
 
 " And, my sister, dees ees de young Americain who 
 haf startled de world with hees deeds of valour." 
 
 If ever Clark was off his guard, it was when he thus 
 met unexpectedly the strange and startling beauty of the 
 Donna de Leyba. Each to the other seemed suddenly 
 clothed with light, as if they two of all the world were 
 standing there alone. 
 
 What the rest said and did, Clark never knew, although 
 he replied rationally enough to their questions, in fact, 
 he carried on a long conversation with the garrulous Gov 
 ernor and his amiable dark-haired wife. But the Donna, 
 the Donna 
 
 Far beyond the appointed hour Clark lingered at her 
 side. She laughed, she sang. She could not speak a 
 word of English, Clark could not speak Spanish. Never 
 theless they fell desperately in love. For the first and 
 only time in his life, George Rogers Clark looked at a 
 woman. How they made an appointment to meet again 
 no one could say; but they did meet, and often. 
 
 " The Colonel has a great deal of business in St. 
 Louis," the soldiers complained. 
 
 " Le great Americain Colonel kiss te Governor's sis 
 ter," whispered the Creoles of St. Louis. How that was 
 discovered nobody knows, unless it was that Sancho, the 
 servant, had peeped behind the door. 
 
 Clark even began to think he would like to settle in 
 Louisiana. And the Governor . favoured his project. 
 
 " De finest land in de world, Sefior, and we can make 
 it worth your while. You shall have de whole district 
 of New Madrid. Commandants, bah ! we are lacking de 
 material. His Majesty, de King of Spain, will gladly 
 make you noble." 
 
 " And I, for my part," Clark responded, " can testify 
 to all the subjects of Spain the high regard and sincere 
 friendship of my countrymen toward them. I hope it will 
 soon be manifest that we can be of mutual advantage to 
 one another." 
 
THE SPANISH DONNA 31 
 
 Indeed, through De Leyba, Clark even dreamed of a 
 possible Spanish alliance for America, like that with 
 France, and De Leyba encouraged it. 
 
 Boon companion with the Governor over the wine, and 
 with the fascinating Donna smiling upon him. Colonel 
 Clark became not unbalanced as Mark Antony did, al 
 though once in a ball-room he kissed the Donna before all 
 the people. 
 
 But there was a terrible strain on Clark's nerves at this 
 time. His resources were exhausted, they had long been 
 exhausted, in fact; like Napoleon he had " lived on the 
 country." And yet no word came from Virginia. 
 
 Continental paper was the only money in Clark's mili 
 tary chest. It took twenty dollars of this to buy a dollar's 
 worth of coffee at Kaskaskia. Even then the Frenchmen 
 hesitated. They had never known any money but pias 
 tres and peltries ; they could not even read the English on 
 the ragged scrip of the Revolution. 
 
 " We do not make money/' said the Creoles, " we use 
 hard silver." But Francis Vigo, a Spanish trader of St. 
 Louis, said, "Take the money at its full value. It is good. 
 I will take it myself." 
 
 In matters of credit and finance the word of Vigo was 
 potential. " Ah, yes, now you can haf supplies," said the 
 cheerful Creoles, " M'sieur Vigo will take the money, you 
 can haf de meat an' moccasin." 
 
 Colonel Vigo, a St. Louis merchant who had large 
 dealings for the supply of the Spanish troops, had waited 
 on Colonel Clark at Cahokia and voluntarily tendered to 
 him such aid as he could furnish. " I offer you my means 
 and influence to advance the cause of liberty." 
 
 The offer was gratefully accepted. When the biting 
 winds of winter swept over Kaskaskia, " Here," he said, 
 " come to my store and supply your necessities." His 
 advances were in goods and silver piastres, for which 
 Clark gave scrip or a check on the agent of Virginia at 
 New Orleans. 
 
 Gabriel Cerre in early youth moved to Kaskaskia, where 
 he became a leading merchant and fur trader. " I am bit 
 terly opposed to les Americains" he said. Then he met 
 
32 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Clark; that magician melted him into friendship, sym 
 pathy, and aid. 
 
 " From the hour of my first interview I have been the 
 sworn ally of George Rogers Clark ! " exclaimed Charles 
 Gratiot, a Swiss trader of Cahokia. " My house, my 
 purse, my credit are at his command." 
 
 Clark could not be insensible to this profusion of hos 
 pitality, which extended, not only to himself, but to his 
 whole little army and to the cause of his country. 
 
 The Frenchmen dug their potatoes, gathered the fruits 
 of their gnarled apple-trees, and slew the buffalo and bear 
 around for meat. Winter came on apace, and yet the new 
 Governor had not arrived. 
 
 Colonel Clark's headquarters at the house of Michel 
 Aubrey, one of the wealthiest fur traders of Kaskaskia, 
 became a sort of capitol. In front of it his soldiers con 
 stantly drilled with the newly enlisted Frenchmen. All 
 men came to Clark about their business ; the piazzas and 
 gardens were seldom empty. In short, the American 
 Colonel suddenly found himself the father and adviser 
 of everybody in the village. 
 
 IX 
 
 VINCENNES 
 
 " T WILL dispossess these Americans," said Governor 
 I Hamilton at Detroit. " I will recover Vincennes. 
 
 JL-I w iH punish Kentucky. I will subdue all Virginia 
 west of the mountains." And on the seventh of October, 
 1778,116 left Detroit with eight hundred men, regulars, 
 volunteers, and picked Indians. 
 
 The French habitants of Vincennes were smoking their 
 pipes in their rude verandas, when afar they saw the 
 gleam of red coats. Vincennes sank without a blow and 
 its people bowed again to the British king. 
 
 " I will quarter here for the winter," said Governor 
 
VINCENNES 33 
 
 Hamilton. Then he sent an express to the Spanish Gov 
 ernor at St. Louis with the threat, " If any asylum be 
 granted the rebels in your territory, the Spanish post will 
 be attacked." 
 
 In their scarlet tunics, emblem of Britain, to Chicka- 
 saw and Cherokee his runners flew. At Mackinac the 
 Lake Indians were to " wipe out the rebels of Illinoi'." 
 Far over to the Sioux went presents and messages, even 
 to the distant Assiniboine. Thousands of red-handled 
 scalping knives were placed in their hands. Emissaries 
 watched Kaskaskia. Picked warriors lingered around the 
 Ohio to intercept any boats that might venture down with 
 supplies for the little Virginian army. 
 
 New Year's dawned for 1779. Danger hovered over 
 Clark at Kaskaskia. 
 
 " Not for a whole year have I received a scrape of a 
 pen," he wrote to Patrick Henry. Too small was his 
 force to stand a siege, too far away to hope for relief. 
 He called his Kentuckians from Cahokia, and day and 
 night toiled at the defences of Kaskaskia. How could 
 they withstand the onslaught of Hamilton and his 
 artillery ? 
 
 But hark ! There is a knocking at the gate, and Francis 
 Vigo enters. Closeted with Clark he unfolds his errand. 
 
 " I am just from Vincennes. Listen ! Hamilton has 
 sent his Indian hordes in every direction. They are 
 guarding the Ohio, watching the settlements, stirring up 
 the most distant tribes to sweep the country. But he has 
 sent out so many that he is weak. At this moment there 
 are not more than eighty soldiers left in garrison, nor 
 more than three pieces of cannon and some swivels 
 mounted." 
 
 With inspiration born of genius and desperate cour 
 age Clark made his resolve. " If I don't take Hamilton 
 he '11 take me ; and, by Heaven ! I '11 take Hamilton ! " 
 
 But it was midwinter on the bleak prairies of Illinois, 
 where to this day the unwary traveller may be frozen 
 stark in the icy chill. Clark's men were almost entirely 
 without clothing, ammunition, provisions. Can genius 
 surmount destitution ? Clark turned to Vigo. 
 
 3 
 
34 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " I have not a blanket, an ounce of bread, nor a pound 
 of powder. Can you fit me out in the name of Virginia ?" 
 
 Francis Vigo, a Sardinian by birth but Republican at 
 heart, answered, " I can fit you out. Here is an order for 
 money. Down yonder is a swivel and a boatload of 
 powder. I will bid the merchants supply whatever you 
 need. They can look to me for payment." 
 
 In two days Clark's men were fitted out and ready. 
 Clad in skins, they stepped out like trappers. 
 
 On the shore lay a new bateau. Vigo's swivel was 
 rolled aboard, and some of the guns of Kaskaskia. 
 
 " Now, Captain John Rogers," said Colonel Clark to 
 his cousin, " with these forty-eight men and these cannon 
 you go down the Mississippi, up the Ohio, and enter the 
 Wabash River. Station yourself a few miles below Vin- 
 cennes ; suffer nothing to pass, and wait for me." 
 
 On the 4th of February the little galley slid out with 
 Rogers and his men. 
 
 " Now who will go with me? " inquired Clark, turning 
 to his comrades. " It will be a desperate service. I must 
 call for volunteers." 
 
 Stirred by the daring of the deed, one hundred and 
 thirty young men swore to follow him to the death. All 
 the remaining inhabitants were detailed to garrison Kas 
 kaskia and Cahokia. The fickle weather-vanes of old 
 Kaskaskia veered and whirled, the winds blew hot and 
 cold, then came fair weather for the starting. 
 
 It was February 5, 1779, when George Rogers Clark 
 set out with his one hundred and thirty men to cross the 
 Illinois. Vigo pointed out the fur-trader's trail to Vin- 
 cennes and Detroit. Father Gibault blessed them as they 
 marched away. The Creole girls put flags in the hands 
 of their sweethearts, and begged them to stand by " le 
 Colonel." 
 
 " O Mother of God, sweet Virgin, preserve my be 
 loved," prayed the Donna de Leyba in the Government 
 House at St. Louis. 
 
 Over all the prairies the snows were melting, the rains 
 were falling, the rivers were flooding. 
 
 Hamilton sat at Vincennes planning his murders. 
 
VINCENNES 35 
 
 " Next year," he exulted, " there will be the greatest 
 number of savages on the frontier that has ever been 
 known. The Six Nations have received war belts from 
 all their allies." 
 
 But Clark and his men were coming in the rain. Eleven 
 days after leaving Kaskaskia they heard the morning 
 guns of the fort. Deep and deeper grew the creeks and 
 sloughs as they neared the drowned lands of the Wabash. 
 Still they waded on, through water three feet deep ; some 
 times they were swimming. Between the two Wabashes 
 the water spread, a solid sheet five miles from shore to 
 shore. The men looked out, amazed, as on a rolling sea. 
 But Clark, ever ahead, cheering his men, grasped a hand 
 ful of gunpowder, and with a whoop, the well-known peal 
 of border war, blackened his face and dashed into the 
 water. The men's hearts leaped to meet his daring, and 
 with " death or victory " humming in their brains, they 
 plunged in after. 
 
 On and on they staggered, buffeting the icy water, 
 stumbling in the wake of their undaunted leader. Seated 
 on the shoulders of a tall Shenandoah sergeant, little 
 Isham Floyd, the fourteen-year-old drummer boy, beat a 
 charge. Deep and deeper grew the tide; waist deep, 
 breast high, over their shoulders it played; and above, 
 the leaden sky looked down upon this unparalleled feat 
 of human endeavour. Never had the world seen such a 
 march. 
 
 Five days they passed in the water, days of chill and 
 whoops and songs heroic to cheer their flagging strength. 
 The wallets were empty of corn, the men were fainting 
 with famine, when lo ! an Indian canoe of squaws hove in 
 sight going to Vincennes. They captured the canoe, and 
 most welcome of all things in the world to those fam 
 ished men it contained a quarter of buffalo and corn 
 and kettles ! On a little island they built a fire ; with their 
 sharp knives prepared the meat, and soon the pots were 
 boiling. So exhausted were they that Clark would not 
 let them have a full meal at once, but gave cups of broth 
 to the weaker ones. 
 
 On the sixteenth day Clark cheered his men. " Be- 
 
36 THE CONQUEST 
 
 yond us lies Vincennes. Cross that plain and you shall 
 see it." 
 
 On February 22, Washington's birthday, fatigued and 
 weary they slept in a sugar camp. " Heard the evening 
 and morning guns of the fort. No provisions yet. Lord 
 help us ! " is the record of Bowman's journal. 
 
 Still without food, the 2 3 d saw them crossing the 
 Horseshoe Plain, four miles of water breast high. 
 Frozen, starved, they struggled through, and on a little 
 hill captured a Frenchman hunting ducks. 
 
 " No one dreams of your coming at this time of year," 
 said the duck-hunter. " There are six hundred people in 
 Vincennes, troops, Indians, and all. This very day Ham 
 ilton completed the walls of his fort." 
 
 Clark pressed his determined lips. " The situation is 
 all that I can ask. It is death or victory." And there in 
 the mud, half frozen, chilled to the marrow, starved, Clark 
 penned on his knee a letter : 
 
 " To THE INHABITANTS OF POST VINCENNES : 
 
 " GENTLEMEN, Being now within two miles of your 
 village with my army, determined to take your fort this 
 night, and not being willing to surprise you, I take this 
 method to request such as are true citizens to remain still in 
 your houses. Those, if any there be, that are friends of the 
 King, will instantly repair to the fort, join the hair-buyer 
 general, and fight like men. If any such do not go and are 
 found afterwards, they may depend on severe punishment. 
 On the contrary, those who are the friends of liberty may 
 depend on being well treated, and I once more request them 
 to keep out of the streets. Every one I find in arms on my 
 arrival I shall treat as an enemy. 
 
 GEORGE ROGERS CLARK." 
 
 " Take this. Tell the people my quarrel is with the 
 British. We shall be in Vincennes by the rising of the 
 moon. Prepare dinner." 
 
 The messenger flew ahead; upon the captured horses 
 of other duck-hunters Clark mounted his officers. It was 
 just at nightfall when they entered the lower gate. 
 
 " Silence those drunken Indians," roared Hamilton at 
 
VINCENNES 37 
 
 the sound of guns. But the Frenchmen themselves 
 turned their rifles on the fort. 
 
 Under the friendly light of the new moon Clark and 
 his men threw up an intrenchment, and from behind its 
 shelter in fifteen minutes the skilled volleys of the border 
 rifle had silenced two of the cannon. 
 
 " Surrender!" was Clark's stentorian summons at 
 daylight. 
 
 Hamilton, with the blood of many a borderer on his 
 head, what had he to hope? Hot and hotter rained 
 the bullets. 
 
 " Give me three days to consider." 
 
 " Not an hour ! " was Clark's reply. 
 
 " Let me fight with you? " said The Tobacco's son, the 
 principal chief on the Wabash. 
 
 " No," answered Clark, " you sit back and watch us. 
 Americans do not hire Indians to fight their battles." 
 
 Amazed, the Indians fell back and waited. 
 
 The fort fell, and with it British dominion in the north 
 west territory. Then the galley hove in sight and the 
 flag waved above Vincennes. 
 
 " A convoy up de riviere on its way with goods, from 
 le Detroit," whispered a Frenchman. Directly Clark dis 
 patched his boatmen to capture the flotilla. 
 
 " Sur la feuille ron don don don" the voyageurs 
 were singing. 
 
 Merrily rowing down the river came the British, 
 when suddenly out from a bend swung three boats. 
 " Surrender!"" 
 
 Amid the wild huzzas of Vincennes the Americans re 
 turned, bringing the captive convoy with fifty thousand 
 dollars' worth of food, clothing, and ammunition, a'nd 
 forty prisoners. 
 
 With a heart full of thanksgiving Clark paid and 
 clothed his men out of that prize captured on the Wabash. 
 
 " Let the British flag float a few days," he said. " I 
 may entertain some of the hair-buying General's friends." 
 
 Very soon painted red men came striding in with bloody 
 scalps dangling at their belts. But as each one entered, 
 red-handed from murder, Clark's Long Knives shot him 
 
38 THE CONQUEST 
 
 down before the face of the guilty Hamilton. Fifty fell 
 before he lowered the British flag. But from that day 
 the red men took a second thought before accepting re 
 wards for the scalps of white men. 
 
 " Now what shall you do with me? " demanded Ham 
 ilton. 
 
 " You? I shall dispatch you as a prisoner of war to 
 Virginia." 
 
 X 
 
 THE CITY OF THE STRAIT 
 
 CLARK was not an hour too soon. Indians were 
 already on the march. 
 " Hamilton is taken!" 
 
 Wabasha, the Sioux, from the Falls of St. Anthony, 
 heard, and stopped at Prairie du Chien. 
 
 " Hamilton is taken ! " 
 
 Matchekewis, the gray-haired chief of the Chippewas, 
 coming down from Sheboygan, heard the astounding 
 word and fell back to St. Joseph's. 
 
 The great Hamilton carried away by the rebels ! The 
 Indians were indeed cowed. The capture of Hamilton 
 completed Clark's influence. The great Red-Coat sent 
 away as a prisoner of war was an object-lesson the 
 Indians could not speedily forget. 
 
 Out of Hamilton's captured mail, Clark discovered 
 that the French in the neighbourhood of Detroit were not 
 well-affected toward the British, and were ready to revolt 
 whenever favourable opportunity offered. 
 
 "Very well, then, Detroit next!" 
 
 But Clark had more prisoners than he knew what to 
 do with. 
 
 " Here," said he, to the captured Detroiters, " I am 
 anxious to restore you to your families. I know you 
 are unwilling instruments in this war, but your great 
 
THE CITY OF THE STRAIT 39 
 
 King of France has allied himself with the Americans. 
 Go home, bear the good news, bid your friends welcome 
 the coming of their allies, the Americans. And tell 
 Captain Lernoult I am glad to hear that he is constructing 
 new works at Detroit. It will save us Americans some 
 expense in building." 
 
 The City of the Strait was lit with bonfires. 
 
 " We have taken an oath not to fight the Virginians," 
 said the paroled Frenchmen. 
 
 The people rejoiced when they heard of Hamilton's 
 capture; they hated his tyranny, and, certain of Clark's 
 onward progress, prepared a welcome reception for " les 
 Americains." 
 
 " See," said the mistress of a lodging house to Captain 
 Lernoult. " See what viands I haf prepared for le 
 Colonel Clark." And the Captain answered not a word. 
 Baptiste Drouillard handed him a printed proclamation 
 of the French alliance. 
 
 Everywhere Detroiters were drinking, " Success to the 
 Thirteen United States ! " 
 
 " Success to Congress and the American arms ! I 
 hope the Virginians will soon be at Detroit ! " 
 
 " Now Colonel Butler and his scalping crew will meet 
 their deserts. I know the Colonel for a coward and I '11 
 turn hangman for him ! " 
 
 " Don't buy a farm now. When the Virginians come 
 you can get one for nothing." 
 
 " See how much leather I am tanning for the Virgin 
 ians. When they come I shall make a great deal of 
 money." 
 
 " Town and country kept three days in feasting and 
 diversions," wrote Clark to Jefferson, " and we are in 
 formed that the merchants and others provided many 
 necessaries for us on our arrival." But this the Colonel 
 did not learn until long after. 
 
 Left alone in command, with only eighty men in the 
 garrison, Lernoult could do nothing. Bitterly he wrote 
 to his commander-in-chief, " The Canadians are rebels 
 to a man. In building the fort they aid only on 
 compulsion." 
 
4 o THE CONQUEST 
 
 Even at Montreal the Frenchmen kept saying, " A 
 French fleet will certainly arrive and retake the country" ; 
 and Haldimand, Governor General, was constantly refut 
 ing these rumours. 
 
 " Now let me help you," again pleaded The Tobacco's 
 son to Clark at Vincennes. 
 
 " I care not whether you side with me or not," an 
 swered the American Colonel. " If you keep the peace, 
 very well. If not you shall suffer for your mischief." 
 
 Such a chief! Awed, the Indians retired to their 
 camps and became spectators. To divert Clark, the 
 British officers urged these Indians to attack Vincennes. 
 
 The Tobacco's son sent back reply, "If you want to 
 fight the Bostons at St. Vincent's you must cut your 
 way through them, as we are Big Knives, too ! " Their 
 fame spread to Superior and the distant Missouri. 
 
 " In the vicinity of Chicago the rebels are purchasing 
 horses to mount their cavalry." 
 
 " The Virginians are building boats to take Michili- 
 mackinac." 
 
 " They are sending belts to the Chippewas and Otta- 
 was." 
 
 " The Virginians are at Milwaukee." 
 
 So the rumours flew along the Lakes, terrifying every 
 Briton into strengthening his stronghold. And this, for 
 the time, kept them well at home. 
 
 " Had I but three hundred I could take Detroit," said 
 Clark. Every day now came the word from the French 
 of the city, " Come, come to our relief." 
 
 " But Vincennes must be garrisoned. My men are too 
 few." 
 
 Then a messenger arrived with letters from Thomas 
 Jefferson, now Governor of Virginia, with " thanks from 
 the Assembly for the heroic service you have rendered," 
 and the promise of troops. 
 
 Now for the first time were the soldiery made aware of 
 the gratitude of their country. Tumultuous cheers rent 
 the air. The Indians heard, and thought it was news of 
 another victory. 
 
 " Let us march this day on Detroit," begged the sol- 
 
A PRISONER OF WAR 41 
 
 diers, few as they were. Half the population of Vin- 
 cennes, and all the Indians, would have followed. 
 
 " Too many are ill," Clark said to himself. " Bowman 
 is dying, the lands are flooded, the rains are falling. An 
 unsustained march might end in disaster. For five hun 
 dred troops, I would bind myself a slave for seven years !" 
 
 To the soldiers he explained, " Montgomery is coming 
 with men and powder. Let us rendezvous here in June 
 and make a dash at Detroit." 
 
 Leaving a garrison in the fort, in answer to imperative 
 call, Clark set out with six boatloads of troops and pris 
 oners for a flying trip to Kaskaskia. 
 
 But every step of the way, day and night, " Detroit 
 must be taken, Detroit must be taken," was the dream of 
 the disturbed commander. " I cannot rest. Nothing but 
 the fall of Detroit will bring peace to our frontiers. In 
 case I am not disappointed, Detroit is already my own." 
 
 XI 
 
 A PRISONER OF WAR 
 
 A PRISONER of war? No, indeed, he is a 
 felon, a murderer ! " exclaimed the Virginians, 
 as weary, wet, and hungry the late Governor of 
 Detroit sat on his horse in the rain at the door of the 
 governor's palace at Williamsburg, where Jefferson now 
 resided. The mob gathered to execrate the " hair-buyer 
 general " and escort him to jail. 
 
 There were twenty-seven prisoners, altogether, brought 
 by a band of borderers, most of the way on foot. 
 
 Every step of the long journey Captain John Rogers 
 and his men had guarded the " hair-buyer general " from 
 the imprecations of an outraged people. 
 
 It was the first news of Vincennes, as the startled cry 
 ran, 
 
 " Governor Hamilton, charged with having incited In- 
 
42 THE CONQUEST 
 
 dians to scalp, torture, and burn, is at the door, Hamil 
 ton, who gave standing rewards for scalps but none for 
 prisoners; and Dejean, Chief Justice of Detroit, the 
 merciless keeper of its jails, a terror to captives with 
 threats of giving them over to savages to be burnt alive ; 
 Lamothe, a captain of volunteer scalping parties ; Major 
 Hay, one of Hamilton's chief officers, and others." 
 
 " Load them with heavy fetters and immure them in a 
 dungeon," said Governor Jefferson. " Too many of our 
 boys are rotting in British prison ships." This from Jef 
 ferson, so long the humane friend of Burgoyne's surren 
 dered troops now quartered at Charlottesville ! 
 
 The British commanders blustered and protested, but 
 Jefferson firmly replied, " I avow my purpose to repay 
 cruelty, hangings, and close confinement. It is my duty 
 to treat Hamilton and his officers with severity. Iron 
 will be retaliated with iron, prison ships by prison ships, 
 and like by like in general." 
 
 Washington advised a mitigation of the extreme sever 
 ity, but Jefferson's course had its effect. The British were 
 more merciful thereafter. 
 
 And with the coming of Hamilton came all the wonder 
 ful story of the capture of Vincennes. And who can tell 
 it? Who has told it? Historians hesitate. Romancers 
 shrink from the task. Not one has surpassed George 
 Rogers Clark's own letters, which read like fragments of 
 the gospel of liberty. 
 
 Before the home fire at Caroline, John Rogers told the 
 tale. A hush fell. The mother softly wept as she thought 
 of her scattered boys, one in the west, two with Wash 
 ington tracking the snows of Valley Forge, one immured 
 in a prison ship where patriot martyrs groaned their lives 
 away. 
 
 Little William heard the tale, and his young heart 
 swelled with emotion. John Clark listened, then spoke 
 but one sentence. 
 
 " If I had as many more sons I would give them all to 
 my country." 
 
 All the way from Kentucky Daniel Boone was sent to 
 the Virginia legislature. He said to Jefferson : " I doubt 
 
TWO WARS AT ONCE 43 
 
 these charges against Governor Hamilton. Last Spring 
 I was captured by the Shawnees and dragged to Detroit. 
 Governor Hamilton took pity on me and offered the In 
 dians one hundred dollars for my release. They refused 
 to take it. But he gave me a horse, and on that horse I 
 eventually made my escape." 
 
 " Did that prevent Governor Hamilton from sending 
 an armed force of British and Indians to besiege Boons- 
 boro ? " inquired Jefferson. 
 
 Boone had to admit that it did not. But for that timely 
 escape and warning Boonsboro would have fallen. 
 
 But Boone in gratitude went to the dungeon and 
 offered what consolation he could to the imprisoned 
 Governor. 
 
 The fact is, that Daniel Boone carried ever on his 
 breast, wrapped in a piece of buckskin, that old commis 
 sion of Lord Dunmore's. It saved him from the Indians ; 
 it won Hamilton. 
 
 XII 
 
 TWO WARS AT ONCE 
 
 THE sunbeams glistened on the naked skin of an 
 Indian runner, as, hair flying in the wind, from 
 miles away he came panting to Clark at Kaskaskia. 
 " There is to be an attack on San Loui'. Wabasha, the 
 Sioux, and Matchekewis " 
 " How do you know ? " 
 
 " I hear at Michilimackinac, Winnebagoe, Sauk, 
 Fox, Menomonie." 
 
 Clark laughed and gave the messenger a drink of taffia. 
 But the moment the painted savage slid away the Colonel 
 prepared to inform his friends at St. Louis. 
 
 " Pouf ! " laughed the careless, commandant, drinking 
 his wine at the Government House. " Why need we 
 fear? Are not our relation wit de Indian friendly? 
 
44 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Never haf been attack on San Luis, never will be. Be 
 seat, haf wine, tak' wine, Sefior le Colonel." 
 
 "Pouf!" echoed the guests at the Governor's table. 
 " Some trader angry because he lose de peltry stole in de 
 Spanish country. It never go beyond threat." 
 
 An attack? The very idea seemed to amuse the Gov 
 ernor in his cups. But Father Gibault looked grave. " I, 
 too, have heard such a rumour." 
 
 " It may be only a belated report of Hamilton's schem 
 ing," replied Clark. " Now he is boxed up it may blow 
 over. But in case the English attempt to seize the west 
 bank of this river I pledge you all the assistance in my 
 power." 
 
 " T'anks, t'anks, my good friend, I '11 not forget. In 
 de middle of de night you get my summon." 
 
 But, unknown to them, that very May, Spain declared 
 war against Great Britain. And Great Britain coveted 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 Madame Marie and the charming Donna had been lis 
 teners. Colonel Clark handed the maiden a bouquet of 
 wild roses as he came in, but spoke not a word. All the 
 year had she been busy, embroidering finery for " le 
 Colonel." Such trifles were too dainty for the soldier's 
 life but he wore them next his heart. 
 
 While the dinner party overwhelmed the victor with 
 congratulations and drank to his health, Clark saw only 
 the Donna, child of the convent, an exotic, strangely out 
 of place in this wild frontier. 
 
 " I am a soldier," he whispered, " and cannot tarry. 
 My men are at the boats, but I shall watch St. Louis." 
 
 Her eyes followed him, going away so soon, with 
 Father Gibault and De Leyba down to the river. As he 
 looked back a handkerchief fluttered from an upper win 
 dow, and he threw her a kiss. 
 
 " I am not clear but the Spaniards would suffer 
 their settlements to fall with ours for the sake of hav 
 ing the opportunity of retaking them both," muttered 
 Clark as he crossed the river, suspicious of De Leyba' s 
 inaction. 
 
 At Kaskaskia forty recruits under Captain Robert 
 
TWO WARS AT ONCE 45 
 
 George had arrived by way of New Orleans. Then 
 Montgomery, with another forty, came down the Ohio. 
 
 They must be fed and clothed directly. In the midst 
 of these perplexities appeared John Todd, the new 
 Governor. 
 
 " Ah, my friend," Clark grasped his hand. " Now I 
 see myself happily rid of a piece of trouble I take no de 
 light in. I turn the civil government over to you. But 
 our greatest trouble is the lack of money." 
 
 "Money? Why, here are continental bills in abun 
 dance." 
 
 " Worth two cents on the dollar. ' Dose British 
 traders/ say the habitants, ' dey will not take five huntert 
 to one. Dey will have nought but skins.' This has 
 brought our Virginia paper into disrepute. They will 
 not even take a coin unless it is stamped with the head 
 of a king." 
 
 " What have you done? " 
 
 " Done? Purchased supplies on my own credit. Sev 
 eral merchants of this country have advanced consider 
 able sums and I have given them drafts on our Virginian 
 agent in New Orleans. They come back, protested for 
 want of funds. Francis Vigo has already loaned me ten 
 thousand dollars in silver piastres." 
 
 " But Virginia will pay it, she is bound to pay it. 
 The service must not suffer." Thus reassured that his 
 course had been right, Colonel Clark continued : 
 
 " Four posts must be garrisoned to hold this country, 
 Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Vincennes, and the Falls of the 
 Ohio, not one has sufficient defence. Colonel Mont 
 gomery's force is not half what I expected. But if I am 
 not deceived in the Kentuckians I shall yet be able to com 
 plete my designs on Detroit. I only want sufficient men 
 to make me appear respectable in passing among the 
 savages." 
 
 The cautious French settlers were a trial to Clark. 
 Father Gibault tried to persuade them, parting with his 
 own tithes and horses to set an example to his parish 
 ioners to make equal sacrifices to the American cause. 
 Altogether, Father Gibault advanced seven thousand 
 
46 THE CONQUEST 
 
 eight hundred livres, French money, equal to fifteen 
 hundred and sixty dollars, his little all. 
 
 Governor Todd said, " If the people will not spare 
 willingly, you must press it." 
 
 " I cannot press it," answered Clark. " We must keep 
 the inhabitants attached to us by every means in our 
 power. Rather will I sign notes right and left on my 
 own responsibility to procure absolute necessities to hold 
 Illinois, trusting to Virginia to make it right." 
 
 Then after a thoughtful pause, "I cannot think of 
 the consequences of losing possession of the country with 
 out resolving to risk every point rather than suffer it." 
 
 The bad crops of 17/9 and the severity of the winter of 
 1780 made distress in Illinois. Nevertheless the cheerful 
 habitants sold their harvests to Clark and received in 
 payment his paper on New Orleans. 
 
 " You encourage me to attempt Detroit," Clark wrote 
 to Jefferson. " It has been twice in my power. When I 
 first arrived in this country, or when I was at Vincennes, 
 could I have secured my prisoners and had only three 
 hundred men, I should have attempted it, and I since 
 learn there could have been no doubt of my success. But 
 they are now completing a new fort, too strong I fear for 
 any force that I shall ever be able to raise in this country." 
 
 Then he hurried back to Vincennes. Thirty only were 
 there of the three hundred expected. An Indian army 
 camped ready to march at his call. 
 
 " Never depend upon Injuns," remarked Simon Ken- 
 ton, reappearing after an absence of weeks. 
 
 " Kenton ? Well, where have you been ? You look 
 battered." 
 
 " Battered I am, but better, the scars are almost gone. 
 Captured by Shawnees, made to run the gauntlet twice, 
 then dragged to St. Dusky to be burnt at the stake." 
 
 " How did you escape ? " 
 
 " One of your Detroit Frenchmen, Pierre Drouillard, 
 late interpreter for your captured Hamilton, told them the 
 officers at Detroit wanted to question me about the Big 
 Knife. Ha ! Ha ! It took a long powwow and plenty of 
 wampum, and the promise to bring me back," 
 
THE KEY OF THE COUNTRY 47 
 
 "Did he intend to do it?" 
 
 " Lord, no ! as soon as we were out of sight he told me, 
 1 Never will I abandon you to those inhuman wretches.' 
 A trader's wife enabled me to escape from Detroit." 
 
 " Do you think I can take Detroit? " 
 
 " Take it, man ? As easy as you took Vincennes. Only 
 the day of surprise is past. A cloud of red Injuns watch 
 the approaches. You must have troops." 
 
 Troops ! Troops ! None came. None could come. 
 What had happened? 
 
 Taking with him one of Hamilton's light brass cannon 
 to fortify the Falls of the Ohio, Clark discovered that at 
 the very time of his capture, Hamilton had appointed a 
 great council of Indians to meet at the mouth of the 
 Tennessee. 
 
 " The Cherokees have risen on the Tennessee settle 
 ments, and the regiments intended for you have turned 
 south." 
 
 The sword and belt of Hamilton had done their work. 
 America was fighting two wars at once. 
 
 XIII 
 
 THE KEY OF THE COUNTRY 
 
 " rTIHE Falls is the Key of the Country. It shall be 
 
 my depot of supplies. Here will I build a fort. 
 
 A A great city will one day arise on this spot." 
 
 And in honour of the King who had helped America, 
 
 Clark named it Louisville. 
 
 Axes, hammers, and saws made music while Clark's 
 busy brain was planning parks and squares to make his 
 city the handsomest in America. But, ever disturbing 
 this recreation, " Detroit " was in his soul. " Public in 
 terest requires that I reside here until provision can be 
 made for the coming campaign." 
 
 " Since Clark's feat the world is running mad for 
 
48 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Kentucky," said the neighbours in Caroline. Through 
 all that Autumn, emigrants were hurrying down to take 
 advantage of the new land laws of Virginia. 
 
 "A fleet of flatboats!" shouted the workmen at the 
 Falls. Down with others from Pittsburg, when the 
 autumn rains raised the river, came Clark's old com 
 rade, John Floyd, and his brothers and his bride, Jane 
 Buchanan. One of those brothers was Isham Floyd, the 
 boy drummer of Vincennes. 
 
 " I, too, shall build a fort," said John Floyd to his 
 friends, " here on Bear Grass Creek, close to Louisville." 
 
 Still emigrants were on their way, when a most terrific 
 winter set in. Stock was frozen, wild beasts and game 
 died. The forests lay deep with snow, and rivers were 
 solid with ice. 
 
 The cabins of Louisville were crowded, the fort was 
 filled with emigrants. Food gave out, corn went up to 
 one hundred and fifty dollars a bushel in depreciated con 
 tinental currency. Even a cap of native fur cost five 
 hundred dollars. 
 
 The patient people shivered under their buffalo, bear, 
 and elk-skin bedquilts, penned in the little huts, living on 
 boiled buffalo beef and venison hams, with fried bear or 
 a slice of turkey breast for bread, and dancing on Christ 
 mas night with pineknot torches bracketed on the walls. 
 
 " Did you not say the conquerors of Vincennes waded 
 through the drowned lands in February?" asked a fair 
 one of her partner at the dance. 
 
 " Yes, but that was an open winter. This, thank God, 
 is cold enough to deter our enemies from attempting to 
 recover what they have lost." 
 
 " But Colonel Clark said the weather was warm ? " 
 
 " Warm, did you say? Who knows what Clark would 
 have called warm weather in February? The water up 
 to their armpits could not have been warm at that time 
 of year." 
 
 The spring waters broke; a thousand emigrants went 
 down the Ohio to Louisville. And carcasses of bear, elk, 
 deer, and lesser game floated out of the frozen forests. 
 
 During the June rise more than three hundred flatboats 
 
THE KEY OF THE COUNTRY 49 
 
 arrived at the Falls loaded with wagons ; for months long 
 trains were departing from Louisville with these people 
 bound for the interior. Floyd's fort on the Bear Grass 
 became a rendezvous; the little harbour an anchorage for 
 watercraft. 
 
 " We must establish a claim to the Mississippi/' wrote 
 Jefferson to Clark. " Go down to the mouth of the Ohio 
 and build a fort on Chickasaw Bluff. It will give us a 
 claim to the river." 
 
 While Clark was preparing, an express arrived from 
 Kaskaskia, 
 
 " We are threatened with invasion. Fly to our relief." 
 
 Without money save land warrants, without clothing 
 save skins, depending on their rifles for food, Clark's 
 little flotilla with two hundred men set down the Ohio, 
 on the very flood that was bringing the emigrants, to 
 clinch the hold on Illinois. 
 
 " I have now two thousand warriors on the Lakes. 
 The Wabash Indians have promised to amuse Mr. Clark 
 at the Falls." De Peyster, the new commandant at De 
 troit, was writing to General Haldimand at Quebec. 
 Even as Clark left, a few daring savages came up and 
 fired on the fort at Louisville. 
 
 " She is strong enough now to defend herself," said 
 Clark as he pulled away. 
 
 Colonel Bird, working hard at Detroit, started his 
 Pottawattamies. They went but a little way. 
 
 "Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Long Knives coming !" Pell- 
 mell, back they fell, to be fitted out all over again. 
 
 " These unsteady rogues put me out of all patience! " 
 exclaimed the angry Colonel Bird. " They are always 
 cooking or counciling. Indians are most happy when 
 most frequently fitted out." 
 
 " Such is the dependence on Indians without troops to 
 lead them," sagely remarked De Peyster. " But without 
 them we could not hold the country." 
 
 " It is distressing/' wrote Governor Haldimand, " to 
 reflect that notwithstanding the vast treasure lavished 
 upon these people, no dependence can be had on them." 
 
 " Amazing sum ! " he exclaimed when the bills came 
 
 4 
 
50 THE CONQUEST 
 
 in. " I observe with great concern the astonishing con 
 sumption of rum at Detroit. This expense cannot be 
 borne." 
 
 However, the Pottawattamies sharpened their hatchets 
 and, newly outfitted, set out for the rapids of the Ohio. 
 
 " Bring them in alive if possible," was the parting ad 
 monition of De Peyster, warned by the obloquy of Hamil 
 ton. Vain remonstrance with four hundred and seventy- 
 six dozen scalping knives at Bird's command ! 
 
 From every unwary emigrant along the Ohio, daily the 
 Delawares and Shawnees brought their offerings of scalps 
 to Detroit, and throwing them down at the feet of the 
 commander said, " Father, we have done as you directed 
 us ; we have struck your enemies." 
 
 The bounty was paid; the scalps were counted and 
 flung into a cellar under the Council House. 
 
 And De Peyster, really a good fellow, like Andre, a 
 bon vivant and lover of books and music, went on with 
 his cards, balls, and assemblies, little feeling the iron that 
 goes to the making of nations. 
 
 " Kentuckians very bad people ! Ought to be scalped 
 as fast as taken," said the Indians. 
 
 XIV 
 
 BEHIND THE CURTAIN 
 
 " "If 1C T"^ must dislodge this American general from 
 V/^y his new conquest," said the British officers, 
 * V "or tribe after tribe will be gained over and 
 subdued. Thus will be destroyed the only barrier which 
 protects the great trading establishments of the North 
 west and Hudson's Bay. Nothing could then prevent 
 the Americans from gaining the source of the Mississippi, 
 gradually extending themselves by the Red River to Lake 
 Winnipeg, from whence the descent of Nelson's River to 
 York Fort would in time be easy." 
 
BEHIND THE CURTAIN 51 
 
 Another strong factor in this decision was the dissatis 
 faction of the British traders with the new movement that 
 was deflecting the fur trade down the Mississippi. The 
 French families of Cahokia and Kaskaskia sent their furs 
 down to New Orleans, greatly to the displeasure of their 
 late English rulers, who wanted them to go to Canada, 
 by the St. Louis trail to Detroit. 
 
 " Why should it not continue over the old Detroit trail 
 to Montreal?" they questioned. " Is our fur trade to 
 be cut off by these beggarly rebels and Spaniards ? It be 
 longs to Canada, Canada shall have it! " So all North 
 America was fought over for the fur trade. 
 
 " I will use my utmost endeavours to send as many In 
 dians as I can to attack the Spanish settlements, early in 
 February," said Pat Sinclair, the British commander at 
 Michilimackinac. 
 
 " I have taken steps to engage the Sioux under their 
 own Chief, Wabasha, a man of uncommon abilities. 
 Wabasha is allowed to be a very extraordinary Indian 
 and well attached to His Majesty's interest." 
 
 And Wabasha, king of the buffalo plains above the 
 Falls of St. Anthony, was an extraordinary Indian. In 
 old days he fought for Pontiac, but after De Peyster 
 brought the Sioux, the proudest of the tribes, to espouse 
 the English cause, every year Wabasha made a visit to 
 his British father at Michilimackinac. 
 
 On such a visit as this he came from Prairie du Chien 
 after hearing that Hamilton was taken, and was received 
 with songs and cannonading: 
 
 " Hail to great Wabashaw ! 
 
 Cannonier fire away, 
 Hoist the fort-standard, and beat all the drums ; 
 
 Ottawa and Chippewa, 
 
 Whoop ! for great Wabashaw ! 
 He comes beat drums the Sioux chief comes. 
 
 " Hail to great Wabashaw ! 
 
 Soldiers your triggers draw, 
 Guard, wave the colours, and give him the drum ! 
 
 Choctaw and Chickasaw, 
 
 Whoop for great Wabashaw ! 
 Raise the port-cullis ! the King's friend is come." 
 
52 THE CONQUEST 
 
 By such demonstrations and enormous gifts, the In 
 dians were held to the British standard. 
 
 It was Wabasha and his brothers, Red Wing and Little 
 Crow, who in 1767 gave a deed to Jonathan Carver of all 
 the land around St. Anthony's Falls, on which now stand 
 the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, but no government 
 confirmation of the deed has ever been discovered. 
 
 " The reduction of St. Louis will be an easy matter, 
 and of the rebels at Kaskaskia also," continued Sinclair. 
 " All the traders who will secure the posts on the Spanish 
 side of the Mississippi have my promise for the exclu 
 sive trade of the Missouri." 
 
 The Northwest red men were gathering, Menomo- 
 nies, Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes, at the portage of the 
 Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, collecting all the corn and 
 canoes in the country, to set out on the tenth of March. 
 
 Again Sinclair writes, " Seven hundred and fifty men 
 set out down the Mississippi the second of May." 
 
 Another party assembled at Chicago to come by the 
 Illinois, Indians, British, and traders. 
 
 " Captain Hesse will remain at St. Louis," continued 
 Governor Sinclair. "Wabasha will attack Ste. Genevieve 
 and the rebels at Kaskaskia. Two vessels leave here on 
 the second of June to attend Matchekewis, who will re 
 turn by the Illinois River with prisoners." 
 
 Very well De Peyster knew Matchekewis, the puis 
 sant chief who 
 
 " At foot-ball sport 
 With arms concealed, surprised the fort," 
 
 at Michilimackinac in Pontiac's war. It was Matcheke 
 wis himself who kicked the ball over the pickets, and 
 rushing in with his band fell on the unprepared ranks of 
 the British garrison. On the reoccupation of Mackinac, 
 Matchekewis had been sent to Quebec and imprisoned, 
 but, released and dismissed with honours and a buffalo 
 barbecue, now he was leading his Chippewas for the 
 King. 
 
 All this was part of a wider scheme, devised in London, 
 for the subjugation of the Mississippi. 
 
THE ATTACK ON ST. LOUIS 53 
 
 XV 
 
 THE ATTACK ON ST. LOUIS 
 
 SCARCE had Clark time to set his men to work on 
 Fort Jefferson, on the Chickasaw Bluffs overlooking 
 the Mississippi, before he received two other ex 
 presses, one from Montgomery, one from the Spanish 
 Governor himself, " Haste, haste to our relief." 
 
 Not wishing to alarm his men, Clark picked out a 
 strong escort, "I shall be gone a few days. Finish 
 the fort. Keep a constant guard." 
 
 They thought he had gone to Kentucky. 
 
 All through the year 1779 the Frenchmen remembered 
 Clark's warning. At last, so great became the general 
 apprehension, that the people themselves, directed by 
 Madame Rigauche, the school-mistress, erected a sort of 
 defence of logs and earth, five or six feet high, and posted 
 a cannon in each of the three gates. 
 
 " Pouf ! Pouf ! " laughed the Governor. But he did 
 not interfere. 
 
 But so many days elapsed, so little sign of change ap 
 peared in the accustomed order of things, that the reas 
 sured Frenchmen went on as usual digging in their fields, 
 racing their horses, and clicking their billiard balls. 
 Night after night they played their fiddles and danced 
 till dawn on their footworn puncheon floors. 
 
 And all the while the Lake Indians of the North were 
 planning and counselling. All through the Spring they 
 were gathering at rendezvous, paddling down Lake Mich 
 igan's shore into the Chicago River, and then by portage 
 into the Illinois, where they set up the cry, " On to St. 
 Louis ! " 
 
 So long had been the fear allayed, so much the rumour 
 discredited, that when old man Quenelle came back across 
 the river, white with excitement, the people listened to 
 his tale as of one deranged. 
 
54 THE CONQUEST 
 
 "What? Do you ask? What?" His teeth chat 
 tered. " Ducharme, Ducharme the absconder, meet me 
 across te river an' say ' Te Injun comin' ! ' Fifteen 
 huntert down te river of te Illinois ! " 
 
 Terrified was the old man. Hearers gathered round 
 plying him with questions. The incredulous laughed at 
 his incoherence. ''What? What?" he gasped. "You 
 laugh ? " Some believed him. Dismay began to creep 
 over the more timid ones. 
 
 " What is it? " inquired the burly Governor De Leyba, 
 bustling up. "What? That same old yarn to frighten 
 the people? Quenelle is an old dotard. Take him to 
 prison." Thus reassured, again the people went on with 
 work, games, festivity. 
 
 But now the people of Cahokia became excited. Early 
 in March Colonel Gratiot sent a boatload of goods for 
 trade to Prairie du Chien. It was captured by Indians 
 on the Mississippi. Breathless half-breed runners re 
 ported the apparition upon the waters, " All te waves 
 black with canoes. A great many sauvages." 
 
 " Clark," was the spoken and unspoken thought of all. 
 " Clark, the invincible, where is he ? " 
 
 Some said, " He is camped with his Long Knives in 
 the American Bottom." 
 
 " No, he is building a fort at the Chickasaw Bluffs." 
 
 Hurriedly the villagers prepared an express for Clark. 
 Charles Gratiot was sent, the brainiest man in Cahokia, 
 one who could speak English, and, moreover, a great 
 friend of Clark. 
 
 On the swiftest canoe Charles Gratiot launched amid 
 the prayers of Cahokia. Down he swept on the Missis 
 sippi with the precious papers calling for succour. Safely 
 he passed a thousand snags, safely reached the bluffs of 
 Chickasaw, and saw the fort. Toiling up he gave his 
 message. 
 
 "Colonel Clark? He is gone. We think he left for 
 Louisville." Without delay a messenger was dispatched 
 to follow his supposed direction. 
 
 Meanwhile, Clark and his soldiers, joining Montgomery 
 by land, had hurried to Cahokia. Immediately he crossed 
 
THE ATTACK ON ST. LOUIS 55 
 
 to St. Louis. It was the feast of Corpus Christi, May 25. 
 Service in the little log chapel was over. 
 
 " Come," said the people in holiday attire, " Let us 
 gather strawberries on the flowery mead." 
 
 From their covert, peeped the Indians. " To-mor 
 row ! " they said, " to-morrow ! " 
 
 Out of the picnic throng, with lap full of flowers, the 
 beautiful Donna ran to greet her lover. 
 
 " So long " she drew a sigh "I haf watched and 
 waited ! " Love had taught her English. Never had the 
 Donna appeared so fair, with shining eyes and black 
 hair waving on her snowy shoulders. 
 
 With tumultuous heart Colonel Clark bent and kissed 
 her. " Vengeance I swear on any Indian that shall ever 
 mar this lovely head ! " Then crushing her hand with the 
 grip of a giant, " Wait a little, my dear, I must see 
 your brother the Governor." 
 
 Outside the maiden waited while Clark entered the 
 Government House. 
 
 At last Don Francisco De Leyba was come to his 
 senses : " I fear, but I conceal from de people. I sent 
 for Lieutenant Cartabona from de Ste. Genevieve. He 
 haf arrived with twenty-five soldier. Will you not com 
 mand of both side de river ? I need you. You promised." 
 
 De Leyba wore a long scarf of crape for his lately 
 deceased wife. Clark had never seen him look so ill; 
 he was worn out and trembling. The ruffle at his wrist 
 shook like that of a man with palsy. 
 
 Clark took the nervous hand in his own firm grasp. 
 
 " Certainly, my friend, I will do everything in my 
 power. What are your defences? " 
 
 " We haf a stockade, you note it ? De cannon at gates ? 
 I assure de people no danger, de rumour false ; I fear dey 
 scarce will believe now." Together they went out to re 
 view Cartabona's soldiers and the works of defence. 
 
 " Le Colonel Clark ! Le Colonel Clark ! " the people 
 cheered as he passed. " Now we are safe! " 
 
 De Leyba had sent out a hunter to shoot ducks for the 
 Colonel's dinner. And while the Governor and Clark 
 were in discussion, the hunter met a spy. 
 
56 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Who commands at Cahokia? " inquired the stranger. 
 
 " Colonel Clark ; he has arrived with a great force." 
 
 " Colonel Clark! Oh, no," answered the spy in amaze 
 ment, " that cannot be ! Clark is in Kentucky. We have 
 just killed an express with dispatches to him there." 
 
 " I don't know about that," answered the hunter, in 
 his turn surprised. " Colonel Clark is at this moment in 
 St. Louis, and I have been sent to kill some ducks for his 
 dinner." 
 
 The stranger disappeared. 
 
 Clark was in St. Louis about, two hours. " Cartabona 
 is here. I shall be ready to answer his slightest signal. 
 Be sure I shall answer." He turned to go. 
 
 " Going? No, no, Senor Colonel, I cannot permit " 
 The hands of Governor De Leyba shook still more. " I 
 expect you to dine, haf sent a hunter for ducks." 
 
 But when did George Rogers Clark ever stop to eat 
 when there was fighting on hand ? Hastily recrossing the 
 river, he put Cahokia into immediate defence. 
 
 The next day dawned clear and bright, but the people, 
 wearied with all-night dancing, slumbered late. Grand 
 father Jean Marie Cardinal had not danced. He was un 
 commonly industrious that morning. Hastening away in 
 the dewy dawn, he went to planting corn in his slightly 
 plowed fields. Gradually others strolled out on the Grand 
 Prairie. It was high noon when an Indian down by 
 the spring caught the eye of Grandfather Jean Marie 
 Cardinal. 
 
 " He must not give the alarm," thought the savage, so 
 on the instant he slew and scalped him where he stood. 
 
 Then all was tumult. The people in the village heard 
 the sound of firearms. Lieutenant Cartabona and his 
 garrison fired a gunshot from the tower to warn the 
 scattered villagers in the fields. Erelong they came stum 
 bling into the north gate half dead with fright and 
 exhaustion. 
 
 " The Chippewas ! The Chippewas ! " 
 
 They had crossed the river and murdered the family of 
 Frangois Bellhome. 
 
 " Sacre Dieu! le Sauvage! la Tour! la Tour! " cried the 
 
THE ATTACK ON ST. LOUIS 57 
 
 frantic habitants, but the tower was occupied by Carta- 
 bona and his coward soldiers. 
 
 Every man rushed to the Place des Armes, powder- 
 horn and bullet-pouch in hand. 
 
 " To arms ! To arms ! " was the terrified cry. 
 
 " Where is the garrison? Where is the Governor? " 
 
 But they came not forth. Cartabona and his men con 
 tinued to garrison the tower. The Governor cowered 
 in the Government House with doors shut and barri 
 caded. Women and children hid in the houses, telling 
 their beads. 
 
 It was about noon when the quick ear of Clark, over 
 in Cahokia, heard the cannonading and small arms in St. 
 Louis. He sent an express. 
 
 " Here, Murray and Jaynes, go over the river and in 
 quire the cause." 
 
 Slipping through the cottonwood trees, the express met 
 an old negro woman on a keen run for Cahokia. She 
 screamed, "Run, Boston, run! A great many salvages!" 
 
 All together ran back, just in time to meet Colonel 
 Clark marching out of the east gate. In the thick woods 
 of Cahokia Creek he caught a view of the foe. " Boom ! " 
 rang his brass six-pounder, tree-tops and Indians fell 
 together. 
 
 Amazed at this rear fire the Indians turned in confu 
 sion. One terrified look, " It is the Long Knife ! We 
 have been deceived. We will not fight the Long Knife! " 
 With one wild whoop they scurried to their boats. The 
 handful of traders, deserted, raised the siege and retired. 
 
 It was the period of the spring rise of the powerful 
 and turbulent Mississippi, which, undermining its shores, 
 dumped cottonwood trees into the river. 
 
 " The whole British army is coming on rafts ! " In 
 terror seeing the supposed foe advancing, Cartabona's 
 soldiers began firing at the white-glancing trees on the 
 midnight waters. On, on came the ghostly flotilla. 
 
 " Cease firing! " demanded De Leyba emerging from 
 his retreat. 
 
 " De cowardly, skulking old Goffner ! hide heself ! 
 abandon de people ! " In wrath they tore toward him, 
 
5 8 THE CONQUEST 
 
 sticks and stones flying. The Governor fled, and the daft 
 Spaniards, watching the river, spiked the cannon, pre 
 paring to fly the moment the British landed. 
 
 Cahokia trembled all night long. There were noises 
 and howls of wolves, but no Indians. Clark him 
 self in the darkness made the rounds of his sentinels. 
 Even through the shadows they guessed who walked at 
 night. 
 
 " Pass, grand round, keep clear of my arms and all 's 
 well," was the successive cry from post to post in the 
 picket gardens of old Cahokia. 
 
 With the first pale streak of dawn the sleepless habi 
 tants looked out. All was still. The Indians were gone, 
 but over at St. Louis seven men were found dead, scalped 
 by the retreating foe. Many more were being carried off 
 prisoners, but Clark's pursuing party rescued thirty. 
 
 The prisoners, dragged away to the north by their cap 
 tors, suffered hardships until restored at the end of the 
 war, in 1783. 
 
 When Clark heard of the incompetence of De Leyba 
 he was furious. On his way to the Government House, 
 he saw the lovely Donna at her casement. Her hair was 
 dishevelled, her eyes wet with tears. She extended her 
 hand. Clark took one step toward her, and then pride 
 triumphed. 
 
 " Never will I become the father of a race of cowards," 
 and turning on his heel he left St. Louis forever. 
 
 In one month De Leyba was dead, some said by his 
 own hand. He knew that Auguste Chouteau had gone to 
 complain of him at New Orleans, the people believed he 
 had been bribed by Great Britain ; he knew that only dis 
 grace awaited him, and he succumbed to his many disas 
 ters and the universal obloquy in which he was held. He 
 was buried in the little log chapel, beneath the altar, by 
 the side of his wife, where his tomb is pointed out to this 
 day. 
 
 And the beautiful Donna De Leyba? She waited and 
 wept but Clark came not. Then, taking with her the two 
 little orphan nieces, Rita and Perdita, she went down 
 to New Orleans. Here for a time she lingered among 
 
THE ATTACK ON ST. LOUIS 59 
 
 friends, and at last, giving up all hope, retired to the 
 Ursuline convent and became a nun. 
 
 Presently Auguste Chouteau returned from New Or 
 leans with the new Governor, Don Francisco de Cruzat, 
 who pacified fears and fortified the town with half-a- 
 dozen circular stone turrets, twenty feet high, connected 
 by a stout stockade of cedar posts pierced with loopholes 
 for artillery. On the river bank a stone tower called the 
 Half Moon, and west of it a square log tower called 
 the Bastion, still stood within the memory of living 
 men. 
 
 " Next year a thousand Sioux will be in the field under 
 Wabasha," wrote Sinclair to Haldimand, his chief in 
 Canada. 
 
 But the Sioux had no more desire to go back to " the 
 high walled house of thunder," where the cannon sounded 
 not " Hail to great Wabashaw! " 
 
 Their own losses were considerable, for Clark ordered 
 an immediate pursuit. Some of the Spaniards, grateful 
 for the succour of the Americans, crossed the river and 
 joined Montgomery's troops in his chase after the re 
 treating red men. 
 
 " The Americans are coming," was the scare-word at 
 Prairie du Chien. " Better get up your furs." 
 
 With Wabasha's help the traders hastily bundled three 
 hundred packs of their best furs into canoes, and set 
 ting fire to the remaining sixty packs, burned them, 
 together with the fort, while they hurried away to 
 Michilimackinac. Matchekewis went by the Lakes. 
 " Two hundred Illinois cavalry arrived at Chicago five 
 days after the vessels left," is the record of the Haldi 
 mand papers. 
 
 The watchfulness and energy of Clark alone saved 
 Illinois; nevertheless, De Peyster felt satisfied, for he 
 thought that diversion kept Clark from Detroit. 
 
 After the terror was all over, long in the annals of the 
 fireside, the French of St. Louis related the feats of 
 " I'annee du coup." 
 
 " Auguste Chouteau, he led te defence, he and he 
 brother." 
 
60 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " No, Madame Rigauche, te school-meestress, she her 
 self touch te cannon." 
 
 " Well, at any rate, we hid in te Chouteau garden, be 
 hind te stone wall." 
 
 XVI 
 
 OLD CHILLICOTHE 
 
 WITH a wrench at his hot heart stifled only by 
 wrath and determination, Clark strode from St. 
 Louis. At Cahokia French deserters were talk 
 ing to Montgomery. 
 
 " A tousand British and Indians on te march to Ken 
 tucky with cannon." 
 
 "When did they start?" thundered Clark. The 
 Frenchman dodged as if shot. 
 
 " Dey start same time dis. Colonel Bird to keep Clark 
 busy in Kentucky so Sinclair get San Loui' an' brak up 
 te fur trade." 
 
 For once in his life Clark showed alarm. " I know the 
 situation of that country. I shall attempt to get there 
 before Bird does." 
 
 Drawing Montgomery aside, he said, " And you, 
 Colonel, chase these retreating Indians. Chase them to 
 Michilimackinac if possible. Destroy their towns and 
 crops, distress them, convince them that we will retali 
 ate and thus deter them from joining the British again." 
 
 Without pausing to breathe after the fatigue of the 
 last few days, with a small escort Clark launched a boat 
 and went flying down to Chickasaw Bluffs. Disguised 
 as Indians, feathered and painted, he and a few others 
 left Fort Jefferson. 
 
 Clark's army the year before had carried glowing news 
 of Illinois. Already emigration had set in. On the way 
 now he met forty families actually starving because they 
 could not kill buffaloes. 
 
OLD CHILLICOTHE 61 
 
 A gun ? it was a part of Clark. He used his rifle- 
 barrelled firelock as lie used his hands, his feet, his eyes, 
 instantly, surely, involuntarily. He showed them how to 
 strike the buffalo in a vital part, killed fourteen, and hur 
 ried on, thirty miles a day, fording stream and swamp 
 and tangled forest to save Kentucky. 
 
 Kentucky was watching for her deliverer. Into his ear 
 was poured the startling tale. With Simon Girty, the 
 renegade, and six hundred Indians, down the high waters 
 of the Miami and up the Licking, Bird came to Ruddle's 
 station and fired his cannon. Down went the wooden 
 palisades like a toy blockhouse before his six-pounders. 
 
 " Surrender! " came the summons from Colonel Bird. 
 ' Yes, if we can be prisoners to the British and not to 
 the Indians." 
 
 Bird assented. The gates were thrown open. Indians 
 flew like dogs upon the helpless people. 
 
 ' You promised security," cried Captain Ruddle. 
 
 " I cannot stop them," said Bird. " I, too, am in their 
 power." 
 
 Madly the Indians sacked the station and killed the 
 cattle. Loading the household goods upon the backs of 
 the unfortunate owners, they drove them forth and gave 
 their cabins to the flames. 
 
 The same scenes were enacted at Martin's Station. 
 The Indians were wild for more. But Bird would not 
 permit further devastation. He could easily have taken 
 every fort in Kentucky, not one could have withstood 
 his artillery ; but to his honour be it said, he led his forces 
 out. 
 
 Loaded with plunder, the wretched captives, four hun 
 dred and fifty men, women, and children, were driven 
 away to Detroit. Whoever faltered was tomahawked. 
 
 Clark immediately called on the militia of Kentucky. 
 Hastening to Harrodsburg he found the newcomers wild 
 over land entries. 
 
 " Land ! " they cried, " you can have all you can hold 
 against the Indians." 
 
 It was a grewsome joke. The Indians would not even 
 let them survey. Like a military dictator, Clark closed 
 
62 THE CONQUEST 
 
 the land office, " Nor will it be opened again until 
 after this expedition." 
 
 Immediately a thousand men enlisted. Logan, Linn, 
 Floyd, Harrod, all followed the banner of Clark. Boone 
 and Kenton set on ahead as guides, into the land they 
 knew so well. 
 
 " Is it not dangerous to invade the Shawnee country? " 
 inquired one. 
 
 " I was not born in the woods to be scared by an owl," 
 was Clark's sententious reply. 
 
 All the provisions they had for twenty-five days was 
 six quarts of parched corn each, except what they got in 
 the Indian country. 
 
 Canoeing down the Licking, on the first day of August 
 they crossed the Ohio. Scarce touching shore they heard 
 the scalp halloo. Some fell. Within fifteen minutes 
 Clark had his axes, in the forest building a blockhouse 
 for his wounded. On that spot now stands Cincinnati. 
 
 On pressed Clark in his retaliatory dash, before the 
 Shawnees even suspected, the Kentuckians were at Old 
 Chillicothe. They flew to arms, but the Long Knives 
 swooped down with such fury that Simon Girty drew 
 off. 
 
 " It is folly to fight such madmen." 
 
 Chillicothe went down in flames; Piqua followed; 
 fields, gardens, more than five hundred acres of corn 
 were razed to the level of the sod. 
 
 Piqua was Tecumseh's village; again he learned to 
 dread and hate the white man. 
 
 " That will keep them at home hunting for a while," 
 remarked Clark, turning back to the future Cincinnati. 
 
"DETROIT MUST BE TAKEN" 63 
 
 XVII 
 
 "DETROIT MUST BE TAKEN" 
 
 AGAIN George Rogers Clark sped, through Cum 
 berland Gap, fair as a Tyrolean vale, to Virginia. 
 And dashing along the same highway, down the 
 valley of Virginia, came the minute men of the border, 
 in green hunting shirts, hard-riders and sharp-shooters 
 of Fincastle. 
 
 " Hey and away, and what news ? " 
 
 The restless mountaineers of the Appalachians, almost 
 as fierce and warlike as the Goths and Vandals of an 
 earlier day, answered : 
 
 " We have broken the back of Tarleton's army at 
 King's Mountain, Cornwallis is facing this way, and 
 cruisers are coming up into the Chesapeake." 
 
 " Marse Gawge ! Marse Gawge ! " 
 
 This time it was little York, the negro, who, peeping 
 from the slave quarters of old York and Rose, detected 
 the stride of George Rogers Clark out under the mulberry 
 trees. 
 
 The long, low, Virginia farmhouse was wrapped in 
 slumber, an almost funeral pall hung over the darkened 
 porch, as John Clark stepped out to grasp the hand of 
 his son. 
 
 " Three of my boys in British prisons, we looked for 
 nothing less for you, George. William alone is left." 
 
 " Girls do not count, I suppose," laughed the saucy 
 Lucy, peeping out in her night-curls with a candle in her 
 hand. " Over at Bowling Green the other day, when all 
 the gallants were smiling on me, one jealous girl said, ' I 
 do not see what there is so interesting about Lucy Clark. 
 She is not handsome, and she has red hair/ ' Ah/ I re 
 plied, ' I can tell her. They know I have five brothers all 
 officers in the Revolutionary army ! ' 
 
 " What, Edmund gone, too?" exclaimed George. "He 
 is but a lad ! " 
 
64 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Big enough to don the buff and blue, and shoulder a 
 gun," answered the father. "He would go, left school, 
 led all his mates, and six weeks later was taken prisoner 
 along with Jonathan and the whole army." 
 
 That was the fall of Charleston, in the very May 
 when Clark was saving St. Louis. 
 
 " We are all at war," spoke up Elizabeth, the elder 
 sister, sadly. " Even the boys drill on mimic battle 
 fields ; all the girls in Virginia are spinning and weaving 
 clothes for the soldiers; Mrs. Washington keeps sixteen 
 spinning-wheels busy at Mount Vernon ; mother and all 
 the ladies have given their jewels to fit out the army. 
 Mrs. Jefferson herself led the call for contributions, and 
 Mrs. Lewis of Albemarle collected five thousand dollars 
 in Continental currency. Father has given up his best 
 horses, and Jefferson impressed his own horses and 
 waggons at Monticello to carry supplies to General Gates. 
 All the lads in the country are moulding bullets and mak 
 ing gun-powder. We have n't a pewter spoon left." 
 
 " An' we niggers air raisin' fodder," ventured the ten- 
 year-old York. 
 
 York had his part, along with his young master, Wil 
 liam. Daily they rode together down the Rappahannock, 
 carrying letters to Fielding Lewis at Fredericksburg. It 
 was there, at Kenmore House, that they met Meriwether 
 Lewis, visiting his uncle and aunt Betty, the sister of 
 Washington. " And when she puts on his chapeau and 
 great coat, she looks exactly like the General," said 
 William. 
 
 "What has become of my captured Governors?" 
 George asked of his father. 
 
 " I hear that Hamilton was offered a parole on condi 
 tion that he would not use his liberty in any way to speak 
 or influence any one against the colonies. He indignantly 
 refused to promise that, and so was returned to close cap 
 tivity. But I think when Boone came up to the legisla 
 ture he used some influence; at any rate Hamilton was 
 paroled and w,ent with Hay to England. Rocheblave 
 broke his parole and fled to New York." 
 
 The five fireplaces of the old Clark home roared a wel- 
 
"DETROIT MUST BE TAKEN" 65 
 
 come that day up the great central chimney, and candles 
 gleamed at evening from dormer window to basement 
 when all the neighbours crowded in to hail " the Wash 
 ington of the West." 
 
 " Now, Rose, you and Nancy bake the seed cakes and 
 have beat biscuit," said Mrs. Clark to the fat cook in the 
 kitchen. " York has gone after the turkeys." 
 
 " Events are in desperate straits," said George at bed 
 time ; " I must leave at daylight." But earlier yet young 
 William was up to gallop a mile beside his brother on 
 the road to Richmond, whither the capital had been re 
 moved for greater safety. 
 
 " Is this the young Virginian that is sending home all 
 the western Governors? " exclaimed the people. An ova 
 tion followed him all the way. 
 
 " What is your plan ? " asked Governor Jefferson, after 
 the fiery cavalier had been received with distinction by 
 the Virginia Assembly. 
 
 " My plan is to ascend the Wabash in early Spring and 
 strike before reinforcements can reach Detroit, or escape 
 be made over the breaking ice of the Lakes. The rivers 
 open first." 
 
 George Rogers Clark, born within three miles of Mon- 
 ticello, had known Jefferson all his life, and save Patrick 
 Henry no one better grasped his plans. In fact, Jeffer 
 son had initiative and was not afraid of untried ventures. 
 
 " My dear Colonel, I have already written to Wash 
 ington that we could furnish the men, provisions, and 
 every necessary except powder, had we the money, for 
 the reduction of Detroit. But there is no money, not 
 even rich men have seen a shilling in a year. Washing 
 ton to the north is begging aid, Gates in the south is 
 pleading for men and arms, and not a shilling is in the 
 treasury of Virginia/' 
 
 " But Detroit must be taken," said Clark with a solemn 
 emphasis. ' Through my aides I have this discovery : 
 a combination is forming to the westward, a con 
 federacy of British and Indians, to spread dismay to 
 our frontier this coming Spring. We cannot hesitate. 
 The fountain head of these irruptions must be cut off, 
 
66 THE CONQUEST 
 
 the grand focus of Indian hostilities from the Mohawk 
 to the Mississippi." 
 
 Even as he spoke, Jefferson, pen in hand, was noting 
 points in another letter to Washington. 
 
 " We have determined to undertake it," wrote Jeffer 
 son, " and commit it to Clark's direction. Whether the 
 expense of the enterprise shall be defrayed by the Con 
 tinent or State we leave to be decided hereafter by Con 
 gress. In the meantime we only ask the loan of such 
 necessaries as, being already at Fort Pitt, will save time 
 and expense of transportation. I am, therefore, to solicit 
 Your Excellency's order to the commandant at Fort Pitt 
 for the articles contained in the annexed list." 
 
 Clark had the list in hand. "It is our only hope; 
 there is not a moment to be lost." 
 
 On fleet horses the chain of expresses bore daily news 
 to the camp of Washington, but before his answer could 
 return, another express reined up at Richmond. 
 
 " Benedict Arnold, the traitor, has entered the Capes 
 of Virginia with a force of two thousand men." 
 
 It was New Year's Eve and Richmond was in a 
 tumult. On New Year's day every legislator was mov 
 ing his family to a place of safety. The very winds 
 were blowing Arnold's fleet to Richmond. 
 
 Virginia had laid herself bare of soldiers; every man 
 that could be spared had been sent south. 
 
 And Arnold? With what rage George Rogers Clark 
 saw him destroy the very stores that might have taken 
 Detroit, five brass field-pieces, arms in the Capitol loft 
 and in waggons on the road, five tons of powder, tools, 
 quartermaster's supplies. Then the very wind that had 
 blown Arnold up the river turned and blew him back, 
 and the only blood shed was by a handful of militia under 
 George Rogers Clark, who killed and wounded thirty of 
 Arnold's men. 
 
 " I have an enterprise to propose," said the Governor 
 to Clark on return. " I have confidence in your men 
 from the western side of the mountains. I want to cap 
 ture Arnold and hang him. You pick the proper charac 
 ters and engage them to seize this greatest of all traitors. 
 
"PETROIT MUST BE TAKEN" 67 
 
 I will undertake, if they are successful, that they shall 
 receive five thousand guineas reward among them." 
 
 " I cannot, Arnold is gone, I must capture Detroit." 
 
 More determined than ever, Clark and Jefferson went 
 on planning. " Yes, you must capture Detroit and 
 secure Lake Erie. You shall have two thousand men, 
 and ammunition and packhorses shall be at the Falls 
 of the Ohio, March 15, ready for the early break of 
 the ice." 
 
 Washington's consent had come, and orders for artil 
 lery. With Washington and Jefferson at his back, Clark 
 made indefatigable efforts to raise two thousand men to 
 rendezvous March 15. 
 
 Up the Blue Ridge his agents went and over to the 
 Holston; he wrote to western Pennsylvania; he visited 
 Redstone-Old-Fort, and hurried down to Fort Pitt. Fort 
 Pitt itself was in danger. 
 
 The Wabash broke and ran untrammelled, but Clark 
 was not ready. Cornwallis was destroying Gates at 
 Camden ; De Kalb fell, covered with wounds ; Sumter 
 was cut to pieces by Tarleton. The darkest night had 
 come in a drama that has no counterpart, save in the 
 Napoleonic wars that shook Europe in the cause of hu 
 man liberty. 
 
 War, war, raged from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. 
 The land was covered with forts and blockhouses. Every 
 hamlet had its place of refuge. Mills were fortified, and 
 private houses. Every outlying settlement was stock 
 aded. Every log house had its pickets and portholes. 
 Chains of posts followed the river fords and mountain 
 gaps from Ticonderoga to the Mohawk, from the Sus- 
 quehanna to the Delaware, to the Cumberland, to the 
 Tennessee. Anxious sentinels peered from the watch- 
 towers of wooden castles. Guns stood on the ramparts. 
 The people slept in barracks. Moats and drawbridges, 
 chained gates and palisades, guarded the sacred citadels 
 of America. 
 
 " And what if England wins ? " said one to Wash 
 ington. 
 
 " We can still retire to the Ohio and live in freedom," 
 
68 THE CONQUEST 
 
 for, like the last recesses of the Swiss Alps, it was thought 
 no nation could conquer the Alleghanies. 
 
 In desperation and unaware of the Virginian crisis 
 behind him, George Rogers Clark embarked four hun 
 dred men, all he could get of the promised two thousand. 
 Only a line he sent to Jefferson, " I have relinquished all 
 hope," but Jefferson at that hour was flying from Tarle- 
 ton, Cornwallis was coming up into Virginia, and Wash 
 ington with his ragged band of veteran Continentals was 
 marching down to Yorktown. There was no time to 
 glance beyond the mountains. 
 
 All the northwest, in terror of Clark, was watching 
 and fearing. If a blow was struck anywhere, " Clark did 
 it." Shawnees and Delawares, Wyandots at the north, 
 Choctaws and Chickasaws and Cherokees at the south, 
 British and Indians everywhere, were rising against de 
 voted Kentucky. 
 
 As Clark stepped on his boats at Pittsburg word flew 
 to remotest tribes, - 
 
 ' The Long Knives are coming ! " 
 
 The red man trembled in his wigwam, Detroit redoubled 
 its fortifications, and Clark's forlorn little garrisons in the 
 prairies of the west hung on to Illinois. 
 
 In those boats Clark bore provisions, ammunition, ar 
 tillery, quartermaster's stores, collected as if from the 
 very earth by his undying energy, everything but men, 
 men! Major William Croghan stood with him on the 
 wharf at Pittsburg, burning, longing to go, but honour 
 forbade, he was out on parole from Charleston. 
 
 Peeping, spying, gliding, Indians down the Ohio would 
 have attacked but for fear of Clark's cannon. The " rear 
 guard of the Continental army " little knew the young 
 Virginian, the terror of his name. For him, Canada 
 staid at home to guard Detroit when she might have 
 wrested Yorktown. 
 
 With shouts of thanksgiving Louisville greeted Clark 
 and his four hundred; the war had come up to their 
 very doors. Never had the Indians so hammered away 
 at the border. Across the entire continent the late inter 
 mittent cannon shots became a constant volley. 
 
"DETROIT MUST BE TAKEN" 69 
 
 Every family had its lost ones, " My father, my 
 mother, my wife, my child, they slaughtered, burned, tor 
 tured, / will hunt the Indian till I die! " 
 
 Detroit, Niagara, Michilimackinac the very names 
 meant horror, for there let loose, the red bloodhounds 
 of war, the most savage, the most awful, with glittering, 
 knives, pressed close along the Ohio. The buffalo meat 
 for the expedition rotted while Clark struggled, an 
 guished in spirit, a lion chained, " Stationed here to repel 
 a few predatory savages when I would carry war to the 
 Lakes." 
 
 But troops yet behind, " almost naked for want of linen 
 and entirely without shoes," were trying to join Clark 
 down the wild Ohio. Joseph Brandt cut them off, 
 Lochry and Shannon and one hundred Pennsylvanians, 
 not one escaped to tell the tale. 
 
 Clark never recovered, never forgot the fate of Lochry. 
 " Had I tarried but one day I might have saved them ! " 
 In the night-time he seemed to hear those struggling cap 
 tives dragged away to Detroit, " Detroit ! lost for the 
 want of a few men ! " For the first time the over- wrought 
 hero gave way to intoxication to drown his grief, and 
 so had Clark then died, ''Detroit" might have been found 
 written on his heart. 
 
 Despair swept over Westmoreland where Lochry's men 
 were the flower of the frontier. Only fourteen or fifteen 
 rifles remained in Hannastown, the Indians swooped 
 and destroyed it utterly. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 ON THE RAMPARTS 
 
 IN all his anguish about Detroit, with the energy of 
 desperation Clark now set to work making Louisville 
 stronger than ever. 
 " Boys, we must have defences absolutely impregnable ; 
 
70 THE CONQUEST 
 
 we know not at what moment cannon may be booming 
 at our gates." 
 
 A new stronghold was founded, and around it a moat 
 eight feet deep and ten feet wide ; surrounding the moat 
 itself, was built a breastwork of log pens, filled with earth 
 and picketed ten feet high on top of the breastwork. 
 An acre was thus enclosed, and in that acre was a spring 
 that bubbles still in the streets of Louisville. Within 
 were mounted a double six-pounder captured at Vin- 
 cennes, four cannon, and eight swivels, and heaped 
 around were shells, balls, and grapeshot brought for the 
 Detroit campaign. With bakehouse and blockhouse, 
 bastion and barrack, no enemy ever dared attack Fort 
 Nelson. 
 
 " General Clark is too hard on the militia," the soldier 
 boys complained, but the hammering and pounding and 
 digging went on until Louisville was the strongest point 
 beyond the Alleghanies. 
 
 Back and back came the Indians, in battles and forays, 
 and still in this troublous time settlers were venturing 
 by flatboat and over the Wilderness Road into the Blue 
 Grass country. They seemed to fancy that Clark had 
 stilled the West, that here the cannon had ceased to rattle. 
 
 Emigrants on packhorses bound for the land of cane 
 and turkeys saw bodies of scalped white men every day. 
 Logan and his forest rangers, like knights of old, guarded 
 the Wilderness Road. Kenton and his scouts patrolled 
 the Ohio, crossing and recrossing on the track of maraud 
 ing savages. Boone watched the Licking ; Floyd held the 
 Bear Grass. 
 
 Fort Nelson was done, its walls were cannon-proof. 
 Clark's gunboat lay on the water-front when a messenger 
 passed the sentinel with a letter. 
 
 In the little square room that Clark called his headquar 
 ters, the envoy waited. The young commandant read 
 and bowed his head, was it a moment of irresolution? 
 " Who could have brought this letter? " 
 
 " Any Indian would bring it for a pint of rum," an 
 swered a well-known voice. Pulling off a mask, Connolly 
 stood before him. 
 
ON THE RAMPARTS 71 
 
 It was as if Lord Dunmore had risen from the floor, - 
 Connolly had been Lord Dunmore' s captain commandant 
 of all the land west of the Blue Ridge. What was he 
 saying ? 
 
 " As much boundary of land on the west bank of the 
 Ohio as you may wish, and any title under that of a duke, 
 if you will abandon Louisville. I am sent to you by 
 Hamilton." 
 
 " What! " gasped Clark. " Shall I become an Arnold 
 and give up my country? 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 Bear Grass. He mentioned it 
 to Clark. 
 
 " We must never tell the men," they agreed ; " starving 
 and discouraged they might grasp the offer to escape the 
 Indian tomahawk." But years after Clark told his sister 
 Lucy, and Floyd told his wife, Jane Buchanan, and 
 from them the tale came down to us. 
 
 As if enraged at this refusal, British and Indians rallied 
 for a final onslaught. 
 
 ' The white men are taking the fair Kain-tuck-ee, the 
 land of deer and buffalo. If you beat Clark this time you 
 will certainly recover your hunting-grounds," said De 
 Peyster at the council fire. 
 
 In unprecedented numbers the redmen crossed the 
 Ohio, station after station was invested ; then followed 
 the frightful battle of Blue Licks where sixty white men 
 fell in ten minutes. Kentucky was shrouded in mourning. 
 
 Again Clark followed swift with a thousand mounted 
 riflemen. 
 
 Among the Indians dividing their spoils and their cap 
 tives there sounded 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 fam 
 ished Kentuckians entered Old Chillicothe. Fires were 
 yet burning, corn was on the roasting sticks, but the foe 
 was gone. 
 
; 2 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " The property destroyed was of great amount, and the 
 quantity of provisions burned surpassed all idea we had 
 of the Indian stores/' Clark said in after years. 
 
 This second destruction of their villages and cornfields 
 chilled the heart of the Indians. Their power was broken. 
 Never again did a great army cross the Ohio. 
 
 But standing again on the ruins of Old Chillicothe, " I 
 swear vengeance ! " cried the young Tecumseh. 
 
 And Clark, the Long Knife, mourned in his heart. 
 " This might have been avoided ! this might have been 
 avoided ! Never shall we have peace on this frontier until 
 Detroit is taken ! " 
 
 XIX 
 
 EXIT CORNWALLIS 
 
 " F | iHE boy cannot escape me ! " 
 
 Lafayette was all that lay between Cornwallis 
 
 A and the subjugation of Virginia. The lithe little 
 
 Frenchman, only twenty-three years old, danced ever on 
 
 and on before him, fatiguing the redcoats far into the 
 
 heats of June. 
 
 The Virginia Legislature adjourned to Charlottesville, 
 In vain Cornwallis chased the boy and sent Tarleton on 
 his raid over the mountains, " to capture the Governor." 
 
 Like a flash he came, the handsome, daring, dashing 
 Colonel Tarleton, whose name has been execrated for a 
 hundred years. 
 
 Virginia was swept as by a tornado. Never a noise in 
 the night, never a wind could whistle by, but " Tarleton's 
 troop is coming! " 
 
 " Tarleton's troop! " Little John Randolph, a boy of 
 eight, his mother then lying in childbed, was gathered 
 up and hurried away ninety miles up the Appomattox. 
 
 " Tarleton's troop!" Beside the dead body of her 
 husband sat the mother of four-year-old Henry Clay, 
 
EXIT CORNWALLIS 73 
 
 with her seven small children shuddering around her. 
 Standing on a rock in the South Anna River, the great 
 preacher had addressed his congregation in impassioned 
 oratory for the last time, and now on a bier he lay lifeless, 
 while the gay trooper raided the lands of his children. 
 
 Even Tarleton was moved by the widow's pallor as he 
 tossed a handful of coins on her table. She arose and 
 swept them into the fireplace, " Never will I touch the 
 invaders' gold." 
 
 " Tarleton' s troop!" Back at Waxhaw, South Caro 
 lina, a lad by the name of Andrew Jackson bore through 
 life the scars of wounds inflicted by Tarleton' s men. At 
 that very hour, alone on foot his mother was returning 
 from deeds of mercy to the patriots caged in prison pens 
 by Tarleton. But the streams were cold, the forests dark ; 
 losing her way, overworn and weary, sank and died the 
 mother of Andrew Jackson. 
 
 " Tarleton' s troop ! " Jack Jouett at the Cuckoo Tavern 
 at Louisa saw white uniforms faced with green, and flut 
 tering plumes, and shining helmets riding by. 
 
 The fiery Huguenot blood rose in him. Before day 
 light Jack's hard-ridden steed reined up at Monticello. 
 
 " Tarleton's troop, three hours behind me! Fly! " 
 
 There was panic and scramble, some of the legisla 
 tors were at Monticello. There was hasty adjournment 
 and flight to Staunton, across the Blue Ridge. 
 
 Assisting his wife, the slender, graceful Mrs. Jefferson, 
 into a carriage, the Governor sent her and the children 
 under the care of Jupiter, the coachman, to a neighbour 
 ing farmhouse, while he gathered up his State papers. 
 
 " What next, massa? " Martin, the faithful body-ser 
 vant, watching his master's glance and anticipating every 
 want, followed from room to room. 
 
 " The plate, Martin," with a wave of the hand Jeffer 
 son strode out from his beloved Monticello. 
 
 With Caesar's help Martin pulled up the planks of the 
 portico, and the last piece of silver went under the floor 
 as a gleaming helmet hove in sight. Dropping the plank, 
 imprisoning poor Caesar, Martin faced the intruder. 
 
 " Where is your master? Name the spot or I '11 fire ! " 
 
74 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Fire away, then," answered the slave. The trooper 
 desisted. 
 
 Tarleton and his men took food and drink, but de 
 stroyed nothing. The fame of Jefferson's kindness to 
 Burgoyne's captured army had reached even Tarleton, 
 for in that mansion books and music had been free to the 
 imprisoned British officers. 
 
 " An' now who be ye, an' whar are ye from? " 
 
 An old woman peered from the door of a hut in a 
 gorge of the hills, late in the afternoon. 
 
 " We are members of the Virginia Legislature fleeing 
 from Tarleton's raid." 
 
 " Ride on, then, ye cowardly knaves ! Here my hus 
 band and sons have just gone to Charlottesville to fight 
 for ye, an' ye a runnin' awa' wi' all yer might. Clar out ; 
 ye get naething here." 
 
 " But, my good woman, it would never do to let the 
 British capture the Legislature." 
 
 "If Patter ick Hennery had been in Albemarle, the 
 British dragoons would naever ha' passed the Rivanna." 
 
 " But, my good woman, here is Patrick Henry." 
 
 " Patterick Hennery? Patterick Hennery? Well, 
 well, if Patterick Hennery is here it must be all right. 
 Coom in, coom in to the best I have." 
 
 But Daniel Boone and three or four others were cap 
 tured, and carried away to Cornwallis to be released soon 
 after on parole. 
 
 "Tarleton's troop!" cried little Meriwether Lewis, 
 seven years old. 
 
 Sweeping down the Rivanna came the desperado to 
 the home of Colonel Nicholas Lewis, away in the Conti 
 nental army. 
 
 " What a paradise! " exclaimed Tarleton, raising his 
 hands. 
 
 "Why, then, do you interrupt it?" inquired Mrs. 
 Lewis, alone at home with her small children and slaves. 
 
 The trooper slept that night in his horseman's cloak 
 on the kitchen floor. At daylight Mrs. Lewis was awak 
 ened by a clatter in her henyard. Ducks, chickens, 
 turkeys, the troopers were wringing their necks. One 
 
EXIT CORNWALLIS 75 
 
 decrepit old drake only escaped by skurrying under the 
 barn. 
 
 Bowing low till his plume swept the horse's mane, 
 Tarleton galloped away. 
 
 The wrath of Aunt Molly! " Here, Pompey, you just 
 catch that drake. Ride as fast as you can, and present it 
 to Colonel Tarleton with my compliments." 
 
 On flying steed, drake squawking and flouncing on his 
 back, the darkey flew after the troopers. 
 
 " Well, Pompey, did you overtake .Colonel Tarleton? " 
 was Aunt Molly's wrathful inquiry. 
 
 " Yes 'm." 
 
 "What did he say?" 
 
 " He put de drake in his wallet, and say he much 
 obleeged ! " 
 
 Little Meriwether, sitting on the gate-post, laughed at 
 his aunt's discomfiture. 
 
 The roll of a drum broke the stillness of Sabbath in 
 the Blue Ridge. 
 
 " Tarleton' s troop ! " By the bed of her sick husband 
 sat a Spartan mother at Staunton. Her sons were in the 
 army at the north, but three young lads, thirteen, fifteen, 
 and seventeen were there. 
 
 Placing their father's old firelock in their hands, " Go 
 forth, my children," she said, " repel the foot of the in 
 vader or see my face no more." 
 
 But Tarleton did not force the mountain pass, the 
 boys went on down to join Lafayette. 
 
 From farm and forest, children and grandsires hurried 
 to Lafayette. The proud earl retired to the sea and 
 stopped to rest at the little peninsula of Yorktown, wait 
 ing for reinforcements. 
 
 Down suddenly from the north came Washington with 
 his tattered Continentals and Rochambeau's gay French 
 men, and the French fleet sailed into the Chesapeake. 
 Cornwallis was bottled up at Yorktown. 
 
 The boy, Lafayette, had simply put the stopper in the 
 bottle and waited. 
 
 Seventy cannon rolled in on Yorktown. George 
 Rogers Clark, all the West, was appealing to Washing- 
 
76 THE CONQUEST 
 
 ton, but the great chief unmoved kept his eye on Lord 
 Cornwallis. 
 
 On the i Qth of October, 1781, the aristocratic marquis, 
 who had commenced his career as aide-de-camp to a king, 
 surrendered to the rebels of America. 
 
 " 'Wallis has surrendered! surrendered! surrendered! " 
 
 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark flung up their 
 caps with other boys and shouted with the best of them, 
 "' Wallis has surrendered!" 
 
 After the surrender of Cornwallis, Washington and 
 Lafayette and the officers of the French and American 
 armies went to Fredericksburg to pay their respects to 
 Mary, the mother of Washington. The entire surround 
 ing country was watching in gala attire, and among them 
 the old cavalier, John Clark of Caroline. 
 
 On his white horse Washington passed the mulberry 
 trees. Quick as a flash little William turned, " Why, 
 father, he does look like my brother George! Is that 
 why people call our George the ' Washington of the 
 West ' ? " 
 
 A provisional treaty was signed at Paris, November 
 30, 1782, a few days after the return of George Rogers 
 Clark from that last Chillicothe raid. Slowly, by pack- 
 horse and flatboat, the news reached Kentucky. 
 
 The last of the British army sailed away. Washing 
 ton made his immortal farewell, and went back to his 
 farm, arriving on Christmas Eve. Bonfires and rockets, 
 speeches, thanksgiving and turkey, ended the year 1782. 
 
 But with his return from the last scene at Yorktown, 
 the father of Meriwether Lewis lay down and died, a 
 martyr of the Revolution. 
 
THE OLD VIRGINIA HOME 77 
 
 XX 
 
 THE OLD VIRGINIA HOME 
 
 BACK over Boone's trace, the Wilderness Road he 
 had travelled so many times, went General George 
 Rogers Clark sometime in the early Spring of 1783, 
 past the thrifty fields of Fincastle and the Shenandoah 
 Germans, with their fat cattle and huge red barns. Every 
 year the stout Pennsylvanians were building farther and 
 farther up. Year by year the fields increased, and rosy 
 girls stacked the hay in defiance of all Virginian customs 
 across the Ridge. 
 
 But the man who a thousand miles to the west held 
 Illinois by the prowess of his arm and the terror of his 
 name, sprang not with the buoyant step of six years before 
 when he had gone to Virginia after the gunpowder. His 
 thoughts were at Kaskaskia, Vincennes, Louisville, where 
 his unsustained garrisons were suffering for food and 
 clothing. 
 
 " Peace, peace, peace ! " he muttered. " 'T is but a 
 mockery. Must Kentucky lie still and be scalped? " 
 
 Still the savages raided the border, not in numbers, but 
 in squads, persistent and elusive. Isham Floyd, the boy 
 drummer of Vincennes, had been captured by the savages 
 and three days tortured in the woods, and burnt at the 
 stake. 
 
 "My boy-brother in the hands of those monsters?" 
 exclaimed the great-hearted John Floyd of the Bear 
 Grass. A word roused the country, the savages were dis 
 persed, but poor Isham was dead. And beside him lay his 
 last tormentor, the son of an Indian chief, shot by the 
 avenging rifle of John Floyd. 
 
 Riding home with a heavy heart on the I2th of April, a 
 ball struck Colonel Floyd, passed through his arm, and 
 entered his breast. Behind the trees they caught a glimpse 
 of the smoking rifle of Big Foot, that chief whose son was 
 
78 THE CONQUEST 
 
 slain. Leaping from his own horse to that of his brother, 
 Charles Floyd sustained the drooping form until they 
 reached the Bear Grass. 
 
 " Charles," whispered the dying man, " had I been 
 riding Pompey this would not have happened. Pompey 
 pricks his ears and almost speaks if a foe is near." 
 
 At the feet of Jane Buchanan her brave young husband 
 was laid, his black locks already damp with the dew of 
 death. 
 
 " Papa ! Papa ! " Little two-year-old George Rogers 
 Clark Floyd screamed with terror. Ten days later the 
 stricken wife, Jane Buchanan, gave birth to another son, 
 whom they named in honour of his heroic father. 
 
 With such a grief upon him, General George Rogers 
 Clark wended his lonesome way through the Cumberland 
 Gap to Virginia. Now in the night-time he heard young 
 Isham cry. Not a heart in Kentucky but bewailed the fate 
 of the drummer boy. And John Floyd, his loss was a 
 public calamity. 
 
 '' John Floyd, John Floyd," murmured Clark on his 
 lonely way, " the encourager of my earliest adventures, 
 truest heart of the West! " 
 
 Lochry's men haunted him while he slept. " Had I 
 not written they would not have come ! " 
 
 His debts, dishonoured, weighed like a pall, and deep, 
 deep, down in his heart he knew at last how much he loved 
 that girl in the convent at New Orleans. At times an 
 almost ungovernable yearning came over him to go down 
 and force the gates of her voluntary prison-house. 
 
 In May he was at Richmond. A new Governor sat in 
 the chair of Jefferson and Patrick Henry. To him Clark 
 addressed an appeal for the money that was his due. 
 
 But Virginia, bankrupt, impoverished, prostrate, an 
 swered only, " We have given you land warrants, 
 what more can you ask?" 
 
 With heavy heart Clark travelled again the road to 
 Caroline. 
 
 There was joy in the old Virginia home, and sorrow. 
 Once more the family were reunited. First came Colonel 
 Jonathan, with his courtly and elegant army comrade 
 
THE OLD VIRGINIA HOME 79 
 
 Major William Croghan, an Irish gentleman, nephew of 
 Sir William Johnson, late Governor of New York, and of 
 the famous George Croghan, Sir William's Indian Deputy 
 in the West. 
 
 In fact young Croghan crossed the ocean with Sir Wil 
 liam as his private secretary, on 1 the high road to prefer 
 ment in the British army. But he looked on the struggling 
 colonists, and mused, 
 
 ' Their cause is just ! I will raise a regiment for 
 Washington." 
 
 While all his relatives fought for the King, he alone 
 froze and starved at Valley Forge, and in that frightful 
 winter of 1780 marched with Jonathan Clark's regiment 
 to the relief of Charleston. And Charleston fell. 
 
 " Restore your loyalty to Great Britain, and I will set 
 you free," said Major General Prevost, another one of 
 Croghan's uncles. 
 
 " I cannot," replied the young rebel. " I have linked 
 my fate with the .colonies." 
 
 Nevertheless General Prevost released him and his 
 Colonel, Jonathan Clark, on parole. Lieutenant Edmund 
 was held a year longer. 
 
 Directly to the home in Caroline, Colonel Jonathan 
 brought his Irish Major. And there he met Lucy. 
 
 Then, with the exchange of prisoners, Edmund came, 
 damaged it is true, but whole, and John, John from the 
 prison ships, ruined. 
 
 At sight of the emaciated face of her once handsome 
 boy, the mother turned away and wept. Five long years 
 in the prison ship had done its work. Five years, where 
 every day at dawn the dead were brought out in cartloads. 
 Stifled in crowded holds and poisoned with loathsome 
 food, in one prison ship alone in eighteen months eleven 
 thousand died and were buried on the Brooklyn shore. 
 And then came the General, George Rogers, and Captain 
 Richard, from the garrison of Kaskaskia where he had 
 helped to hold the Illinois. 
 
 In tattered regimentals and worn old shirts they came, 
 the army of the Revolution was disbanded without a 
 dollar. 
 
80 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " And I, worse than without a dollar," said General 
 George Rogers. " My private property has been sacrificed 
 to pay public debts." 
 
 But from what old treasure stores did those girls bring 
 garments, homespun and new and woolly and warm, 
 prepared against this day of reunion ? The soldiers were 
 children again around their father's hearth, with mother's 
 socks upon their feet and sister's arms around their necks. 
 
 Jonathan, famous for his songs, broke forth in a fa 
 vourite refrain from Robin Hood : 
 
 " And mony ane sings o' grass, o' grass, 
 
 And mony ane sings o' corn, 
 And mony ane sings o' Robin Hood 
 Kens little where he was born. 
 
 " It wasna in the ha', the ha', 
 
 Nor in the painted bower, 
 But it was in the gude greenwood 
 Amang the lily flower." 
 
 "And you call us lily flowers?" cried Fanny, the 
 beauty and the pet. " The lilies of the field, they toil not, 
 neither do they spin ; and here have we been spinning for 
 weeks and weeks to dress you boys again." 
 
 " And what has William been doing? " 
 
 " Learning to follow in the footsteps of my brothers," 
 answered the lad of thirteen. " Another year and I, too, 
 could have gone as a drummer boy." 
 
 " Thank God, you '11 never have to," ejaculated the 
 General solemnly. 
 
 The old house rang with merriment as it had not in 
 years. The negroes, York and old York and Rose his 
 wife, Jane and Julia and Cupid and Harry, and Nancy 
 the cook, were jubilantly preparing a feast for welcome. 
 
 Other guests were there, Colonel Anderson, aide-de 
 camp of Lafayette, who was to wed Elizabeth, the sister 
 next older than William; and Charles Mynn Thruston, 
 son of the " Fighting Parson," and Dennis Fitzhugh, daft 
 lovers of the romping Fanny. 
 
 Since before the Revolution Jonathan had been engaged 
 to Sarah Hite, the daughter of Joist Hite, first settler of 
 
DOWN THE OHIO 8l 
 
 the Shenandoah. Thousands of acres had her father and 
 hundreds of indentured white servants. Joist Hite's 
 claim overlay that of Lord Fairfax; they fought each 
 other in the courts for fifty years. Should Hite win, 
 Sarah would be the greatest heiress in Virginia. 
 
 From the sight of happy courtship George Rogers 
 turned and ever and anon talked with his parents, ''solemn 
 as the judgment," said Fanny. 
 
 A few blissful days and the time for scattering came. 
 Again the old broad-porticoed farmhouse was filled with 
 farewells, negro slaves held horses saddled. 
 
 " But we shall meet in Kentucky," said old John Clark 
 the Cavalier. 
 
 George Rogers bade them good-bye, waved a last kiss 
 back, whipped up his horse, and entered the forest. 
 
 In October John died. A vast concourse gathered 
 under the mulberry trees where the young Lieutenant lay 
 wrapped in the flag of his country, a victim of the prison 
 ship. Great was the indignation of friends as they laid 
 him away. 
 
 And now preparations were rapidly carried forward 
 for removal to Kentucky. 
 
 XXI 
 
 DOWN THE OHIO 
 
 THERE was truce on the border. The wondering 
 redmen heard that the great King had withdrawn 
 across the Big Water and that the Long Knives 
 were victors in the country. 
 
 With wondering minds Shawnee and Delaware, Wyan- 
 dot and Miami, discussed around their council fires the 
 changed situation. Very great had the redcoats appeared 
 in the eyes of the savages, with their dazzling uniforms, 
 and long, bright, flashing swords. But how terrible were 
 the Virginians of the Big Knives ! 
 
 6 
 
82 THE CONQUEST 
 
 The continental armies had been dispersed, but now 
 from their old war-ravaged homes of the Atlantic shore 
 they looked to the new lands beyond the Alleghanies. 
 Congress would pay them in these lands, and so the 
 scarred veterans of a hundred battles launched on the 
 emigrant trail. 
 
 In the Clark home there was busy preparation. Out 
 of attic and cellar old cedar chests were brought and 
 packed with the precious linen, fruit of many a day at the 
 loom. Silver and pewter and mahogany bureaus, high- 
 post bedsteads and carved mirrors, were carefully piled 
 in the waggons as John Clark, cavalier, turned his face 
 from tidewater Virginia. 
 
 Neighbours called in to bid them farewell. Mrs. Clark 
 made a last prayer at the grave of her son, the victim of 
 the prison ship. 
 
 " William, have you brought the mulberry cuttings? " 
 called the motherly Lucy. 
 
 " William, have you the catalpa seeds? " cried Fanny. 
 
 Leaving the old home with Jonathan to be sold, the 
 train started out, horses, cattle, slaves, York riding 
 proudly at the side of his young master William, old 
 York and Rose, Nancy, Jane, Julia, Cupid and Harry 
 and their children, a patriarchal caravan like that of 
 Abraham facing 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 to the Wilderness Road, 
 on packhorses; others in waggons, like the Clarks, fol 
 lowing the Braddock route down to Redstone-Old-Fort 
 on the Monongahela, where boats must be built. 
 
 And here at Redstone was George Rogers Clark, come 
 up to meet them from the Falls. In short order, under 
 his direction, boatbuilders were busy. York and old York 
 took a hand, and William, in a first experience that was 
 yet to find play in the far Idaho. 
 
 The teasing Fanny looked out from her piquant sun- 
 bonnet. Lucy, more sedate, was accompanied by her be 
 trothed, Major Croghan. 
 
DOWN THE OHIO 83 
 
 " My uncle, George Croghan, has lately died in New 
 York and left me his heir. I shall locate in Louis 
 ville," was the Major's explanation to his friend's 
 inquiry. 
 
 11 And what is the news from Virginia? " 
 
 " Your old friend Patrick Henry is Governor again. 
 Jonathan visited him last 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's surrender he gave up. 
 ' Put me to bed, Jo,' he said, ' it is time for me to die/ 
 and die he did. Now his lands are in the courts." 
 
 " Mrs. Jefferson, who was ill, died as a result of the 
 excitement of the flight from Tarleton," said Lucy. " To 
 get away from his sorrow, Mr. Jefferson has accepted 
 the appointment of minister to France to succeed Dr. 
 Franklin, and has taken Martha and Maria with him. 
 They will go to school in Paris." 
 
 George Rogers Clark was a silent man. He spoke no 
 word of his recent trip to Philadelphia, in which Dr. 
 Franklin had grasped his hand and said, " Young man, 
 you have given an empire to the Republic." 
 
 " General Washington has just returned from a horse 
 back journey down into 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 of Virginia. He read it aloud. 
 
 " The conclusion of the war, and the distressed situa 
 tion of the State with respect to its finances, call on us to 
 adopt the most prudent economy. 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 a soldier of the Virginia militia, and, as such, 
 have no claim even for the half pay allotted to all Con 
 tinental officers." 
 
 " But Virginia has ceded her western territories to 
 Congress with the distinct stipulation that expenses in 
 curred in subduing any British posts therein, or in ac- 
 
84 THE CONQUEST 
 
 quiring any part of the territory, shall be reimbursed by 
 the United States." 
 
 " Is there any hope there? What has Congress? An 
 empty treasury. And who is to pay the bills incurred in 
 the Illinois conquest? Shall I, a private individual?" 
 
 " That would be impossible," commented the father. 
 
 " But I am not disheartened," continued George 
 Rogers. " When the Indians are quiet, my men hope 
 to build a city on the land granted us opposite the Falls. 
 And here is something from Jefferson, written before 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 pro 
 mote knowledge. I am afraid they have thought of colo 
 nising 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 " old thirteen " they started on their jour 
 ney. Suddenly the Monongahela closed with ice and 
 locked them at Pittsburg, where flurries of snow set the 
 sleigh-bells ringing. 
 
 Through deep drifts, under the guns of Fort Pitt, files 
 of Philadelphia traders were buying up skins and tallow, 
 to carry back over the mountains in their packsaddles 
 
DOWN THE OHIO 85 
 
 that had come out loaded with salt and gunpowder. 
 Squaws were exchanging peltries for the white man's 
 tea and sugar. A great concourse of emigrants was 
 blocked for the winter. Every cabin was crowded. 
 
 After great exertions George had secured quarters 
 quite unlike the roomy old Virginian home. 
 
 " I must be gone to make peace with those Indians 
 who have been acting with the British, and take steps 
 toward securing titles beyond the Ohio." 
 
 Accompanied by two other commissioners, General 
 Clark set out for Fort Mclntosh. It was January before 
 the Indians gathered with Pierre Drouillard, interpreter 
 now for the United States. 
 
 " By the treaty of peace with England this land belongs 
 to the Thirteen Fires," was the basis of argument. " You 
 have been allies of England, and now by the law of na 
 tions 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. Detroit and Michilimackinac 
 belong to the Thirteen Fires." Then boundaries were 
 drawn. 
 
 " No! No!" cried Buckongahelas. Clark heeded not. 
 
 After deliberation the chiefs signed, Wyandot, Ot 
 tawa, Chippewa, all but Buckongahelas. " I am a 
 friend of Great Britain ! " roared the Delaware King. 
 Then to the surprise of all, suddenly striding past the 
 other commissioners, the swarthy chief took the hand of 
 General Clark. " I thank the Great Spirit for having 
 this day brought together two such warriors as Buckon 
 gahelas and the Long Knife." Clark smiled and returned 
 the compliment. 
 
 "Will the gorge break?" every frontiersman was 
 asking when George returned to Pittsburg. 
 
 Piled back for seventy miles the Alleghany was a range 
 of ice, heaped floe on floe. Where the muddy Monon- 
 gahela blends with the crystal Alleghany the boats lay 
 locked with a hundred others, awaiting the deluge. 
 
 Suddenly the melting snows of the Alleghanies burst; 
 
86 THE CONQUEST 
 
 the ice loosened, tearing and cutting the branches of trees 
 overhanging the river; and slowly, with the ice, moved 
 the great fleet of flatboats. 
 
 Ever narrower and deeper and swifter, the Ohio 
 leaped with tremendous rush down its confined channel. 
 The trees on the uninhabited shores, never yet cut away, 
 held the embankment firm, and racing down on the peril 
 ous flood came the Clarks to the Falls of the Ohio, in 
 March of 1785. 
 
 Fascinated by the rush of waves, fourteen-year-old 
 William poled like a man. Could he dream what destruc 
 tion lay in their course? " L'annee des grandes eaux" 
 1785, is famous in the annals of the West as the year of 
 great waters. The floods came down and drowned out 
 old Ste. Genevieve and drove the inhabitants back to 
 the higher terrace on which that village stands to-day. 
 Above, the whole American Bottom was a swift running 
 sea, Kaskaskia and Cahokia were submerged by the sim 
 ultaneous melting of the snows, and nothing but its high 
 bold shore of "limestone rock saved St. Louis itself. ^ Pad 
 dling 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 been smoothed by the hand 
 of man into a shallow channel. 
 
 Guided by skilful hands, many a trader's boat that 
 year took the chute of the Falls like an arrow ; over the 
 ledges that dammed the water back, down, down they 
 slid out of sight into that unknown West, where William 
 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 and fifty thousand acres, on the Indian 
 side of the river. We have incorporated a town there, 
 Clarksville they call it. It will be a great city, but 
 Louisville is safer at present." 
 
 That Spring they lived at Fort Nelson, with watchmen 
 on the ramparts. 
 
MULBERRY HILL 87 
 
 " But we saw no Indians in coming down ! " 
 
 " True enough, the flood was a surprise so early in the 
 year. Wait a little, and you will hear more of this terri 
 fying river-route, where in low water it takes seven weeks 
 to run from Redstone to the Bear Grass. Then the mur 
 derous clutches of the Indians have free play among the 
 helpless emigrants. Let us be thankful for what you 
 escaped." 
 
 Almost while they were speaking a band of Indians 
 glided out of the woods not far away, snatched a boy 
 from a fence, and shot his father in the field. 
 
 " Don't kill me, just take me prisoner," said little 
 Tommy, looking up into the warrior's face. 
 
 At that instant an elder brother's rifle felled the Indian, 
 and the boy was saved to become the father of Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 XXII 
 
 MULBERRY HILL 
 
 ON a beautiful eminence three miles south of Louis 
 ville, John Clark built his pioneer Kentucky home. 
 Louisville itself consisted of but a few log cabins 
 around a fortification built by George Rogers Clark. 
 
 This family home, so far from the centre, was stockaded 
 by itself, a double log house, two and a half stories high, 
 with hall through the middle. 
 
 Every night a negro stood sentinel, there were port 
 holes in the pickets, and Indians hid in the canebrakes. 
 Once while the young ladies were out walking an Indian 
 shot a little negro girl and they carried her back wounded, 
 behind the pickets at Mulberry Hill. 
 
 The floor of the long dining-room was of wood, hard 
 as a bone, and over the seven-foot mantel stag-horns and 
 swords of the Revolution were lit by the light of the 
 cavernous fireplace. 
 
88 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Rigid economy and untiring industry had been the rule 
 at the old Clark home in Caroline, and not less was it 
 here. There were no pianos, but until midnight the hum 
 of the wheel made music. 
 
 Enchanted the young people listened to tale and song 
 and hum of wheel, while down the great chimney top 
 calmly smiled the pensive stars. 
 
 Little thought they of bare walls, low rafters, or small 
 windows. After the boys hauled in the logs on a hand- 
 sled, and built up a great flame, the whole world seemed 
 illuminated. The pewter basins shone like mirrors, and 
 while their fingers flew in the light of the fire, stories were 
 told of Kaskaskia, Vincennes, St. Louis. But the Donna? 
 Clark never spoke of her. It was a hidden grief that made 
 him ever lonely. When he saw the lovelight all around 
 him and sometimes left the room, the mother wondered 
 why sudden silence came upon the group. 
 
 At Mulberry Hill Lucy was married to Major Croghan, 
 who, on a farm five miles out, built Locust Grove, an 
 English mansion of the olden style, in its day the hand 
 somest in Louisville. And Fanny ? She was the belle of 
 Kentucky. In powdered wig and ruffles many a grave 
 Virginian tripped with her the minuet and contra dances 
 of the Revolution. 
 
 More and more young William became enamoured of 
 the Indian dress, and went about gaily singing the songs 
 of Robin Hood and hacking the meat with his hunting 
 knife. 
 
 Out over the game-trails of Kentucky, like the beaten 
 streets of Fredericksburg, the only city he ever knew, 
 young William went with the Boones, Kenton, and his 
 own famous brother, George Rogers Clark, in peltry cap 
 and buckskin hunting-shirt girded with a leathern belt. 
 
 Led by them, with what eagerness he shot his first 
 buffalo, deep in the woods of Kentucky. Not much longer 
 could bears, deer, and buffalo retreat to the cane. With 
 the coming of the Clarks an emigration set in that was to 
 last for a hundred years. 
 
 Even amusements partook of sportive adventure. Now 
 it was the hunter's horn summoning the neighbours to a 
 
MULBERRY HILL 89 
 
 bear chase in the adjoining hills. William surpassed 
 the Indian himself in imitating the bark of the wolf, the 
 hoot of the owl, the whistle of the whippoorwill. 
 
 Daniel Boone came often to Mulberry Hill in leggings 
 and moccasins, ever hunting, hunting, hunting beaver, 
 bear and coon, wolves and wild-cats, deer and foxes, and 
 going back to trade their skins in Maryland for frontier 
 furniture, knives and buttons, scissors, nails, and tea. 
 
 Upon his shot-pouch strap Boone fastened his moccasin 
 awl with a buckhorn handle made out of an old clasp- 
 knife, and carried along with him a roll of buckskin to 
 mend his mocassins. While the grizzled hunter stitched 
 deftly at his moccasins, William and York sat by, engaged 
 in the same pastime, for wherever William went, York 
 was his shadow. 
 
 " Since poor Richard's uncertain fate I can never trust 
 the boy alone," said his mother. " York, it is your busi 
 ness to guard your young master." And he did, to the 
 ends of the earth. 
 
 When " Uncle Daniel," rolled in a blanket, threw him 
 self down on a bed of leaves and slept with his feet to the 
 fire to prevent rheumatism, York and William lay down 
 too, sleeping by turns and listening for Indians. 
 
 At daylight, loosely belting their fringed hunting shirts 
 into wallets for carrying bread, a chunk of jerked beef, or 
 tow for the gun, with tomahawk on the right side and 
 scalping knife on the left, each in a leathern case, again 
 they set off under the reddening forest. 
 
 Skilled in the lore of woodcraft, watchful of clouds and 
 stars and sun, an intimate student of insect life and own 
 brother to the wily beaver, bear, and buffalo, William 
 Clark was becoming a scientist. 
 
 Returning from the chase with the same sort of game 
 that graced the Saxon board before the Norman conquest, 
 he sat down to hear the talk of statesmen. For when 
 Clark's commission was revoked, Kentucky, unprotected, 
 called a convention to form a State. 
 
 Affairs that in European lands are left to kings and 
 their ministers, were discussed in the firelight of every 
 cabin. Public safety demanded'action. Exposed on three 
 
9 o THE CONQUEST 
 
 sides to savage inroads, with their Virginia capital hun 
 dreds of miles beyond forest, mountains, and rivers, no 
 wonder Kentucky pleaded for statehood. 
 
 In a despotic country the people sleep. Here every 
 nerve was awake. Discussion, discussion, discussion, 
 made every fireside a school of politics ; even boys in buck 
 skin considered the nation's welfare. 
 
 Before he was seventeen William Clark was made an 
 ensign and proudly donned the eagle and blue ribbon of 
 the Cincinnati, a society of the soldiers of the Revolution 
 of which Washington himself was president. Educated 
 in the backwoods and by the cabin firelight, young Wil 
 liam was already developing the striking bearing and bold 
 unwavering character of his brother. 
 
 " What can have become of Richard? " Every day the 
 mother heart glanced down the long avenue of catalpas 
 that were growing in front of Mulberry Hill. 
 
 Of the whole family, the gentle affectionate Richard 
 was an especial favourite. He was coming from Kas- 
 kaskia to see his mother, but never arrived. One day 
 his horse and saddlebags were found on the banks of 
 the Wabash. Was he killed by the Indians, or was he 
 drowned? No one ever knew. 
 
 Again George Rogers Clark was out making treaties 
 with the Indians to close up the Revolution, but British 
 emissaries had been whispering in their ears, " Make the 
 Ohio the boundary." 
 
 At last, after long delays, a few of the tribes came in to 
 the council at the mouth of the Great Miami, some in 
 friendship, some like the Shawnees, rudely suggestive of 
 treachery. 
 
 " The war is over," explained General Clark as chair 
 man ; "we desire to live in peace with our red brethren. 
 If such be the will of the Shawnees, let some of their 
 wise men speak." 
 
 There was silence as they whiffed at the council pipes. 
 Then a tall chief arose and glanced at the handful of 
 whites and at his own three hundred along the walls of 
 the council house. 
 
 " We come here to offer you two pieces of wampum. 
 
MISSISSIPPI TROUBLES 91 
 
 You know what they mean. Choose." Dropping the 
 beaded emblems upon the table the savage turned to his 
 seat by the wall. 
 
 Pale, calm as a statue, but with flashing eye, Clark 
 tangled his slender cane into the belts and flung them 
 at the chiefs. 
 
 "Ugh!" 
 
 Every Indian was up with knife unsheathed, every 
 white stood with hand on his sword. Into their very teeth 
 the Long Knife had flung back the challenge, " Peace, or 
 War." 
 
 Like hounds in leash they strained, ready to leap, when 
 the lordly Long Knife raised his arm and grinding the 
 wampum beneath his heel thundered, 
 
 " Dogs, you may go! " 
 
 One moment they wavered, then broke and fled tumult- 
 uously from the council house. 
 
 All night they debated in the woods near the fort. In 
 the morning, " Let me sign," said Buckongahelas. 
 
 Smiling, Clark guided the hand of the boastful Del 
 aware, and all the rest signed with him. 
 
 XXIII 
 
 MISSISSIPPI TROUBLES 
 
 FOR the first time in their stormy history, the front 
 and rear gates of the Kentucky forts lay back on 
 their enormous wooden hinges, and all day long 
 men and teams passed in and out with waggon loads of 
 grain from the harvest fields. So hushed and still was 
 the air, it seemed the old Indian days were gone for ever. 
 At night the animals came wandering in from the woods, 
 making their customary way to the night pens. Fields 
 of corn waved undisturbed. around the forts. 
 
 But the truce was brief. Already the Cherokees were 
 slaughtering on the Wilderness Road, and beyond the 
 
92 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Ohio, Shawnee and Delaware, wild at the sight of the 
 white man's cabin, rekindled the fires around the stake. 
 
 Thousands of emigrants were coming over the moun 
 tains from Carolina, and down the Ohio from Pittsburg 
 social boats lashed together rode in company, bark canoes, 
 pirogues, flat-boats, keelboats, scows, barges, bateaux and 
 brigades of bateaux, sweeping down with resistless Eng 
 lish, Scotch, Irish, Germans, Huguenots, armed for the 
 battle of the races. 
 
 Still the powerful fur traders of Quebec and Montreal 
 hung on to Detroit and Mackinac, still De Peyster op 
 posed giving up the peninsulas of Michigan. 
 
 " Pen the young republic east of the Alleghanies," said 
 France, Spain, England, when the Peace Treaty was 
 under consideration. But Clark's conquest compelled 
 them to grant the Illinois. 
 
 Before the ink was dry on the documents, Kentucky 
 was trading down the great river of De Soto. 
 
 ' The West must trade over the mountains," said the 
 merchants of Philadelphia and Baltimore. 
 
 " The West will follow its rivers," answered Kentucky. 
 
 " Spain is Mistress of the Mississippi," said the Span 
 ish King to John Jay, the American minister at Madrid. 
 
 In vain flatboatmen with wheat and corn said, " We 
 are from Kentucky." 
 
 "What Kaintucke?" brayed the commandant at 
 Natchez. "I know no Kaintucke. Spain own both side 
 de river. I am ordered to seize all foreign vessel on de 
 way to New Orleong." 
 
 Without the Spaniard the trip was sufficiently hazard 
 ous. Indians watched the shores. Pirates infested the 
 bayous. Head winds made the frail craft unmanageable, 
 snags leered up like monsters to pierce and swallow. 
 But every new settler enlarged the fields, and out of the 
 virgin soil the log granaries were bursting. 
 
 " Carry away our grain, bring us merchandise," was 
 the cry of expanding Kentucky. 
 
 But to escape the Indian was to fall into the hands of 
 the Spaniard, and the Spaniard was little more than a 
 legalised pirate. 
 
MISSISSIPPI TROUBLES 93 
 
 Even the goods of the Frenchmen were seized with 
 the warning, " Try it again and we '11 send you to 
 Brazil." 
 
 The Frenchmen resented this infringement on their im 
 memorial right. iSince the days of the daring and cour 
 ageous Bienville who founded New Orleans, no man 
 had said them nay. A tremendous hatred of the Spaniard 
 grew up in the hearts of the Frenchmen. 
 
 In the midst of these confiscations there was distress 
 and anarchy in the Illinois. The infant republic had not 
 had time to stretch out there the strong arm of law. 
 Floods and continental money had ruined the confiding 
 Frenchmen ; the garrisons were in destitution ; they were 
 writing to Clark : 
 
 " Our credit is become so weak among the French that 
 one dollar's worth of provisions cannot be had without 
 prompt payment, were it to save the whole country." 
 
 " And why has our British Father made no provision 
 for us," bewailed the Indians, " who at his beck and call 
 have made such deadly enemies of the Long Knives? 
 Our lands have been ravaged by fire and sword, and now 
 we are left at their mercy." 
 
 " Let us drive the red rascals out," cried the infuriated 
 settlers. 
 
 " No," said Washington, who understood and pitied 
 the red men. " Forgive the past. Dispossess them grad 
 ually by purchase as the extension of settlement demands 
 the occupation of their lands." 
 
 But five thousand impoverished Indians in the Ohio 
 country kept thirty thousand settlers in hot water all the 
 time. No lock on a barn door could save the horses, no 
 precaution save the outlying emigrant from scalping or 
 capture. Red banditti haunted the streams and forests, 
 dragging away their screaming victims like ogres of 
 mediaeval tragedy. 
 
 Clark grew sick and aged over it. " No commission, 
 no money, no right to do anything for my suffering 
 country! " 
 
 " Your brother, the General, is very ill/' said old John 
 Clark, coming out of the sick chamber at Mulberry Hill. 
 
94 THE CONQUEST 
 
 In days to come there were generals and generals in the 
 Clark family, but George Rogers was always " the 
 General." 
 
 Into ten years the youthful commander had compressed 
 the exposure of a lifetime. Mental anguish and days in 
 the icy Wabash told now on his robust frame, and inflam 
 matory rheumatism set in from which he never recovered. 
 
 " The Americans are your enemies/' emissaries from 
 Detroit were whispering at Vincennes. " The Govern 
 ment has forsaken you. They take your property, they 
 pay nothing." 
 
 " We have nothing to do with the United States," said 
 the French citizens, weary of a Congress that heeded 
 them not. " We consider ourselves British subjects and 
 shall obey no other power." 
 
 Even Clark's old friend, The Tobacco's Son, had gone 
 back to his British father, and as always with Indians, 
 dug up the red tomahawk. 
 
 A committee of American citizens at Vincennes sent a 
 flying express to Clark. 
 
 " This place that once trembled at your victorious 
 arms, and these savages overawed by your superior 
 power, is now entirely anarchical and we shudder at the 
 daily expectation of horrid murder. . We beg you will 
 write us by the earliest opportunity. Knowing you to be 
 a friend of the distressed we look to you for assistance." 
 
 Such a call could not be ignored. Kentucky was 
 aroused and summoned her favourite General to the head 
 of her army. From a sick bed he arose to lead a thou 
 sand undisciplined men, and with him went his brother 
 William. 
 
 The sultry sun scorched, the waters were low, provi 
 sions did not arrive until nine days after the soldiers, 
 and then were spoiled. Fatigued, hungry, three hun 
 dred revolted and left ; nevertheless, the Indians had fled 
 and Vincennes was recovered. 
 
 Just then up the Wabash came a Spaniard with a boat 
 load of valuable goods. Clark promptly confiscated the 
 cargo, and out of them paid his destitute troops. 
 
 " It is not alone retaliation," said Clark, " It is a 
 
MISSISSIPPI TROUBLES 95 
 
 warning. If Spain will not let us trade down the river, 
 she shall not trade up." 
 
 Kentucky applauded. They even talked of sending 
 Clark against the Spaniards and of breaking away from a 
 government that refused to aid them. 
 
 " General Clark seized Spanish goods? " Virginia was 
 alarmed and promptly repudiated the seizure. :< We are 
 not ready to fight Spain." 
 
 Clark's friends were disturbed. " You will be hung." 
 
 Clark laughed. " I will flee to the Indians first." 
 
 " We have as much to fear from the turbulence of our 
 backwoodsmen," said Washington, " as from the hostil 
 ity of the Spaniards." 
 
 But at this very time, unknown to Washington, the 
 Spaniards were arming the savages of the south, to ex 
 terminate these reckless ambitious frontiersmen. 
 
 Louisiana feared these unruly neighbours. Intriguers 
 from New Orleans were whispering, " Break with the 
 Atlantic States and league yourself with Spain." 
 
 Then came the rumour, " Jay proposes to shut up the 
 Mississippi for twenty-five years ! " 
 
 Never country was in such a tumult. 
 
 " We are sold! We are vassals of Spain! " cried the 
 men of the West. "What? Close the Mississippi for 
 twenty-five years as a price of commercial advantage on 
 the Atlantic coast? Twenty-five years when our grain 
 is rotting? Twenty-five years must we be cut off when 
 the Wilderness Road is thronged with packtrains, when 
 the Ohio is black with flatboats? Where do they think 
 we are going to pen our people? Where do they think 
 we are going to ship our produce? Better put twenty 
 thousand men in the field at once and protect our own 
 interests." 
 
 The bond was brittle ; how easily might it be broken ! 
 
 Even Spain laughed at the weakness of a Union that 
 could not command Kentucky to give up its river. And 
 Kentucky looked to Clark. " We must conquer Spain 
 or unite with her. We must have the Mississippi. Will 
 you march with us on New Orleans ? " 
 
 Then, happily, Virginia spoke out for the West. " We 
 
96 THE CONQUEST 
 
 must aid them. The free navigation of the Mississippi 
 is the gift of nature to the United States." 
 
 The very next day Madison announced in the Virginia 
 Assembly, " I shall move the election of delegates to a 
 Constitutional Convention." The stability of the Union 
 seemed pivoted upon an open river to the Gulf. 
 
 Veterans of the Revolution and of the Continental 
 Congress met to frame a constitution in 1787. After 
 weeks of deliberation with closed doors, the immortal 
 Congress adjourned. The Constitution was second only 
 to the Declaration of Independence. Without kings or 
 princes a free people had erected a Continental Republic. 
 
 The Constitution was adopted, and all the way into 
 Kentucky wilds were heard the roaring of cannon and 
 ringing of bells that proclaimed the Father of his Coun 
 try the first President of the United States. 
 
 " We must cement the East and the West," said Wash 
 ington. But that West was drifting away with its 
 Mississippi. 
 
 About this time young Daniel Boone said, " Father, I 
 am going west." 
 
 Just eighteen, one year older than William Clark, in 
 the summer of 1787, he concluded to strike out for the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 : ' Well, Dannie boy, thee take the compass," said his 
 father. 
 
 It was the old guide, as large as a saucer, that Lord 
 Dunmore gave Boone when he sent him out to call in 
 the surveyors from the Falls of the Ohio thirteen years 
 before. 
 
 Mounted on his pony, with a wallet of corn and a 
 rifle on his back, Boone rode straight on westward 
 thirty days without meeting a single human being. 
 Pausing on the river bank opposite St. Louis he hallooed 
 for an hour before any one heard him. 
 
 " Dat some person on de oder shore," presently said 
 old Rene Kiercereaux, the chorister at the village church. 
 
 A canoe was sent over and brought back Boone. As 
 if a man had dropped from the moon, French, Spanish, 
 and Indian traders gathered. He spoke not a word of 
 
ST. CLAIR 
 
 97 
 
 French, but Auguste Chouteau's slave Petrie could talk 
 English. 
 
 " Son of Boone, de great hunter ? Come to my house !" 
 
 11 Come to my house ! " 
 
 The hospitable Creoles strove with one another for 
 the honour of entertaining the son of Daniel Boone. For 
 twelve years he spent his summers in St. Louis and his 
 winters in western Missouri, hunting and trapping. 
 
 " The best beaver country on earth," he wrote to his 
 father. " You had better come out." 
 
 " Eef your father, ze great Colonel Boone, will re 
 move to Louisiana," said Senor Zenon Trudeau, the 
 Lieutenant-Governor, " eef he will become a citizen of 
 Spain, de King will appreciate de act and reward him 
 handsomely." 
 
 XXIV 
 
 ST. CLAIR 
 
 ENTUCKY! Kentucky! I hear nothing else," 
 exclaimed the Fighting Parson of the Revolution, 
 ho had thrown aside his prayer-book and gown 
 to follow the armies of Washington. " If this western 
 exodus continues Virginia bids fair to be depopulated." 
 Even Jack Jouett, who had ridden to warn Jefferson of 
 Tarleton's raid, had gone to become an honoured member 
 of Kentucky's first legislature. 
 " Father, let me go." 
 
 Charles Mynn Thruston, the son of the Fighting Par 
 son, had long desired to follow Fanny Clark, but his 
 father held him back. Smiling now at the ardour of his 
 son, he said, " You may go, my boy. I am thinking of 
 the western country myself." 
 
 Preparations were immediately made, business affairs 
 settled, and a farewell dinner brought friends to historic 
 Mount Zion, the famous Shenandoah seat of the Fighting 
 Parson. 
 
 7 
 
98 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " A strangah desiahs to know, sah, if he can get dinnah, 
 sah," announced black Sambo. 
 
 " Certainly, certainly." Parson Thruston was the soul 
 of hospitality. " Bring him at once to the table, Sambo." 
 
 The stranger seated himself and ate in silence. 
 
 " I perceive," remarked the Parson after the courses 
 had been removed, " I perceive that you are a traveller. 
 May I inquire whence you come? " 
 
 Every ear was intent. " From Kentucky, sir," an 
 swered the stranger. 
 
 " Ah, that is fortunate. I am about to leave for that 
 country myself," exclaimed young Thruston, " and shall 
 be glad to hear such news as you may have to communi 
 cate." 
 
 The stranger smiled and pondered. " The only inter 
 esting incident that I recall before my departure from 
 Louisville, was the marriage of the Kentucky belle, Miss 
 Fanny Clark, to Dr. O' Fallen." 
 
 As if struck by a bolt from heaven, Charles Mynn 
 Thruston fell unconscious to the floor. 
 
 Dr. O' Fallen was a young Irish gentleman of talent 
 and learning. An intimate friend of the Governor of 
 South Carolina, just before the Revolution he had come 
 to visit America, but espousing the cause of the colonists, 
 the Governor promptly clapped him into prison. 
 
 " Imprisoned O'Fallon ! " The people of Charleston 
 arose, liberated him, and drove the Governor to the British 
 fleet in the harbour. 
 
 Dr. O'Fallon enlisted as a private soldier. But sur 
 geons were needed, he soon proved himself one of skill 
 unexcelled in America. General Washington himself 
 ordered him north, and made him Surgeon-General in his 
 own army. Here he remained until the close of the war, 
 and was thanked by Congress for his services. 
 
 And now he had visited Kentucky to assist in securing 
 the navigation of the Mississippi, and met - Fanny. 
 With the charming Fanny as his wife, Dr. O'Fallon 
 rode many a mile in the woods, the first great doctor of 
 Louisville. 
 
 Other emigrants were bringing other romances, and 
 
ST. CLAIR 99 
 
 other tragedies. " Ohio ! Ohio ! We hear nothing but 
 Ohio ! " said the people of New England. 
 
 One rainy April morning the " Mayflower," a flatboat 
 with a second Plymouth colony, turned into the Mus- 
 kingum and founded a settlement". 
 
 " Marie, Marie Antoinette, did she not use her in 
 fluence in behalf of Franklin's mission to secure the 
 acknowledgment of American independence? Let us 
 name our settlement Marietta." 
 
 So were founded the cities of the French king and 
 queen, Louisville and Marietta. A few months later, 
 Kentuckians went over and started Cincinnati on the site 
 of George Rogers Clark's old block-house. 
 
 Into the Ohio, people came suddenly and in swarms, 
 " institutional Englishmen," bearing their household gods 
 and shaping a state. 
 
 " These men come wearing hats," said the Indians. 
 Frenchmen wore handkerchiefs and never tarried. 
 
 Surveyors came. 
 
 Squatting around their fires, with astonishment and 
 fear the Indians watched " the white man's devil," squint 
 ing over his compass and making marks in his books. 
 Wherever the magical instrument turned all the best 
 lands were bound with chains fast to the white man. 
 
 The Indians foresaw their approaching destruction and 
 hung nightly along the river shore, in the thick brush 
 under the sycamores, stealing horses and sinking boats. 
 With tomahawk in hand, a leader among them was young 
 Tecumseh. 
 
 " The Ohio shall be the boundary. No white man shall 
 plant corn in Ohio ! " cried the Indian. 
 
 " Keep the Ohio for a fur preserve," whispered Detroit 
 at his back. 
 
 While wedding bells were ringing at Mulberry Hill, 
 Marietta was suffering. The gardens were destroyed by 
 Indian marauders, the game was driven off, and great was 
 the privation within the walled town. 
 
 That was the winter when Governor St. Clair came with 
 his beautiful daughter Louisa, the fleetest rider in the 
 chase, the swiftest skater on the ice, and, like all pioneer 
 
ioo THE CONQUEST 
 
 girls, so skilled with the rifle that she could bring down 
 the bird on the wing, the squirrel from the tree. 
 
 Creeping out over the crusty February snow, every 
 family in the settlement had its kettle in the sugar orchard 
 boiling down the maple sap. Corn-meal and sap boiled 
 down together formed for many the daily food. 
 
 But with all the bravado of their hearts, men and 
 women passed sleepless vigils while the sentinel stood all 
 night long in the lonely watchtower of the middle block 
 house. At any moment might arise the cry, " The In 
 dians ! The Indians are at the gates ! " and with the long 
 roll of the drum beating alarm every gun was ready at a 
 porthole and every white face straining through the dark. 
 
 When screaming wild geese steering their northern 
 flight gave token of returning spring, when the partridge 
 drummed in the wood and the turkey gobbled, when the 
 red bird made vocal the forest and the hawthorn and 
 dogwood flung out their perfume, then too came the 
 Indian from his winter lair. 
 
 " Ah," sighed many a mother, " I prefer the days of 
 gloom and tempest, for then the red man hugs his win 
 ter fire." 
 
 Always among the first in pursuit of marauding In 
 dians, William Clark as a cadet had already crossed the 
 Ohio with General Scott, " a youth of solid and promising 
 parts and as brave as Caesar," said Dr. O'Fallon. 
 
 Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea, presented a memorial to 
 Congress insisting upon the Ohio as the Indian boundary. 
 His son came down to Marietta. 
 
 " Ah, yes," was the whispered rumour at Marietta, 
 " young Brant, the educated son of the famous Mohawk 
 leader, aspires to the hand of. Louisa St. Clair." But the 
 Revolutionary General spurned his daughter's dusky 
 suitor. 
 
 The next day after New Year's, 1791, the Indians 
 swept down on Marietta with the fiendish threat, " Before 
 the trees put forth their leaves again no white man's cabin 
 shall smoke beyond the Ohio." 
 
 " Capture St. Clair alive," bade the irate Mohawk 
 chieftain. " Shoot his horse under him but do not 
 
ST. CLAIR ioi 
 
 kill him." Did he hope yet to win consent to his mar 
 riage with Louisa? 
 
 The next heard of St. Clair was when the last shattered 
 remnant of his prostrate army fell back on Cincinnati, a 
 defeat darker, more annihilating, more ominous than 
 Braddock's. 
 
 " My God," exclaimed Washington, " it 's all over ! 
 St. Clair 's defeated routed ; the officers are nearly all 
 killed, the men by wholesale ; the rout is complete too 
 shocking to think of and a surprise into the bargain." 
 
 No wonder Secretary Lear stood appalled as the great 
 man poured forth his wrath in the house at Philadelphia. 
 
 Fifteen hundred went out from Cincinnati, five hun 
 dred came back. A thousand scalps had Thayendanegea. 
 
 The news came to Mulberry Hill like a thunderbolt. 
 Kentucky, even Pittsburg, looked for an immediate savage 
 inundation, for was not all that misty West full of 
 warriors ? The old fear leaped anew. Like an irresistible 
 billow they might roll over the unprotected frontier. 
 
 From his bed of sickness General Clark started up. 
 "Ah, Detroit! Detroit! Hadst thou been taken my 
 countrymen need not have been so slaughtered." 
 
 At Marietta, up in the woods and on the side hills, 
 glittered multitudes of fires, the camps of savages. Hun 
 ger added its pangs to fear. The beleaguered citizens sent 
 all the money they could raise by two young men to buy 
 salt, meat, and flour at Redstone-Old-Fort on the Monon- 
 gahela. Suddenly the river closed with ice ; in destitution 
 Marietta waited. 
 
 ' They have run off with the money," said some. 
 
 ' They have been killed by Indians," said others. But 
 again, as suddenly, the ice broke, and early in March the 
 young men joyfully moored their precious Kentucky ark 
 at the upper gate of the garrison at Marietta. 
 
102 THE CONQUEST 
 
 XXV 
 
 THE SWORD OF "MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE 
 
 " A BOTHER defeat will ruin the reputation of the 
 i\ government," said Washington, as he sent out 
 
 JL JL u Mad Anthony" Wayne, the uproarious Quaker 
 general, with ruffles, queue, and cocked hat, the stormer 
 of Stony Point in the Revolution. 
 
 In vain Wayne sent commissioners to treat with the 
 Indians. Elated with recent victories, " The Ohio shall 
 be the boundary," was the defiant answer. 
 
 An Indian captured and brought to Wayne said of the 
 British : " All their speeches to us are red, red as blood. 
 All the wampum and feathers are painted red. Our war- 
 pipes and hatchets are red. Even the tobacco is red for 
 war." 
 
 " My mind and heart are upon that river," said Corn- 
 planter, an Indian chief, pointing to the Ohio. " May 
 that water ever continue to be the boundary between the 
 Americans and the Indians." 
 
 Commissioned by Washington First Lieutenant of the 
 Fourth Sub-Legion, on the first of September, 1792, Wil 
 liam Clark crossed the Ohio and spent the winter at 
 Legionville where Wayne was collecting and drilling his 
 army. 
 
 " I will have no six months men," said Wayne. " Two 
 years will it take to organise, drill, and harden them be 
 fore we think of taking the field." 
 
 " We are certain to be scalped," whispered timorous 
 ones, remembering St. Clair's slaughter. Hundreds de 
 serted. The very word Indian inspired terror. 
 
 But horse, foot, and artillery, he drilled them, the 
 tremblers took courage, and the government, at last 
 awakened, stood firmly behind with money and supplies. 
 
 " Remember, Stony Point was stormed with unloaded 
 muskets. See! You must know the use of the broad- 
 
THE SWORD OF "MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE 103 
 
 sword and of the bayonet, a weapon before which the 
 savages cannot stand." 
 
 At work went " Mad Anthony " teaching his men to 
 load and fire upon the run, to leap to the charge with 
 loud halloos, anticipating all possible conditions. 
 
 " Charge in open order. Each man rely on himself, 
 and expect a personal encounter with the enemy." The 
 men caught his spirit. Wayne's Legion became a great 
 military school. 
 
 Now he was drilling superb Kentucky cavalry, as per 
 fectly matched as the armies of Europe, sorrel and bay, 
 chestnut and gray, bush-whacking and charging, leap 
 ing ravines and broken timber, outdoing the Indians 
 themselves in their desperate riding. 
 
 And with all this drill, Wayne was erecting and gar 
 risoning forts. In the fall of 1793, Lieutenant Clark 
 was dispatched to Vincennes. 
 
 " It appears that all active and laborious commands 
 fall on me," he wrote to his brother Jonathan, in Vir 
 ginia. " Not only labour, but I like to have starved, 
 was frozen up in the Wabash twenty days without pro 
 visions. In this agreeable situation had once more to 
 depend on my rifle." 
 
 After several skirmishes with Indians, Lieutenant 
 Clark returned to Fort Washington (Cincinnati) in 
 May, to be immediately dispatched with twenty-one dra 
 goons and sixty cavalry to escort seven hundred pack- 
 horses laden with provisions and clothing to Greenville, 
 a log fort eighty miles north of Cincinnati. 
 
 The Shawnees were watching. Upon this rich prize 
 fell an ambuscade of sixty Indians. Eight men were 
 killed, the train began to retreat, when Clark came dash 
 ing up from the rear, put the assailants to flight, and saved 
 the day. For this he was thanked by General Wayne. 
 
 Washington, Jefferson, the whole country impatiently 
 watched for news of Wayne on the Ohio. 
 
 Drill, drill, drill, keeping out a cloud of scouts that 
 no peering Indian might discover his preparations, Wayne 
 exercised daily now with rifle, sabre, and bayonet until 
 no grizzly frontiersman surpassed his men at the target, 
 
104 THE CONQUEST 
 
 no fox-hunter could leap more wildly, no swordsman 
 more surely swing the sharp steel home. At the sight 
 young Tennesseeans and Kentuckians, Virginians of the 
 border and Pennsylvanians of lifetime battle, were eager 
 for the fray. 
 
 About midsummer, 1794, Wayne moved out with his 
 Legion, twenty-six hundred strong, and halted at Fort 
 Greenville for sixteen hundred Kentucky cavalry. Bri 
 gades of choppers were opening roads here and there to 
 deceive. 
 
 " This General that never sleeps is cutting in every 
 direction," whispered the watchful Shawnees. " He is 
 the Black Snake." 
 
 For a last time Wayne offered peace. His messengers 
 were wantonly murdered. 
 
 The issue at Fallen Timbers lasted forty minutes, 
 the greatest Indian battle in forty years of battle. Two 
 thousand Indians crouching in the brush looked to see 
 the Americans dismount and tie their horses as they did 
 in St. Clair's battle, but no, bending low on their 
 horses with gleaming sabres and fixed bayonets, on like 
 a whirlwind came thundering the American cavalry. 
 
 " What was it that defeated us? It was the Big Wind, 
 the Tornado," said the Indians. 
 
 Matchekewis was there from Sheboygan with his war 
 riors, the Black Partridge from Illinois, and Buckonga- 
 helas. The Shawnees had their fill of fighting that day; 
 Tecumseh fell back at the wild onset, retreating inch by 
 inch. 
 
 William Clark led to the charge a column of Ken 
 tuckians and drove the enemy two miles. But why 
 enumerate in this irresistible legion, where all were 
 heroes on that 2Oth of August, 1794. 
 
 Wayne's victory ended the Revolution. Ninety days 
 after, Lord St. Helens gave up Ohio in his treaty with 
 Jay, and England bound herself to deliver the north 
 western posts that her fur traders had hung on to so 
 vainly. 
 
 Niagara, Michilimackinac, Detroit, keys to the Lakes, 
 entrepots to all the fur trade of the Northwest, were lost 
 
THE SWORD OF "MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE 105 
 
 to Britain for ever. It was hardest to give up Detroit, - 
 it broke up their route and added many a weight to the 
 weary packer's back when the fur trade had to take a 
 more northern outlet along the Ottawa. 
 
 It was ten o'clock in the morning of July u, 1796, 
 when the Detroiters peering through their glasses espied 
 two vessels. " The Yankees are coming! " 
 
 A thrill went through the garrison, and even through 
 the flag that fluttered above. The last act in the war of 
 independence was at hand. 
 
 The four gates of Detroit opened to be closed no more, 
 as the drawbridge fell over the moat and the Americans 
 marched into the northern stronghold. It was Lernoult's 
 old fort built so strenuously in that icy winter of 1779-80, 
 when " Clark is coming " was the watchword of the 
 north.' Scarce a picket in the stockade had been changed 
 since that trying time. Blockhouse, bastion, and battery 
 could so easily have been taken, that even at this day we 
 cannot suppress a regret that Clark had not a chance at 
 Detroit ! 
 
 Barefooted Frenchmen, dark-eyed French girls, and 
 Indians, Indians everywhere, came in to witness the 
 transfer of Detroit. At noon, July n, 1796, the Eng 
 lish flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes went up 
 where Clark would fain have hung them seventeen years 
 before. 
 
 And the old cellar of the council house! Like a tomb 
 was its revelation, for there, mouldered with the must of 
 years, lay two thousand scalps, long tresses of women, 
 children's golden curls, and the wiry locks of men. 
 thrown into that official cellar in those awful days that 
 now were ended. 
 
 The merry Frenchmen on their pipestem farms, for 
 every inhabitant owned his pathway down to the river, 
 the merry Frenchmen went on grinding their corn by 
 their old Dutch windmills, went on pressing their cider 
 in their gnarled old apple orchards. They could not 
 change the situation if they would, and they would not 
 if they could. The lazy windmills of Detroit swung 
 round and round as if it had been ever thus. Still the 
 
io6 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Indians slid in and out and still the British traders lin 
 gered, loath to give up the fur trade of the Lakes. 
 
 The next year after Wayne's victory the last buffalo 
 in Ohio was killed, and in 1796 the first American cabins 
 were built at Cleveland and Chillicothe. For the first 
 time the Ohio, the great highway, was safe. Passenger 
 boats no longer had bullet-proof cabins, no longer trailed 
 cannon on their gunwales. In that year twenty thousand 
 emigrants passed down the Ohio. Astonished and help 
 less the red men saw the tide. By 1800 there were more 
 whites in the Mississippi valley than there were Indians 
 in all North America. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 THE SPANIARD 
 
 EARLY in April of 1793 a company of French mer 
 chants sat at a dinner in New Orleans. Before 
 them magnolias bloomed in the plaza. Out in the 
 harbour their vessels were flying the Spanish flag. 
 
 " Spain has declared war against France. A French 
 frigate is sailing for the Gulf." 
 
 Like a bomb the announcement burst in their midst. 
 
 The fine and handsome face of Charles De Pauw was 
 lit with determination. He had come over with Lafayette, 
 and had invested a fortune in the new world. 
 
 " My ships are in danger. I will haul down the Spanish 
 colours and float the American flag. Long enough have 
 the Frenchmen of Missouri and Illinois endured the Span 
 ish yoke. Long enough have our cargoes been confis 
 cated and our trade ruined by unnecessary and tyrannical 
 restrictions." 
 
 " But America will not help us." 
 
 " The Kentuckians will," answered De Pauw. " Al 
 ready they are begging George Rogers Clark to march on 
 New Orleans." 
 
THE SPANIARD 107 
 
 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, Spain stretches 
 an invisible cordon, ' thus far and no farther.' All beyond 
 is the private park of Don Carlos IV." 
 
 "What will Congress do?" 
 
 " Congress? " echoed another. " What does it matter 
 to those people beyond the Alleghanies? They are very 
 far away. Europe is not so remote. Our interests lie 
 with Mississippi and the sea." 
 
 " But that would dismember the Union." 
 
 " Will it dismember the Union for the Louisianians to 
 break their fetter from Spain and thereby give us a market 
 clear of duty? The Kentuckians, 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 the Gulf under the Stars and Stripes. 
 On the way to New York he met the frigate returning 
 that brought the French minister, Charles Genet, to 
 Charleston. 
 
 Acres of flatboats lay freighted on the dimpling Ohio. 
 Corn, wheat, oats, rye, the worn-out tobacco lands of 
 Virginia knew nothing like it. But the Spaniard stood at 
 the gate and locked up the river. 
 
 "A King?" Americans laughed at the fancy. "A 
 King to check or hinder us in our rights? Who shall 
 refuse us? Are we not Americans?" 
 
 " The Mississippi is ours," cried Kentucky. " By the 
 law of nature, by the authority of numbers, by the right 
 of necessity. If Congress will not give it to us, we must 
 take it ourselves." 
 
 And now France 
 
 George Rogers Clark was profoundly moved by the 
 French crusade for liberty. " We owe it to France to 
 help her. Was not France our friend in the time of 
 trouble?" 
 
io8 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Then he wrote to the French minister, tendering his 
 services to France in her arduous struggle: 
 
 " I would begin with St. Louis, a rich, large, and populous 
 town, and by placing two or three frigates within the Mis 
 sissippi'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 situa 
 tion 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 to the United States, and lo! that min 
 ister was Genet, just landed at Charleston. 
 
 Genet had come from Revolutionary France, at this 
 moment fighting all Europe, so frightfully had upblazed 
 the tiny spark of liberty borne back by the soldiers of 
 Rochambeau. 
 
 Andre Michaux was instructed to hasten to the Falls 
 of the Ohio with this message to George Rogers Clark : 
 
 " The French minister has filled out this blank com 
 mission from his Government making you a Marshal of 
 France, Major General and Commander-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 an army 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, are increased with every vessel that 
 comes from the ports of France." 
 
THE SPANIARD 109 
 
 He begged Spain to send him troops from Cuba. He 
 begged the Captain General of Cuba to send him troops 
 from Havana. 
 
 Gayoso put his fort at Vicksburg in defence and Caron 
 delet sent up a division 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 for France. He would build de 
 fences, they opposed and complained of his measures. 
 Merchants and others whose business suffered by the un 
 certainties of commerce took no responsibility as the domi 
 neering little 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 dark night," said the Baron. 
 
 All the artillery was mounted. Haughty Spanish cav 
 aliers with swords and helmets paced the parapets of the 
 grim pentagonal bastions. Watchmen with spears and 
 lanterns guarded the gates below. The city was in terror 
 of assault. At every rise of the river Carondelet looked 
 for a filibustering army out of the north. By every ship 
 runners were sent to Spain. 
 
 News of the intended raid penetrated even the Ursuline 
 Convent. Sister Infelice paled when she heard it, gave a 
 little gasp, and fainted. 
 
 " Clearly she fears, the gentle sister fears these northern 
 barbarians," remarked the Mother Superior. " Take her 
 to her chamber." 
 
 And St. Louis, not since 1780 had she been so 
 alarmed. The Governor constructed a square redoubt 
 flanked by bastions, dug a shallow moat, and raised a fort 
 on the hill. Seventeen grenadiers with drawn sabres 
 stood at the drawbridge. 
 
 " Immediately on the approach of the enemy, retreat 
 to New Madrid," was the order of this puissant Governor. 
 
 George Rogers Clark, who had planned and exe 
 cuted the conquest of Illinois, burned now for the con 
 quest of Louisiana. And the West looked to him; she 
 
I io THE CONQUEST 
 
 despised and defied the Spaniard as she despised and 
 defied the Indian. They blocked the way, they must 
 depart. 
 
 Clark's old veteran officers Christy, Logan, Mont 
 gomery, sent word they would serve under his command. 
 The French squadron at Philadelphia was to set sail for 
 the Gulf. 
 
 Major Fulton and Michaux, Clark's right-hand men, 
 travelled all over the West enlisting men, provision?, and 
 money. De Pauw engaged to furnish four hundred bar 
 rels of flour and a thousand-weight of bacon, and to send 
 brass cannon over the mountains. In December Clark's 
 men were already cutting timber to build boats on the 
 Bear Grass. Five thousand men were to start in the 
 Spring, provided Congress did not oppose and Genet 
 could raise a million dollars. 
 
 In despair Carondelet wrote home, saying that if the 
 project planned was carried into effect, he would have no 
 other alternative but to surrender. 
 
 " Having no reinforcements to hope for from Havana, 
 I have no further hope than in the faults the enemy may 
 commit and in accidents which may perhaps favour 
 us." 
 
 Carondelet gave up. In March he wrote again, " The 
 commandant at Post Vincennes has offered cannon for 
 the use of the expedition." 
 
 Early in January Clark was writing to De Pauw, 
 " Have your stores at the Falls by the 2Oth of February, 
 as in all probability we shall descend the river at that 
 time." 
 
 Montgomery reported, " arms and ammunition, five 
 hundred bushels of corn and ten thousand pounds of pork, 
 also twenty thousand weight of buffalo beef, eleven hun 
 dred weight of bear meat, seventy-four pair venison hams, 
 and some beef tongues." 
 
 With two hundred men Montgomery lay at the mouth 
 of the Ohio ready to cross over. Not ninety Spaniards 
 of regular troops were there to defend St. Louis, and two 
 hundred militia, and the Governor had only too much 
 reason to fear that St. Louis would open her gates and 
 
THE SPANIARD ill 
 
 join the invader. All that was lacking was money. Hun 
 dreds of Kentuckians waited 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 a problem for statesmen. 
 
 Jefferson wrote to Governor Shelby of Kentucky to 
 restrain the expedition. 
 
 " I have grave doubts," Governor Shelby answered, 
 " whether there is any legal authority to restrain or to 
 punish them. For, if it is lawful for any one citizen of the 
 state to leave it, it is equally so for any number of them 
 to do it. It is also lawful for them to carry any quantity 
 of provisions, arms, and ammunition. I shall also feel 
 but little inclination to take an active paft in punishing or 
 retaining any of my fellow citizens for a supposed inten 
 tion only, to gratify the fears of the ministers of a prince 
 who openly withholds from us an invaluable right, and 
 who secretly instigates against us a most savage and cruel 
 enemy." 
 
 Washington promptly issued a proclamation of neu 
 trality and requested the recall of Genet. From the new 
 Minister of France Clark received formal notice that the 
 conquest of Louisiana was abandoned. But Spain had 
 had her fright. She at once opened the river, and the 
 mass of collected 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 
 Chickasaw Bluff, on this side of the river," said General 
 Wayne, one night in September, 1795, summoning Wil 
 liam Clark to his headquarters. "I desire you to go down 
 to the commanding officer on the west side and inquire his 
 intentions." 
 
 Why, of all that army, had Wayne chosen the young 
 lieutenant of the Fourth Sub-Legion for this errand? 
 Was it because he bore the name of Clark? Very well; 
 both knew why Spain had advanced to the Chickasaw 
 Bluff. 
 
H2 THE CONQUEST 
 
 As Washington went forty years before to inquire of 
 the French, " Why are you building forts on the 
 Ohio?" so now William Clark, on board the galiot, 
 " La Vigilante," dropped down to New Madrid and 
 asked the Spaniard, " Why are you building forts on 
 the Mississippi ? " 
 
 Down came Charles De Hault De Lassus, the Com 
 mandant himself. " I assure you we have been very far 
 from attempting to usurp the territory of a nation with 
 whom we desire to remain in friendship," protested the 
 courtly Commandant with a wave of his sword and a 
 flutter of his plume. " But the threats of the French 
 republicans living in the United States," - he paused for 
 a reply. 
 
 " Calm yourself," replied Lieutenant Clark. " Read 
 here the pacific intentions of my country." 
 
 None better than William Clark understood the virtues 
 of conciliation and persuasion. " I assure you that the 
 United States is disposed to preserve peace with all the 
 powers of Europe, and with Spain especially." 
 
 With mutual expressions of esteem and cordial parting 
 salvos, Lieutenant Clark left his Spanish friends with a 
 mollified feeling toward " those turbulent Americans." 
 
 Nevertheless George Rogers Clark had opened the 
 river, to be closed again at peril. 
 
 Among the soldiers at Wayne's camp that winter was 
 Lieutenant Meriwether Lewis, " just from the Whiskey 
 Rebellion," he said. Between him and William Clark, 
 now Captain Clark, there sprang up the most intimate 
 friendship. 
 
 " The nature of the Insurrection? " remarked Lewis in 
 his camp talks with Clark. " Why, the Pennsylvania 
 mountaineers about Redstone-Old-Fort refused to pay 
 the whiskey tax, stripped, tarred, and feathered the col 
 lectors ! ' The people must be taught obedience/ said 
 General Washington, and, after all peaceable means failed, 
 he marched fifteen thousand militia into the district. The 
 thought that Washington was coming at the head of 
 troops made them reconsider. They sent deputations to 
 make terms about the time of Wayne's battle. We built 
 
THE BROTHERS 113 
 
 log huts and forted for the winter on the Monongahela 
 about fifteen miles above Pittsburg." 
 
 " And so the Spaniards have come to terms? " queried 
 Lewis as Clark still remained silent. 
 
 " Yes, they have opened the river." 
 
 " I came near being in the midst of that," continued 
 Lewis. " Michaux came to Charlottesville. I was eigh 
 teen, just out of school and eager for adventure. Michaux 
 was to explore the West. Mr. Jefferson had a plan for 
 sending two people across the Rocky Mountains. I begged 
 to go, and probably should, had not Michaux been re 
 called when the new French minister came in." 
 
 " Rest assured," replied Clark solemnly, " no explora 
 tion of the West can ever be made while Spain holds 
 Louisiana." 
 
 XXVII 
 
 THE BROTHERS 
 
 " "% /f^ claim is as just as the book we swear by." 
 V/l The hero of the heroic age of the Middle 
 
 1. T A West was discussing his debts for the conquest 
 of Illinois. " I have given the United States half the ter 
 ritory they possess, and for them to suffer me to remain 
 in poverty in consequence of it will not redound to their 
 honour. I engaged in the Revolution with all the ar 
 dour that youth could possess. My zeal and ambition 
 rose with my success, determined to save those countries 
 which had been the seat of my toil, at the hazard of my 
 life and fortune. 
 
 " At the most gloomy period of the war when a ration 
 could not be purchased on public credit, I risked my own 
 credit, gave my bonds, mortgaged my lands for supplies, 
 paid strict attention to every department, flattered the 
 friendly and confused the hostile tribes of Indians, by 
 my emissaries baffled my internal enemies (the most dan 
 gerous of all to public interest), and carried my point. 
 
n 4 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Thus at the end of the war I had the pleasure of see 
 ing my country secure, but with the loss of my manual 
 activity. Demands of very great amount were not paid, 
 others with depreciated paper. Now suits are commenced 
 against me, for those sums in specie. My military and 
 other lands, earned by my services, are appropriated for 
 the payment of these debts, and demands yet are remain 
 ing, to a considerable amount more than the remains of 
 a shattered fortune will pay. 
 
 " This is truly my situation. I see no other recourse 
 remaining but to make application to my country for 
 redress." 
 
 Brooding over his troubles, George Rogers Clark had 
 built himself a little cabin at the Point of Rock, over 
 looking the Falls of the Ohio, and gone into a self-chosen 
 St. Helena. The waves dashed and roared below and 
 the mist arose, as he looked out on Corn Island, scene of 
 his earliest exploit. 
 
 A library of handsome books was the principal orna 
 ment the house contained. Reading, hunting, fishing, 
 he passed his days, while the old negro servants attended 
 to the kitchen and the garden. 
 
 " I have come," answered his brother William, " I 
 have retired from the army, to devote myself to you. 
 Now what can be done?" 
 
 " Done? Look at these bills. Gratiot's is paid, thank 
 .God, or he would have been a ruined man. Monroe 
 helped him through with that. And Menard's? That 
 is shelved at Richmond for fifty years." General Clark 
 turned the leaves of his note-book. 
 
 "And Vigo? But for him I could never have sur 
 prised Vincennes. He was the best friend I had, and 
 the best still, except you, William." 
 
 A singular affection bound these two brothers. It 
 seemed almost as if William took up the life of George 
 Rogers where it was broken off, and carried it on to a 
 glorious conclusion. 
 
 " Virginia acknowledges Vigo's debt, certifies that it 
 has never been paid but she has ceded those lands to the 
 Government. Who then shall pay it but Congress ? The 
 
THE BROTHERS 115 
 
 debt was necessary and lawful in contracting for supplies 
 for the conquest of Illinois. Could I have done with 
 less? God knows we went with parched corn only in 
 our wallets and depended on our rifles for the rest. Tell 
 him to keep the draft, Virginia will pay it, or Congress, 
 some time or other, with interest." 
 
 Again, at William's persuasion, the General came home 
 to Mulberry Hill. An expert horseman, everybody in 
 Louisville knew Captain Clark, who, wrapped in his 
 cloak, came spurring home night after night on his 
 blooded bay, with York at his side, darkness nor swol 
 len fords nor wildly beating storms stopping his journey 
 as he came bearing news to his brother. 
 
 " I have ridden for brother George in the course of 
 this year upwards of three thousand miles," wrote the 
 Captain to his brother Edmund, in December, 1797, 
 " continually in the saddle, attempting to save him, and 
 have been serviceable to him in several instances. I have 
 but a few days returned from Vincennes attending a suit 
 for twenty-four thousand dollars against him." 
 
 These long journeys included tours to St. Louis, Vin 
 cennes, Kaskaskia, among the General's old debtors, prov 
 ing that the articles for which he was sued were for his 
 troops, powder and military stores. 
 
 ' The General is very ill again," said father Clark, 
 walking up and down the entry before the chamber door. 
 The old man's severe countenance always relaxed when 
 he spoke of " the General." Of all his children, George 
 Rogers was the one least expected to fall into dissipation, 
 but now in rheumatic distress, old before his time, George 
 Rogers sometimes drank. 
 
 " Cover him, shield him, let not the world witness my 
 brother's weakness," William would say at such times, 
 affectionately detaining him at Mulberry Hill. 
 
 Glancing into the dining-room, the white-haired cava 
 lier noticed Fanny and her children and others sitting 
 around the table. Preoccupied, the old man approached, 
 and leaning over a chair delivered an impressive grace. 
 
 " Now, my children, you can eat your dinner. Do not 
 wait for me," and again he took up his walk in the entry 
 
ii6 THE CONQUEST 
 
 outside the chamber door. A smile wreathed the faces 
 of all; there was no dinner; they were simply visiting 
 near the table. 
 
 With children and grandchildren around him, the house 
 at Mulberry Hill was always full. At Christmas or 
 Thanksgiving, when Lucy came with her boys from Lo 
 cust Grove, " Well, my children," father Clark would 
 say, " if I thought we would live, mother and I, five 
 years longer, I would build a new house." 
 
 But the day before Christmas, 1798, the silky white 
 hair of Ann Rogers Clark was brushed back for the last 
 time, in the home that her taste had beautified with the 
 groves and flowers of Mulberry Hill. 
 
 More and more frequently the old cavalier retired to 
 his rustic arbour in the garden. 
 
 " I must hunt up father, he will take cold," William 
 would say ; and there on a moonlight night, on his knees 
 in prayer, the old man would be found, among the cedars 
 and honeysuckles of Mulberry Hill. 
 
 " Why do you dislike old John Clark," some one asked 
 of a neighbour when the venerable man lay on his death 
 bed. 
 
 "What? I dislike old John Clark? I revere and 
 venerate him. His piety and virtues may have been a 
 reproach, but I reverence and honour old John Clark." 
 
 By will the property was divided, and the home at 
 Mulberry Hill went to William. 
 
 " In case Jonathan comes to Kentucky he may be will 
 ing to buy the place," said William. " If he does I shall 
 take the cash to pay off these creditors of yours." 
 
 " Will you do that? " exclaimed George Rogers Clark 
 gratefully. " I can make it good to you when these lands 
 of mine come into value." 
 
 " Never mind that, brother, never mind that. The 
 honour of the family demands it. And those poor 
 Frenchmen are ruined." 
 
 " Indians are at the Falls ! " 
 
 Startled, even now the citizens of Louisville were ready 
 to fly out with shotguns in memory of old animosities. 
 
 Nothing chills the kindlier impulses like an Indian war. 
 
THE BROTHERS 117 
 
 Children age, young men frost and wrinkle, women turn 
 into maniacs. Every log hut had its bedridden invalid 
 victim of successive frights and nervous prostration. 
 Only the stout and sturdy few survived in after days to 
 tell of those fierce times when George Rogers Clark was 
 the hope and safety of the border. To these, the Indian 
 was a serpent in the path, a panther to be hunted. 
 
 " Hist ! go slow. 'T is the Delaware chiefs come down 
 to visit George Rogers Clark," said Simon Kenton. 
 
 In these days of peace, remembering still their old 
 terror of the Long Knife, a deputation of chiefs had 
 come to visit Clark. In paint and blankets, with lank 
 locks flapping in the breeze, they strode up the catalpa 
 avenue, sniffing the odours of Mulberry Hill. General 
 Clark looked from the window. Buckongahelas led the 
 train, with Pierre Drouillard, the interpreter. 
 
 Drouillard had become, for a time, a resident of Ken 
 tucky. Simon Kenton, hearing that the preserver of his 
 life had fallen into misfortune since the surrender of De 
 troit, sent for him, gave him a piece of his farm, and 
 built him a cabin. George Drouillard, a son, named for 
 George III., was becoming a famous hunter on the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 " We have come," said Buckongahelas, " to touch the 
 Long Knife." 
 
 Before Clark realised what they were doing, the In 
 dians had snipped off the tail of his blue military coat 
 with their hunting knives. 
 
 " This talisman will make us great warriors," said 
 Buckongahelas, carefully depositing a fragment in his 
 bosom. 
 
 Clark laughed, but from that time the Delaware King 
 and his braves were frequent visitors to the Long Knife, 
 who longed to live in the past, forgetting misfortune. 
 
 But George Rogers Clark was not alone in financial 
 disaster. St. Clair had expended a fortune in the cause 
 of his country and at last, accompanied by his devoted 
 daughter, retired to an old age of penury. 
 
 Boone, too, had his troubles. Never having satisfied 
 the requirements of law concerning his claim, he was 
 
ii8 THE CONQUEST 
 
 left landless in the Kentucky he had pioneered for civili 
 sation. Late one November day in 1798 he was seen 
 wending his way through the streets of Cincinnati, with 
 Rebecca and all his worldly possessions mounted on 
 packhorses. 
 
 " Where are you going?" queried an old-time ac 
 quaintance. 
 
 " Too much crowded, too many people. I am going 
 west where there is more elbow room." 
 
 " Ze celebrated Colonel Boone ees come to live een 
 Louisiana," said the Spanish officers of St. Louis. The 
 Stars and Stripes and the yellow flag of Spain were hung 
 out side by side, and the garrison came down out of the 
 stone fort on the hill to parade in honour of Daniel 
 Boone. 
 
 No such attentions had ever been paid to Daniel Boone 
 at home. He dined with the Governor at Government 
 House and was presented with a thousand arpents of 
 land, to be located wherever he pleased, " in the district 
 of the Femme Osage." 
 
 Beside a spring on a creek flowing into the Missouri 
 Boone built his pioneer cabin, beyond the farthest border 
 settlement. 
 
 " Bring a hundred more American families and we 
 will give you ten thousand arpents of land," said the 
 Governor. 
 
 Back to his old Kentucky stamping ground went 
 Boone, and successfully piloted out a settlement of neigh 
 bours and comrades. Directly, Colonel Daniel Boone was 
 made Commandant of the Femme Osage District. His 
 word -became law in the settlement, and here he held his 
 court under a spreading elm that stands to-day, the Judg 
 ment Tree of Daniel Boone. 
 
THE MAID OF FINCASTLE 119 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 THE MAID OF FINCASTLE 
 
 IN the autumn days as the century was closing, William 
 Clark set out for Virginia, as his brother had done in 
 other years. Kentucky was filled with old forts, neg 
 lected bastions, moats, and blockhouses, their origin for 
 gotten. Already the builders had passed on westward. 
 
 The Boone trace was lined now with settlements, a 
 beaten bridle-path thronged with emigrant trains kicking 
 up the dust. Through the frowning portals of Cumber 
 land Gap, Captain Clark and his man York galloped into 
 Virginia. 
 
 From the southern border of Virginia to the Potomac 
 passes the old highway, between the Alleghanies and the 
 Blue Ridge. Cantering thoughtfully along under the 
 broad-leaved locusts and laurels, a melody like the laugh 
 of wood-nymphs rippled from the forest. 
 
 " Why don't he go ? " cried a musical feminine voice. 
 " Oh, Harriet, Harriet!" With more laughter came a 
 rustling of green leaves. Parting the forest curtain to 
 discover the source of this unusual commotion, Captain 
 Clark descried two girls seated on a small pony, switching 
 with all their slender energy. 
 
 " His feet are set. He will not move, Judy." 
 
 Leaping at once from his saddle, the Captain bowed 
 low to the maidens in distress. " Can I be of any 
 assistance? " 
 
 The sudden apparition of a handsome soldier in tri- 
 cornered hat and long silk hose quite took their breath 
 away. 
 
 ' Thank you, sir knight," answered the blonde with a 
 flush of bewitching colour. " Firefly, my pony, seems to 
 object to carrying two, but we cannot walk across that 
 ford. My cousin and I have on our satin slippers." 
 
 The Captain laughed, and taking the horse's bridle 
 
120 THE CONQUEST 
 
 easily led them beyond the mountain rill that dashed 
 across their pathway. 
 
 " And will you not come to my father's house?" in 
 quired the maiden. " It is here among the trees." 
 
 Clark looked, the roof and gables of a comfortable 
 Virginian mansion shone amid the greenery. " I fear 
 not. I must reach Colonel Hancock's to-night." 
 
 " This is Colonel Hancock's," the girls replied with a 
 smothered laugh. 
 
 At a signal, York lifted the five-barred gate and all 
 passed in to the long green avenue. 
 
 " The brother of my old friend, General George Rogers 
 Clark ! " exclaimed Colonel Hancock. " Glad to see you, 
 glad to see you. Many a time has he stopped on this 
 road." 
 
 The Hancocks were among the founders of Virginia. 
 With John Smith the first one came over " in search of 
 Forrest for his building of Ships," and was " massacred 
 by ye salvages at Thorp's House, Berkeley Hundred." 
 
 General Hancock, the father of the present Colonel, 
 equipped a regiment for his son at the breaking out of the 
 Revolution. On Pulaski's staff, the young Colonel re 
 ceived the body of the illustrious Pole as he fell at the 
 siege of Savannah. 
 
 From his Sea Island plantations and the sound of war 
 in South Carolina, General Hancock, old and in gout, set 
 out for Virginia. But Pulaski had fallen and his son was 
 a prisoner under Cornwallis. Attended only by his 
 daughter Mary and a faithful slave, the General died on 
 the way and was buried by Uncle Primus on the top of 
 King's Mountain some weeks before the famous battle. 
 
 Released on parole and finding his fortune depleted, 
 Colonel George Hancock read Blackstone and the Vir 
 ginia laws, took out a license, married, and settled at Fin- 
 castle. Here his children were born, of whom Judy was 
 the youngest daughter. Later, by the death of that heroic 
 sister Mary, a niece had come into the family, Harriet 
 Kennerly. These were the girls that Captain Clark had 
 encountered in his morning ride among the mountains of 
 Fincastle. 
 
THE MAID OF FINCASTLE 121 
 
 " Your brother, the General, and I journeyed together 
 to Philadelphia, when he was Commissioner of Indian 
 affairs. Is he well and enjoying the fruits of his valour?" 
 continued the Colonel. 
 
 " My brother is disabled, the result of exposure in his 
 campaigns. He will never recover. I am now visiting 
 Virginia in behalf of his accounts with the Assembly, 
 they have never been adjusted. He even thought you, his 
 old friend, might be able to lend assistance, either in 
 Virginia or in Congress." 
 
 " I am honoured by the request. You may depend upon 
 me." 
 
 Colonel George Hancock had been a member of the 
 Fourth Congress in Washington's administration, and 
 with a four-horse family coach travelled to and from 
 Philadelphia attending the sessions. 
 
 Here the little Judy's earliest recollections had been 
 of the beautiful Dolly Todd who was about to wed Mr. 
 Madison. Jefferson was Secretary of State then, and his 
 daughters, Maria and Martha, came often to visit Judy's 
 older sisters, Mary and Caroline. 
 
 Judy's hair was a fluff of gold then ; shading to brown, 
 it was a fluff of gold still, that Granny Molly found hard 
 to keep within bounds. Harriet, her cousin, of dark and 
 splendid beauty, a year or two older, was ever the insepar 
 able companion of Judy Hancock. 
 
 " Just fixing up the place again," explained Colonel 
 Hancock. " It has suffered from my absence at Phila 
 delphia. A tedious journey, a tedious journey from 
 Fincastle." 
 
 But to the children that journey had been a liberal 
 education. The long bell-trains of packhorses, the rum 
 bling Conestogas, the bateaux and barges, the great rivers 
 and dense forests, the lofty mountains and wide farm 
 lands, the towns and villages, Philadelphia itself, were 
 indelibly fixed in their memory and their fancy. 
 
 Several times in the course of the next few years, Wil 
 liam Clark had occasion to visit Virginia in behalf of his 
 brother, and each time more and more he noted the bud 
 ding graces of the maids of Fincastle. 
 
122 THE CONQUEST 
 
 XXIX 
 
 THE PRESIDENTS SECRETARY 
 
 THE funeral bells of Washington tolled in 1800. 
 President Washington was dead. Napoleon was 
 first Consul of France. The old social systems 
 of Europe were tottering. The new social system of 
 America was building. The experiment of self-govern 
 ment had triumphed, and out of the storm-tossed seas 
 still grandly rode the Constitution. Out of the birth of 
 parties and political excitement, Thomas Jefferson came 
 to the Presidency. 
 
 The stately mansion of Monticello was ablaze with 
 light. Candles lit up every window. Not only Monti- 
 cello, but all Charlottesville was illuminated, with torches, 
 bonfires, tar-barrels. Friends gathered with congratula 
 tions and greeting. 
 
 As Washington had turned with regret from the banks 
 of the Potomac to fill the first presidency, and as Patrick 
 Henry, the gifted, chafed in Congressional halls, so now 
 Jefferson with equal regret left the shades of Monticello. 
 
 " No pageant shall give the lie to my democratic prin 
 ciples," he said, as in plain citizen clothes with a few of 
 his friends he repaired to the Capital and took the oath 
 of office. And by his side, with luminous eyes and pow 
 dered hair, sat Aaron Burr, the Vice-President. 
 
 Jefferson, in the simplicity of his past, had penned 
 everything for himself. Now he began to feel the need 
 of a secretary. There were many applicants, but the 
 President's eye turned toward the lad who nine years 
 before had begged to go with Michaux to the West. 
 
 " The appointment to the Presidency of the United 
 States has rendered it necessary for me to have a pri 
 vate secretary," he wrote to Meri wether Lewis. " Your 
 knowledge of the western country, of the army and of 
 all its interests, has rendered it desirable that you should 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S SECRETARY 123 
 
 be engaged in that office. In point of profit it. has little 
 to offer, the salary being only five hundred dollars, but 
 it would make you know and be known to characters of 
 influence in the affairs of our country." 
 
 Meriwether was down on the Ohio. In two weeks 
 his reply came back from Pittsburg. " I most cordially 
 acquiesce, and with pleasure accept the office, nor were 
 further motives necessary to induce my compliance than 
 that you, sir, should conceive that in the discharge of the 
 duties, I could be serviceable to my country as well as 
 useful to yourself." 
 
 As soon as he could wind up his affairs, Captain Lewis, 
 one of the handsomest men in the army, appeared in 
 queue and cocked hat, silk stockings and knee buckles, 
 at the President's house in wide and windy Washington 
 to take up his duties as private secretary. 
 
 From his earliest recollection, Meriwether Lewis had 
 known Thomas Jefferson, as Governor in the days of 
 Tarleton's raid, and as a private farmer and neighbour 
 at Monticello. After Meriwether's mother married Cap 
 tain Marks and moved to Georgia, Jefferson went to 
 France, and his uncle, Colonel Nicholas Lewis, looked 
 after the finances of the great estate at Monticello. 
 
 Under the guardianship of that uncle, Meriwether at 
 tended the school of Parson Maury, the same school 
 where Jefferson had been fitted for college. 
 
 He remembered, too, that day when Jefferson came 
 back from France and all the slaves at Monticello rushed 
 out and drew the carriage up by hand, crowding around, 
 kissing his hands and feet, blubbering, laughing, crying. 
 How the slaves fell back to admire the young ladies that 
 had left as mere children! Martha, a stately girl of 
 seventeen, and little Maria, in her eleventh year, a daz 
 zling vision of beauty. Ahead of everybody ran the gay 
 and sunny Jack Eppes to escort his little sweetheart. 
 
 Both daughters were married now, and with families 
 of their own, so more than ever Jefferson depended on 
 Meriwether Lewis. They occupied the same chamber 
 and lived in a degree of intimacy that perhaps has sub 
 sisted between no other president and his private secretary. 
 
124 THE CONQUEST 
 
 With his favourite Chickasaw horses, Arcturus and 
 Wildair, the President rode two hours every day, Meri- 
 wether often with him, directing the workmen on the new 
 Capitol, unfinished still amid stone and masonry tools. 
 
 Washington himself chose the site, within an amphi 
 theatre of hills overlooking the lordly Potomac where he 
 camped as a youth on Braddock's expedition. Washing 
 ton, Jefferson, Madison, riding ever to and from Mount 
 Vernon, Monticello, and Montpelier, discussed the plans 
 and set the architects to work. Now it fell to Jefferson 
 to carry on what Washington had so well begun. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was a social man, and loved a throng 
 about him. The vast and vacant halls of the White 
 House would have been dreary but for the retinue of 
 guests. Eleven servants had been brought from Monti- 
 cello, and half-a-dozen from Paris, Petit, the butler, 
 M. Julien, the cook, a French chef, Noel, the kitchen 
 boy, and Joseph Rapin, the steward. Every morning 
 Rapin went to the Georgetown market, and Meriwether 
 Lewis gave him his orders. 
 
 " For I need you, Meriwether, not only for the public, 
 but as well for the private concerns of the household," 
 said the President affectionately. " And I depend on 
 you to assist in entertaining." 
 
 " At the head of the table, please," said the President, 
 handing in Mrs. Madison. " I shall have to request you 
 to act as mistress of the White House." 
 
 In his own youth Jefferson had cherished an affection 
 for Dolly Madison's mother, the beautiful Mary Coles, 
 so it became not difficult to place her daughter in the seat 
 of honour. 
 
 There were old-style Virginia dinners, with the art of 
 Paris, for ever after his foreign experience Jefferson in 
 sisted on training his own servants in the French fashion. 
 At four they dined, and sat and talked till night, Con 
 gressmen, foreigners, and all sorts of people, with the 
 ever-present cabinet. 
 
 James Madison, Secretary of State, was a small man, 
 easy, dignified, and fond of conversation, with pale stu 
 dent face like a young theologian just out of the cloister. 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S SECRETARY 125 
 
 Dolly herself powdered his hair, tied up his queue, and 
 fastened his stock ; very likely, too, prescribed his elegant 
 knee breeches and buckles and black silk stockings, swans' 
 down buff vest, long coat, and lace ruffles. " A very tasty 
 old-school gentleman," said the guests of the White 
 House. 
 
 Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, born and 
 bred a scholar, was younger than either Madison or Jef 
 ferson, well read, with a slightly Genevan accent, and a 
 prominent nose that marked him a man of affairs. 
 
 But everything revolved about Jefferson, in the vil 
 lage of Washington and in the country at large. Next to 
 General Washington he filled the largest space in public 
 esteem. 
 
 Slim, tall, and bony, in blue coat faced with yellow, 
 green velveteen breeches, red plush waist-coat and elabo 
 rate shirt frill, long stockings and slippers with silver 
 buckles, just so had he been ever since his Parisian 
 days, picturesquely brilliant in dress and speech, talking, 
 talking, ever genially at the White House. 
 
 Before the " Mayflower " brought the first Puritans to 
 New England the Jeffersons had settled in Virginia. The 
 President's mother was a Randolph of patrician blood. 
 A hundred servants attended in Isham Randolph's, her 
 father's house. Peter Jefferson, his father, was a 
 democrat of democrats, a man of the people. Perhaps 
 Thomas had felt the sting of Randolph pride that a 
 daughter had married a homely rawboned Jefferson, but 
 all the man in him rose up for that Jefferson from whom 
 he was sprung. Thomas Jefferson, the son, was just 
 such a thin homely rawboned youth as his father had 
 been. Middle age brought him good looks, old age made 
 him venerable, an object of adoration to a people. 
 
 Always up before sunrise, he routed out Meriwether. 
 There were messages to send, or letters to write, or orders 
 for Rapin before the round disk of day reddened the 
 Potomac. 
 
 No woman ever brushed his gray neglected hair tied 
 so loosely in a club behind; it was Jeffersonian to have 
 it neglected and tumbled all over his head. Everybody 
 
126 THE CONQUEST 
 
 went to the White House for instruction, entertainment; 
 and Jefferson was Jefferson. 
 
 Of course he had his enemies, even there. Twice a 
 month Colonel Burr, the Vice-President, the great anti- 
 Virginian, dined at the White House. Attractive in per 
 son, distinguished in manner, all looked upon Colonel 
 Burr as next in the line of Presidential succession. He 
 came riding back and forth between Washington and 
 his New York residence at Richmond Hill, and with him 
 the lovely Theodosia, the intimate friend of Dolly Madi 
 son and Mrs. Gallatin. 
 
 Lewis understood some of the bitter and deadly politi 
 cal controversies that were smothered now under the ever 
 genial conversation of the President, for Jefferson, the 
 great apostle of popular sovereignty, could no more con 
 ceal his principles than he could conceal his personality. 
 Everything he discussed, science, politics, philosophy, 
 art, music. None there were more widely read, none 
 more travelled than the President. 
 
 But he dearly loved politics. Greater, perhaps, was 
 Jefferson in theory than in execution. His eye would 
 light with genius, as he propounded his views. 
 
 " Science, did you say? The main object of all science 
 is the freedom and happiness of man, and these are the 
 sole objects of all legitimate government. Why, Wash 
 ington himself hardly believed that so liberal a govern 
 ment as this could succeed, but he was resolved to give 
 the experiment a trial. And now, our people are throw 
 ing aside the monarchical and taking up the republican 
 form, with as much ease as would have attended their 
 throwing off an old and putting on a new suit of clothes. 
 I am persuaded that no Constitution was ever before so 
 well calculated as ours for extensive empire." 
 
 To Jefferson it had fallen to overthrow church estab 
 lishment and entail and primogeniture in Virginia, in 
 novations that were followed by all the rest of the States. 
 
 " At least," pleaded an opponent, " if the eldest may no 
 longer inherit all the lands and all the slaves of his father, 
 let him take a double share." 
 
 " No," said Jefferson, " not until he can eat a double 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S SECRETARY 127 
 
 allowance of food and do a double allowance of work. 
 Instead of an aristocracy of wealth, I would make an 
 opening for an aristocracy of virtue and talent." 
 
 " But see to what Mr. Jefferson and his levelling 
 system has brought us," cried even John Randolph of 
 Roanoke, as one after another of the estates of thou 
 sands of acres slid into the hands of the people. 
 
 He prohibited the importation of slaves, and, if he 
 could have done it, would have abolished slavery itself 
 before it became the despair of a people. 
 
 " Franklin a great orator? Why, no, he never spoke 
 in Congress more than five minutes at a time, and then 
 he related some anecdote which applied to the subject 
 before the House. I have heard all the celebrated ora 
 tors of the National Assembly of France, but there was 
 not one equal to Patrick Henry." 
 
 And then, confidentially, sometimes he told a tale of 
 the Declaration of Independence. " I shall never cease 
 to be grateful to John Adams, the colossus of that de 
 bate. While the discussion was going on, fatherly old 
 Ben Franklin, seventy years old, leaning on his cane, 
 sat by my side, and comforted me with his jokes when 
 ever the criticisms were unusually bitter. The Congress 
 held its meetings near a livery stable. The members wore 
 short breeches and thin silk stockings, and with hand 
 kerchief in hand they were diligently employed in lash 
 ing the flies from their legs. So very vexatious was the 
 annoyance, and to so great impatience did it arouse the 
 sufferers, that they were only too glad to sign the Declara 
 tion and fly from the scene." 
 
 Two visits every year Jefferson made to his little prin 
 cipality of two hundred inhabitants at Monticello, a short 
 one early in the Spring and a longer one in the latter part 
 of Summer, when he always took his daughter Martha 
 and family from Edge Hill with him, for it would not 
 seem home without Martha to superintend. 
 
 Here Jefferson had organised his slaves into a great 
 industrial school, had his own carpenters, cabinet-makers, 
 shoe-makers, tailors, weavers, had a nail forge and made 
 nails for his own and neighbouring estates, his black 
 
128 THE CONQUEST 
 
 mechanics were the best in Virginia. Even the family 
 coach was made at Monticello, and the painting and the 
 masonry of the mansion were all executed by slaves on 
 the place. 
 
 On the Rivanna Jefferson had a mill, where his wheat 
 was manufactured into flour and sent down to Rich 
 mond on bateaux to be sold for a good price, and cotton 
 brought home to be made into cloth on the plantation. 
 No wonder, when the master was gone, so extensive an 
 industrial plant ceased to be remunerative. 
 
 Jefferson was always sending home shrubbery and 
 trees from Washington, he knew every green thing 
 on every spot of his farm; and Bacon, the manager, 
 seldom failed to send the cart back laden with fruit from 
 Monticello for the White House. 
 
 While the President at Monticello was giving orders 
 to Goliah, the gardener, to Jupiter, the hostler, to Bacon 
 and all the head men of the shops, Lewis would gallop 
 home to visit his mother at Locust Hill just out of 
 Charlottesville. 
 
 Before the Revolution, Meri wether's father, William 
 Lewis, had received from George III. a patent for three 
 thousand acres of choice Ivy Creek land in Albemarle, 
 commanding an uninterrupted view of the Blue Ridge for 
 one hundred and fifty miles. Here Meriwether was born, 
 and Reuben and Jane. 
 
 " If Captain John Marks courts you I advise you to 
 marry him," said Colonel William Lewis to his wife, oh 
 his death-bed after the surrender of Cornwallis. In a 
 few years she did marry Captain Marks, and in Georgia 
 were born Meri wether's half brother and sister, John 
 and Mary Marks. 
 
 Another spot almost as dear to Meriwether Lewis was 
 the plantation of his uncle Nicholas Lewis, " The Farm," 
 adjoining Monticello. It was here he saw Hamilton 
 borne by, a prisoner of war, on the way to Williams- 
 burg, and here it was that Tarleton made his raid and 
 stole the ducks from Aunt Molly's chicken yard. 
 
 A strict disciplinarian, rather severe in her methods, 
 and very industrious was Aunt Molly, " Captain Molly " 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S SECRETARY 129 
 
 they called her. " Even Colonel ' Nick/ although he can 
 whip the British, stands in wholesome awe of Captain 
 Molly, his superior in the home guards," said the gos 
 siping neighbours of Charlottesville. 
 
 As a boy on this place, Meriwether visited the negro 
 cabins, followed the overseer, or darted on inquiry bent 
 through stables, coach-house, hen-house, smoke-house, 
 dove cote, and milk-room, the ever-attending lesser satel 
 lites of every mansion-house of old Virginia. 
 
 " Bless your heart, my boy," was Aunt Molly's habitual 
 greeting, " to be a good boy is the surest way to be a 
 great man." 
 
 A tender heart had Aunt Molly, doctress of half the 
 countryside, who came to her for remedies and advice. 
 Her home was ever open to charity. As friends she 
 nursed and cared for Burgoyne's men, the Saratoga 
 prisoners. 
 
 " Bury me under the tulip tree on top of the hill over 
 looking the Rivanna," begged one of the sick British 
 officers. True to her word, Aunt Molly had him laid 
 under the tulip tree. Many generations of Lewises and 
 Meriwethers lie now on that hill overlooking the red 
 Rivanna, but the first grave ever made there was that of 
 the British prisoner so kindly cared for by Meriwether 
 Lewis's Aunt Molly. 
 
 " Meriwether and Lewis are old and honoured names 
 in Virginia. I really believe the boy will be a credit to 
 the family," said Aunt Molly when the President's secre 
 tary reined up on Wildair at the gate. The Captain's 
 light hair rippled into a graceful queue tied with a ribbon, 
 and his laughing blue eyes flashed as Maria Wood ran 
 out to greet her old playfellow. Aunt Molly was Maria's 
 grandmother. 
 
 " Very grand is my cousin Meriwether now," began 
 the mischievous Maria. " Long past are those days 
 when as a Virginia ranger he prided himself on rifle 
 shirts faced with fringe, wild-cat's paws for epaulettes, 
 and leathern belts heavy as a horse's surcingle." Lift 
 ing her hands in mock admiration Maria smiled en- 
 trancingly, " Indeed, gay as Jefferson himself is our 
 
 9 
 
1 30 THE CONQUEST 
 
 sublime dandy, in blue coat, red velvet waistcoat, buff 
 knee breeches, and brilliant buckles ! " and Meri wether 
 answered with a kiss. 
 
 Maria Wood was, perhaps, the dearest of Meriwether' s 
 friends, although rumour said he had been engaged 
 to Milly Maury, the daughter of the learned Parson. 
 But how could that be when Milly married while 
 Meriwether was away soldiering on the Ohio? At 
 any rate, now he rode with Maria Wood, danced 
 with her, and took her out to see his mother at Locust 
 Hill. 
 
 The whole family relied on Meriwether at Locust Hill. 
 While only a boy he took charge of the farm, and of his 
 own motion built a carriage and drove to Georgia after 
 his mother and the children upon the death of Captain 
 Marks. 
 
 Back through the Cherokee-haunted woods they came, 
 with other travellers journeying the Georgia route. One 
 night campfires were blazing for the evening meal, when 
 " Whoop ! " came the hostile message and a discharge 
 of arms. 
 
 " Indians ! Indians ! " 
 
 All was confusion. Paralysed mothers hugged their 
 infants and children screamed, when a boy in the crowd 
 threw a bucket of water on the fire extinguishing the 
 light. In a moment all was still, as the men rushed to 
 arms repelling the attack. That boy was Meriwether 
 Lewis. 
 
 " No brother like mine," said little Mary Marks. 
 " Every noble trait is his, he is a father to us chil 
 dren, a counsellor to our mother, and more anxious about 
 our education than even for his own ! " 
 
 Charles de St. Memin, a French artist, was in Wash 
 ington, engraving on copper. 
 
 " May I have your portrait as a typical handsome 
 American?" he said to the President's secretary. 
 
 Meriwether laughed and gave him a sitting. The same 
 hand that had so lately limned Paul Revere, Theodosia 
 Burr, and the last profile of Washington himself, sketched 
 the typical youth of 1801. Lewis sent the drawing to his 
 
PRESIDENT TALKS WITH MERI WETHER 131 
 
 mother, the head done in fired chalk and crayon, with that 
 curious pink background so peculiar to the St. Memin 
 pictures. 
 
 XXX 
 
 THE PRESIDENT TALKS WITH MERIWETHER 
 
 HOURS by themselves Jefferson sat talking to 
 Lewis. With face sunny, lit with enthusiasm, he 
 spoke rapidly, even brilliantly, a dreamer, a seer, 
 a prophet, believing in the future of America. 
 
 " I have never given it up, Meriwether. Before the 
 peace treaty was signed, after the Revolution, I was 
 scheming for a western exploration. We discussed it at 
 Annapolis; I even went so far as to write to George 
 Rogers Clark on the subject. Then Congress sent me to 
 France. 
 
 " In France a frequent guest at my table was John 
 Ledyard, of Connecticut. He had accompanied Captain 
 Cook on his voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and now panted 
 for some new enterprise. He had endeavoured to engage 
 the merchants of Boston in the Northwest fur trade, but 
 the times were too unsettled. ' Why, Mr. Jefferson/ he 
 was wont to say, ' that northwest land belongs to us. I 
 felt I breathed the air of home the day we touched at 
 Nootka Sound. The very Indians are just like ours. And 
 furs, that coast is rich in beaver, bear, and otter. De 
 pend upon it,' he used to say, ' untold fortunes lie un 
 touched at the back of the United States.' ' 
 
 " I then proposed to him to go by land to Kamtchatka, 
 cross in some Russian vessel to Nootka Sound, fall down 
 into the latitude of the Missouri, and penetrate to and 
 through that to the United States. Ledyard eagerly 
 seized the idea. I obtained him a permit from the Empress 
 Catherine, and he set out ; went to St. Petersburg, crossed 
 the Russian possessions to within two hundred miles of 
 Kamtchatka. Here he was arrested by order of the Em 
 press, who by this time had changed her mind, and for- 
 
I 3 2 THE CONQUEST 
 
 bidden his proceeding. He was put in a close carriage, 
 and conveyed day and night, without ever stopping, till 
 they reached Poland ; where he was set down and left to 
 himself. The fatigue of this journey broke down his 
 constitution, and when he returned to me at Paris his 
 bodily strength was much impaired. His mind, however, 
 remained firm and he set out for Egypt to find the sources 
 of the Nile, but died suddenly at Cairo. Thus failed the 
 first attempt to explore the western part of our northern 
 continent. 
 
 " Imagine my interest, later, to learn that after reading 
 of Captain Cook's voyages the Boston merchants had 
 taken up Ledyard's idea and in 1787 sent two little ships, 
 the * Columbia Rediviva ' and the * Lady Washington ' 
 into the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 " Barely was I back and seated in Washington's cabinet 
 as Secretary of State, before those Boston merchants 
 begged my intercession with the Court of Spain, for one 
 Don Bias Gonzalez, Governor of Juan Fernandez. Pass 
 ing near that island, one of the ships was damaged by a 
 storm, her rudder broken, her masts disabled, and herself 
 separated from her companion. She put into the island 
 to refit, and at the same time to wood and water. Don 
 Bias Gonzalez, after examining her, and finding she had 
 nothing on board but provisions and charts, and that her 
 distress was real, permitted her to stay a few days, to refit 
 and take in fresh supplies of wood and water. For this 
 act of common hospitality, he was immediately deprived 
 of his government, unheard, by superior order, and placed 
 under disgrace. Nor was I ever able to obtain a hearing 
 at the Court of Spain, and the reinstatement of this be 
 nevolent Governor. 
 
 "The little ships went on, however, and on May n, 
 1792, Captain Robert Gray, a tar of the Revolution, dis 
 covered the great river of the west and named it for his 
 gallant ship, the ' Columbia.' 
 
 " In that very year, 1792, not yet having news of this 
 discovery, I proposed to the American Philosophical So 
 ciety that we should set on foot a subscription to engage 
 some competent person to explore that region, by ascend- 
 
PRESIDENT TALKS WITH MERI WETHER 133 
 
 ing the Missouri and crossing the Stony Mountains, and 
 descending the nearest river to the Pacific. The sum of 
 five thousand dollars was raised for that purpose, and 
 Andre Michaux, a French botanist, was engaged as scien 
 tist, but when about to start he was sent by the French 
 minister on political business to Kentucky." 
 
 Meriwether Lewis laughed. "I remember. I was then 
 at Charlottesville on the recruiting service, and warmly 
 solicited you to obtain for me the appointment to execute 
 that adventure. But Mr. Andre Michaux offering his 
 services, they were accepted." 
 
 Both were silent for a time. Michaux had gone on 
 his journey as far as Kentucky, become the confidential 
 agent between Genet and George Rogers Clark for the 
 French expedition, and been recalled by request of 
 Washington. 
 
 " Meriwether," continued the President, " I see now 
 some chance of accomplishing that northwest expedition. 
 The act establishing trading posts among the Indians is 
 about to expire. My plan is to induce the Indians to aban 
 don hunting and become agriculturists. As this may de 
 prive our traders of a source of profit, I would direct 
 their attention to the fur trade of the Missouri. In a few 
 weeks I shall make a confidential communication to Con 
 gress requesting an appropriation for the exploration of 
 the northwest. We shall undertake it as a literary and 
 commercial pursuit." 
 
 "And, sir, may I lead that exploration?" 
 
 " You certainly shall," answered the President. " How 
 much money do you think it would take? " 
 
 Secretary Lewis spent the next few days in making an 
 estimate. 
 
 " Mathematical instruments, arms and accoutrements, 
 camp equipage, medicine and packing, means for trans 
 portation, Indian presents, provisions, pay for hunters, 
 guides, interpreters, and contingencies, twenty-five 
 hundred dollars will cover it all, I think." 
 
 Then followed that secret message of January 18, 1803, 
 dictated by Jefferson, penned by Lewis, in which the Pres 
 ident requested an appropriation of twenty-five hundred 
 
I 3 4 THE CONQUEST 
 
 dollars, " for the purpose of extending the external com 
 merce of the United States." 
 
 Congress granted the request, and busy days of prep 
 aration followed. 
 
 The cabinet were in the secret, and the ladies, partic 
 ularly Mrs. Madison and Mrs. Gallatin, were most inter 
 ested and sympathetic, providing everything that could 
 possibly be needed in such a perilous journey, fearing that 
 Lewis might never return from that distant land of sav 
 ages. The President's daughters, Mrs. Randolph and 
 Mrs. Eppes, were there, handsome, accomplished, delicate 
 women, who rode about in silk pelisses purchasing at the 
 shops the necessaries for " housewives," pins, needles, 
 darning yarn, and the thousand and one little items that 
 women always give to soldier boys. 
 
 Dolly Madison, in mulberry-coloured satin, a tulle ker 
 chief on her neck and dainty cap on her head, stitched, 
 stitched; and in the streets, almost impassable for mud, 
 she and Martha, the President's daughter, were often mis 
 taken for each other as they went to and fro guided by 
 Dolly's cousin, Edward Coles, a youth destined to win 
 renown himself one day, as the " anti-slavery governor " 
 of Illinois. 
 
 In his green knee pants and red waistcoat, long stock 
 ings and slippers, the genial President looked in on the 
 busy ladies at the White House, but his anxiety was on 
 matters of far more moment than the stitchery of the 
 cabinet ladies. 
 
 Alexander Mackenzie's journal of his wonderful trans 
 continental journey in 1793 was just out, the book of the 
 day. It thrilled Lewis, he devoured it. 
 
 Before starting on his tour Alexander Mackenzie 
 went to London and studied mathematics and astronomy. 
 " It is my own dream," exclaimed Lewis, as the President 
 came upon him with the volumes in hand. " But the 
 scientific features, to take observations, to be sure of my 
 botany, to map longitude 
 
 " That must come by study," said Jefferson. " I would 
 have you go to Philadelphia to prosecute your studies in 
 the sciences. I think you had better go at once to Dr. 
 Barton, I will write to him to-day." 
 
PRESIDENT TALKS WITH MERIWETHER 135 
 
 And again in the letter to Dr. Barton, Meri wether's 
 hand penned the prosecution of his fortune. 
 
 " I must ask the favour of you to prepare for him a note 
 of those lines of botany, zoology, or of Indian history 
 which you think most worthy of study or observation. He 
 will be with you in Philadelphia in two or three weeks and 
 will wait on you and receive thankfully on paper any com 
 munications you may make to him." 
 
 Jefferson had ever been a father to Meriwether Lewis, 
 had himself watched and taught him. And Lewis in his 
 soul revered the great man's learning, as never before 
 he regretted the wasted hours at Parson Maury's when 
 often he left his books to go hunting on Peter's Mount. 
 But proudly lifting his head from these meditations : 
 
 " I am a born woodsman, Mr. Jefferson. You know 
 that." 
 
 " Know it ! " Jefferson laughed. " Does not the fame 
 of your youthful achievements linger yet around the 
 woods of Monticello ? I have not forgotten, Meriwether, 
 that when you were not more than eight years old you 
 were accustomed to go out into the forest at night alone 
 in the depth of winter with your dogs and gun to hunt the 
 raccoon and opossum. Nor have I forgotten when the 
 Cherokees attacked your camp in Georgia." The young 
 man flushed. 
 
 " Your mother has often told it. It was when you 
 were bringing them home to Albemarle. How old were 
 you then? About eighteen? The Indians whooped and 
 you put out the fire, the only cool head among them. A 
 boy that could do that can as a man lead a great explora 
 tion like this. 
 
 " Nor need you fret about your lack of science, the 
 very study of Latin you did with Parson Maury fits you 
 to prepare for me those Indian vocabularies. I am for 
 tunate to have one so trained. Latin gives an insight into 
 the structure of all languages. For years, now, I have 
 been collecting and studying the Indian tongues. Fortune 
 now permits you to become my most valued coadjutor." 
 
 And so Lewis noted in his book of memorandum, " Vo 
 cabularies of Indian languages." 
 
136 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " You ought to have a companion, a military man like 
 George Rogers Clark. I have always wished to bring 
 him forward in Indian affairs ; no man better understands 
 the savage." 
 
 " But Clark has a brother/' quickly spoke Lewis, " a 
 brave fellow, absolutely unflinching in the face of danger. 
 If I could have my choice, Captain William Clark should 
 be my companion and the sharer of my command." 
 
 Two years Lewis had been Jefferson's private secretary, 
 when, appointed to this work, he went to Philadelphia to 
 study natural science and make astronomical observations 
 for the geography of the route. This youth, who had in 
 herited a fortune and every inducement to a life of ease, 
 now spent three months in severest toil, under the instruc 
 tion of able professors, learning scientific terms and cal 
 culating latitude and longitude. 
 
 Early in June he was back at Washington. Already 
 the President had secured letters of passport from the 
 British, French, and Spanish ministers, for this expedition 
 through foreign territory. 
 
 " The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri 
 River, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course 
 and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, 
 whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other 
 river, may offer the most direct and practicable water- 
 communication across the continent, for the purpose of 
 commerce." 
 
 Far into the June night Jefferson discussed his instruc 
 tions, and signed the historic document. 
 
 " I have no doubt you will use every possible exertion 
 to get off, as the delay of a month now may lose a year in 
 the end." 
 
 Lewis felt the pressure; he was packing his instru 
 ments, writing to military posts for men to be ready when 
 he came down the river, and hurrying up orders at Har 
 per's Ferry, when a strange and startling event occurred, 
 beyond the vision of dreamers. 
 
Book II 
 
 INTO THE WEST 
 
Book II 
 
 INTO THE WEST 
 
 I 
 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 
 
 , knowing she cannot hold Louisiana, has 
 it to France ! " The winds of ocean bore 
 message to America. 
 
 " Napoleon? Is he to control us also?" 
 
 Never so vast a shadow overawed the world. Afar 
 they had read of his battles, had dreaded his name. In 
 stantly colossal Napoleon loomed across the prairies of 
 the West. 
 
 Napoleon had fifty-four ships and fifty thousand 
 troops, the flower of his army, sailing to re-establish 
 slavery in Hayti. But a step and he would be at the 
 Mississippi. He was sending Laussat, a French prefect, 
 to take over New Orleans and wait for the army. 
 
 " Shall we submit? And is this to be the end of all our 
 fought-for liberty, that Napoleon should rule America ? " 
 
 The fear of France was now as great as had been the 
 admiration. 
 
 Gaily the flat-boats were floating down, laden with flour 
 and bacon, hams and tobacco, seeking egress to Cuba and 
 Atlantic seaports, when suddenly, in October, 1802, the 
 Spanish Intendant at New Orleans closed the Mississippi. 
 Crowding back, for twenty thousand miles inland, were 
 the products of the Autumn. 
 
 The western country blazed; only by strenuous effort 
 could Congress keep a backwoods army from marching 
 on New Orleans. A powerful minority at Washington 
 contended for instant seizure. 
 
1 40 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Pittsburg, with shore lined with shipping, roared all 
 the way to the gulf, " No grain can be sold down the 
 river on account of those piratical Spaniards ! " 
 
 Appeal after appeal went up to Jefferson, " Let us 
 sweep them into the sea ! " 
 
 What hope with a foreign nation at our gates ? Spain 
 might be got rid of, but France Monroe was dispatched 
 to France to interview Napoleon. 
 
 " The French must not have New Orleans," was the 
 lightning thought of Jefferson. " No one but ourselves 
 must own our own front door." 
 
 And Jefferson penned a letter to Livingstone, the 
 American minister at Paris : 
 
 " There is on the globe but one single spot, the possessor 
 of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New 
 Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our 
 territory must pass to market. France placing herself in 
 that door assumes to us the attitude of defiance. Spain 
 might have retained it quietly for years. Not so France. 
 The impetuosity of her temper, the energy and restlessness 
 of her character, render it impossible that France and the 
 United States can continue friends when they meet in so 
 irritating a position. The day that France takes possession 
 of New Orleans from that moment we must marry our 
 selves to the British fleet and nation." 
 
 As Jefferson placed that letter in the hands of Monroe 
 he added : 
 
 " In Europe nothing but Europe is seen. But this 
 little event, of France's possessing herself of Louisiana, 
 this speck which now appears an invisible point on 
 the horizon, is the embryo of a tornado. 
 
 " I must secure the port of New Orleans and the mas 
 tery of the navigation of the Mississippi. 
 
 " We must have peace. The use of the Mississippi is 
 indispensable. We must purchase New Orleans." 
 
 " You are aware of the sensibility of our Western citi 
 zens," Madison was writing to Madrid. " To them the 
 Mississippi is everything. It is the Hudson, the Dela 
 ware, the Potomac, and all the navigable rivers of the 
 Atlantic States, formed into one." 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 141 
 
 But Napoleon's soldiers were dying at San Domingo, 
 the men with whom he would have colonised Louisiana. 
 At that moment the flint and steel of France and Eng 
 land struck, and the spark meant war. England stood 
 ready to seize the mouth of the Mississippi. 
 
 After the solemnities of Easter Sunday at St. Cloud, 
 April 10, 1803, Napoleon summoned two of his 
 ministers. 
 
 " I know the full value of Louisiana ! " he began with 
 vehement passion, walking up and down the marble par 
 lour. " A few lines of treaty have restored it to me, and 
 I have scarcely recovered it when I must expect to lose 
 it. But if it escapes from me," the First Consul shook 
 his finger menacingly, " it shall one day cost dearer to 
 those who oblige me to strip myself of it, than to those 
 to whom I wish to deliver it. The English have succes 
 sively taken from France, Canada, Cape Breton, New 
 foundland, Nova Scotia, and the richest portions of 
 Asia. They shall not have the Mississippi which they 
 covet. They have twenty ships of war in the Gulf of 
 Mexico, they sail over those seas as sovereigns. The 
 conquest of Louisiana would be easy. I have not a mo 
 ment to lose in putting it out of their reach. I know 
 not whether they are not already there. I think of ced 
 ing it to the United States. They only ask one town 
 of me in Louisiana but I already consider the colony as 
 entirely lost, and it appears to me that in the hands of 
 this growing power it will be more useful to the policy 
 and even to the commerce of France, than if I should 
 attempt to keep it." 
 
 He turned to Barbe-Marbois, who had served as Secre 
 tary of the French Legation at Philadelphia during the 
 whole war of the American Revolution. 
 
 " We should not hesitate to make a sacrifice of that 
 which is about slipping from us," said Barbe-Marbois. 
 " War with England is inevitable ; shall we be able to 
 defend Louisiana? Can we restore fortifications that 
 are in ruins? If, Citizen Consul, you, who have by one 
 of the first acts of your government made sufficiently 
 apparent your intention of giving this country to France, 
 
142 THE CONQUEST 
 
 now abandon the idea of keeping it, there is no person 
 that will not admit that you yield to necessity." 
 
 Far into the night they talked, so late that the minis 
 ters slept at St. Cloud. 
 
 At daybreak Napoleon summoned Barbe-Marbois. 
 " Read me the dispatches from London." 
 
 " Sire," returned the Secretary, looking over the 
 papers, " naval and military preparations of every kind 
 are making with extraordinary rapidity." 
 
 Napoleon leaped to his feet and strode again the marble 
 floor. 
 
 " Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in season. 
 I renounce Louisiana. It is not only New Orleans that I 
 will cede, but the whole colony without reservation. I 
 know the price of what I abandon. I renounce it with 
 regret. To attempt to retain it would be folly. I direct 
 you to negotiate this affair with the United States. Do 
 not even await the arrival of Mr. Monroe; have an in 
 terview this very day with Mr. Livingstone; but I re 
 quire a great deal of money for this war, and I would 
 not like to commence it with new contributions. I want 
 fifty millions, and for less than that sum I will not treat. 
 To-morrow you shall have your full powers." 
 
 The minister waited. 
 
 " Mr. Monroe is on the point of arriving," continued 
 Napoleon. " Neither this minister, nor his colleague, is 
 prepared for a decision which goes infinitely beyond any 
 thing they are about to ask of us. Begin by making 
 them overtures, without any subterfuge. Acquaint me, 
 hour by hour, of your progress." 
 
 "What will you pay for all Louisiana?" bluntly 
 asked Barbe-Marbois that day of the astonished Living 
 stone. 
 
 "All Louisiana! New Orleans is all I ask for," an 
 swered Livingstone. So long had Talleyrand trifled and 
 deceived, the American found himself distrustful of these 
 French diplomatists. 
 
 " But I offer the province," said Barbe-Marbois. 
 
 Surprised, doubtful, Livingstone listened. " I have 
 not the necessary powers." 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 143 
 
 The next day Monroe arrived. 
 
 " There must be haste or the English will be at New 
 Orleans," said Barbe-Marbois. '*' How much will you 
 pay for the whole province ? " 
 
 " The English ? Fifteen millions," answered the 
 Americans. 
 
 " Incorporate Louisiana as soon as possible into your 
 Union," said Napoleon, " give to its inhabitants the same 
 rights, privileges, and immunities as to other citizens of 
 the United States. 
 
 " And let them know that we separate ourselves from 
 them with regret; let them retain for us sentiments of 
 affection ; and may their common origin, descent, lan 
 guage, and customs perpetuate the friendship." 
 
 The papers were drawn up and signed in French and 
 in English. 
 
 " We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of 
 our lives ! " exclaimed Livingstone, as he and Barbe- 
 Marbois and Monroe arose and shook hands across the 
 document. 
 
 " This accession of territory strengthens for ever the 
 power of the United States," said Napoleon, coming in 
 to look at the treaty. And as he affixed that signature, 
 " NAPOLEON," he smiled, "I have just given to Eng 
 land a maritime rival, that sooner or later will humble 
 her pride." 
 
 And on that day the Mississippi was opened, to be 
 closed by a foreign power no more for ever. 
 
 But no sooner had Napoleon parted with Louisiana 
 than he began to repent. "Hasten," the ministers warned 
 Jefferson, " the slightest delay may lose us the country." 
 
 The word reached America. 
 
 "Jefferson bought New Orleans? bought the Mis 
 sissippi? bought the entire boundless West?" 
 
 Men gasped, then cheered. Tumultuous excitement 
 swept the land. On July 3, 1803, an infant Republic 
 hugging the Atlantic, on July 4, a world power grasp 
 ing the Pacific! 
 
 " A bargain ! " cried the Republicans. 
 
 " Unconstitutional ! " answered the Federalists. 
 
I 4 4 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " The East will become depopulated." 
 
 " Fifteen millions ! Fifteen millions for that wilder 
 ness! Why, that would be tons of money! Waggon 
 loads of silver five miles long. We have not so much 
 coin in the whole country ! " 
 
 II 
 
 THE KNIGHT OF THE WHITE HOUSE 
 
 A 
 
 ND Meriwether Lewis was ready to start. 
 
 The night before the Fourth of July he wrote 
 his mother: 
 
 " The day after to-morrow I shall set out for the western 
 country. I had calculated on the pleasure of visiting you, 
 but circumstances have rendered it impossible. My absence 
 will probably be equal to fifteen or eighteen months. The 
 nature of this expedition is by no means dangerous. My 
 route will be altogether through tribes of Indians friendly 
 to the United States, therefore I consider the chances of life 
 just as much in my favour as I should conceive them were 
 I to remain at home. The charge of this expedition is hon 
 ourable to myself, as it is important to my country. For 
 its fatigues I feel myself perfectly prepared, nor do I doubt 
 my health and strength of constitution to bear me through 
 it. I go with the most perfect pre-conviction in my own 
 mind of returning safe, and hope therefore that you will 
 not suffer yourself to indulge any anxiety for my safety, 
 I will write again on my arrival at Pittsburg. Adieu, and 
 believe me your affectionate son, 
 
 MERIWETHER LEWIS." 
 
 The Jefferson girls had returned to their homes. Dolly 
 Madison and Mrs. Gallatin supervised the needle depart 
 ment, having made " housewives " enough to fit out a 
 regiment. Joseph Rapin, the steward, helped Lewis pack 
 his belongings, Secretary Gallatin contributed a map of 
 Vancouver's sketch of the Columbia mouth, and Madison 
 rendered his parting benediction. 
 
THE KNIGHT OF THE WHITE HOUSE 145 
 
 Out of the iron gate in the high rock wall in front of 
 the White House Meriwether went, fit emblem of the 
 young Republic, slim and lithe, immaculate in new uni 
 form and three-cornered chapeau, his sunny thick-braided 
 queue falling over the high-collared coat, to meet the 
 Potomac packet for Harper's Ferry. All around were 
 uncut forests, save the little clearing of Washington, and 
 up the umbrageous hills stretched an endless ocean of 
 tree-tops. 
 
 The wind blew up the Potomac, fluttering the Presi 
 dent's gray locks. " If a superior force should be arrayed 
 against your . passage, return, Meriwether," was the 
 anxious parting word. " To your own discretion must 
 be left the degree of danger you may risk." 
 
 But Meriwether had no fears. 
 
 " Should you reach the Pacific Ocean, endeavour to 
 learn if there be any port within your reach frequented by 
 sea-vessels of any nation, and to send two of your trusted 
 people back by sea, with a copy of your notes. Should 
 you be of opinion that the return of your party by the way 
 they went will be dangerous, then ship the whole, and 
 return by way of Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. 
 As you will be without money, clothes or provisions, I 
 give you this open letter of credit authorising you to draw 
 on the Executive of the United States or any of its officers 
 in any part of the world. Our consuls at Batavia in Java, 
 at the Isles of France and Bourbon, and at the Cape of 
 Good Hope will be able to supply you necessities by drafts 
 on us." 
 
 For where in the world the Missouri led, no man then 
 knew ! 
 
 " I have sometimes thought of sending a ship around 
 to you," said Jefferson, " but the Spaniards would be 
 certain to gobble it, and we are in trouble enough with 
 them already over this Louisiana Purchase." 
 
 Too well Lewis knew the delicacy of the situation. 
 Spain was on fire over the treachery of Napoleon. 
 "France has no right to alienate Louisiana!" was the 
 cry from Madrid. But what could she do ? Nothing but 
 fume, delay, threaten, Napoleon was mastef . 
 
 10 
 
146 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Under present circumstances/ ) continued the Presi 
 dent, " I consider futile all effort to get a ship to your 
 succour on those shores. Spain would be only too glad 
 to strike a blow. But there must be trade, there is trade, 
 all through Adams's administration the Russians w r ere 
 complaining of Yankee skippers on that northwest coast. 
 
 " Russia has aided us, I may call the Emperor my per 
 sonal friend." With pardonable pride the President 
 thought of the bust of Alexander over his study door at 
 Monticello. " Though Catherine did send poor Ledyard 
 back, Alexander has proved himself true, and in case any 
 Russian ship touches those shores you are safe, or English, 
 or American. This letter of credit will carry you through. 
 
 " And above all, express my philanthropic regard for 
 the Indians. Humanity enjoins us to teach them agricul 
 ture and the domestic arts." 
 
 And after Lewis was fairly started, the President sent 
 on as a great secret, " I have received word from Paris 
 that Mr. Broughton, one of the companions of Captain 
 Vancouver, went up Columbia River one hundred miles 
 in December, 1792. He stopped at a point he named 
 Vancouver. Here the river Columbia is still a quarter of 
 a mile wide. From this point Mt. Hood is seen twenty 
 leagues distant, which is probably a dependency of the 
 Stony Mountains. Accept my affectionate salutations." 
 
 On the Fourth of July the same hand that drew up the 
 Declaration of Independence had drawn for Meriwether 
 Lewis a Letter of Credit, authorising him to purchase 
 anything he needed on the credit of the United States in 
 any part of the world. Was Jefferson thinking of those 
 days when George Rogers Clark gave drafts on New 
 Orleans for the conquest of Illinois? This again was 
 another venture into a dark unwritten West. 
 
 The next day Lewis " shot all his guns " at Harper's 
 Ferry, examined extra locks, knives, tomahawks, accou 
 trements that had been manufactured at his special direc 
 tion. The waggoner from Philadelphia came jolting by 
 with Indian presents, astronomical apparatus, and tents 
 on the way to Pittsburg. 
 
 Pittsburg ? A cloud of smoke hung even then over the 
 
THE KNIGHT OF THE WHITE HOUSE 147 
 
 embryotic city. Two thousand miles inland, it already 
 had a flourishing ship-yard. Several large vessels lay on 
 the stocks and builders were hammering day and night. 
 " The * Louisiana/ three hundred tons, is waiting for 
 the next rise of the river," said a strapping tar. " In May 
 a fleet of schooners went out to the Caribbees. You are 
 too late for this summer's freshet." 
 
 " Come, gentlemen, gentlemen all, 
 
 Ginral Sincleer shall remem-ber-ed be, 
 For he lost thirteen hundred me-en all 
 In the Western Tari-to-ree." 
 
 Captain Lewis took a second look at the singer, it 
 was George Shannon standing on the dock. 
 
 "Why, Captain Lewis! Where are you going?" 
 
 George was an old friend of Meriwether's, and yet but 
 a lad of seventeen. His father, one of those " ragged 
 Continentals " that marched on Yorktown, had emigrated 
 to the far Ohio. 
 
 Jane Shannon was a typical pioneer mother. She spun, 
 wove, knit, made leggings of skins, and caps and mocca 
 sins, but through multitudinous duties found time to teach 
 her children. " To prepare them for college," she said, 
 " that is my dream. I 'd live on hoe-cake for ever to give 
 them a chance." Every one of her six boys inherited that 
 mother's spirit, every one attained distinction. 
 
 At fourteen George was sent to his mother's relatives 
 on the Monongahela to school. Here he met Lewis, 
 forted in that winter camp. The gallant Virginian cap 
 tured the boy's fancy, he became his model, his ideal. 
 
 "And can you go?" asked Captain Lewis. 
 
 " Go ? I will accompany you to the end of the world, 
 Captain Lewis," answered George Shannon. ' There is 
 no time for mails, I know I have my parent's consent. 
 And the pay, that will take me to college ! " Shannon 
 enlisted on the spot, and was Lewis's greatest comfort in 
 those trying days at Pittsburg. 
 
 The boat-builders were drunkards. " I spent most of 
 my time with the workmen," wrote Lewis to the Presi 
 dent, " but neither threats nor persuasion were sufficient 
 
I 4 8 THE CONQUEST 
 
 to procure the completion before the 3ist of August." 
 Loading the boat the instant it was done, they set out at 
 four o'clock in the morning, with John Collins of Mary 
 land, and George Gibson, Hugh McNeal, John Potts, and 
 Peter Wiser, of Pennsylvania, recruits that had been 
 ordered from Carlisle. Peter Wiser is believed to have 
 been a descendant of that famous Conrad Weiser who 
 gave his life to pacifying the Indian. 
 
 By this time the water was low. " On board my boat 
 opposite Marietta, Sept. 13," Lewis writes, " horses or 
 oxen I find the most efficient sailors in the present 
 state of navigation," dragging the bateaux over shallows 
 of drift and sandbars. 
 
 And yet that same Spring, when the water was high, 
 Marietta had sent out the schooners " Dorcas and Sally," 
 and the " Mary Avery," one hundred and thirty tons, 
 with cheers and firing of cannon. When Lewis passed, a 
 three-mast brig of two hundred and fifty tons and a 
 smaller one of ninety tons were on the point of being 
 finished to launch the following Spring, with produce for 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 George Shannon was a handsome boy, already full 
 grown but with the beardless pink and white of youth. 
 His cap would not fit down over his curls, but lifted like 
 his own hopes. Nothing would start the boats at daylight 
 like his jolly, rollicking 
 
 " Blow, ye winds of morning, 
 Blow, blow, blow," 
 
 rolling across the tints of sunrise. His cheeks glowed, 
 his blue eyes shone to meet the wishes of his captain. 
 
 Past the fairy isle of Blennerhassett with its stately 
 mansion half-hid behind avenues of Lombardy poplar and 
 tasteful shrubbery, Captain Lewis came on down to Fort 
 Washington, Cincinnati, where brigs had lately taken on 
 cargoes and sailed to the West Indies. 
 
 Bones ? Of course Lewis wanted to look at bones and 
 send some to the learned President. Dr. Goforth of Cin 
 cinnati was sinking a pit at the Big Bone Lick for remains 
 
RECRUITING FOR OREGON 149 
 
 of the mammoth, and might not mammoths be stalking 
 abroad in all that great land of the West? Mystery, 
 mystery, the very air was filled with mystery. 
 
 Ill 
 
 RECRUITING FOR OREGON 
 
 that I have accepted President Jefferson's 
 proposal to be associated with Captain Lewis 
 in this expedition, it \vill oblige me to accept 
 brother Jonathan's offer of ten thousand dollars cash for 
 Mulberry Hill," William Clark was saying at Louisville. 
 ' That will help out brother George on his military debts, 
 satisfy his claimants, and save him from ruin." 
 
 At the time of sale the old home was occupied by 
 General Clark and William Clark, and their sister Fanny 
 and her children. The departure of William for the 
 Pacific broke up and dispersed the happy family. 
 
 The General went back to the Point of Rock, fifty feet 
 above the dashing Ohio. That water was the lowest 
 ever known now, men could walk across on the rocks. 
 Three or four locust trees shaded the cabin, now painted 
 white, and an orchard of peach and cherry blossomed 
 below. Negro Ben and his wife Venus, and Carson and 
 Cupid, lived back of the house and cultivated a few acres 
 of grain and garden. 
 
 All of Clark's old soldiers remained loyal and visited 
 the Point of Rock, and every year an encampment of 
 braves, Indian chiefs whom he had subdued, came for 
 advice and to partake of his hospitality. 
 
 Grand and lonely, prematurely aged at fifty-one when 
 he should have been in his prime. General Clark sat over 
 looking the Falls when Captain Lewis pulled his bateaux 
 into the Bear Grass. 
 
 Captain Clark and nine young men of Kentucky were 
 waiting for the boat, William Bratton, a blacksmith, 
 
1 50 THE CONQUEST 
 
 formerly of Virginia, and John Shields, gunsmith, the 
 Tubal Cain of the expedition, John Coalter, who had been 
 a ranger with Kenton, the famous Shields brothers, Reu 
 ben and James, William Warner and Joseph Whitehouse, 
 all experts with the rifle, Charles Floyd, son of that 
 Charles Floyd that rode with his brother from the death- 
 stroke of Big Foot, and Nathaniel Pryor, his cousin. 
 
 Twenty years had passed since that fatal April morn 
 ing when John Floyd was laid a corpse at the feet of Jane 
 Buchanan. That posthumous child, ushered so sadly into 
 the world, John Floyd the younger, now a handsome 
 youth, was eager to go with his cousins but an unex 
 pected illness held him back to become a member of 
 Congress and Governor of Virginia. 
 
 And York, of course York. Had he not from child 
 hood obeyed John Clark's command, " Look after your 
 young master " ? With highest elation York assisted in 
 the preparation, furbished up his gun, and prepared to 
 " slay dem buffaloes." 
 
 " An interpreter is my problem now," said Captain 
 Lewis, " a man familiar with Indians, trustworthy, and 
 skilled in tongues." 
 
 " I think my brother will know the man, he has 
 had wide experience in that line," said William; and so 
 down to the Point of Rock the Captains betook them 
 selves to visit George Rogers Clark. 
 
 " Dignity sat still upon his countenance and the com 
 manding look of Washington," wrote a chronicler of that 
 day. 
 
 " An interpreter? " mused General Clark. Then turn 
 ing to his brother, " Do you remember Pierre Drouil- 
 lard, the Frenchman that saved Kenton ? He was a man 
 of tact and influence with the Indians, and, although he 
 wore the red coat, a man of humanity. He interpreted 
 for me at Fort Mclntosh and at the Great Miami. He 
 comes with Buckongahelas." 
 
 William Clark remembered. 
 
 " That old Frenchman has a son, George, chip of the 
 old block, brought up with the Indians and educated at 
 a mission. He is your man, at St. Louis, I think." 
 
RECRUITING FOR OREGON 151 
 
 " Always demand of the Indians what you want, Wil 
 liam, that is the secret. Never let them think you fear 
 them. Great things have been effected by a few men 
 well conducted. Who knows what fortune may do for 
 you ? " It was the self-same saying with which twenty- 
 four years before he had started to Vincennes. " Here 
 are letters to some of my old friends at St. Louis and 
 Kaskaskia," added the General. 
 
 All the negroes were out to weep over York, whom 
 they feared to see no more, old York and Rose, Nancy 
 and Julia, Jane, Cupid and Harry, from the scattered 
 home at Mulberry Hill. 
 
 General Jonathan Clark and Major Croghan were 
 there, the richest men in Kentucky, and General Jona 
 than's daughters who stitched their samplers now at 
 Mulberry Hill; and Lucy, from Locust Grove, the 
 image of William, " with face almost too strong for a 
 woman," some said. All the city knew her, a miracle 
 of benevolence and duty, and by her side the little son, 
 George Croghan, destined to hand on the renown of his 
 fathers. 
 
 William Clark's last word was for Fanny, a widow 
 with children. " It is my desire that she should stay 
 with Lucy at Locust Grove until my return," said the 
 paternal brother, kissing her pale cheek. 
 
 " And I want Johnny with me at the Point of Rock," 
 added the lonely General, who, if he loved any one, it 
 was little John O' Fallen, the son of his sister Fanny. 
 
 " Bring on your plunder ! " 
 
 The Kentuckians could be recognised by their call as 
 they helped the bateaux over the rapids and launched 
 them below. George Rogers Clark stood on the Point 
 of Rock, waving a last farewell, watching them down the 
 river. 
 
 While Captain Clark went on down the Ohio, and en 
 gaged a few men at Fort Massac, Captain Lewis fol 
 lowed the old Vincennes " trace " to Kaskaskia. 
 
 In that very September, Sergeant John Ordway, in 
 Russell Bissell's company, was writing home to New 
 Hampshire : 
 
I 5 2 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Kaskaskia is a very old town of about two hundred 
 houses and ruins of many more. We lie on the hill in 
 sight of the town, and have built a garrison here. If 
 Betty Crosby will wait for my return I may perhaps join 
 hands with her yet. We have a company of troops from 
 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, here." 
 
 Captain Lewis came up to the garrison. Out of twenty 
 volunteers only three possessed the requisite qualifica 
 tions. But Sergeant Ordway was one, Robert Frazer of 
 Vermont, another, and Thomas P. Howard, of Massa 
 chusetts, the third. 
 
 Oppressed and anxious in mind over the difficulty of 
 finding suitable men, Captain Lewis was one morning 
 riding along when into the high road there ran out a 
 short, strong, compact, broad-chested and heavy-limbed 
 man, lean, sprightly, and quick of motion, in the dress 
 of a soldier. His lively eye instantly caught that of Cap 
 tain Lewis. Perceiving that the soldier was evidently 
 bent on seeing him, Lewis checked his horse and paused. 
 
 With military salute the man began : " Me name is 
 Patrick Gass, sorr, and I want to go with you to the 
 Stony Mountings, but my Commander, sorr, here at the 
 barracks, will not consint. He siz, siz he, ' You are too 
 good a carpenter, Pat, and I need you here.' ' 
 
 His build, his manner, and the fact that Pat was a 
 soldier and a carpenter, was enough. Men must be had, 
 and here was a droll one, the predestined wit of the 
 expedition. 
 
 " I knew you, sorr, when I saw your horse ferninst 
 the trees. I recognised a gintleman and an officer. I 
 saw you whin I met Gineral Washington at Carlisle out 
 with throops to suppriss the Whiskey Rebillion. I met 
 Gineral Washington that day, and I sid, siz I, ' Gineral, 
 I 'm a pathriot mesilf and I '11 niver risist me gover'm'nt, 
 but I love ould Bourbon too well to inlist agin the whis 
 key byes.' ' 
 
 " And have you never served in the field?" roared 
 Lewis, almost impatient. 
 
 " Ah, yis ; whin Adams was Prisident, I threw down 
 me jackplane and inlisted under Gineral Alexander Ham- 
 
RECRUITING FOR OREGON 153 
 
 ilton, but there was no war, so thin I inlisted under Major 
 Cass." 
 
 Patrick glanced back and saw his Captain. " Hist 
 ye! shoulder-sthraps are comin' ! " 
 
 Lewis laughed. " Go and get ready, Patrick ; I '11 
 settle with your Captain." And Patrick, bent on a new 
 " inlistment " and new adventures, hied him away to 
 pack his belongings. For days in dreams he was already 
 navigating the Missouri, already he saw the blue Pacific. 
 As he told the boys afterward, " And I, siz I to mesilf, 
 * Patrick, let us to the Pecific!' Me Captain objicted, 
 but I found out where Captain Lewis was sthopping and 
 sthole away and inlisted annyhow." 
 
 Captain Lewis had made no mistake. Patrick Gass, 
 cheerful, ever brave, was a typical frontiersman. His 
 had been a life of constant roving. Starting from Cham- 
 bersburg, Pennsylvania, when he was five years old, the 
 family crossed the Alleghanies on packhorses. On the 
 first horse was the mother, with the baby and all the 
 table furniture and cooking utensils; on another were 
 packed the provisions, the plough-irons and farming 
 utensils; the third was rigged with a packsaddle and 
 two large cradles of hickory withes. In the centre of 
 these sat little Pat on one side and his sister on the other, 
 well laced in with bed-clothes so that only their heads 
 stuck out. 
 
 Along the edges of precipices they went, if a horse 
 stumbled he would have thrown them hundreds of feet 
 below. On these horses they forded mountain streams, 
 swollen with melting snows and spring rains. Daily 
 were hairbreadth escapes, the horses falling, or carried 
 down with the current and the family barely snatched 
 from drowning. 
 
 The journey was made in April when the nights were 
 cold and the mother could not sleep. There was so much 
 to do for the children. As the tireless father kept guard 
 under the glow of the campfire, little Patrick's unfailing 
 good-night was, " Hist, child ! the Injuns will come and 
 take you to Detroit! " 
 
 There were several of these moves in his childhood. 
 
I 5 4 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Here and there he caught glimpses of well-housed, well- 
 fed hirelings of the British army watching like eagles the 
 land of the patriot army. At last they turned up at what 
 is now Wellsburg in West Virginia. While yet a boy 
 Gass was apprenticed to a carpenter and worked on a 
 house for a man by the name of Buchanan, while around 
 him played " little Jimmy," the president-to-be. " Little 
 Jimmy was like his mother," said Gass. 
 
 In December Lewis and Clark dropped down before 
 the white-washed walls and gray stone parapets of the 
 old French town of St. Louis. With fierce consequential 
 air a Spanish soldier flourished his sword indicating the 
 place to land. 
 
 " We will spend the winter at Charette, the farthest 
 point of settlement." That was the town of Daniel 
 Boone. 
 
 But the Governor, Don Carlos De Hault De Lassus, 
 barred the way. 
 
 " By the general policy of my government I am obliged 
 to prevent strangers from passing through Spanish ter 
 ritory until I have received official notice of its transfer." 
 
 Nothing could be done but to go into winter camp 
 opposite the mouth of the Missouri, just outside of his 
 jurisdiction, and discipline the men, making ready for 
 an early spring start. 
 
 Beyond the big river was foreign land. Did the Span 
 iard still hope to stay? 
 
 IV 
 
 THE FEUD IS ENDED 
 
 HARK ! Is that the boom of distant cannon ? The 
 American troops are falling into line outside the 
 walls of New Orleans on this 2Oth day of Decem 
 ber, 1803. The tri-colour of France floats on the flagstaff ; 
 the sky shines irradiant, like the " suns of Napoleon." 
 
THE FEUD IS ENDED 155 
 
 It is high noon ; another salute shakes the city. " Ho, 
 warder, lower the drawbridge!" 
 
 With chain-pulleys rattling down goes the bridge, never 
 to be lifted again. The fortress bell strikes its last peal 
 under the flag of France, or Spain. With thundering 
 tread American dragoons file under the portcullis of the 
 Tchoupitoulas gate, followed by cannoneers and infantry 
 in coonskin caps and leathern hunting shirts. 
 
 Curiously these sons of the forest look upon the old 
 world forts and donjons of masonry. The moat is filled- 
 with stagnant water. The ramparts of New Orleans are 
 filled with soldiers from Havre and Madrid. The win 
 dows and balconies are filled with beautiful women weep 
 ing, weeping to see the barbarians. 
 
 Laussat was looking for Napoleon's soldiers, not a 
 sale. Pale as death he hands over the keys. Slowly the 
 tri-coloured flag of France at the summit of the flagstaff 
 in the plaza descends. Slowly the star-spangled banner 
 uplifts ; half-way the two linger in one another's folds. 
 
 As the flags embrace, another boom, and answering 
 guns reply from ship and fort and battery around the 
 crescent of New Orleans. The flags are parting, it is 
 a thrilling moment ; up, up, steadily mounts the emblem 
 of America and bursts on the breeze. 
 
 The band breaks into " Hail, Columbia," amid the roar 
 of artillery and shouting of backwoodsmen. The map of 
 France in the new world has become the map of the 
 United States. 
 
 " The flag! the flag! " Veterans of the French army 
 receive the descending tri-colour, and followed by a pro 
 cession of uncovered heads bear it with funereal tread to 
 Laussat. 
 
 " We have wished to give to France a last proof of the 
 affection which we will always retain for her," with 
 trembling lip speaks the flag-bearer. " Into your hands 
 we deposit this symbol of the tie which has again tran 
 siently connected us with her." 
 
 And Laussat with answering tears replies, " May the 
 prosperity of Louisiana be eternal." 
 
 But of all in New Orleans on this historic day, none 
 
156 THE CONQUEST 
 
 fear, none tremble like Sister Infelice, in the cloister of 
 the Ursulines. She seems to hear the very sabres beat on 
 the convent wall. When a tropic hurricane sweeps up the 
 gulf at night she falls on the cold stone floor and covers 
 her head, as if the very lightning might reveal that form 
 she loved so well, the great Virginia colonel. To Infelice 
 he was ever young, ever the heroic saviour of St. Louis. 
 That time could have changed him had never occurred to 
 her, he was a type of immortal youth. 
 
 Infelice never speaks of these things, not even to her 
 father confessor; it is something too deep, too sacred, a 
 last touch of the world hid closer even than her heart. 
 And yet she believes he is coming, that is the cause of 
 all this tumult and cannonading. Her hero, her warrior 
 wants her, and none can stay him. 
 
 And when the cession is fairly over and he comes not, 
 the disappointment prostrates her utterly. " He cares, he 
 cares no more! The Virginians? Did you say the Vir 
 ginians had come ? " 
 
 From that bed of delirium the Mother Superior of the 
 Ursuline house sent for the Mayor. 
 
 " I beg to be allowed to retire with my sisterhood to 
 some point under the protection of His Catholic Majesty 
 of Spain." 
 
 "Going!" exclaimed Monsieur le Mayor of New 
 Orleans. " For why? You shall not be disturbed, you 
 shall have full protection." 
 
 " Do you stand for France, revolution and infidelity? " 
 gasped the aged mother, denouncing the Mayor. 
 
 The people pled, the Mayor went down on his knees. 
 " Do not abandon our schools and our children] " But 
 the Mother Superior was firm. 
 
 Twenty-two years had the Donna De Leyba been a nun. 
 The old official records are lost, but out of twenty-five 
 nuns in the establishment we know the sixteen of Spain 
 went away. 
 
 All New Orleans gathered to see them depart. When 
 the gun sounded on Whitsunday Eve, sixteen women in 
 black came forth, heavily veiled. The convent gardens 
 were thronged with pupils, slaves knelt by the wayside, 
 
THE CESSION OF ST. LOUIS 157 
 
 the Mayor and populace followed until they embarked 
 on the ship and sailed to Havana. 
 
 The old Ursuline convent of New Orleans is now the 
 archbishop's palace. Sister Infelice is gone, but near 
 some old cloister of Cuba we know her ashes must now 
 be reposing. Henceforth the gates were open. The wall 
 decayed, the moat was filled, and over it to-day winds the 
 handsomest boulevard in America. 
 
 The flatboatmen came home with romantic tales of the 
 land of the palmetto and orange, luxuries unknown in the 
 rigorous north. The tide of emigration so long held in 
 check burst its bounds and deluged Louisiana. 
 
 Among other Americans that settled at New Orleans 
 was the FiglTting Parson. His son Charles Mynn Thrus- 
 ton had married Fanny. 
 
 V 
 
 THE CESSION OF ST. LOUIS 
 
 LASS we must have, and quicksilver. Wife, 
 t me have the mirror." 
 
 The Madame threw up her hands. " The 
 precious pier glass my dead mother brought over from 
 France? What shall we have left?" 
 
 " But Rosalie, this is an emergency for the govern 
 ment. The men must have thermometers, and barome 
 ters, and I have no glass." 
 
 " The President will pay for the glass, Madame ; he 
 would consider it the highest use to which it could be 
 put," said Captain Lewis. 
 
 " And you shall have a better one by the next ship 
 that sails around from France." 
 
 So as usual to everything the Doctor wished, the good 
 woman consented. None had more unbounded faith in 
 Dr. Saugrain's gift of miracles than his own wife. 
 
 The huge glass, that had reflected Parisian scenes for 
 
158 THE CONQUEST 
 
 a generation before coming to the wilds of America, was 
 now lifted from its gilt frame and every particle of 
 quicksilver carefully scraped from the back. Then the 
 pier plate was shattered and the fragments gathered, bit 
 by bit, into the Doctor's mysterious crucible, making the 
 country people watch and wonder. 
 
 So long had Meriwether Lewis been with Jefferson, 
 that he had imbibed the same eager desire to know, to 
 understand. When he met with Doctor Saugrain it was 
 Uke a union of kindred, spirits. Saugrain, the pupil, 
 friend, and disciple of the great Franklin, was often with 
 the American scientist when he experimented with his 
 kites, and drew down lightning to charge his Ley den jars. 
 Three times Dr. Saugrain came to Amerfca, twice as 
 guest of Dr. Franklin, before he settled down as physi 
 cian to the Spanish garrison at St. Louis in 1800. With 
 him he brought all his scientific lore, the latest of the 
 most advanced city in the world. When all the world 
 depended on flint and steel, Paris and Dr. Saugrain made 
 matches. He made matches for Lewis and Clark that 
 were struck on the Columbia a generation before Boston 
 or London made use of the secret. 
 
 Bitterly the cheerful, sprightly little Royalist in curls 
 lamented the French Revolution. "Oh, the guillotine! 
 the guillotine! My own uncle, Dr. Guillotine, invented 
 that instrument to save pain, not to waste life. But 
 when he saw his own friends led up to the knife, dis 
 tressed at its abuse he died in despair! " 
 
 Sufficient reason had Dr. Saugrain to be loyal to Louis 
 XVI. For more than two hundred years his people had 
 been librarians, book-binders, and printers for the King. 
 Litterateurs and authors were the Saugrains for six con 
 tinuous generations, and out of their scientific and his 
 torical publications came the bent of Dr. Antoine Fran- 
 gois Saugrain of St. Louis. But when the Bastile was 
 stormed, Saugrain left France for ever. An emigre, a 
 royalist, with others of the King's friends he came to the 
 land that honoured Louis XVI. 
 
 Between the Rue de 1'Eglise and the Rue des Granges, 
 at the extreme southwestern limit of the old village of 
 
THE CESSION OF ST. LOUIS 159 
 
 St. Louis, stood Dr. Saugrain's modest residence of 
 cement with a six-foot stone wall around it and exten 
 sive gardens. In his " arboretum " Dr. Saugrain was 
 making a collection of the most attractive native trees 
 he found around St. Louis, and some there, imported 
 from Paris, cast their green shadows on 'the swans 
 of his swimming pond, an old French fancy for his 
 park. 
 
 In this happy home with its great library, Captain 
 Lewis became a welcome guest in that winter of 1803-4 
 while waiting for the cession. Under the Doctor he pur 
 sued his scientific studies, medicine, surgery, electricity, 
 for not even Dr. Barton in Philadelphia could surpass 
 the bright little Frenchman so strangely transplanted 
 here in this uttermost border. 
 
 The Doctor's taper fingers were always stained with 
 acids and sulphur; busy ever with blowpipe and cru 
 cible, he fashioned tubes, filled in quicksilver, graduated 
 cases, and handed out barometers and thermometers that 
 amazed the frontier. 
 
 "Great Medicine!" cried the Indians when he gave 
 them a shock of electricity. How Dr. Saugrain loved 
 to turn his battery and electrify the door-knobs when 
 those bothersome Indians tried to enter ! Or, " Here, 
 White Hair, is a shilling. You can have it if you will 
 take it out." The Osage chieftain plunges his arm into 
 a crock of electrified water to dash off howling with 
 affright. 
 
 With intense interest Captain Lewis stood by while- 
 the chemist-physician dipped sulphur-tipped splints of 
 wood into phosphorus, and lo! his little matches glowed 
 like Lucifer's own. " You can make the sticks yourself," 
 he said. " I will seal the phosphorus in these small tin 
 boxes for safety." 
 
 " And have you any kine-pox? You must surely carry 
 kine-pox, for I hear those Omahas have died like cattle 
 in a plague." 
 
 " President Jefferson particularly directed me to carry 
 some kine-pox virus," replied Captain Lewis, "but really, 
 what he gave me seems to have lost its virtue. I wrote 
 
160 THE CONQUEST 
 
 him so from Cincinnati, but fear it will be too late to 
 supply the deficiency." 
 
 Out of his medicine chest in the corner, the little Doc 
 tor brought the tiny vials. " Sent me from Paris. Carry 
 it, explain it to the Indians, use it whenever you can, - 
 it will save the life of hundreds." And other medicines, 
 simple remedies, the good savant prescribed, making up 
 a chest that became invaluable in after days. 
 
 Other friends were Gratiot and the Chouteaus, Au- 
 guste and Pierre. It was Auguste that had planned the 
 fortifications of St. Louis, towers and bastions, palisades, 
 demilunes, scarps, counter-scarps, and sally ports, only 
 finished in part when the city was handed over. 
 
 Long since had Carondelet offered rewards to the 
 traders of St. Louis to penetrate to the Pacific. Already 
 the Chouteau boats had reached the Mandan towns, but 
 freely they gave every information to the American 
 Captain. 
 
 " I send you herewith enclosed," wrote Lewis to the 
 President, " some slips of the Osage plum and apple. 
 Mr. Charles Gratiot, a gentleman of this place, has 
 promised that he would with pleasure attend to the 
 orders of yourself, or any of my acquaintances who may 
 think proper to write him on the subject. I obtained 
 the cuttings now sent you from the gardens of Mr. 
 Peter Chouteau, who resided the greater portion of his 
 time for many years with the Osage nation. 
 
 " The Osage might with a little attention be made to 
 form an ornamental and useful hedge. The fruit is a 
 large oval plum, of a pale yellow colour and exquisite 
 flavour. An opinion prevails among the Osages that 
 the fruit is poisonous, though they acknowledge they 
 have never tasted it." 
 
 The leaders of all the French colonies on the Missis 
 sippi were gentlemen of education and talent. They saw 
 what the cession meant, and hailed it with welcome. But 
 the masses, peaceable, illiterate, with little property and 
 less enterprise, contented, unambitious, saw not the fu 
 ture of that great valley where their fathers had camped 
 in the days of La Salle. Frank, open, joyous, unsus- 
 
THE CESSION OF ST. LOUIS 161 
 
 pecting, wrapped in the pleasures of the passing hour, 
 they cared little for wealth and less for government pro 
 vided they were not worried with its cares. Their chil 
 dren, their fruits and flowers, the dance happy always 
 were the Creole habitants provided only they heard the 
 fiddle string. Retaining all the suavity of his race, the 
 roughest hunter could grace a ballroom with the car 
 riage and manners of a gentleman. 
 
 Meanwhile Captain Clark was drilling the men at 
 camp after the fashion of Wayne. Other soldiers had 
 been engaged at Fort Massac and elsewhere, Silas 
 Goodrich, Richard Windsor, Hugh Hall, Alexander Wil- 
 lard, and John B. Thompson, a surveyor of Vincennes. 
 
 Never had St. Louis such days! Hurry, hurry and 
 bustle in the staid and quiet town that had never before 
 known any greater excitement than a church festival or 
 a wedding, never, that is, since those days of war when 
 George Rogers Clark saved and when he threatened. 
 
 But now Lewis and Clark made a deep impression on 
 the villagers of the power and dignity of the United 
 States Government. Out of their purchases every mer 
 chant hoped to make a fortune; the eager Frenchmen 
 displayed their wares, coffee, gunpowder, and blan 
 kets, tea at prices fabulous in deerskin currency 'and 
 sugar two dollars a pound. 
 
 But Lewis already had made up his outfit, richly 
 laced coats, medals and flags from Jefferson himself, 
 knives, tomahawks, and ornaments for chiefs, barrels of 
 beads, paints and looking-glasses, bright-coloured three- 
 point Mackinaw blankets, a vision to dazzle a child or 
 an Indian, who is also a child. 
 
 George Drouillard was found, the skilled hunter. 
 There was a trace of Indian in Drouillard; his French 
 fathers and grandfathers had trapped along the streams 
 of Ohio and Canada since before the days of Pontiac, in 
 fact, with Cadillac they had helped to build Detroit. 
 
 Every part of America was represented in that first 
 exploring expedition, Lewis, the kinsman of Wash 
 ington, and Clark from the tidewater cavaliers of old 
 Virginia, foremost of the fighting stock that won Ken- 
 
162 THE CONQUEST 
 
 tucky and Illinois, Puritan Yankees from New England, 
 Quaker Pennsylvanians from Carlisle, descendants of 
 landholders in the days of Penn, French interpreters and 
 adventurers whose barkentines had flashed along our 
 inland lakes and streams for a hundred years, and finally, 
 York, the negro, forerunner of his people. 
 
 Cruzatte and Labiche, canoemen, were of old Kaskas- 
 kia. Pierre Cruzatte was near-sighted and one-eyed, 
 but what of that? A trusted trader of the Chouteaus, 
 he had camped with the Omahas, and knew their tongue 
 and their country. Could such a prize be foregone for 
 any defect of eyesight? 
 
 Accustomed to roving with their long rifles and well- 
 filled bullet pouches, nowhere in the world could more 
 suitable heroes have been found for this Homeric 
 journey. 
 
 News of the sale had reached St. Louis while Captain 
 Lewis was struggling with those builders at Pittsburg. 
 
 " Sacre! Diable!" exclaimed the French. Some loved 
 France, some clung to Spain, some shook their heads., 
 " De country? We never discuss its affaires. Dat ees 
 de business of de Commandante." 
 
 The winter of 1803-4 was very severe. In November 
 the ice began running and no one could cross until Feb 
 ruary. Then Captain Amos Stoddard, at Kaskaskia with 
 his troops, sent a letter to Don Carlos De Hault De Las- 
 sus by a sergeant going on business to Captain Lewis. 
 
 On top of the hill a double stockade of logs set verti 
 cally, the space between filled with dirt, a two-story log 
 building with small windows and a round stone tower 
 with a pointed cap of stone, that was the fort where 
 the Spanish soldiers waited. 
 
 Down below, inhabitants in blue blanket capotes and 
 blue kerchiefs on their heads, now and then in red toque 
 or a red scarf to tie up their trousers, wandered in the 
 three narrow lanes that were the streets of St. Louis, 
 waiting. Before them flowed the yellow-stained, eddy- 
 spotted Mississippi, behind waved a sea of prairie grass 
 uninterrupted by farm or village to the Rockies. 
 
 Spring blossomed. Thickets of wild plum, cherry, 
 
THE CESSION OF ST. LOUIS 163 
 
 wild crab-apples, covered the prairie. Vanilla-scented 
 locust blooms were shaking honey-dew on the wide ve 
 randas of the old St. Louis houses, when early in the 
 morning of May 9, American troops crossed the river 
 from Cahokia, and Clark's men from the camp formed 
 in line with fife and drum, and colours flying. At their 
 head Major Amos Stoddard of Boston and Captain Meri- 
 wether Lewis of Virginia led up to the Government 
 House. 
 
 Black Hawk was there to see his Spanish Father. He 
 looked out. 
 
 " Here comes your American Father," said the Com 
 mandant De Lassus. 
 
 " I do not want two Fathers !" responded Black Hawk. 
 
 Dubiously shaking his head as the Americans ap 
 proached, Black Hawk and his retinue flapped their 
 blankets out of one door as Stoddard and Captain 
 Lewis entered the other. 
 
 Away to his boats Black Hawk sped, pulling for dear 
 life up stream to his village at Rock Island. And with 
 him went Singing Bird, the bride of Black Hawk. 
 
 " Strange people have taken St. Louis," said the Hawk 
 to his Sacs. " We shall never see our Spanish Father 
 again." 
 
 A flotilla of Frenchmen came up from Kaskaskia, 
 Menard, Edgar, Francis Vigo, and their friends. Vil 
 lagers left their work in the fields ; all St. Louis flocked 
 to La Place d'Armes in front of the Government House 
 to see the transfer. 
 
 In splendid, showy uniforms, every officer of the 
 Spanish garrison stood at arms, intently watching the 
 parade winding up the limestone footway from the boats 
 below. 
 
 With its public archives and the property of a vast 
 demesne, Don Carlos De Hault De Lassus handed over 
 to Major Stoddard the keys of the Government House 
 in behalf of France. A salvo of cannonry shook St. 
 Louis. 
 
 " People of Upper Louisiana," began De Lassus in a 
 choked and broken voice, " by order of the King, I am 
 
1 64 THE CONQUEST 
 
 now about to surrender this post and its dependencies. 
 The flag which has protected you during nearly thirty- 
 six years will no longer be seen. The oath you took 
 now ceases to bind. Your faithfulness and courage in 
 upholding it will be remembered for ever. From the 
 bottom of my heart I wish you all prosperity." 
 
 De Lassus, Stoddard, Lewis, Clark, and the soldiers 
 filed up the yellow path, past the log church, to the fort 
 on the hill. The Spanish flag was lowered; De Lassus 
 wept as he took the fallen banner in his hand, but as the 
 Lilies of France flashed in the sun the Creoles burst into 
 tumultuous cheers. Not for forty years had they seen 
 that flag, the emblem of their native land. Cannon 
 roared, swords waved, and shouts were heard, but not 
 in combat. 
 
 The gates were thrown open; out came the Spanish 
 troops with knapsacks on their backs, ready to sail away 
 to New Orleans. The old brass cannon and munitions 
 of war were transported down the hill, while the Ameri 
 can soldiers in sombre uniforms filed into the dingy old 
 fort of Spain. 
 
 Major Stoddard sent for the French flag to be taken 
 down at sunset. 
 
 " No, no, let it fly ! Let it fly all night! " begged the 
 Creoles, and a guard of honour went up to watch the 
 flickering emblem of their country's brief possession. 
 
 All night long that Frerfch flag kissed the sky, all 
 night the guard of honour watched, and the little log 
 church of St. Louis was filled with worshippers. All the 
 romance of Brittany and Normandy rose to memory. 
 Rene Kiercereau the singer led in ballads of La Belle 
 France, and the glories of fields where their fathers 
 fought were rehearsed with swelling hearts. Not the 
 real France but an ideal was in their hearts, the tradi 
 tion of Louis XIV. 
 
 That was the last day of France in North America. 
 As the beloved banner sank the drums gave a long fu 
 neral roll, but when, instead, the red, white, and blue 
 burst on the breeze, the fifes struck into lively music and 
 the drums rained a cataract. 
 
THE CESSION OF ST. LOUIS 165 
 
 " Three cheers for the American flag! " cried Charles 
 Gratiot in the spirit of the Swiss republic, but there were 
 no cheers. The Creoles were weeping. Sobs, lamenta 
 tions arose, but the grief was mostly from old French 
 men and their wives who so long had prayed that the 
 Fleur de Lis might wave abcrve San Loui'. Their sons 
 and daughters, truly, as Lucien Bonaparte had warned 
 Napoleon, " went to bed good Frenchmen, to awake and 
 find themselves Americans." 
 
 The huge iron cock in the belfry of the old log church 
 spun round and round, as if it knew not which way the 
 wind was blowing. In three days three *flags over St. 
 Louis ! No wonder the iron cock lost its head and spun 
 and spun like any fickle weather vane. 
 
 In the same square with the Government House stood 
 one of the Chouteau mansions. Auguste Chouteau had 
 been there from the beginning, when as a fearless youth 
 with Laclede he had penetrated to the site of the future 
 San Loui' in 1764. He was a diplomat who met Indians 
 and made alliances. He had seen the territory pass under 
 Spain's flag, and in spite of that had made it more and 
 more a place of Gallic refuge for his scattered country 
 men. He had welcomed Saugrain, Cerre, Gratiot, in 
 fact, he and his brother Pierre remembered the day 
 when there was no San Loui'. 
 
 A band of Osage chiefs had come in to see their great 
 Spanish father. With wondering eyes they watched the 
 cession, and were handed over to Captain Lewis to deal 
 with in behalf of the United States. A French messen 
 ger was sent ahead with a letter to the tribe. 
 
 " The Americans taken San Loui' ? " 
 
 Manuel Lisa, the Spaniard, was disgusted, it broke 
 up his monopoly of the Osage trade. " We will not haf 
 the Americans ! " 
 
 The Osages burnt the letter. 
 
1 66 THE CONQUEST 
 
 VI 
 
 SERGEANT ORDWAY WRITES A LETTER 
 
 THE winter of 1802-3 had been uncommonly severe. 
 Unknown to George Shannon, that winter his 
 father hunting in the dense woods of Ohio lost his 
 way in a snow-storm and was frozen to death. Unaware 
 of the tragedy at home, unaware also of his own inherited 
 facility for getting lost, the boy set out up the winding 
 staircase of the wild Missouri. 
 
 An older brother, John, nineteen years of age, became 
 the stay of that widowed mother with her seven small 
 children, the least a baby, Wilson Shannon, twice the 
 future Governor of Ohio and once the Governor of 
 Kansas. 
 
 With a pad on his knee every soldier boy wrote home 
 from the camp on River Dubois opposite the mouth of 
 the Missouri. Down through the years Sergeant Ord- 
 way's letter has come to us. 
 
 " CAMP RIVER DUBOIS, April the 8th, 1804. 
 
 " HONOURED PARENTS, I now embrace this opportunity 
 of writeing to you once more to let you know where I am 
 and where I am going. I am well thank God and in high 
 Spirits. I am now on an expedition to the westward, with 
 Capt. Lewis and Capt. Clark, who are appointed by the 
 President of the United States to go on an Expedition 
 through the interior parts of North America. We are to 
 ascend the Missouri River with a boat as far as it is 
 navigable and then to go by land to the western ocean, if 
 nothing prevents. This party consists of twenty-five picked 
 men of the armey and country likewise and I am so happy 
 as to be one of them picked from the armey and I and all 
 the party are if we live to return to receive our discharge 
 whenever we return again to the United States if we choose 
 it. This place is on the Mississippi River opposite to the 
 mouth of the Missouri River and we are to start in ten 
 
INTO THE LAND OF ANARCHY 167 
 
 days up the Missouri River, this has been our winterquar- 
 ters. we expect to be gone 18 months or two years, we 
 are to receive a great reward for this expedition when we 
 return. I am to receive 15 dollars a month and at least 400 
 ackers of first rate land and if we make great discoveries as 
 we expect the United States has promised to make us great 
 rewards, more than we are promised, for fear of accidents 
 I wish to inform you that [personal matters], 
 
 I have received no letters since Betseys yet but will write 
 next winter if I have a chance. 
 
 " Yours, etc., 
 
 " JOHN ORDWAY, Segt. 
 
 "To STEPHEN ORDWAY, 
 
 Dumbarton, N. H." 
 
 VII 
 
 INTO THE LAND OF ANARCHY 
 
 THE boats were ready, the red pirogue and the 
 white, from St. Louis, fresh painted, trim and slim 
 upon the water, and the big bateau, fifty-five feet 
 from stem to stern, with setting poles, sweeps, a square 
 sail to catch the breeze, and twenty-two oars at the 
 rowlocks. 
 
 Down under the decks and in the cabins, had been 
 packed the precious freightage, government arms, rifles 
 made at Harper's .Ferry under Lewis's own superinten 
 dence, tents, ammunition, bales and boxes of Indian 
 presents, provisions, tools. Into the securest lockers went 
 Lewis's astronomical instruments for ascertaining the 
 geography of the country, and the surgical instruments 
 that did good service in the hands of Clark. 
 
 Nothing was forgotten, even small conveniences, 
 candles, ink, mosquito bars. It took half a million to 
 send Stanley to Africa. For twenty-five hundred dollars 
 Lewis and Clark made as great a journey. 
 
 To assist in carrying stores and repelling Indian at- 
 
1 68 THE CONQUEST 
 
 tacks, Corporal Warfington and six soldiers had been 
 engaged at St. Louis and nine French boys of Cahokia, 
 inured to the paddle and the camp. Feather- decked and 
 beaded they came, singing the songs of old Cahokia to 
 start the little squadron. 
 
 The Americans had knives in their belts, pistols in their 
 holsters, knapsacks on their backs, powder horns and 
 pouches of ammunition, ink horns and quills, ready to 
 face the wilderness and report. Lewis encouraged every 
 one to keep a journal. 
 
 " I niver wint to school but nineteen days in me boy 
 hood and that was whin I was a man," said Patrick Gass. 
 But what Pat lacked in books he made up in observation 
 and shrewd reasoning; hence it fell out that Patrick Gass's 
 journal was the first published account of the Lewis and 
 Clark expedition. All honour to Patrick Gass. Of such 
 are our heroes. 
 
 The cession was on Wednesday, May 9, 1804, and all 
 the men were there but a few who guarded camp. At 
 three o'clock the following Monday, May 14, Captain 
 Clark announced, " All aboard ! " The heavy-laden 
 bateau and two pirogues swung out, to the voyageurs' 
 chanson, thrilling like a brass band as their bright new 
 paddles cut the water : 
 
 " A frigate went a-sailing, 
 Mon joli ccsur de rose, 
 Far o'er the seas away, 
 Joli ccsur d>un rosier, 
 Joli cceur d'un rosier." 
 
 And hill and hollow echoed, 
 
 *' Mon joli co3ur de rose." 
 
 " San Chawle ! " cried Cruzatte the bowsman at two 
 o'clock, Wednesday, when the first Creole village hove in 
 sight. At a gun, the signal of traders, all St. Charles 
 rushed to see the first Americans that had ever come up 
 the Missouri. And straggling behind the Frenchmen 
 came their friends, the Kickapoos of Kaskaskia, now on 
 a hunt in the Missouri. 
 
INTO THE LAND OF ANARCHY 169 
 
 " Meet us up the river with a good fat deer," said 
 Captain Clark. The delighted Kickapoos scattered for 
 the hunt. 
 
 Five days the boats lay at St. Charles, waiting for 
 Captain Lewis who was detained fixing off the Osage 
 chiefs at St. Louis. 
 
 Patrick Gass wrote in his journal, " It rained." Ser 
 geant Floyd adds, " Verry much Rain." Captain Clark 
 chronicles, " Rain, thunder, and lightning for several 
 days." But never on account of a flurry of rain did the 
 sociable French of St. Charles fail in polite attentions to 
 their guests on the river bank. 
 
 On Sunday, boats were descried toiling up from St. 
 Louis with a dozen gentlemen, who had come to escort 
 Captain Lewis and bid " God speed ! " to the expedition. 
 Captain Stoddard was there, and Auguste Chouteau, 
 availing himself of every opportunity to forward the 
 enterprise. Monsieur Labbadie had advice and Gratiot 
 and Dr. Saugrain, little and learned, with the medicine 
 chest. 
 
 With throbbing hearts the captains stole a moment for 
 a last home letter to be sent by the returning guests. 
 
 " My route is uncertain," wrote Clark to Major Cro- 
 ghan at Locust Grove. " I think it more than probable 
 that Captain Lewis or myself will return by sea." 
 
 " Bon voyage! bon voyage, mes voyageursl " cried all 
 the French habitants of St. Charles, waving caps and 
 kerchiefs to answering cheers from the crew and the 
 guns. " Bonsoir et bon voyage tak' care for you 
 prenez garde pour les sauvages." With a laugh the 
 voyageurs struck up a boat song. 
 
 The boats slid away into the west, that West where 
 France had stretched her shadowy hand, and Spain, and 
 England. The reign of France fell with Montcalm on 
 the Heights of Abraham, flickering up again only in that 
 last act when Napoleon gave us Louisiana. 
 
 " The Kickapoos ! The Kickapoos ! " Through bush 
 and brier above St. Charles, the bedraggled Indians came 
 tugging down to the shore four fine fat deer. Bacon 
 fare and hardtack were relegated to the hold. From that 
 
1 70 THE CONQUEST 
 
 hour Lewis and Clark threaded the gameland of the 
 world. 
 
 " Joost wait onteel dey get ento de boofalo ! " com 
 mented those wise young voyageurs, Cruzatte and Drouil- 
 lard, nodding at one another as the cooks served out the 
 savoury meat on the grass, and every man drew forth his 
 long hunting-knife and little sack of salt. 
 
 "Where is my old friend, Daniel Boone?" inquired 
 Captain Clark, three days later at Charette, the last settle 
 ment ~on the Missouri border. This, but for Spanish in 
 terference, would have been their camping station the 
 previous winter. Colonel Boone, six miles from the 
 Missouri, was holding court beneath his Judgment 
 Tree. 
 
 The June rise of the Missouri was at hand. Days of 
 rain and melting snows had set the mad streams whirl 
 ing. The muddy Missouri, frothing, foaming, tore at its 
 ragged banks that, yawning, heavily undermined, leaped 
 suddenly into the water. Safety lay alone in mid-stream, 
 where the swift current, bank-full and running like a 
 millrace, bore down toward the Mississippi. 
 
 To stem it was terrific. In spite of oars and sails and 
 busy poling, the bateau would turn, raked ever and anon 
 with drifts of fallen trees. And free a moment, some 
 new danger arose. Down out of sight, water-soaked logs 
 scraped the keel with vicious grating. And above, for 
 midable battering-rams of snags sawed their black heads 
 up and down defiantly, as if Nature herself had blockaded 
 the way with a chevaux de frise. 
 
 Poles broke, oars splintered, masts went headlong, the 
 boat itself careened almost into the depths. It was a des 
 perate undertaking to stem the mad Missouri in the midst 
 of her wild June rise. 
 
 But that very rise, so difficult to oppose upstream, was 
 a sliding incline the other way. May 27, two canoes 
 loaded with furs came plunging full tilt out of the north. 
 
 " Where from ? What news ? " 
 
 " Two months from the Omaha nation, seven hundred 
 miles up the river," sang out the swiftly passing French 
 men bound for St. Louis. 
 
INTO THE LAND OF ANARCHY 171 
 
 Behind them a huge raft, 
 
 " From the Pawnees on the Platte! " 
 
 And yet behind three other rafts, piled, heaped, and 
 laden to the water's edge, 
 
 " From the Grand Osage! " 
 
 Such alone was greeting and farewell, as the barks, 
 unable to be checked, went spinning down the water. 
 
 What a gala for the winter-bound trapper ! Home 
 again! home again! flying down the wild Missouri in 
 the mad June rise ! They stopped not to camp or to hunt, 
 but skimming the wave, fairly flew to St. Louis. They 
 came, those swift-gliding boats, like visions of another 
 world, the world Lewis and Clark were about to enter. 
 
 June 5, two more canoes flashed by with beaver, 
 
 " From eighty leagues up the Kansas river ! " 
 
 June 8, boats with beaver and otter slid by, and rafts 
 of furs and buffalo tallow, 
 
 " From the Sioux nation ! " 
 
 Dorion, an old Frenchman on a Sioux raft, engaged to 
 go back with Lewis and Clark to interpret for them the 
 language of his wife's relations. 
 
 A thousand miles against the current ! Now and then 
 a southwest wind would fill out the big square-cut sail 
 and send the heavy barge ploughing steadily up. Again, 
 contrary winds kept them on the walking boards all day 
 long, with heads bent low over the setting-pole. 
 
 Warm and warmer grew the days. Some of the men 
 were sunstruck. The glitter of sun on the water inflamed 
 their eyes. Some broke out with painful boils, and mos 
 quitoes made night a torture. 
 
 Now and then they struck a sand-bar, and leaping into 
 the water the voyageurs ran along shore with the cordelle 
 on their shoulders, literally dragging the great boat into 
 safety. 
 
 " Mon cher Captinne ! de win' she blow lak' hurri 
 cane ! " cried the voyageurs. 
 
 Down came the prairie gale, almost a tornado, snap 
 ping the timber on the river-banks, and lashing the water 
 to waves that surged up, over, and into the boats. .The 
 sky bent black above them, the fierce wind howled, and 
 
172 THE CONQUEST 
 
 the almost exhausted men strained every nerve to hold 
 the rocking craft. 
 
 " I strong lak' moose, not 'fraid no t'ing," remarked 
 Cruzatte, clambering back into tlie boat wet as a drowned 
 kitten. 
 
 Hot and tired, June 26 they tied up at the mouth of 
 Kansas River. " Eat something, tak' leetle drink also," 
 said the voyageurs. On the present site of Kansas City 
 they pitched their tents, and stretched their limbs from 
 the weariness of canoe cramp. 
 
 * The most signs of game I iver saw," said Patrick 
 Gass, wandering out with his gun to find a bear. " Im- 
 ince Kurds of Deer," bears in the bottoms, beaver, tur 
 keys, geese, and a " Grat nomber of Goslins," say the 
 journals, but not an Indian. 
 
 " Alas ! " sighed the old voyageurs with friendly pity. 
 " De Kansas were plaintee brave people, but de Sac and 
 de Sioux, dey drive 'em up de Kansas River." 
 
 Caesar conquered Gaul, but the mercatores were there 
 before him. Lewis and Clark ascended the Missouri, 
 but everywhere the adventurous Frenchmen had gone 
 before them, peddlers of the prairie, out with Indian 
 goods buying skins. 
 
 But now Americans had come. The whippoorwill 
 sang them to sleep, the wolf howled them awake. The 
 owl inquired, " Who? Who? Who? " in the dark tree- 
 tops at the mouth of the Kansas River. 
 
 On, on crept the boats, past grand old groves of oak 
 and hickory, of walnut, ash, and buckeye, that had stood 
 undisturbed for ages. Swift fawn flitted by, and strange 
 and splendid birds that the great Audubon should come 
 one day to study. On, on past the River-which-Cries, 
 the Weeping Water, the home of the elk. Tall cotton- 
 woods arose like Corinthian columns wreathed with ivy, 
 and festoons of wild grape dipped over and into the 
 wave. 
 
 The River-which-Cries marked, the boundary of two 
 nations, the Otoes and Omahas. Almost annually its 
 waters were reddened with slaughter. Then came the 
 old men and women and children from the Otoe villages 
 
INTO THE LAND OF ANARCHY 173 
 
 on the south and from the Omahas on the north and 
 wept and wept there, until it came to be known as Ne- 
 hawka, the Weeping Water. 
 
 July came and the waters were falling. With a fair 
 wind, on the 2ist they sailed past the mouth of the great 
 river Platte. In the summer evening Lewis and Clark 
 in their pirogue paddled up the Platte. 
 
 " Here I spen' two winter wit' de Otoe," said Drouil- 
 lard the hunter. " De Otoe were great nation, but de 
 Sioux an' de 'Maha drove dem back on de Pawnee." 
 
 ''And the Pawnees?" 
 
 " Dey built villages an' plant corn an' wage war wid 
 de Osage." 
 
 Ten days later preparations were made to meet the 
 Otoes at Council Bluffs. On a cottonwood pole the flag 
 was flying. A great feast was ready, when afar off, 
 Drouillard and Cruzatte were seen approaching with 
 their friends. 
 
 " Boom," went the blunderbuss, and the council smoke 
 arose under an awning made of the mainsail of the 
 bateau. Every man of the expedition, forty-five in all, 
 paraded in his best uniform. 
 
 Lewis talked. Clark talked. All the six chiefs ex 
 pressed satisfaction in the change of government. They 
 begged to be remembered to their Great Father, the 
 President, and asked for mediation between them and 
 the Omahas. 
 
 " W T hat is the cause of your war ? " 
 
 " We have no horses," answered the childlike Otoes. 
 " We borrow their horses. Then they scalp us. We 
 fear the Pawnees also. We very hungry, come to their 
 village when they are hunting, take a little corn ! " 
 
 The Captains could scarce repress a smile, nor yet a 
 tear. Thefts, reprisals, midnight burnings and slaughter, 
 this was the reign immemorial in this land of anarchy. 
 In vain the tribes might plant, never could they reap. 
 " We poor Indian," was the universal lament. 
 
 Severely solemn, Lewis and Clark hung medals on the 
 neck of each chief, and gave him a paper with greetings 
 from Thomas Jefferson with the seals of Lewis and 
 
174 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Clark impressed with red wax and attached with a blue 
 ribbon. 
 
 " When you look at these, remember your Great 
 Father. You are his children. He bids you stop war 
 and make peace with one another." In 1860, the Otoe 
 Indians exhibited at Nebraska City those identical papers, 
 borne for more than half a century in all their homeless 
 wanderings, between flat pieces of bark and tied with 
 buckskin thongs. 
 
 Then gifts were distributed and chiefs' dresses. With 
 more handshakings and booming of cannon, the flotilla 
 sailed away that sultry afternoon one hundred years 
 ago. The chiefs stood still on the shore and wonder- 
 ingly gazed at one another. 
 
 " These are the peacemakers ! " 
 
 A week later Lewis and Clark entered the Omaha 
 country and raised a flag on the grave of Blackbird. 
 Encamping on a sandbar opposite the village, Sergeant 
 Ordway and Cruzatte were dispatched to summon the 
 chiefs. Here Cruzatte had traded two winters. Up 
 from the river he found the old trails overgrown. Break 
 ing through sunflowers, grass, and thistles high above 
 their heads, they came upon the spot where once had 
 stood a village. Naught remained but graves. 
 
 The Omahas had been a military people, feared even 
 by the Sioux, the Kansas, and the far-away Crows. 
 Strange mystery clung to Blackbird. Never had one 
 so powerful ruled the Missouri. At his word his enemy 
 perished. Stricken by sudden illness, whoever crossed 
 the will of Blackbird died, immediately, mysteriously. 
 
 Then came the smallpox in 1800. Blackbird him 
 self died and half his people. In frenzy the agonised 
 Omahas burnt their village, slew their wives and chil 
 dren, and fled the fatal spot, but not until they had 
 buried Blackbird. In accord with his last wish, they 
 took the corpse of the Omaha King to the top of the 
 highest hill and there entombed him, sitting upright on 
 his horse that he might watch the traders come and go. 
 
 And one of those traders bore in his guilty heart the 
 secret of Blackbird's power. He had given to him a 
 
INTO THE LAND OF ANARCHY 175 
 
 package of arsenic. Blackbird and Big Elk's father went 
 to St. Louis in the days of the French and made a treaty. 
 A portrait of the chief was then painted that is said to 
 hang now in the Louvre at Paris. 
 
 A delegation of Otoes had been persuaded to come up 
 and smoke the peace-pipe with the Omahas. But not an 
 Omaha appeared. And the Otoes, released from over 
 whelming fear, Big Horse and Little Thief, Big Ox and 
 Iron Eyes, smoked and danced on the old council ground 
 of their enemies, whose scalps they had vowed to hang 
 at their saddle bow. 
 
 Sergeant Floyd danced with the rest that hot August 
 night, and became overheated. He went on guard duty 
 immediately afterward, and lay down on a sandbar to 
 cool. In a few moments he was seized with frightful 
 pains. 
 
 Nathaniel Pryor awakened the Captains. 
 
 " My cousin is very ill." 
 
 All night Lewis and Clark used every endeavour to 
 relieve the suffering soldier. At sunrise the boats set 
 sail, bearing poor Floyd, pale and scarce breathing. 
 There was a movement of the sick boy's lips, 
 
 " I am going away. I want you to write me a letter." 
 
 And there, on the borders of Iowa, he dispatched his 
 last message to the old Kentucky home. When they 
 landed for dinner Floyd died. 
 
 With streaming tears Patrick Gass, the warm-hearted, 
 made a strong coffin of oak slabs. A detail of brother 
 soldiers bore the body to the top of the bluff and laid it 
 there with the honours of war, the first United States 
 soldier to be buried beyond the Mississippi, and on a 
 cedar post they carved his name. 
 
 With measured tread and slow the soldiers came down 
 and camped on Floyd's River below, in the light of the 
 setting sun. 
 
 Years passed. Around that lovely height, Floyd's 
 Bluff, Sioux City grew. Travellers passed that way and 
 said, " Yonder lies Charles Floyd on the bluff." Relic 
 hunters chipped away the cedar post. Finally, the Mis 
 souri undermined the height, and the oakwood coffin 
 
176 THE CONQUEST 
 
 came near falling into the river, but it was rescued and 
 buried farther back in 1857. Recently a magnificent 
 monument was dedicated there, to commemorate his 
 name and his mission for ever, the first light-bearer 
 to perish in the West. 
 
 A few days later a vote was cast for a new sergeant 
 in the place of Floyd, and Patrick Gass received the 
 honour. Every day Floyd had written in his journal, 
 and now it was given into the hand of Captain Clark to 
 be forwarded, on the first opportunity, to his people. 
 
 VIII 
 
 "THE SIOUX! THE SIOUX!" 
 
 HAT river is this ' Dorion? " Captain Lewis 
 had thrown open his infantry uniform to 
 catch the cooling gust down a silver rift in 
 the shore. 
 
 " Petite Riviere des Sioux. Go to Des Moines country. 
 Pass tro te Lake of te Spirit, full of islands. Lead to Dog 
 Plain, Prairie du Chien, four days from te Omaha coun 
 try. Des Sioux " 
 
 Dorion drew his forefinger across his throat and lapsed 
 into silence. They were his people, he would not tra 
 duce them. But his listeners understood, the Sioux 
 were " cut-throats," this was their name among the 
 tribes. 
 
 The voyageurs trembled, " Bon Dieu! le Sioux sau- 
 vage, he keel de voyageur an' steal deir hair ! " 
 
 The Sioux, the terrible Sioux, were dog Indians, ever 
 on the move, raiding back and forth, restless and un 
 sleeping. Almost to Athabasca their travoises kicked 
 up the summer dust, their dog trains dragged across the 
 plains of Manitoba. On the Saskatchewan they pitched 
 their leather tents and chased the buffalo; around Lake 
 Winnipeg they scalped the Chippeways. At the Falls of 
 
"THE SIOUX! THE SIOUX!" 177 
 
 St. Anthony they spread their fishing nets, and at Niagara 
 Falls the old French Jesuits found them. 
 
 Now they were stealing horses. For horses, down the 
 Mississippi they murdered the Illinois. For horses, the 
 Mandan on the upper Missouri heard and trembled. 
 " The Sioux ! the Sioux ! " The Ponca paled in his mud 
 hut on the Niobrara, the Omaha retreated up the Platte, 
 the Cheyenne hid in the cedar-curtained recesses of the 
 Black Hills. 
 
 More puissant than the Six Nations of the Iroquois, 
 the Sioux Confederacy dominated from the Red River 
 of the North to the Red River of Texas. Wilder than 
 the Comanches they rode, more cunning in theft than the 
 Crows, more bloodthirsty than the Blackfeet. On the red 
 man's triple plea for war, horses, scalps, and wives, 
 the Sioux were pirates of the streams and despots of 
 the prairie. 
 
 Mettlesome with the bow, fiery in battle, strong, brave, 
 wild, kings of the hills and monarchs of the trails, they 
 ruled the earth in splendid savagery. The buffalo was 
 theirs, the beaver and the deer, and woe betide the rival 
 that poached on their preserves. Did the poor Shoshone 
 venture beyond the Rockies, he was flayed and burned 
 alive. No lake, no stream, no river between the Missis 
 sippi and the Rockies remained unstained by their red 
 hatchet. 
 
 And what a chapter when the traders came ! Unwrit 
 ten yet are those days of fierce and constant battle. 
 
 Even Dorion himself dreaded the daring freebooters 
 into whose tribe he had married. His own offspring par 
 took of the wild fierce spirit of their people. Like eaglets 
 or young panthers, they clutched at him with claws and 
 talons, with difficulty the little Frenchman held them 
 back as the lion-tamer holds the whelps. 
 
 Of Dorion's possessions the Sioux took what they 
 pleased. For the privilege of trading he smiled and gave 
 them all, then in generosity he was heaped with skins. 
 Dorion knew the Sioux, knew their best and worst 
 Somewhere in this Sioux country his faithful spouse was 
 waiting ; he was looking for her now, a model squaw, 
 
 12 
 
1 78 THE CONQUEST 
 
 a tireless slave who dug his roots and made his garments, 
 brought his wood and water, and, neglected, bore his 
 children. 
 
 " Pilicans ! pilicans ! " 
 
 It was the voice of Patrick Gass, beyond the Little 
 Sioux. A low sand island was covered with huge, white, 
 web-footed beauties fishing in the chocolate Missouri. 
 
 When the scrimmage was over two handsome birds lay 
 in the bateau, one, the queen of the flock, brought down 
 by Lewis himself. She was a splendid specimen, six feet 
 from tip to tip, pure white with a tinge of rose, and an 
 enormous pouch full of fish under her bill. 
 
 " Out with the fish. Let us measure that pouch." 
 
 Lewis's enthusiasm was contagious. All hands gath 
 ered while he poured in water, five gallons. 
 
 " The average capacity is but two," said Captain Clark. 
 " We must preserve this trophy." 
 
 To-day that beautiful bird, of strong maternal instincts, 
 is the emblem of the State of Louisiana. 
 
 Again Lewis put the question, " What stream, 
 Dorion ? " 
 
 " Te Great Sioux ! Two hundret mile to te Sioux Fall, 
 an' beyont almost to St. Peters." 
 
 A smile relaxed old Dor ion's leathern face, 
 
 " Below te Fall, a creek frorri te cliffs of red rock. 
 All Indian get te peace-pipe. No battle dere, no war." 
 
 Of the famous red pipestone quarry old Dorion spoke, 
 the beautiful variegated rock out of which resplendent 
 Dakota cities should be built in the future. 
 
 " Te rock ees soft, cut it wit te knife, then hard and 
 shining." 
 
 All tribes, even those at war, could claim asylum at the 
 red pipestone. The Sioux came, and the Pawnee, to camp 
 on its banks and fashion their calumets. The soft clay 
 pipes, hardened into things of beauty, were traded from 
 tribe to tribe, emblems and signals of peace. Captain 
 Lewis himself had one, bought in St. Louis, brought 
 down from that quarry by some enterprising French 
 trader. 
 
 " Buffalo! buffalo! buffalo!" A grand shout arose 
 
"THE SIOUX! THE SIOUX!" 179 
 
 at sight of the surging herds. " Plaintee boofalo now," 
 said the voyageurs. Upon the led horses along shore, 
 Clark and Joseph Fields dashed away for a first shot. 
 
 Again rejoicing cooks went hunting up the kettles, and 
 the whole expedition paused a day for a grand hunt. 
 
 " Te Yankton Sioux! " joyfully announced old Dorion, 
 as they neared the familiar chalk bluffs of " des riviere 
 Jaques, tat go almost to te Red Riviere of te Winnipeg." 
 All over these streams old Dorion had trapped the beaver. 
 
 With Sergeant Pryor and another, Dorion set out for 
 the Indian camp. The Yankton Sioux saw the white men 
 approaching and ran with robes to carry them in state to 
 camp. 
 
 " No," answered the Sergeant, " we are not the com 
 manders. They are at the boats." 
 
 Dorion led the way to his wigwam. His polite old 
 squaw immediately spread a bearskin for them to sit on. 
 Another woman killed a dog, cut it up, and boiled it 
 and gave it to them to eat, a token of friendship. 
 
 Forty clean and well-kept lodges were in this Yankton 
 village, of dressed buffalo and elk skin, painted red and 
 white and very handsome. And each lodge had a cooking 
 apartment attached. 
 
 Under the Calumet bluffs the flag was flying when the 
 Yankton Sioux came down in state and crossed the river 
 to the council. The Yankton Sioux were reputed to be 
 the best of their nation, and brave as any, with their neck 
 laces of bear's claws, paints, and feathers. They were 
 kingly savages, dignified and solemn, with heads shaved 
 to the eagle plume, and arrayed in robes wrought with 
 porcupine quills. 
 
 With Dorion as interpreter Captain Lewis delivered 
 the usual speech, and presented flags, medals, and a chief's 
 dress, a richly laced coat, cocked hat, and red feather. 
 The ceremonious Indians withdrew to consider a suit 
 able answer. 
 
 The next morning again the chiefs assembled, solemnly 
 seated in a row with enormous peace-pipes of red stone 
 and stems a yard long, all pointing toward the seats in 
 tended for Lewis and Clark. 
 
i8o THE CONQUEST 
 
 But the great Indian diplomats did not hasten. 
 
 "Ha!" 
 
 Even the stoic Sioux could not refrain from an ejacu 
 lation of admiration as they half rose, pipe in hand, to 
 gaze in awe and wonder as the white chiefs entered the 
 council. No such traders ever came up the Missouri, no 
 such splendid apparitions as the Red Head Chief and his 
 brother, pink and white as the roses on the river Jaques. 
 
 Captain Lewis habitually wore his sunny hair in a 
 queue ; to-day it was loosened into a waving cataract, and 
 Clark, slipping off his eelskin bag, let his red locks fall, 
 a strange and wondrous symbol. No such red and gold 
 had ever been seen in the Indian country. With pale 
 berries they stained their porcupine quills, with ochre 
 painted the buffalo lodges, with vermilion rouged their 
 faces, but none like these growing on the heads of men ! 
 
 Seating themselves with all due dignity, Lewis and 
 Clark scarce lifted their eyes from the ground as the 
 Grand Chief, Weucha, extended his decorated pipe in 
 silence. A full hour elapsed before Weucha, slipping his 
 robe to give full play to his arm, arose before them. 
 
 " I see before me my Great Father's two sons. We 
 very poor. We no powder, ball, knives. Our women and 
 children at the village no clothes. I wish my brothers 
 would give something to those poor people. 
 
 " I went to the English, they gave me a medal and 
 clothes. I went to the Spanish, they gave me a medal. 
 Now you give me a medal and clothes. Still we are poor. 
 I wish you would give something for our squaws." 
 
 Then other chiefs spoke. " Very poor. Have pity on 
 us. Send us traders. We want powder and ball." 
 
 Deadly as were the Sioux arrows, one twang of 
 their bowstring could pierce a buffalo, yet a better 
 weapon had crossed their vision. Firearms, powder, ball, 
 fabulous prices, these problems changed Indian history. 
 
 Congratulating themselves on this favourable encoun 
 ter with the dreaded Sioux, and promising everything, 
 Lewis and Clark went forward with renewed courage. 
 
 More and more buffaloes dotted the hills, and herds 
 of antelope, strange and new to science. 
 
"THE SIOUX! THE SIOUX!" 181 
 
 " I must have an antelope," said Lewis. 
 
 At that moment he saw seven on a hilltop. Creeping 
 carefully near, they scented him on the wind. The wild 
 beauties were gone, and a similar flock of seven appeared 
 on a neighbouring height. 
 
 " Can they have spanned the ravine in this brief time?" 
 
 He looked, and lo ! on a third height and then a fourth 
 they skimmed the hills like cloud shadows, or winged 
 griffins of the fabled time, half quadruped and half bird. 
 
 " A cur'ous lill animal here, Captain," said one of the 
 hunters, handing him a limp little body. Its head was 
 like a squirrel's. Lewis stroked the long fine hair. 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 Cruzatte, the bowman, paddle in hand, leaned over, 
 peering with his one near-sighted but intelligent eye. 
 
 " Ha! ha! ha! le petit Men! " he laughed. " Live in 
 te hole een te prairie. Leetle dog. Bark, yelp, yelp, 
 yelp, like te squirrel. All over te countree, whole towns," 
 spreading his brown hands expressively. 
 
 After this lucid explanation the Captains, Lewis and 
 Clark, set out for a prairie-dog town. A few yelps, heels 
 in air, the town was deserted save for the tiny mounds 
 that told where each had hidden. 
 
 " Let us drown one out." 
 
 Forthwith, every man came puffing up with big brass 
 kettles full of water. 
 
 " Five barrels," says Clark in his journal, " were 
 poured into the holes but not a dog came out," and Pat 
 rick Gass adds, " Though they worked at the business 
 until night they only caught one of them." 
 
 More and more the hills were thronged with buffalo. 
 Even York, Captain Clark's black servant, went out and 
 killed two at one ride. 
 
 On the top of a high bluff the men had found the 
 skeleton of a huge fish, forty-five feet long and petrified. 
 
 " Blow, ye winds of morning, 
 Blow, blow, blow " 
 
 George Shannon, the boy of the expedition, had enliv 
 ened many a sunrise with his jolly, rollicking Irish songs. 
 
1 82 THE CONQUEST 
 
 But Shannon was lost! On the 28th of August he had 
 gone out to look for the strayed horses. It was now 
 September. Captain Lewis was wild, for at his request 
 George had joined the expedition and at his order he 
 had gone after the horses. Hunters had sought in every 
 direction, guns had been fired and the blunderbuss, and 
 smokes had been kindled from point to point. 
 
 " Shannon ! " A great shout went up as the forlorn 
 boy, emaciated and weary, came dragging into camp on 
 the nth of September. 
 
 It was a short story, soon told. He found the horses 
 and followed by mistake the trail of recent Indians, which 
 he mistook for footprints of the party. For days he fol 
 lowed the trail, exhausted his bullets, and lived on wild 
 grapes and a rabbit he killed with a stick. But he heard 
 no guns, saw no smoke. 
 
 In despair at last he came down to the river, to dis 
 cover that all this time he had been travelling ahead of the 
 boats ! The fatted buffalo-calf was killed and great was 
 the rejoicing, and at daylight next morning, Shannon's 
 
 " Blow, ye winds of morning, 
 Blow, blow, blow," 
 
 rang again joyously over the Missouri. 
 
 " Danger! Quick! The bank is caving!" 
 
 At one o'clock in the night the guard gave the startled 
 cry. Barely was there time to loosen the boats and push 
 into midstream before the whole escarpment dropped like 
 an avalanche over the recent anchorage. Thus in one in 
 stant might have been blotted out the entire expedition, 
 to remain for all time a mystery and conjecture. 
 
 On the evening of September 24 the cooks and a guard 
 went ashore to get supper at the mouth of the river 
 Teton, the present site of Pierre, South Dakota. Five 
 Indians, who had followed for some time, slept with the 
 guard on shore. 
 
 Early next morning sixty Indians came down from a 
 Sioux camp and the Captains prepared for a council. 
 Under the flag and an awning, at twelve o'clock the com 
 pany paraded under arms. Dorion had remained behind 
 
"THE SIOUX! THE SIOUX!" 183 
 
 at the Yankton village, so with difficulty, by the aid of 
 Drouillard and much sign language, a brief speech was 
 delivered. Black Buffalo, head chief, was decorated with 
 a medal, flag, laced coat, cocked hat, and red feather, 
 nor were the rest forgotten with smaller gifts, medals, 
 and tobacco. 
 
 The Captains would have gone on, but, " No ! No ! " 
 insisted Black Buffalo, seizing the cable of Clark's de 
 parting pirogue. . 
 
 Finally Clark and several of the men rowed them 
 ashore. But no sooner had they landed than one seized 
 the cable and held the boat fast. Another flung his arms 
 around the mast and stood immovable. 
 
 " Release me," demanded Clark, reddening at evidence 
 of so much treachery. 
 
 Black Buffalo advanced to seize Clark. The Captain 
 drew his sword. At this motion Captain Lewis, watch 
 ing from the bateau, instantly prepared for action. 
 
 The Indians had drawn their arrows and were bending 
 their great bows, when the black mouth of the blunder 
 buss wheeled toward them. 
 
 At this Black Buffalo ordered his men to desist, and 
 they sullenly fell away, but never was forgotten that time 
 when the Teton Sioux attempted to carry off Captain 
 Clark. 
 
 " We wished to see the boat more," said the Indians, 
 by way of excuse. " We wished to show it to our wives 
 and children." 
 
 To conciliate and to depart without irritation, Captain 
 Clark offered his hand. The chiefs refused to take it. 
 Turning, Clark stepped into the boat and shoved off. 
 Immediately three warriors waded in after him, and he 
 brought them on board. That night the whole expedi 
 tion slept under arms, with the Indians as guests. At 
 daylight crowds of Indian men, women, and children 
 waited on shore in the most friendly manner. 
 
 Ten well-dressed young men took Lewis and Clark up 
 on a highly decorated robe and carried them up to the 
 council tent. Dressed like dandies, seventy Indians sat 
 in this roomy council hall, the tail feathers of the golden 
 
1 84 THE CONQUEST 
 
 eagle scarce quivering in their topknots. Impressively 
 in the centre on two forked sticks lay the long peace-pipe 
 above a bed of swan's down. 
 
 Outside, the redmen were roasting a barbecue. All 
 day they sat and smoked, and ate of buffalo beef and 
 pemmican. After sunset a huge council fire illuminated 
 the interior of the great lodge, and the dance began. 
 Wild Indian girls came shuffling with the reeking scalps 
 of Omahas, from a recent raid. Outside twenty-five 
 Omaha women prisoners and their children moaned in 
 the chill of an icy autumn night. It was their trail that 
 Shannon had followed for sixteen days. 
 
 About midnight, fatigued by the constant strain of 
 watchful anxiety, the Captains returned to the boats. 
 But not yet were they safely away. " To oars ! to oars ! 
 the cable 's parted ! " 
 
 The Indians heard the call. 
 
 " The Omahas ! the Omahas ! " rang the cry up from 
 the Teton camp, that on every wind anticipated the whoop 
 of retaliating Omahas in search of their stolen wives and 
 children. 
 
 Then followed pandemonium of rushing Indians and 
 frightened calls. All night, with strained eyes, every 
 man held his rifle ready as they lay unanchored on the 
 water. 
 
 At daylight the wily Indians held the ropes and still 
 detained the boats. Resort to force seemed inevitable. 
 Flinging a carat of tobacco, " Black Buffalo," said Lewis, 
 " you say you are a great chief. Prove it by handing me 
 that rope." Flattered, Black Buffalo gave the rope, and 
 thankfully the boats pulled out with no more desire to 
 cultivate the Sioux. 
 
THE ROMANCE OF THE MANDANS 185 
 
 IX 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF THE MANDANS 
 
 "TT THAT will they find?" asked the people of 
 
 V/^y the United States, discussing the journey of 
 * V Lewis and Clark. 
 
 " Numerous powerful and warlike nations of savages, 
 of gigantic stature, fierce, treacherous, and cruel, and 
 particularly hostile to white men." 
 
 " The mammoth of prehistoric time feeding from the 
 loftiest forests, shaking the earth with its tread of 
 thunder." 
 
 " They will find a mountain of solid salt glistening in 
 the sun with streams of brine issuing from its caverns." 
 
 " They will find blue-eyed Indians, white-haired, fairer 
 than other tribes, planting gardens, making pottery, and 
 dwelling in houses." 
 
 " Oh, yes," said the Federalists, " Jefferson has in 
 vented these stories to aggrandise the merit of his pur 
 chase. They never can cross the mountains. Human 
 enterprise and exertion will attempt them in vain." 
 
 " It was folly ! folly to send those men to perish mis 
 erably in the wilderness! It was a bold and wicked 
 scheme of Jefferson. They will never return alive to 
 this country." 
 
 Had not Jefferson himself in his anxiety directed Lewis 
 and Clark to have recourse to our consuls in Java, the 
 Isles of France and Bourbon, and the Cape of Good 
 Hope ? Heaven alone knew whither the Missouri Co 
 lumbia might lead them! 
 
 But the white Indians 
 
 In the history of Wales there is a story that on account 
 of wars in Wales a Welsh Prince in 1170 " prepared cer 
 tain shipps, with men and munition, and sought adven 
 tures by seas, sailing west, and leaving the coast of 
 Ireland so farre north, that he came to land unknowne, 
 
1 86 THE CONQUEST 
 
 where he saw many strange things. . . . This Madoc 
 arriving in the countrey, in the which he came in the 
 year 1170, left most of his people there, and returning 
 back for more of his nation, went thither again with ten 
 sails/' and was never again heard of. 
 
 Six hundred years later Welshmen in America imag 
 ined that they could talk with some tribes, who said 
 " they came from white people but were now Indians," 
 and the legend was related that white people had once 
 lived on the Atlantic coast, but had so many wars they 
 crossed the mountains and made boats and went down 
 the Ohio and up the Missouri, " where to this day live 
 the fair-haired, blue-eyed Mandans." 
 
 Our grandfathers believed this story, believed these 
 whites might have been cut off at the Falls of the Ohio 
 and some escaped. This is the excuse that Cornstalk 
 gave to Lord Dunmore for the attack at Point Pleasant : 
 
 " Long ago our fathers destroyed the whites in a great 
 battle at the Falls of the Ohio. We thought it might be 
 done again." 
 
 As if in proof of this statement, George Rogers 
 Clark and other first explorers at the Falls found Sand 
 Island at low water a mass of hacked and mutilated 
 human bones, whether of Indians or whites, no man 
 could tell. 
 
 And here now were Lewis and Clark, in the Autumn 
 of 1804, among the fabled Mandans, and here before 
 them was a Mr. Hugh McCracken, an Irishman, and 
 Rene Jussaume, a Frenchman, independent traders, who 
 for a dozen winters had drawn their goods on dog sleds 
 over from the British fort on the Assiniboine to trade 
 with the Mandans for buffalo robes and horses. Thirty 
 dogs they owned between them, great Huskies of the 
 Eskimo breed. 
 
 Jussaume was immediately engaged as interpreter, and 
 the first Sunday was spent in conversation with Black 
 Cat, head chief of the Mandans. All day the hospitable 
 blue-eyed, brown-haired Mandan women, fairer than 
 other Indians, kept coming in with gifts of corn, boiled 
 hominy, and garden stuffs, raised by their own rude 
 
THE ROMANCE OF THE MANDANS 187 
 
 implements. Girls of ten years old with silver-gray hair 
 hanging down to their knees stood around and listened. 
 
 Yes, they had earthen pots and gardens, even ex 
 tensive fields of corn, beans, squashes, and sunflowers, 
 and houses mud huts. They lived in little forted 
 towns that had been moved successively up, up, up the 
 Missouri. 
 
 " I believe what you have told us," said one of the 
 chiefs in the great council on Monday. " We shall now 
 have peace with the Ricaras. My people will be glad. 
 Then our women may lie down at night without their 
 moccasins on. They can work in the fields without look 
 ing every moment for the enemy." 
 
 " We have killed the Ricaras like birds," said another, 
 " until we are tired of killing them. Now we will send 
 a chief and some warriors to smoke with them." 
 
 Thus was the first effort for peace in the Mandan 
 country. 
 
 The high chill wind almost blew down the awning 
 over the great council. The men paraded up from the 
 boats, the blunderbuss was fired from the bow of the big 
 bateau, the long reed-stemmed stone-bowled pipes w*ere 
 smoked in amity. 
 
 " Here are suits of clothes for your chiefs," said Lewis, 
 handing out of a wooden chest the handsome laced uni 
 forms, cocked hats, and feathers. " To your women I 
 present this iron corn-mill to grind their hominy." 
 
 The solemn, sad-faced chiefs took the clothes and put 
 them on. The women flew at the corn-mill. All day 
 long they ground and ground and wondered at " the 
 great medicine " that could make meal with so little 
 trouble. Mortars and pestles were thrown behind the 
 lodges, discarded. 
 
 The next day Mr. McCracken set out on his return to 
 Fort Assiniboine, one hundred and fifty miles away, with 
 a friendly letter to the Chief Factor, Chaboillez, enclos 
 ing the passport of Lewis and Clark from the British 
 minister at Washington. 
 
 Yes, a passport, so uncertain was that boundary 
 n^ver yet defined. Where lay that line? To the sources 
 
1 88 THE CONQUEST 
 
 of the Mississippi? But those sources were as hidden 
 as the fountain of the Nile. No white man yet had seen 
 Itasca. 
 
 Since before the Revolution the Chaboillez family had 
 traded at Michilimackinac. They were there in the days 
 when Wabasha descended on St. Louis, and had a hand 
 in all the border story. 
 
 While Lewis was negotiating with the Indians, Cap 
 tain Clark set out with Black Cat to select a point where 
 timber was plenty to build a winter camp. 
 
 " Hey, there ! are ye going to run aff and leave me all 
 to mesilf ? " exclaimed Patrick Gass, head carpenter, busy 
 selecting his tools and equipments. " Niver moind, I can 
 outwalk the bist o' thim." 
 
 Strong, compact, broad-chested, heavy-limbed, but lean, 
 sprightly, and quick of motion, Pat was soon at the side 
 of his Captain. " 1 can show ye a pint or two about 
 cabins, I 'm thinkin'." 
 
 Clark smiled. He knew something about cabins 
 himself. 
 
 The day was fine and crowds of Indians came to watch 
 proceedings as Clark's men began to cut the tall cotton- 
 woods and roll up the cabins. 
 
 Every day the Indians came in crowds to watch the 
 wonderful building of the white men's fort, the deer-skin 
 windows and mud-plastered chimneys. Turning loose 
 their horses, all day long the red men lay on the grass 
 watching the details of this curious architecture. At 
 night, gathering an armful of cottonwood boughs 
 stripped from the fort timber, each fed his horse and 
 meandered thoughtfully homeward in the red sunset. 
 
 One day two squaws came, a leathery old dame and a 
 captive Indian girl from the Rocky Mountains, the 
 handsome young Sacajawea, the Bird- Woman. 
 
 " She my slave," said Charboneau, a Frenchman in 
 blanket capote and kerchief around his head. " I buy 
 her from de Rock Mountain. I make her my wife." 
 Charboneau lived with the Minnetarees, friends and 
 neighbours of the Mandans. 
 
 Shahaka, the Big White Head Chief, came, too, with 
 
THE ROMANCE OF THE MANDANS 189 
 
 his squaw packing on her back " one hundred pounds of 
 very fine meat." Whenever Shahaka crossed the river 
 his squaw picked up the buffalo-skin canoe and carried 
 it off on her back. Those canoes were made exactly Uke 
 a Welsh coracle. 
 
 The days grew colder, the frost harder. Ice began to 
 run in the river and the last boats in from the hunt 
 brought thirty-two deer, eleven elk, and buffalo that 
 were jerked and hung in the winter smoke-house. 
 
 By November 20 the triangular fort was ready, 
 two rows of cabins of four rooms each, with lofts above 
 where, snug and warm under the roof next to the chim 
 neys, the men slept through the long cold winter nights 
 on beds of grass, rolled up in their blankets and fuzzy 
 robes of buffalo. 
 
 In the frosty weather there came over the prairies 
 from Fort Assiniboine seven Northwest traders, led by 
 Frangois Antoine Larocque and Charles Mackenzie, with 
 stores of merchandise to trade among the Mandans. 
 They immediately waited upon Lewis and Clark. 
 
 " We are not traders," said the Americans, " but ex 
 plorers on our way to the Pacific." 
 
 Through Larocque' s mind flashed the journey of Sir 
 Alexander Mackenzie and its outcome. That might 
 mean more than a rival trader. " He is distributing flags 
 and medals among the Mandans," came the rumour. 
 
 " In the name of the United States I forbid you from 
 giving flags and medals to the Indians, as our Govern 
 ment looks upon those things as sacred emblems of the 
 attachment of the Indians to our country," said Captain 
 Lewis to Monsieur Larocque when next he called at 
 Fort Mandan. 
 
 " As I have neither flags nor medals, I run no risk of 
 disobeying those orders, I assure you," answered the easy 
 Frenchman. 
 
 ' You and all persons are at liberty to come into our 
 territories to trade or for any other purpose, and will 
 never be molested unless your behaviour is such as would 
 subject an American citizen himself to punishment," 
 continued Lewis. 
 
1 90 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " And will the Americans not trade? " 
 
 " We may and shall probably have a public store well 
 assorted of all kinds of Indian goods. No liquors are to 
 be sold." 
 
 " A very grand plan they have schemed/' muttered 
 Larocque, as he went away, " but its being realised is 
 more than I can tell." 
 
 While talking with the Captains, Larocque had an eye 
 on a Hudson's Bay trader who had appeared on the scene. 
 
 " Beg pardon. I must be off," said Larocque, slip 
 ping out with Charboneau to outwit if possible the Hud 
 son's Bay man and reach the Indians first. But before 
 he got off a letter arrived from Chaboillez that altered all 
 plans. 
 
 Unknown to Lewis and Clark, though they gradually 
 came to discover it, hot war was waging in the north. 
 For the sake of furs, rival traders cut and carved and 
 shot and imprisoned each other. For the sake of furs 
 those same traders had held Detroit thirteen years be 
 yond the Revolution. Furs came near changing the bal 
 ance of power in North America. 
 
 The old established Hudson's Bay Company claimed 
 British America. The ambitious, energetic Northwest 
 ers of Montreal disputed the right. And now that Sir 
 Alexander Mackenzie, a Canadian bourgeois, had be 
 come a famous explorer, knighted by the King, jeal 
 ousies broke out in the Northwest company itself. 
 
 Simon McTavish, lord of the Northwesters, who had 
 done all he could to hold the Lakes for Britain, would 
 rule or ruin. But the Northwesters swore by Mackenzie. 
 So the two factions fought each other, and both fought 
 the Hudson's Bay Company. 
 
 " The Northwesters are no better than they ought to 
 be," said the men of Hudson's Bay. " They sent an em 
 bassy to Congress in 1776." In fact a little change in 
 the balance might have thrown the Northwesters over to 
 the American side and altered the history of a continent. 
 
 ' The quarrelling traders of the North are almost as 
 bad as the Indians," said Lewis, " they demoralise 
 and inflame the Indians." 
 
THE ROMANCE OF THE MANDANS 191 
 
 " Trade with me," said Hudson's Bay. " The North 
 westers will cheat you." 
 
 " Trade with me," said the Northwester. " Hudson's 
 Bay are bad men." 
 
 With troubled eyes the Indians listened, then scalped 
 them both. Some bloody tales that North could tell, 
 around the plains of lovely Winnipeg, out on the lone 
 Saskatchewan, and over to Athabasca. 
 
 But now the Americans, this was a new force in 
 the West. 
 
 December i, the Americans began to cut and carry 
 pickets to complete the high stockade and gate across 
 the front of Fort Mandan. December 6 it was too cold 
 to work, and that night the river froze over in front of 
 the fort with solid ice an inch and a half thick. 
 
 At nine o'clock next morning Chief Shahaka, Big 
 White, came puffing in with news. 
 
 " De boofalo! de boofalo! " interpreted Jussaume, lis 
 tening intently to the long harangue of the chief who 
 was making all sorts of sign language and excitedly 
 pointing up the river. 
 
 " De boofalo, on de prairie, comin' eento de bottom." 
 
 In short order Lewis, Clark, and fifteen men were out 
 with the Indians mounted on horseback. Then came the 
 din and chase of battle, a sight to fire the blood and thrill 
 the calmest heart. 
 
 Riding among the herd, each Indian chose his victim, 
 then, drawing his arrow to the last notch of the bow 
 string, let it fly. Another and another whizzed from 
 the same string until the quiver was exhausted. The 
 wounded beast, blinded by its mane, sometimes charged 
 the hunter. But the swift steed, trained for the con 
 test, wheeled and was gone. The buffalo staggered for 
 a little, then, struck in a mortal part, fell headlong, 
 pawing up the dust and snow in frantic efforts to rise 
 and fly. 
 
 Into the midst came the Captains and their men, and 
 every man brought down his buffalo. At twelve degrees 
 below zero and in a northwest wind, Lewis and his men 
 started out again the next morning to chase the herds 
 
192 THE CONQUEST 
 
 that darkened the prairie. The air was filled with frosty 
 flakes, the snow was deep and clinging, but all day and 
 until after dark the exciting hunt held them to the saddle, 
 and only when they came to the fire did the participants 
 realise that their hands and feet were frostbitten. 
 
 Cold and colder grew the days. Two suns shone in 
 the sky, prognosticator of still deeper frost. Brilliant 
 northern lights glowed along the Arctic, but still they 
 chased the buffalo until the morning of December 13, 
 when Dr. Saugrain's thermometer stood twenty degrees 
 below zero at sunrise. In fur caps, coats, mittens, and 
 double moccasins they brought home horseload after 
 horseload of juicy beef to hang in the winter storehouse. 
 And fortunately, too, for one day 'they awoke to find 
 the buffalo gone. 
 
 Some winters there was great suffering for food among 
 the Mandans, but this was destined to be a year of plenty. 
 Out of their abundance the chiefs, also, came to the fort 
 with their dog sleds loaded with meat for their friends at 
 the garrison. 
 
 THE FIRST DAKOTA CHRISTMAS 
 
 ON Christmas eve the stockade was finished and the 
 gate was shut. With forty-five men and a blunder 
 buss Fort Mandan stood impregnable to any force 
 the northern savages could bring against it. 
 
 But there was no hostility, far from it. From curi 
 osity or for trade the Indians came in throngs, until on 
 Christmas eve Captain Lewis sent out the announce 
 ment : " Let no one visit us to-morrow. It is our great 
 medicine day." 
 
 Before daylight the wondering redmen were aroused 
 from their buffalo couches by three volleys fired from 
 the fort. Awe-struck they sat up and whispered : " White 
 
THE FIRST DAKOTA CHRISTMAS 193 
 
 men making medicine." At sunrise a flag was floating 
 above the palisade, but no Indian ventured to approach 
 the mysterious newly closed walls of Fort Mandan. 
 
 For his Christmas stocking every man received an al 
 lowance of flour, dried apples, and pepper, which together 
 with corn, beans, squash, and unlimited buffalo meat and 
 marrow bones made out a Christmas feast. 
 
 At one o'clock the gun was fired for dinner. At two 
 came the signal for the dance. 
 
 " Play up ole fashion reel. Everybody he mus' dance," 
 said Cruzatte, timing his fiddle. " We '11 do our possible." 
 
 Cruzatte and Gibson played, Gass and Shannon led, 
 Clark called the changes; and with crackling fires, and 
 a stamping like horses, away up there under the Northern 
 stars the first American Christmas was celebrated on the 
 upper Missouri. 
 
 Three wide-eyed spectators sat ranged around the 
 walls. These were the squaws of the interpreters, Ma 
 dame Rene Jussaume, and the two wives of Charboneau, 
 Madame the old dame, and Sacajawea, the beautiful In 
 dian captive stolen beyond the Rockies. 
 
 The Indians, in their cheerless winter villages, found 
 much to attract them at the fort of the white men. Soon 
 after Christmas, William Bratton and John Shields set 
 up their forge as blacksmiths, gunsmiths, and armourers. 
 Day after day, with the thermometer forty degrees be 
 low zero, a constant procession of Indians came wending 
 in on the well-beaten snow-track, with axes to grind and 
 kettles to mend. It seemed as if all the broken old kettles 
 that had ever drifted into the country, from Hudson's 
 Bay or Fort William or up from St. Louis, were carried 
 to Fort Mandan filled with corn to pay for mending. 
 
 Especially the Indians wanted battle-axes, with long 
 thin blades like the halberds of ancient warfare. Some 
 wanted pikes and spears fixed on the pointed ends of their 
 long dog-poles. A burnt-out old sheet-iron cooking stove 
 became worth its weight in gold. For every scrap of it, 
 four inches square, the Indians would give seven or eight 
 gallons of corn, and were delighted with the exchange. 
 These bits of square sheet iron were invaluable for 
 
 13 
 
I 9 4 THE CONQUEST 
 
 scrapers for hides, and every shred of cutting that fell to 
 the ground was eagerly bought up to fashion into arrow 
 tips. Metal, metal, metal, the sine qua non of civili 
 sation had come at last to the Mandans. 
 
 While Bratton was busy over his forge, and Shields at 
 the guns, some of the men were out hunting, some were 
 cutting wood to keep the great fires roaring, and some 
 were making charcoal for the smithy. 
 
 So the days went on. New Year's, 1805, was ushered 
 in with the blunderbuss. By way of recreation the cap^ 
 tains permitted the men to visit the Indian villages where 
 crowds gathered to see the white men dance, " heeling it 
 and toeing it " to the music of the fiddles. The white 
 men in turn were equally diverted by the grotesque figures 
 of the Indians leaping in the buffalo dances. 
 
 Captain Clark noted an old man in one of the Mandan 
 villages and gave him a knife. 
 
 " How old are you? " 
 
 " More than one hundred winters," was the answer. 
 " Give me something for the pain in my back." 
 
 But a grandson rebuked the old man. " It is n't worth 
 while. You have lived long enough. It is time for you 
 to go to your relations who can take better care of you 
 than we can." 
 
 The old man settled back in his robes by the fire and 
 said no more. 
 
 "What accident has happened to your hand? " inquired 
 Lewis of a chief's son. 
 
 " Grief for my relatives," answered the boy. 
 
 It was a Mandan custom to mutilate the body, as a 
 mark of sorrow for the dead, until some had lost not only 
 all their fingers, but their ears and hair. Sacred cere 
 monies of flagellations, knife thrusts into the flesh, 
 piercing with thorns and barbaric crucifixions, thirty 
 years later George Catlin found these still among the 
 Mandans, and ascribed them to an effort to perpetuate 
 some Christian ceremonial of a remote ancestry. 
 
 Could it have been a corrupted tradition of the cruci 
 fixion of Christ? Who can tell? The Welsh of 1170 
 were Catholic Christians who believed in self-inflicted 
 
THE FIRST DAKOTA CHRISTMAS 195 
 
 penance to save the soul. Degraded, misguided, inter- 
 blent with Indian superstition through generations, it 
 might have come to this. 
 
 But everywhere, at feast or council, one walked as con 
 queror, Clark's negro servant, York. Of fine physical 
 presence and remarkable stature, very black and very 
 woolly, York was viewed as superhuman. 
 
 "Where you come from?" whispered the awe-struck 
 savages. 
 
 Grinning until every ivory tooth glistened, and rolling 
 up the whites of his eyes, he would answer, " I was run 
 ning wild in the wood, and was caught and tamed by my 
 mastah." Then assuming an air of ferocity, York would 
 exhibit feats of strength that to the Indians seemed really 
 terrible. 
 
 " If you kill white men we make you chief," the Ari- 
 karas whispered in his ear. York withstood great tempta 
 tion, he fought more battles than Clark. 
 
 " Delay ! delay ! delay ! " was the Indian plea at every 
 village. "'Let our wives see you. Let our children see, 
 especially the black man." 
 
 From Council Bluffs to Clatsop, children followed 
 York constantly. If he chanced to turn, with piercing 
 shrieks they ran in terror. 
 
 "Mighty warrior. Born black. Great medicine!" 
 sagely commented the wise old men, watching him nar 
 rowly and shaking their heads at the unheard-of phenom 
 enon. Even his jerks, contortions, and grimaces seemed 
 a natural part of such a monstrosity. York was a per 
 petual exhibit, a menagerie in himself. 
 
 In these holiday visits to the Mandan towns a glimpse 
 was caught of domestic life. Wasteful profusion when 
 the buffalo came, when the buffalo left, days of famine. 
 Then they opened their cellar-holes of corn and vege 
 tables, hidden away as a last resource in protracted siege 
 when the Sioux drove off the game and shut them up in 
 their picketed villages. 
 
 So often were the horses of the Mandans stolen, that 
 it had become a habitual custom every night to take them 
 into the family lodge where they were fed on boughs and 
 
196 THE CONQUEST 
 
 bark of the cottonwood. All day long in the iciest 
 weather, the wrinkled, prematurely aged squaws were 
 busy in the hollows, cutting the horse-feed with their 
 dull and almost useless knives. On New Year's day Black 
 Cat came down with a load of meat on his wife's back. 
 A happy woman was she to receive a sharp new knife to 
 cut her meat and cottonwood. 
 
 It was easy to buy a Mandan wife. A horse, a gun, 
 powder and ball for a year, five or six pounds of beads, 
 a handful of awls, the trade was made, and the new spouse 
 was set to digging laboriously with the shoulder-blade of 
 an elk or buffalo, preparing to plant her corn. 
 
 The Indian woman followed up the hunt, skinned and 
 dressed the buffalo, and carried home the meat. Indian 
 women built the lodges and took them down again, drag 
 ging the poles whenever there were not horses enough 
 for a summer ramble. 
 
 When not at the hunt or the council, the warrior sat 
 cross-legged at his door, carving a bow, pointing an 
 arrow, or smoking, waited upon by his squaw, who never 
 ate until the braves were done, and then came in at the 
 last with the children and the dogs. Wrinkled and old at 
 thirty, such was the fate of the Indian girl. 
 
 Sunday, January 13, Charboneau came back from a 
 visit to the Minnetarees at Turtle Mountain with his 
 face frozen. It was fortunate he returned with his life. 
 Many a Frenchman was slain on that road, many an 
 imprecation went up against the Assiniboine Sioux, - 
 " Les Gens des Grands Diables du Nord," said Char 
 boneau. 
 
 Touissant Charboneau, one of the old Canadian French 
 Charboneaus, with his brothers had tramped with Alex 
 ander Henry far to the north under sub-arctic forests, 
 wintered on the Assiniboine, and paddled to Winnipeg. 
 Seven years now he had lived among the Minnetarees, an 
 independent trader like McCracken and Jussaume, and 
 interpreter for other traders. 
 
 Moreover, Charboneau was a polygamist with several 
 wives to cook his food and carry his wood and water. 
 But he had been kind to the captive Indian girl, and her 
 
THE FIRST DAKOTA CHRISTMAS 197 
 
 heart clung to the easy-going Frenchman as her best 
 friend. The worst white man was better than an Indian 
 husband. 
 
 Captured in battle as a child five years before, Saca- 
 jawea had been brought to the land of the Dakotas and 
 sold to Charboneau. Now barely sixteen, in that Feb 
 ruary at the Mandan fort she became a mother. Most of 
 the men were away on a great hunting trip; when they 
 came back a lusty little red-faced pappoose was screaming 
 beside the kitchen fire. 
 
 The men had walked thirty miles that day on the ice 
 and in snow to their knees, but utterly fatigued as they 
 were, the sight of that little Indian baby cuddled in a deer 
 skin robe brought back memories of home. 
 
 Clark came in with frosty beard, and moccasins all 
 worn out. 
 
 " Sacajawea has a fine boy," said Lewis. 
 
 No wonder the Captains watched her recovery with 
 interest. All winter they had sought an interpreter for 
 those far-away tongues beyond the mountains, and no 
 one could be found but Sacajawea, the wife of Char 
 boneau. Clark directed York to wait on her, stew her 
 fruit, and serve her tea, to the great jealousy of Jus- 
 saume's wife, who packed up her pappooses in high dud 
 geon and left the fort. Sacajawea was only a slave. She, 
 Madame Jussaume, was the daughter of a chief! 
 
 Poor little Sacajawea! She was really very ill. 
 If she died who would unlock the Gates of the 
 Mountains ? 
 
 Charboneau was a cook. He set himself to preparing 
 the daintiest soups and steaks, and soon the " Bird 
 Woman " was herself again, packing and planning for 
 the journey. 
 
 Busy every day now were Lewis and Clark making up 
 their reports and drawing a map of the country. Sha- 
 haka, Big White, came and helped them. Kagohami of 
 the Minnetarees came, and with a coal on a robe made a 
 sketch of the Missouri that Clark re-drew. 
 
 But in the midst of the map-making all the Indian 
 talk was of " war, war, war." 
 
198 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " I am going to war against the Snakes in the Spring," 
 said Kagohami. 
 
 " No," said Lewis, " that will displease the President. 
 He wants you to live at peace." 
 
 " Suffer me to go to war against the Sioux," begged 
 another chief. 
 
 " No," answered Lewis. " These wars are the cause 
 of all your troubles. If you do not stop it the Great 
 Father will withdraw his protection from you. He will 
 come over here and make you stop it." 
 
 " Look on the many nations whom war has de 
 stroyed," continued Lewis. " Think of your poverty and 
 misfortunes. If you wish to be happy, cultivate peace 
 and friendship. Then you will have horses. Then you 
 will grow strong." 
 
 "Have you spoken thus to all the tribes?" inquired 
 Kagohami. 
 
 " We have." 
 
 " And did they open their ears ? " 
 
 " They did." 
 
 " I have horses enough," reflected Kagohami, " I will 
 not go to war. I will advise my nation to remain at home 
 until we see whether the Snake Indians desire peace." 
 
 One night the hunters came in with the report, "A troop 
 of whooping Sioux have captured our horses and taken 
 our knives." 
 
 It was midnight, but Lewis immediately routed up the 
 men and set out with twenty volunteers on the track of 
 the marauding Sioux. In vain. The boasting free 
 booters had escaped with the horses beyond recovery. 
 
 : ' We are sorry we did not kill the white men," was the 
 word sent back by an Arikara. " They are bad medicine. 
 We shall scalp the whole camp in the Spring." 
 
THE BRITISH FUR TRADERS 199 
 
 XI 
 
 THE BRITISH FUR TRADERS 
 
 THE movements of Lewis and Clark were watched 
 by the Northwest Company, who already had 
 planned a house at the Mandans. Jefferson was 
 not an hour too soon. 
 
 " Yes," said Larocque, " I will pass the winter there 
 and watch those Americans." 
 
 In the midst of the frightful cold, twenty-two degrees 
 below zero, on December 16, 1804, Larocque and Mac 
 kenzie came over again from Fort Assiniboine and with 
 them came Alexander Henry. 
 
 " Strangers are among us," said the Indians, " Big 
 Knives from below. Had they been kind they would 
 have loaded their Great Boat with goods. As it is they 
 prefer throwing away their ammunition to sparing a 
 shot to the poor Mandans. There are only two sensible 
 men among them, the worker of iron and the mender of 
 guns." 
 
 " Amazing long pickets," remarked Larocque, as they 
 came in sight of the new stockade of Fort Mandan. 
 
 The triangular fort, two sides formed of houses and 
 the front of pickets, presented a formidable appearance 
 in the wild. 
 
 " Cannon-ball proof," remarked Larocque, taking a 
 good squint at the high round bastion in the corner be 
 tween the houses, defending two sides of the fort. On 
 the top was a sentry all night, and below a sentry walked 
 all day within the fort. 
 
 " Well guarded against surprise," remarked Alexander 
 Henry, as he tapped at the gate with the ramrod of his 
 gun. 
 
 As the party knocked at the gates of Fort Mandan, in 
 their winter coats of leather lined with flannel, edged 
 with fur, and double-breasted, the lively eye of Patrick 
 Gass peeped out. 
 
200 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Some more av thim Britishers to ascertain our mo 
 tives fur visitin' this countery, and to gain infurmation 
 with rispict to th' change o' gov'm't," was the shrewd 
 guess of Pat. 
 
 The hospitable Captains were more than glad to enter 
 tain visitors. They were there to cultivate international 
 amity. 
 
 In their hearts Lewis and Clark never dreamed what 
 a commotion that friendly letter to Chaboillez had stirred 
 up. It had gone far and awakened many. Immediately 
 upon its receipt Chaboillez sent out a runner. 
 
 " Lewis and Clark with one hundred and eighty sol 
 diers have arrived at the Mandan village," so the story 
 flew. " On their arrival they hoisted the American flag 
 and informed the natives that their object was not to 
 trade, but merely to explore the country; and that as 
 soon as navigation shall open they design to continue 
 their route across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. 
 They have made the natives a few small presents and 
 repaired their guns and axes free. They have behaved 
 honourably toward my people, who are there to trade 
 with the natives." 
 
 Such a message as this was enough to bring Alexan 
 der Henry down to investigate. The cottonwood fires 
 at Fort Mandan roared up the chimneys with un 
 wonted splendour that winter night. The thermometer 
 suddenly fell to forty-five degrees below zero ; but warm 
 and comfortable beside the blaze they talked, American 
 and British, in this border of the nations. 
 
 Charles Mackenzie had been a clerk of the Northwest 
 Company for a year. Of the same rank as himself was 
 Larocque, and both were popular with the redmen. In 
 fact, Mackenzie, a Scot from the Highlands, was already 
 married to an Indian girl, and Larocque was a French 
 man. That was enough. No nation fraternized with 
 the redmen as the Frenchmen did. 
 
 Alexander Henry, fur trader among the American In 
 dians and one of the famous Northwesters, bore a great 
 name in the north. There were two Alexander Henrys ; 
 the younger was a nephew of the other, and he it was 
 
THE BRITISH FUR TRADERS 201 
 
 that had now come to visit Lewis and Clark. He knew 
 more of the country than, perhaps, any other man in the 
 northwest. In fact, his uncle, the elder Henry, was at 
 Michilimackinac in the days of Pontiac, and had pene 
 trated to the Saskatchewan before ever there was a North 
 west Company. 
 
 Henry, Jr., wintered on the Red River the very year 
 that Alexander Mackenzie crossed the continent, 1793- 
 As a bourgeois of the Northwesters, with a fleet of 
 canojes and twenty-one men he had led the Red River 
 brigade of 1800 up into the Winnipeg country. 
 
 The scarlet belts, breeches of smoked buckskin, and 
 blue cloth leggings of Alexander Henry's old coiireur 
 des bois were known for hundreds of miles. 
 
 Yes, he knew the Sioux. Their pillaging bands 
 sometimes plundered his traders. " They are not to be 
 trusted," he declared in positive tone. 
 
 " A very sensible, intelligent man/' said Lewis and 
 Clark to themselves as the great Northwester talked of 
 the country and the tribes. 
 
 But time seemed pressing. Questions of cold or of 
 comfort weighed not with these dauntless Northwesters 
 when the interests of their company were at stake. They 
 had come on horseback. To return that way was out of 
 the question ; and so sleds were fitted up with Jussaume's 
 Eskimo dogs, the " Huskies " of the fur traders. 
 
 ' They seem happy to see us," remarked Mackenzie 
 from under his muffler, as they rode away. " They treat 
 us with civility and kindness, but Captain Lewis cannot 
 make himself agreeable. He speaks fluently, even 
 learnedly, but to me his inveterate prejudice against the 
 British stains all his eloquence." 
 
 " Captain Clark is more cordial," rejoined Larocque. 
 " He seems to dislike giving offence unnecessarily. Do 
 you recall his thoughtfulness in sending for our horses 
 when we feared they might be stolen? He let his men 
 guard them with his own." 
 
 With the thermometer thirty-two degrees below zero, 
 the dogsleds flew swift across the snow, bearing news 
 not alone to Assiniboine, but to Fort William on the 
 
202 THE CONQUEST 
 
 northern shore of Lake Superior where the Northwest 
 ers had built their trading centre. 
 
 Fort William, built in 1803 and named in honour of 
 William McGillivray, was the great distributing point, 
 where " the lords of the lakes and the forests " came to 
 hold their rendezvous. In front rolled Superior, the 
 great Canadian Sea. Schooners, laden with merchan 
 dise, peltries, and provisions, plied between Fort William 
 and Sault Ste. Marie. 
 
 One of the honoured names of the Northwest Com 
 pany was Philip de Rocheblave. Captured by George 
 Rogers Clark at Kaskaskia, sent to Virginia and there 
 let out on parole, he broke faith and fled to New York, 
 to turn up at Montreal in the winter of 1783-4 along 
 with McTavish, McGillivray, the Frobishers and Frasers, 
 founders of the Northwest Fur Company. Pierre de 
 Rocheblave had now succeeded to his uncle's honours. 
 Would he be apt to let the United States get ahead of 
 him? And by means of a Clark at that? 
 
 " I must go down to the American fort to get my 
 compass put in order," said Larocque again, in January. 
 " The glass is broken and the needle does not point due 
 north." 
 
 He found Captain Clark sketching charts of the coun 
 try, Lewis making vocabularies; Jussaume and Char- 
 boneau, the Frenchmen, interpreting and disputing on 
 the meaning of words. 
 
 " They write down our words," whispered the suspi 
 cious Indians. " What wicked design have they on our 
 country? " 
 
 Captain Lewis spent a whole day fixing Larocque's 
 compass. 
 
 " I hardly get a skin when the Hudson's Bay trader 
 is with me," said Larocque. " He is known by all the In 
 dians, and understands and talks their language. I must 
 get Charboneau." And the two went away together. 
 
 "Of what use are beaver?" inquired the Indians. 
 " Do you make gunpowder of them? Do they preserve 
 you from sickness? Do they serve you beyond the 
 grave? " 
 
THE BRITISH FUR TRADERS 203 
 
 Alexander Henry went to Fort William. 
 
 " A new rival has arisen," said the Northwest traders 
 at their hurried conference. " We must anticipate these 
 United States explorers and traders. They may advance 
 northward and establish a claim to ownership by prior 
 right of discovery or occupation. We must build a chain 
 of posts and hold the country." 
 
 " But whom can we send on such a monumental 
 enterprise? " 
 
 There seemed but one man, Simon Fraser. 
 
 Simon Fraser was the son of a Scottish Tory who 
 had been captured by the Americans at Burgoyne's sur 
 render and had died in prison. His wife, with Simon a 
 babe in arms, removed to Canada, to rear her son be 
 neath the banner of her King. At sixteen, young Fraser 
 became a clerk of the Northwest Company and a bour 
 geois. But the Erasers were great-brained people; 
 young Simon was soon promoted ; and now at the age 
 of twenty-nine he was put in charge of the greatest 
 enterprise since the incomparable feat of Alexander 
 Mackenzie. 
 
 " You, Simon Fraser, are to establish trading-posts in 
 the unknown territory, and in this way take possession 
 for Great Britain." 
 
 Over at Sault Ste. Marie a young doctor by the name 
 of John McLoughlin would gladly have accompanied his 
 uncle Simon on that perilous undertaking. But his day 
 was to come later. Both of their names are now linked 
 with the Old Oregon. 
 
 Young men of the two most progressive modern na 
 tions were to be pitted in this race for Empire, Lewis 
 and Clark, and Simon Fraser. 
 
204 THE CONQUEST 
 
 XII 
 
 FAREWELL TO FORT MANDAN 
 
 ON the first day of March preparations began on 
 the building of new boats. The old ones were 
 pried out of the ice, and the whole party was busy 
 making elk-skin ropes and pirogues, in burning coal, and 
 in making battle-axes to trade for corn. Ducks began to 
 pass up the river ; swans and wild geese were flying north. 
 
 Old Chief Le Borgne of the Minnetarees, a giant in 
 stature, a brute at heart, had held aloof all winter in his 
 tepee. 
 
 " Foolish people! Stay at home! " he cried. 
 
 But strange rumours crept within the walls of the sulky 
 Cyclops. Overcome at last by curiosity Le Borgne came 
 down to the fort. 
 
 " Some foolish young men of my nation tell me there 
 is a man among you who is black. Is that true? " 
 
 " It is," answered Clark. " York, come here." 
 
 With his one fierce eye, Le Borgne examined York 
 closely. He wet his finger and rubbed the skin to see 
 if the black would come off. Not until the negro un 
 covered his head and showed his woolly hair could the 
 chief be persuaded that York was not a painted white 
 man. 
 
 Convinced against his will, and amazed, Le Borgne 
 arose with a snort, his black hair flying over his brawny 
 shoulders, and stalked out. As he passed along, the 
 Indians shrank back. Over the hill came the wail of a 
 demented mother. Many a fair Indian girl had left her 
 scalp at the door of this Indian Blue-Beard because she 
 preferred some other lover. 
 
 The ice was already honeycombed. Larocque came 
 over for a farewell. 
 
 " McTavish is dead," he said. 
 
 Lewis and Clark scarcely comprehended the full import 
 of that announcement, 
 
FAREWELL TO FORT MANDAN 205 
 
 At the foot of the mountain in Montreal the great 
 Northwester was building a palace, fit abode for " the 
 lord of the lakes and the forest," when the summons came 
 in 1804. Up the rivers and lakes the word was carried 
 into the uttermost wilds, " McTavish is dead." Thus 
 it came to Lewis and Clark, this last news from the outer 
 world. 
 
 The meeting at Fort William had been held without 
 him, McTavish was dead. 
 
 He was the head and front of the Northwest Company. 
 Under the King, Simon McTavish ruled Canada, ruled 
 half of British America, making Hudson's Bay tremble 
 on her northern sea. 
 
 The quick wit of the American born of Irish par 
 ents belonged to Patrick Gass. While others were strug 
 gling toward an idea, Pat had already seized it. Brave, 
 observant, of good sense, and hating the British, he kept 
 an eye on Larocque. 
 
 " Do not trust that Frinchman." 
 
 Larocque had a stock of goods to trade. He lingered 
 around Fort Mandan, and offered to go over the moun 
 tains with Lewis and Clark, but they politely declined. 
 Already Larocque knew of the order at Fort William. 
 His own brother-in-law, Quesnel, was to be the com 
 panion of Fraser's voyage, and was to leave, like Fraser, 
 his name on the rivers of British Columbia. 
 
 Then there was trouble with Charboneau. He became 
 independent and impudent and demanded higher wages. 
 Somebody was tampering with Charboneau. Suddenly 
 flaming with new raiment, gay vests, and yards of blue 
 and scarlet cloth, he announced : 
 
 " I weel not work. I weel not stand guard. I eenter- 
 preteur, do as I pleese, return wheen I pleese." 
 
 " We can dispense with your services," coolly answered 
 the Captains. Charboneau stepped back, surprised. 
 
 Ignoring his presence, preparations were hurried on. 
 The boats, the troublesome, cracking, warping cotton- 
 wood boats, were hauled to the fort and pitched and 
 calked and tinned, until at last they were ready to try the 
 water. No one spoke to the Frenchman, no one noticed 
 him as he lingered expectantly by. 
 
206 THE CONQUEST 
 
 All the Indian goods were brought out and hung in 
 the open air. Even at the busiest moments, with every 
 man on the jump, no one asked Charboneau to help. 
 Finding he was about to lose his position, the Frenchman 
 came to Captain Lewis, apologised, and was restored to 
 service. In a trice Charboneau was back at the skillets, 
 dishing up the dinner. 
 
 The occupants of Fort Mandan had been snow-bound 
 five months when ice began running in the river. All 
 day long now the busy Indians were catching buffalo 
 floating by on the high water. The foolish animals, try 
 ing to cross the thin ice, broke through. Others floated 
 away on big cakes that were certain, sooner or later, to 
 launch them into eternity. 
 
 The patient, devoted women, too, were in evidence. 
 Slipping out of their leather smocks, they plunged naked 
 into the icy current to secure the floating driftwood for 
 fuel. Across the snow long lines of squaws came drag 
 ging home the drift. 
 
 The hammers of Shields and Bratton rang merrily at 
 the anvils. Boxes were made and hooped and ironed, to 
 go down in the big bateau that was too unwieldy to carry 
 further. 
 
 In those stout boxes were horns of the mountain ram, 
 unknown as yet to science, horns of elk and deer, rare 
 skins, robes and Indian dresses ; bow, arrows, and a 
 shield for the President, on which Old Black Cat had spent 
 months of patient carving; samples of the red Ankara 
 corn; sixty-seven specimens of earths, salts, and min 
 erals, and sixty specimens of plants, all carefully labelled ; 
 seeds, insects, the skeleton of the big fish from the hill 
 top, stuffed antelopes and Lewis's pelican, a live prairie 
 dog in a wicker cage, a live prairie hen and four magpies. 
 A new geography was there, a map of the Missouri ex 
 tending out to the mystic mountains, drawn from Indian 
 description, to be presented by Jefferson to Congress. 
 
 In these boxes, too, went letters. There was one 
 of several thousand words from Lewis to his mother. 
 Captain Clark's first and best letter was to his brother 
 at the Point of Rock; with it he enclosed a map and 
 
FAREWELL TO FORT MANDAN 207 
 
 sketches of Indians. Another was to Major Croghan at 
 Locust Grove, with seeds of several kinds of grapes for 
 his sister Lucy. 
 
 With the bateau went also the famous Mandan report 
 of Lewis to Jefferson, and Clark's letter to his soldier 
 friend, William Henry Harrison, then Governor of the 
 Indian Territory at Vincennes. Other missives went to 
 Ohio, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Penn 
 sylvania, wherever a man had a mother at the hearth 
 stone waiting to hear of her distant boy. Saddest of all 
 was the news to Mill Creek, the home of Sergeant Floyd. 
 Part of Clark's journal was transmitted by letter to the 
 President and part was enclosed in a separate tin box, 
 " to multiply the chances of saving something." 
 
 The Mandan treasures, with dispatches and presents 
 from the Indians, went down by water to the Gulf and 
 thence by sea to Washington. 
 
 " I have little doubt but they will be fired on by the 
 Sioux," says Lewis in his letter, " but they have pledged 
 themselves to us that they will not yield while there is 
 one of them living." 
 
 At five o'clock on Sunday afternoon, April 7, 1805, the 
 barge left Fort Mandan for St. Louis with ten men. With 
 it went also Brave Raven of the Arikaras, to visit his 
 Great Father, the President. 
 
 At the same moment that the barge left the fort, six 
 small canoes and the two pirogues shot up river, carrying 
 thirty-one men and Sacajawea with her child. 
 
 " This little fleet, although not quite so respectable as 
 those of Columbus or Captain Cook, is still viewed by us 
 with as much pleasure as those famed adventurers ever 
 beheld theirs," said Lewis, "and I dare say with quite 
 as much anxiety for their safety and preservation. We 
 are now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand 
 miles in width, on which the foot of civilised man has 
 never trodden. 
 
 " Entertaining as I do the most confident hope of suc 
 ceeding in a voyage which has formed a darling project 
 of mine for ten years, I can but esteem this moment of 
 our departure as among the happiest of my life." 
 
208 THE CONQUEST 
 
 XIII 
 
 TOWARD THE SUNSET 
 
 THE Spring days were squally and chill. The air 
 was sharp, and the water froze on the oars as the 
 little party rowed along. Now and then a flurry 
 of snow whitened the April green. Sometimes the sails 
 were spread, and the boats scurried before the wind. 
 Often, however, the sails proved too large, and over the 
 boats lurched, wetting the baggage and powder. 
 
 Most of the powder had been sealed in leaden canis 
 ters. When the powder was emptied the canister itself 
 was melted into bullets. That was a nightly task, the 
 moulding of bullets. 
 
 " Hio ! hio ! " The hunters ahead picked a camping 
 spot, beside a spring or by a clump of trees. In short 
 order brass kettles were swung across the gipsy poles. 
 Twisting a bunch of buffalo grass into a nest, in a 
 moment Dr. Saugrain's magical matches had kindled a 
 roaring flame. 
 
 Swinging axes made music where axes had never 
 swung before. Baby Touissant rolled his big eyes and 
 kicked and crowed in his mother's lap, while Charboneau, 
 head cook, stuffed his trapper's sausage with strips of 
 tenderloin and hung it in links around the blaze. 
 
 Stacks of buffalo meat lay near by, where they had 
 been piled by the industrious hunters. Odours of boil 
 ing meat issued from the kettles. Juicy brown ribs 
 snapped and crackled over the flames. 
 
 Captain Lewis, accustomed to the cuisine of Jefferson 
 at the White House, laughed. 
 
 " How did you dress this sausage so quick, Char 
 boneau? Two bobs and a flirt in the dirty Missouri?" 
 
 Sometimes Lewis himself turned cook, and made a 
 suet dumpling for every man. More frequently he was 
 off to the hills with Clark, taking a look at the country. 
 
TOWARD THE SUNSET 209 
 
 Nor was Sacajawea idle. With her baby on her back, 
 she opened the nests of prairie mice, and brought home 
 artichokes. Sometimes she brought sprouts of wild onion 
 for the broth, or the pomme blanche, the peppery In 
 dian turnip. York, too, at his master's direction often 
 gathered cresses and greens for the dinner. But York 
 was becoming a hunter. As well as the best, he " slew 
 dem buffaloes." 
 
 Lewis had bought Charboneau's big family tent. Under 
 its leather shelter slept the Captains, with Drouillard and 
 Charboneau and his little family. 
 
 Around the twilight fires the men wrote their journals, 
 - Lewis, Clark, Pryor, Ordway, Gass, Eraser, all busy 
 with their stub quill pens and inkhorns, recording the 
 day's adventure. 
 
 They were not scholars, any of them, but men of 
 action, pioneers and explorers, heralds of the nation. In 
 their strenuous boyhood they had defended the frontier. 
 Men at sixteen, they took up a man's employment. 
 Lewis, more favoured, prolonged his schooldays until 
 the age of eighteen, then broke away to march with 
 armies. 
 
 At last these first civilised sounds that ever broke the 
 silence primeval were hushed. Rolled up like cocoons 
 in their mackinaw blankets, the men were soon snoring 
 in rows with feet to the fires, while a solitary sergeant 
 peered into the lonely night. The high Dakota wind 
 roared among the cottonwoods. Mother Nature, too, 
 kept guard, lighting her distant beacons in the blue above 
 the soldier boys. 
 
 In a land of wolves, no wolves molested, though they 
 yelped and barked in the prairie grass. On all sides lay 
 deserted camps of Assiniboine Sioux. Once the expedi 
 tion crossed the trail of a war party only twenty-four 
 hours old. A dog left behind came to the camp of the 
 explorers and became the pet of Captain Lewis. 
 
 " Kip so quiet lak' one leetle mouse," whispered Cru- 
 zatte, cautioning silence. 
 
 No one cared to meet the Assiniboine Sioux, the 
 " Gens des Grands Diables" Once the smoke of their 
 
210 THE CONQUEST 
 
 campfires clouded the north; but the boats sped on 
 undiscovered. 
 
 " The river reminds me of the Ohio at this time of 
 year," said Clark. 
 
 " The drumming of that sharp-tailed grouse is like 
 that of the pheasants of old Virginia," responded Lewis. 
 
 " And the croaking of the frogs exactly resimbles that 
 of frogs in th' Yaunited States," added Patrick Gass. 
 
 For days they noted veins of coal burning along the 
 river banks, kindled perhaps by Indian fires. Alkali dust 
 began to rise, blown into clouds, and sifting into their 
 tight double-cased watches until the wheels refused to 
 move more than a few minutes at a time. 
 
 Toward the last of April Lewis went ahead to the 
 mouth of the Roche jaune, the Yellow Rock, or Yellow 
 stone River, passing through herds of elk, antelope, and 
 buffalo, so tame they would scarce move out of his way. 
 Beautiful dun deer snorted and pawed the leaves, then 
 half trusting, half timorous, slipped into the thicket. No 
 one but Sacajawea had ever before been over this road. 
 
 In May they reached the land where even the beaver 
 were gentle, for they had never been hunted. No white 
 man, so far as they knew, had ever trodden these wilds. 
 They had not heard of the gallant Sieur Verendrye, two 
 of whose intrepid sons reached the " Shining Mountains " 
 on New Year's Day, 1743. Washington was a boy then; 
 George Rogers Clark was not born. 
 
 But the Snakes and the Sioux were at war, fierce bat 
 tles were raging, and they were forced to turn back. 
 The noble Verendrye spent all his fortune, and forty thou 
 sand livres besides, in trying to find the River of the West. 
 
 Then Jonathan Carver of Connecticut set out about 
 the time Boone went to Kentucky. At the Falls of St. 
 Anthony, he, too, heard of the Shining Mountains. 
 
 " The four most capital rivers of North America take 
 their rise about the centre of this continent," said Carver. 
 " The River Bourbon, which empties into Hudson's Bay; 
 the Waters of St. Lawrence; the Mississippi; and the 
 River Oregon, or the River of the West, that falls into 
 the Pacific Ocean at the Straits of Anian." 
 
TOWARD THE SUNSET 211 
 
 What little bird whispered " Oregon " in Carver's 
 ear? No such word is known in any Indian tongue. 
 Had some Spanish sailor told of a shore " like his own 
 green Arragon " ? 
 
 And now Lewis and Clark are on the sunset path. 
 Will they find the Shining Mountains and the River of 
 the West? 
 
 At the first large branch beyond the Yellowstone, Cap 
 tain Lewis went on shore with Drouillard the hunter. 
 Out of a copse suddenly appeared two grizzlies. 
 
 Lewis remembered well the awe and absolute terror 
 with which the Mandans had described this king of 
 Western beasts. Never did they go out to meet him 
 without war-paint and all the solemn rites of battle. As 
 with the cave bear of ancient song and saga, no weapon 
 of theirs was adequate to meet this dreaded monster. In 
 parties of six or eight they went, with bows and arrows, 
 or, in recent years, the bad guns of the trader. 
 
 With these things in mind, Lewis and the hunter faced 
 the bears. Each fired, and each wounded his beast. One 
 of the bears ran away; the other turned and pursued 
 Captain Lewis, but a lucky third shot from Drouillard 
 laid him low. 
 
 And what a brute was he ! Only a cub and yet larger 
 than any bear of the Atlantic States, the grizzly, known 
 now to be identical with the awful cave bear of prehis 
 toric time. No wonder the Indian that slew him was a 
 brave and in the line of chieftainship! No wonder the 
 claws became a badge of honour! No man, no foe so 
 fierce to meet as one enraged and famished grizzly. His 
 skin was a king's robe, his tusk an emblem of unflinching 
 valour. 
 
 A wind from the east now filled the sails and blew 
 them west ! west ! More and more tame grew the elk and 
 buffalo, until the men were obliged to drive them out of 
 their way with sticks and stones. 
 
 Before them unrolled the great wild garden of 
 Eden. Abounding everywhere were meadows, beaver 
 meadows and clover meadows, wild rice and rye and 
 timothy, and buffalo grazing on a thousand hills. Prairie 
 fowl scurried in the under-brush, beautiful white geese 
 
212 THE CONQUEST 
 
 gazed calmly at them, ducks quacked around ponds and 
 streams alive with trout. 
 
 Wild gardens were radiant with roses and honey 
 suckles, morning-glories and wild hops. Whole fields 
 of lilies perfumed the sunrise, strawberries carpeted the 
 uplands, and tangles of blackberries and raspberries inter 
 wove a verdant wall along the buffalo trails, the highways 
 of the wilderness. 
 
 Mountain sheep sported on the cliffs, the wild cat 
 purred in her forest lair. The yellow cougar, the moun 
 tain lion, growled and slunk away. The coyote, the In 
 dian dog, snapped and snarled. But man, man was not 
 there. For four months no Indian appeared through 
 all the Great Lone Land of the Tay-a-be-shock-up, the 
 country of the mountains. 
 
 William Bratton, who had been walking along the 
 shore, presently came running to the boats with cries 
 of terror. 
 
 " Take me on board, quick ! " 
 
 It was some moments before Bratton could speak. 
 
 " A bear ! a bear ! " he gasped at last. 
 
 A mile and a half back Bratton had wounded a grizzly 
 that turned and chased him. Captain Lewis and seven 
 men immediately started. For a mile they tracked the 
 trail of blood to a hole where the enraged animal was 
 frantically tearing up the earth with teeth and claws. 
 Two shots through the skull finished the grizzly, whose 
 fleece and skin made a load which two men could scarcely 
 carry back to camp. 
 
 " More bear-butter to fry me sassage," remarked un 
 sentimental Charboneau. 
 
 But now had begun in earnest the days of wild adven 
 ture. One evening after another grizzly battle, the men 
 came triumphantly into camp to find disaster there. 
 Charboneau had been steersman that night, and Cruzatte 
 was at the bow. A sudden squall struck the foremost 
 pirogue, Charboneau let go the tiller, the wind bellied 
 the sail, and over they turned. 
 
 " De rudder ! de rudder ! " shouted Cruzatte. 
 
 Charboneau, the most timid waterman in the party, 
 
TOWARD THE SUNSET 213 
 
 clinging to the gunwales, heard only his own voice in 
 the wind, crying aloud to heaven, " Mon Dieu! Mon 
 Dieu!" 
 
 " De rudder ! " roared Cruzatte. " Seize de rudder in- 
 stanter and do de duty, or I shoot you ! " 
 
 Fear of Cruzatte's gun overcame fear of drowning. 
 Charboneau, pallid and trembling, reached for the flying 
 rope. Half a minute the boat lay on the wave, then 
 turned up full of water. 
 
 At last, holding the brace of the square sail, Char 
 boneau pulled the boat round, while all hands fell to bail 
 ing out the water. But all the papers, medicine, and 
 instruments were wet. 
 
 Cruzatte alone was calm, and Sacajawea, who, with 
 her baby and herself to save, still managed to catch and 
 preserve most of the light articles that were floating 
 overboard. 
 
 Captain Lewis, watching the disaster from afar, had 
 almost leaped into the water to save his precious papers, 
 but was restrained by the reflection that by such rash 
 ness he might forfeit his life. 
 
 Two days were lost in unpacking and drying the stores. 
 
 At midnight a buffalo ran into the sleeping camp. 
 
 " Hey ! hey ! hey ! " shouted the guard, firing on the 
 run and waving his arms. But the distracted beast, 
 plunging close to the heads of the sleeping men, headed 
 directly toward the leather tent. 
 
 Suddenly up before his nose danced the little Indian 
 dog, and the buffalo was turned back into the night just 
 as the whole camp jumped to arms in expectation of an 
 attack of the Sioux. 
 
 "Fire! Fire!" was the next alarm. 
 
 In the high wind of the night one of the fires had 
 communicated itself to a dead cotton wood overhang 
 ing the camp. Fanned by the gale the flames shot up 
 the trunk, and burning limbs and twigs flew in a shower 
 upon the leather tent. 
 
 " Fire ! fire ! fire ! " again came the quick, sharp cry. 
 
 Every man rolled out of his mackinaw. The occu 
 pants of the lodge were soon aroused. Strong hands 
 
214 THE CONQUEST 
 
 had scarcely removed the lodge and quenched the burn 
 ing leather before the tree itself fell directly over the 
 spot where a moment before the Captains were sleeping 
 soundly. 
 
 And so that stream was named the Burnt Lodge Creek. 
 
 XIV 
 
 THE SHINING MOUNTAINS 
 
 ASCENDING the highest summit of the hills on the 
 north side of the river, on Sunday, the 26th of 
 May, Captain Lewis first caught a distant view of 
 " the Rock mountains the object of all our hopes, and 
 the reward of all our ambition." 
 
 " When I viewed I felt a secret pleasure, but 
 when I reflected on the difficulties which this snowy 
 barrier would most probably throw in my way to the 
 Pacific, and the sufferings and hardships of myself and 
 party in them, it in some measure counterbalanced the 
 joy." 
 
 Bold and bolder grew the river shores. The current 
 now became too rapid for oars, too deep for poles. Noth 
 ing but the tow-line could draw the boats against the swift 
 flow of the mountain torrent. Struggling along shore 
 with the rope on their shoulders, the men lost their moc 
 casins in the clinging clay and went barefoot. Sometimes 
 knee-deep, they waded, sometimes waist-deep, shoulders- 
 deep, in the icy water, or rising on higher benches walked 
 on flinty rocks that cut their naked feet. 
 
 Leaping out of the mountains, came down a laughing 
 sparkling river, the clearest they had yet seen. Its valley 
 seemed a paradise of ash and willow, honeysuckles and 
 wild roses. Standing on its bank Clark mused, " I know 
 but one other spot so beautiful. I will name this river 
 for my little mountain maid of Fincastle, the Judith." 
 
 Could he then foresee that Judith would become his 
 
THE SHINING MOUNTAINS 215 
 
 wife, or that the verdant Judith Basin would be the last 
 retreat of the buffalo? 
 
 Big horned mountain sheep were sporting on the cliffs, 
 beaver built their dams along its shores, and up the Judith 
 Gap the buffalo had his mountain home. The Indian, too, 
 had left there the scattered embers of a hundred fires. 
 
 Lewis picked up a moccasin. 
 
 " Here, Sacajawea, does this belong to your people? " 
 
 The Bird Woman shook her head. " No Shoshone." 
 She pointed to the north where the terrible Blackfeet 
 came swooping down to shoot and scalp. It was time to 
 hasten on. 
 
 Valley succeeded valley for miles on miles, and between 
 valleys arose hills of sandstone, worn by suns and storms 
 into temples of desolated magnificence; ruins of columns 
 and towers, pedestals and capitals, parapets of statuary, 
 sculptured alcoves and mysterious galleries. Sheer up 
 from the river's side they lifted their heads like old Vene 
 tian palaces abandoned to the bats. 
 
 June 3 the river forked. 
 
 " Which is the true Missouri? " 
 
 " De nort'ern branch. See it boil and roll?" said 
 Cruzatte. " See de colour ? Dat de true Meessouri. De 
 ot'er ees but one leetle stream from de mountain." 
 
 But the Captains remembered the advice of the 
 Minnetarees. 
 
 " The Ah-mateah-za becomes clear, and has a navigable 
 current into the mountains." 
 
 Parties were sent up both branches to reconnoitre. 
 Lewis and Clark ascended the high ground in the fork 
 and looked toward the sunset. Innumerable herds of 
 buffalo, elk, and antelope were browsing as far as the eye 
 could reach, until the rivers were lost in the plain. 
 
 Back came the canoes undecided. Then the Captains 
 set out. Clark took the crystal pebbly southern route. 
 Lewis went up the turbid northern branch fifty-nine 
 miles. 
 
 " This leads too far north, almost to the Saskatche 
 wan," he concluded, and turned back. In the summer 
 sunshine robins sang, turtle doves, linnets, the brown 
 
216 THE CONQUEST 
 
 thrush, the goldfinch, and the wren, filled the air with 
 melody. 
 
 " I will call it Maria's River, for my beautiful and ami 
 able cousin, Maria Wood of Charlottesville," thought 
 Lewis, with a memory of other Junes in old Virginia. 
 
 When Lewis drew up at camp, Clark was already there, 
 anxious for his safety. The main party, occupied in 
 dressing skins and resting their lame and swollen feet, 
 looked eagerly for the decision. To their surprise both 
 Captains agreed on the southern route. 
 
 " But Cruzatte," exclaimed the men, " he thinks the 
 north stream is the true river, and Cruzatte is an ex 
 perienced waterman. We may be lost in the mountains 
 far from the Columbia." 
 
 " True. Everything depends on a right decision. Cap 
 tain Clark, if you will stay here and direct the deposit 
 of whatever we can spare, I will go ahead until I know 
 absolutely." 
 
 At dawn Lewis set out with Drouillard, Gibson, Good 
 rich, and Joe Fields. 
 
 Under Captain Clark's direction, Bratton, the black 
 smith, set up his forge at the mouth of Maria's River and 
 Shields mended all the broken guns. The rest dug a 
 cache, a kettle-shaped cellar, on a dry spot safe from 
 water. The floor was covered with dry sticks and a robe. 
 Then in went the blacksmith's heavy tools, canisters of 
 powder, bags of flour and baggage, whatever could be 
 spared. On top was thrown another robe, and then the 
 earth packed in tight and the sod refitted so that no eye 
 could detect the spot. 
 
 The red pirogue was drawn up into the middle of a 
 small island at the mouth of Maria's River and secured 
 in a copse. 
 
 " Boys, I am very ill," said Captain Lewis, when they 
 camped for dinner on the first day out. Attacked with 
 violent pains and a high fever, unable to proceed, he lay 
 under some willow boughs. 
 
 No medicine had been brought. Drouillard was much 
 concerned. " I well remember," he said, " when a flux 
 was epidemic at Chillicothe among de white settlers, my 
 
THE SHINING MOUNTAINS 217 
 
 fader, Pierre Drouillard, administer on de sick wit' great 
 success." 
 
 "What did he use?" 
 
 " A tea of de choke-cherry." 
 
 " Prepare me some," said the rapidly sinking Captain. 
 
 With deft fingers Drouillard stripped off the leaves of 
 a choke-cherry bough. and cut up the twigs. Black and 
 bitter, the tea was brought to Lewis at sunset. He drank 
 a pint, and another pint an hour afterward. By ten 
 o'clock the pain was gone, a gentle perspiration ensued, 
 the fever abated, and by morning he was able to 
 proceed. 
 
 The next day, June 12, the mountains loomed as never 
 before, rising range on range until the distant peaks com 
 mingled with the clouds. Twenty-four hours later Lewis 
 heard the roaring of a cataract, seven miles away, and 
 saw its spray, a column of cloud lifted by the southwest 
 wind. Like Hiawatha he had 
 
 " Journeyed westward, westward, 
 Left the fleetest deer behind him, 
 Left the antelope and bison, 
 Passed the mountains of the Prairie, 
 Passed the land of Crows and Foxes, 
 Passed the dwellings of the Blackfeet, 
 Came unto the Rocky Mountains, 
 To the kingdom of the West-Wind." 
 
 Hastening on with impatient step he came upon the 
 stupendous waterfall, one of the glories of our continent, 
 that hidden here in the wilderness had for ages leaped 
 adown the rocky way. Overwhelmed with the spectacle 
 Lewis sat down " to gaze and wonder and adore." " Oh, 
 for the pencil of Salvator Rosa or the pen of Thompson, 
 that I might give to the world some idea of this magnifi 
 cent object, which from the commencement of time has 
 been concealed from the view of civilised man." 
 
 Joe Fields was immediately dispatched to notify Clark 
 of the discovery of the Falls. Lewis and the other men 
 went on up ten miles, gazing at cataract after cataract 
 where the mighty Missouri bent and paused, and gather 
 ing its full volume leaped from rock to rock, sometimes 
 
218 THE CONQUEST 
 
 wild and irregularly sublime, again smooth and elegant 
 as a painter's dream. 
 
 Lewis, impatient to see and know, hurried on past the 
 rest until night overtook him alone near the head of the 
 series of cataracts. On the high plain along the bank a 
 thousand buffalo were feeding on the short curly grass. 
 Lewis shot one for supper, and leaning upon his unloaded 
 rifle watched to see it fall. 
 
 A slight rustle attracted his attention. He turned. A 
 bear was stealing upon him, not twenty steps away. 
 There was no time for reloading, flight alone remained. 
 Not a bush, not a tree, not a rock was near, nothing but 
 the water. With a wild bound Lewis cleared the inter 
 vening space and leaped into the river. Turning, he 
 presented his espontoon. The bear, already at the bank, 
 was about to spring, but that defiant espontoon in his face 
 filled him with terror. He turned and ran, looking back 
 now and then as if fearing pursuit, and disappeared. 
 
 Clambering out of the water, Lewis started for camp, 
 when, sixty paces in front of him, a strange animal 
 crouched as if to spring. Lewis fired and a mountain lion 
 fled. Within three hundred yards of the spot, three en 
 raged buffalo bulls left the herd, and shaking their shaggy 
 manes, ran pawing and bellowing, full speed upon him. 
 Eluding the bulls, Lewis hurried to camp. Worn out, 
 he fell asleep, only to awaken and find a huge rattlesnake 
 coiled around the tree above his head ! Such was earth 
 primeval ! 
 
 The Great Falls of the Missouri was the rendezvous 
 for all wild life in the country. Thousands of impatient 
 buffaloes pushed each other along the steep rocky paths 
 to the water. Hundreds went over the cataract to feed 
 the bears and wolves below. 
 
 Captain Clark soon arrived with the. main body and 
 went into camp at a sulphur spring, a favourite resort of 
 buffaloes. 
 
 " This is precisely like Bowyer's sulphur spring of 
 Virginia, it will be good for Sacajawea," said Lewis, 
 bringing her a -cup of the transparent water that tumbled 
 in a cascade into the Missouri. 
 
THE SHINING MOUNTAINS 219 
 
 Sacajawea was sick, very sick, delirious at times as she 
 lay on her couch of skins. The journey had been diffi 
 cult. The hungry little baby was a great burden, and 
 Sacajawea was only sixteen, younger even than Shannon, 
 the boy of the party. 
 
 Clark directed his negro servant, York, to be her con 
 stant attendant. Charboneau was cautioned on no ac 
 count to leave her. Several other semi-invalids guarded 
 the tent to keep the buffaloes away. Every day, and twice 
 a day, the Captains came to see her and prescribe as best 
 they could. 
 
 Now came the tedious days of portaging the boats and 
 baggage around the Falls. A cottonwood tree, nearly 
 two feet in diameter, was sawed into wheels. The white 
 pirogue was hidden in a copse and its mast was taken for 
 an axletree. 
 
 Opposite the spot where the waggons were made was 
 an island full of bears of enormous size. Their growling 
 and stealthy movements went on day and night. All 
 night the watchful little dog kept up incessant barking. 
 The men, disturbed in their slumbers, lay half-awake 
 with their arms in hand, while the guard patrolled with 
 an eye on the island. Bolder and bolder grew the bears. 
 One night they came to the very edge of the camp and ran 
 off with the meat hung out for breakfast. 
 
 At last the rude waggons were done. The canoes were 
 mounted and filled with baggage. Slowly they creaked 
 away, tugged and pushed and pulled up hills that were 
 rocky and rough with hummocks where the buffaloes 
 trod. Prickly-pears, like little scythes, cut and lacerated, 
 even through double-soled moccasins. At every halt, 
 over-wearied and worn out by night watching, the toilers 
 dropped to the ground and fell asleep instantly. 
 
 A whole month was spent in making the carriages and 
 transporting the baggage the eighteen miles around the 
 Falls. In another cache at the sulphur spring, they 
 buried Lewis's writing desk, specimens of plants and min 
 erals, provisions, the grindstone brought from Harper's 
 Ferry, books and a map of the Missouri River. The 
 blunderbuss was hid under rocks at the foot of the Falls, 
 
220 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Sacajawea, recovered from her illness, began to look 
 for familiar landmarks. One day Clark took her, to 
 gether with Charboneau and York, to look at the Falls. 
 He had surveyed and measured the Black Eagle, Crooked 
 Rainbow, and Great Falls. " Come," he said, " Char 
 boneau, bring Sacajawea. Let us go up and look at 
 the Black Eagle." High above the cataract the bird 
 had built its nest in the top of a cottonwood tree. 
 
 A dark cloud was rising. Under a shelving rock they 
 took refuge in a ravine, Captain Clark still figuring at 
 his notes. 
 
 A few drops of rain fell, in an instant a torrent, a 
 cloud-burst, rolled down the ravine. 
 
 Clark saw it coming. Snatching his gun and shot- 
 pouch, he pushed Sacajawea and the baby up the cliff, 
 while Charboneau above was pulling her by the hand. 
 Up to Clark's waist the water came. Fifteen feet it rose 
 behind him as he climbed to safety. 
 
 Compass and umbrella were lost in the scramble. 
 Charboneau had left his gun, tomahawk, and shot-pouch. 
 Sacajawea had just snatched her baby before its cradle 
 went into the flood. After the storm they came down 
 into the plain, to. find York in affright lest they had been 
 swept into the river. 
 
 On account of the great heat } the men at the waggons 
 had laid aside their leather hunting shirts, when down 
 upon their bare backs came a show r er of huge hail 
 stones. Bruised, battered, and bleeding as from a battle, 
 they straggled into camp. Kind-hearted Lewis set to 
 work with linens and medicine, bandaging up their 
 wounds. 
 
 The next morning Captain Clark sent two men to look 
 for the articles lost at the Falls. They found the ravine 
 filled with rock, but happily, half-hid in mud and sand, 
 the precious compass was recovered. 
 
 Within view of the camp that day Clark estimated not 
 less than ten thousand buffalo. And beyond, rimmed 
 on the far horizon, ran the white line of the mountain 
 crest that is to-day the western boundary of Montana. 
 
 The 4th of July dawned, the second since they had 
 
A WOMAN PILOT 221 
 
 left the States. In the hills they heard strange booming, 
 as of a distant cannonade. It almost seemed as if the 
 Rocky Mountains were reverberating back the joyous 
 guns of Baltimore and Boston". The men listened in 
 amaze. 
 
 "What can it be?" 
 
 " Een de mountain/' answered Cruzatte. " De vein 
 of silver burst. De Pawnee and de Rickara hear eet een 
 de Black Hill." 
 
 " Ah, yes, the Minnetarees talked of a noise in the 
 mountains. We thought it was superstition." 
 
 Again through long silence came the great cannonade. 
 Unconsciously Lewis and Clark trod on closed treasure 
 houses, future mines of unwashed tons of gold and silver. 
 Had they brought back gold then what might have been 
 the effect upon the restless, heaving East? But, no, the 
 land must wait and grow. Other wars must be fought 
 with the Englishman and the Indian, armies of trappers 
 must decimate the bears and wolves, and easier methods 
 of transportation must aid in opening up the great 
 Montana-land. 
 
 XV 
 A WOMAN PILOT 
 
 MONDAY, July 15, 1805, the boats were launched 
 above the Great Falls of the Missouri. Clark 
 followed by land along an old Indian trail, worn 
 deep by the lodge-poles of ages. 
 
 Little did he realise that nuggets lay scattered all over 
 that land, where yet the gold hunters should dot the hills 
 with shafts and mounds ; that near here a beautiful city, 
 named for Helen of Troy, should arise to become a 
 golden capital. 
 
 " My people! My people!" Sacajawea excitedly 
 pointed to deserted wickiups and traces of fires. She 
 read their story at a glance. 
 
222 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " It was winter. They were hungry. There were no 
 buffalo. See!" She pointed to the pines stripped of 
 bark and the tender inner wood, the last resort of fam 
 ishing Shoshones. 
 
 With flags hoisted to notify the Indians that they were 
 friends, the canoes passed within the Gates of the Moun 
 tains, where the mighty Missouri breaks through the Belt 
 Range of western Montana. Nothing in Alleghany lands 
 compares with this tremendous water-gap. Through the 
 dark cavern the river ran narrow and rapid and clear. 
 Down through tributary canyons on either side came 
 rifts of light, odours of pine, and the roar of waterfalls. 
 
 With unmoved countenance Sacajawea looked upon 
 the weird overhanging grayish granite walls through 
 which she had been hurried in terror by her Minnetaree 
 captors, five years ago. 
 
 " We are coming to a country where the river has 
 three forks," said Sacajawea. 
 
 Exhilaration seized the men, as they sent the boats 
 up the heavy current that rolled well-deep below. That 
 night they camped in a canyon that is to-day a pleasure 
 resort for the people of Helena. 
 
 Again following the Indian trail, on the 25th of July 
 Clark arrived at the three forks of the Missouri, near the 
 present site of Gallatin. From the forks of the far eastern 
 rivers where Pittsburg rises, they had come to the forks 
 of the great river of the West. 
 
 For days the swift current had required the utmost 
 exertion. The men complained of fatigue and excessive 
 heat. 
 
 " You push a tolerable good pole," said the Ken- 
 tuckians, when Lewis took a hand. 
 
 Captain Clark was worn out. With the thermometer 
 at ninety, for days he had pushed ahead, determined to 
 find the Shoshones. 
 
 " Let us rest a day or two," said Captain Lewis. 
 " Here, boys, build a bower for Captain Clark. I '11 
 take a tramp myself in a few days to find these yellow 
 gentlemen if possible." 
 
 Camping at the three forks, every man became a 
 
A WOMAN PILOT 223 
 
 leather dresser and tailor, fixing up his buckskin clothes. 
 Leggings and moccasins had been sliced to pieces by the 
 prickly pear. 
 
 "What a spot for a trading post!" the Captains 
 agreed. 
 
 " Look," said Lewis, " see the rushes in the bottom, 
 high as a man's breast and thick as wheat. This will be 
 much in favour of an establishment here, the cane is 
 one of the best winter pastures for cows and horses." 
 
 From the heights at the three forks, Lewis and Clark 
 looked out upon valleys of perennial green. Birds of 
 beautiful plumage and thrilling song appeared on every 
 hand. Beaver, otter, muskrat, sported in this trapper's 
 paradise. Buffalo-clover, sunflowers and wild rye, buf 
 falo-peas and buffalo-beans blossomed everywhere. 
 
 All the Indian trails in the country seemed to converge. 
 at this point. Here passed the deadly Blackfoot on his 
 raids against the Shoshones, the Bannocks, and the Crows. 
 Here stole back and forth the timid Shoshone to his an 
 nual hunt on the Yellowstone and the Snake River plains. 
 Hither from time immemorial had the Flatheads and 
 Nez Perces resorted for their supplies of robes and meat. 
 Even from the far Saskatchewan came the Piegans and 
 Gros Ventres to this favoured and disputed spot. 
 
 The Blackfeet claimed the three forks of the Missouri, 
 no tribe dwelt there permanently. The roads w,ere deep, 
 like trenches, worn by the trailing lodgepoles of many 
 tribes upon this common hunting ground. 
 
 The naming of the rivers, that was an epic by itself. 
 
 The gay Cabinet ladies who had fitted him out at Wash 
 ington flitted through the mind of Meriwether Lewis, 
 Maria Jefferson, companion of his earliest recollection, 
 Dolly Madison, whose interest never failed in his adven 
 tures, Mrs. Gallatin, the queenly dark-haired wife of the 
 scholarly Secretary of the Treasury. With what pleas 
 ure had they gathered at the White House to fashion 
 " housewives," full of pins and needles and skeins of 
 thread, for these wanderers of the West. Not a man in 
 the party but bore some souvenir of their thoughtful 
 handiwork. 
 
224 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Clark's earliest memory was of Jefferson, the friend 
 of his father, of his older brothers, and then of him 
 self. " Jimmy " Madison and George Rogers Clark had 
 been schoolmates in the " old field school " of Donald 
 Robertson. 
 
 So then and there the Captains agreed that three great 
 statesmen and their wives should be commemorated here 
 by the Madison, the Jefferson, and the Gallatin forks of 
 the Missouri. 
 
 " On this very spot my people camped five years ago. 
 Here were their tents," said Sacajawea, pointing out the 
 embers of blackened fires. " The Minnetarees peered 
 over the hills. We ran up this fork and hid in the thick 
 woods." 
 
 The boats were reloaded and the party began to ascend 
 the Jefferson on July 30, to its head in the Bitter Root 
 Mountains. At noon they camped for dinner. 
 
 " And here was I captured ! " cried Sacajawea. " I 
 was made a prisoner. We were too few to fight the 
 Minnetarees. They pursued us. Our men mounted 
 their horses and fled to the mountains. The women 
 and children hid. I ran. I was crossing this river. 
 They caught me and carried me away." 
 
 What a realistic glimpse of daily terror! Fighting, 
 hunting, wandering, famishing, in the land of anarchy. 
 Formerly the Shoshones were Indians of the plains. 
 Now they had been driven by their enemies into almost 
 inaccessible fastnesses. 
 
 " The Beaver Head! The Beaver Head! " 
 
 Sacajawea pointed to a steep, rocky cliff shaped like a 
 beaver's head, one hundred and fifty feet above the water, 
 an Indian landmark from time immemorial. 
 
 " This is not far from the summer retreat of my coun 
 trymen. We shall meet them soon, on a river beyond the 
 mountains running to the west." 
 
 " We must meet those Indians," said Lewis, " it is 
 our only hope for horses to cross the mountains." 
 
 Lewis and Clark camped August 7, 1805, at Beaver- 
 head Rock. There, fifty-seven years later, chased by 
 bears, robbed by Indians, unsheltered, unshod, and al- 
 
A WOMAN PILOT 225 
 
 most starving, the gold hunter stumbled upon the aurif 
 erous bed of an ancient river that made Montana. Gold 
 was discovered at Alder Gulch in 1863, ten miles south 
 of Beaverhead Rock, and the next year mining began in 
 the streets of the present city of Helena. The pick and 
 the shovel in the miner's hand became the lamp and the 
 ring in the grasp of Aladdin. 
 
 The next morning after passing Beaverhead Rock, 
 Captain Lewis and three of the men slung their knap 
 sacks over their shoulders and set out for the mountains, 
 determined not to return until they met some nation of 
 Indians. 
 
 Two days later, August n, Lewis with his spyglass 
 espied a lone horseman on the hills. The wild-eyed Sho- 
 shone, accustomed to scan the horizon, saw him also. 
 
 " He is of a different nation from any we have met," 
 remarked Lewis, watching intently through his glass. 
 " He has a bow and a quiver of arrows, and an elegant 
 horse without a saddle." 
 
 Like a lookout on the hills, the Indian stood and 
 waited. 
 
 " He is undoubtedly a Shoshone. Much of our suc 
 cess depends on the friendly offices of that nation." 
 
 Slowly Lewis advanced. Slowly the Indian came for 
 ward, until, within a mile of each other the Indian sud 
 denly stopped. Captain Lewis also stopped, and drawing 
 a three-point blanket from his knapsack held it by the 
 corners above his head, and unfolding brought it to the 
 ground as in the act of spreading. Three times he re 
 peated the Indian signal of hospitality " Come and sit 
 on the robe with me." 
 
 Still the Indian kept his position, viewing with an air 
 of suspicion the hunters with Lewis. 
 
 " Tabba bone, tabba bone," said Lewis, stripping up 
 the sleeve of his shirt to show the colour of his skin, 
 " white man, white man," a term learned of Sacajawea. 
 
 Paralysed the Indian looked, then fled like a frightened 
 deer. No calls could bring him back. 
 
 He said to his people, " I have seen men with faces 
 pale as ashes, who are makers of thunder and lightning." 
 
 15 
 
226 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " He is a dreamer ! " exclaimed the incredulous Sho- 
 shones. " He makes up tales. He must show us these 
 white men or be put to death," and trembling he started 
 back with a body of warriors. 
 
 Lewis, disappointed at the flight of the Shoshone, 
 pressed on. Narrower and narrower grew the river. 
 
 " Thank God, I have lived to bestride the Missouri! " 
 exclaimed Hugh McNeil, planting a foot on either side 
 of the mountain rivulet. 
 
 Two miles farther up they drank from the ice-cold 
 spring at the river's source, and stood on the summit of 
 the Great Divide. A little creek flowed down the ridge 
 toward the west. Stooping, they drank, of the waters 
 of the Columbia, and slept that night in Idaho. The next 
 morning, following a well-worn Indian trail, Lewis came 
 upon two women and a child. One fled, the other, an old 
 dame encumbered by the child, sat down and bowed her 
 head as if expecting instant death. 
 
 Captain Lewis advanced, lifted her, loaded her with 
 gifts. 
 
 '' Tabba bone, tabba bone." Stripping up his sleeve 
 he showed to the amazed woman the first white skin she 
 had ever seen. 
 
 " Call your companion," motioned Lewis toward the 
 fleeing woman. 
 
 The old dame raised her voice. As fast as she ran 
 away the young woman came running back, almost out 
 of breath. She, too, was loaded with trinkets, and the 
 cheeks of all were painted with vermilion, the Shoshone 
 emblem of peace. 
 
 Without fear now she led him toward sixty mounted 
 warriors, who were advancing at a gallop as to battle. 
 
 " Tabba bone! tabba bone! " explained the women, in 
 troducing the stranger and exhibiting their gifts. 
 
 " Ah hi el Ah hi e!" "I am much pleased ! I am 
 much pleased ! " exclaimed the warriors, leaping from 
 their horses and embracing Lewis with great cordiality. 
 
 Lewis drew forth his imposing calumet of red pipe- 
 stone and lighted it. This was a sign language of all 
 tribes. 
 
A WOMAN PILOT 227 
 
 Putting off their moccasins as if to say, " May I walk 
 the forest barefoot forever if I break this pledge of 
 friendship," they sat down and smoked. 
 
 The chief, too, brought out a pipe, of the dense trans 
 parent green stone of the Bannock Mountains, highly 
 polished. Another led him to a lodge and presented a 
 piece of salmon, then Lewis no longer doubted that 
 he was on waters flowing to the Pacific. 
 
 Slowly, Clark, ill with chills and fever, had been com 
 ing forward, urging the canoes up the difficult and nar 
 rowing stream. 
 
 Sacajawea, the little Bird-woman, could not wait. In 
 her anxiety she begged to walk ahead along shore, and 
 with her husband went dancing up the rivulet of her 
 childhood. She flew ahead. She turned, pirouetting 
 lightly on her beaded moccasins, waving her arms and 
 kissing her fingers. Her long hair flew in the wind and 
 her beaded necklace sparkled. 
 
 Yes, there were the Indians, and Lewis among 
 them, dressed like an Indian too. The white men 
 had given everything they had to the Indians, even 
 their cocked hats and red feathers, and taken Indian 
 clothes in exchange, robes of the mountain sheep and 
 goat. 
 
 An Indian girl leaned to look at Sacajawea. They 
 flew into each other's arms. They had been children to 
 gether, had been captured in the same battle, had shared 
 the same captivity. One had escaped to her own people ; 
 the other had been sold as a slave in the Land of the 
 Dakotahs. As girls will, with arms around each other 
 they wandered off and talked and talked of the wonder 
 ful fortune that had come to Sacajawea, the wife of a 
 white man. 
 
 A council was immediately called. The Shoshones 
 spread white robes and hung wampum shells of pearl in 
 the hair of the white men. 
 
 " Sacajawea. Bring her hither," called Lewis. 
 
 Tripping lightly into the willow lodge, Sacajawea was 
 beginning to interpret, when lifting her eyes to the chief, 
 she recognised her own brother, Cameahwait. She ran 
 
228 THE CONQUEST 
 
 to his side, threw her blanket over his head, and wept 
 upon his bosom. 
 
 Sacajawea, too, was a Princess, come home now to 
 her Mountain Kingdom. 
 
 XVI 
 IDAHO 
 
 " "V IT TE are going through your country to the far 
 
 ^Vr ocean," said Captain Lewis. " We are mak- 
 * V ing a trail for the traders who will bring you 
 guns." 
 
 1 This delights me," answered Cameahwait, with his 
 fierce eyes, and his lank jaws grown meagre for want of 
 food. : ' We are driven into the mountains, when if we 
 had guns we could meet our enemies in the plains." 
 
 All the Shoshone talk was of war, war, war. Their 
 great terror was the roving Indians of the Saskatchewan, 
 who, with guns from the British traders, came down like 
 wolves on the fold. Only flight and wonderful skill with 
 the bow and arrow saved the Shoshones from destruction. 
 
 Horses were their wealth. " Most of them would make 
 a figure on the south side of James River," said Lewis, 
 " in the land of fine horses. I saw several with Spanish 
 brands upon them." 
 
 Brother to the Comanche, the Shoshone rode his horse 
 over rocks and ravines, up declivitous ways and almost im 
 possible passes. Every warrior had one or two tied to a 
 stake near his willow hut, night and day, ready for action. 
 
 " My horse is my friend. He knows my voice. He 
 hears me speak. He warns me of the enemy." Little 
 children played with them, squaws fed them, braves 
 painted them and decorated their manes and tails with 
 eagle-plumes, insignia of the Rocky Mountain Indian. 
 Such horses were a boon to Lewis and Clark, for they were 
 tractable, sure-footed, inured to the saddle and the pack. 
 
IDAHO 229 
 
 A Shoshone found a tomahawk that Lewis had lost in 
 the grass, and returned it, now a tomahawk was worth 
 a hundred dollars to a Shoshone. They had no knives 
 or hatchets, all their wood was split with a wedge of 
 elkhorn and a mallet of stone. They started their fires 
 by twirling two dry sticks together. 
 
 Through all the valleys the Shoshones sent for their 
 best horses, to trade for knives and tomahawks. De 
 lighted they watched the fall of deer before the guns of 
 white men. The age of stone had met the age of steel. 
 
 How to get over the mountains was the daily consul 
 tation. Cameahwait pointed out an old man that knew 
 the rivers. Clark engaged him for a guide: 
 
 " You shall be called Toby. Be ready to-morrow 
 morning." 
 
 Proud of his new name, old Toby packed up his 
 moccasins. 
 
 The Indians drew maps : " Seven days over sheer 
 mountains. No game, no fish, nothing but roots." 
 
 Captain Clark set out to reconnoitre the Salmon River 
 route. 
 
 " A river of high rocks," said Cameahwait, " all a 
 river of foam. No man or horse can cross. No man 
 can walk along the shore. We never travel that way." 
 Nevertheless Clark went on. 
 
 For seventy miles, " through mountains almost in 
 accessible, and subsisting on berries the greater part of 
 the route," as Clark afterward told . his brother, they 
 pushed their way, then " troubles just begun," re 
 marked old Toby. 
 
 Checking their horses on the edge of a precipice, Clark 
 and his companions looked down on the foaming Snake, 
 roaring and fretting and lashing the walls of its inky 
 canyon a hundred feet below, savage, tremendous, 
 frightful. 
 
 As Cameahwait had said, the way was utterly im 
 practicable. 
 
 " I name this great branch of the Columbia for my 
 comrade, Captain Lewis," said Clark. 
 
 Back from the Snake River, Clark found Lewis buying 
 
230 THE CONQUEST 
 
 horses. The Shoshone women were mending the men's 
 moccasins. The explorers were making pack-saddles of 
 rawhide. For boards they broke up boxes and used the 
 handles of their oars. 
 
 " I have ever held this expedition in equal estimation 
 with my own existence," said Lewis, urging on the prep 
 arations. " If Indians can pass these mountains, we can." 
 
 Haunched around the fires, the forlorn Indians looked 
 and listened and shook their unkempt heads. 
 
 " Me know better route," said the friendly old Sho 
 shone guide. " To the north, another great water to 
 the Columbia." 
 
 "No! no! no!" shouted all the Shoshones. "No 
 trail that way." 
 
 But Clark believed the faithful old Toby. Evidently 
 the Shoshones wished to detain them all winter. 
 
 Unseen by the Indians, at night a cache was dug at the 
 head of the Jefferson, for the last of the heavy luggage, 
 leaving out only Indian gifts and absolute necessities to 
 carry on the pack-horses. The canoes were filled with 
 rocks and sunk to the bottom of the river. 
 
 August 30, the expedition was ready. Before setting 
 out the violins were brought and the men danced, to the 
 great diversion of the Indians. Then, when they turned 
 their faces to the Bitter Root, with the old guide and his 
 four sons, the Shoshones set out east for their annual 
 hunt on the Missouri. 
 
 From May to September the Shoshones lived on salmon 
 that came up the mountain streams. Now that the 
 salmon were gone, necessity compelled them forth. With 
 swift dashes down the Missouri they were wont to kill 
 and dry what buffalo they could, and retreat to consume 
 it in their mountain fastnesses. The whites had surprised 
 them in their very citadel led by Sacajawea. 
 
 Along the difficult Bitter Root Mountains Lewis and 
 Clark journeyed, meeting now and then Indian women 
 digging yamp and pounding sunflower seeds into meal. 
 Food grew scarce and scarcer, now and then a deer, a 
 grouse, or a belated salmon stranded in some mountain 
 pool. Sometimes they had but a bit of parched corn in 
 
IDAHO 231 
 
 their wallets, like the Immortals that marched to the 
 conquest of Illinois. 
 
 But those snowy peaks that from a distance seemed so 
 vast, that like the Alps defied approach to any but a 
 Hannibal or a Napoleon now, as if to meet their con 
 querors, bent low in many a grassy glade. 
 
 In a pocket of the mountains now called Ross' Hole, 
 they came upon a camp of Flatheads, with five hundred 
 horses, on their way to the Missouri for the Fall hunt of 
 buffalo. 
 
 Unknown to them the Flatheads had been watching 
 from the timber and had reported : " Strangers. Two 
 chiefs riding ahead, looking at the country. One warrior 
 painted black. The rest leading packhorses. Keep quiet. 
 Wait. They are coming." 
 
 York's feet had become lame and he was riding with 
 the Captains. 
 
 When the white men came in view the Flatheads looked 
 on their faces. They were shocked at the whiteness. 
 Compassion was in every Indian heart. 
 
 " These men have no blankets. They have been robbed. 
 See how cold their cheeks are. They are chilled. Bring 
 robes. Build fires." 
 
 All the Indians ran for their beautiful white robes, and 
 wrapped them around the shoulders of the white men. 
 Before the blazing fires the white men's cheeks grew red. 
 Perspiration burst from every pore. The robes slipped 
 off, but the solicitous red men kept putting them back and 
 stirring up the fire. 
 
 Then the Captains, touched to the heart, spoke to the 
 kind-hearted Flatheads of a great people toward the 
 rising sun, strong and brave and rich. 
 
 "Have they wigwams and much buffalo?" inquired 
 the Flatheads. 
 
 " Yes. We have been sent by the Great Father, the 
 President, to bring these presents to his children the 
 Flatheads." 
 
 The childlike Flatheads were much impressed. Never 
 did they forget the visit of those first white men. Tradi 
 tions enough to fill a book have been handed down, and to 
 
232 THE CONQUEST 
 
 this day they boast, " the Flathead never killed a white 
 man." 
 
 The whites listened in amaze to the low guttural cluck 
 ing of the Flatheads, resembling that of a chicken or 
 parrot. Voice there was none, only a soft crooning to 
 their gentle chatter, interpreted by Sacajawea and the 
 old Shoshone guide. 
 
 The women crowded around Sacajawea and untied her 
 baby from its elkskin cradle. They fed it and gave it little 
 garments. That baby was an open sesame touching the 
 hearts of all. Sacajawea, riding on her horse to the 
 Columbia, found friends with every tribe. Others might 
 pay ; she, never. The Indian mother-heart opened to Sac 
 ajawea. Her very presence was an assurance of pacific 
 intention. 
 
 The women brought food, roots, and berries. To a late 
 hour the white men continued smoking and conversing 
 with the chiefs, when more robes were brought, and the 
 weary ones slept with their feet to the fire. 
 
 ' Those hongry Injin dorgs ate up me moccasins lasht 
 noight," complained Pat in the morning. " But they 're 
 the whoitest Injins I iver saw." 
 
 More horses were brought and the lame ones ex 
 changed, so now with forty horses and three colts the 
 Captains and their devoted followers struggled on, " Over 
 the warst road I iver saw," said Pat. " Faith ! 't is 
 warse nor the Alleghanies where I rid whin a bye." 
 
 One horse loaded with a desk and small trunk ro! 1 ed 
 down a steep declivity until it was stopped by a tree. The 
 desk was broken. That night they camped at the snow 
 line and more snow began to fall. Wet, cold, hungry, 
 they killed a colt for supper and slept under the stars. 
 
 The horses were failing. Some had to be abandoned. 
 One rolled down a mountain into a creek at the bottom. 
 Some strayed or lost their packs, and the worn-out men, 
 ever on the jump, came toiling through the brush, bearing 
 on their own backs the unwieldy pack-saddles. Up here 
 in the Bitter Root Mountains, the last of Dr. Saugrain's 
 thermometers was broken, which accounts for the fact 
 that from this point on they kept no record of temperature. 
 
IDAHO 233 
 
 September 9 the expedition journeyed down the main 
 Bitter Root valley, named Clark's River, and crossing it 
 came to a large creek and camped a day to rest their 
 horses. 
 
 ''Traveller's Rist, is it?" said Pat. " Me fa-a-ther's 
 inn at Wellsburg was the fir-r-st ' Traveller's Rist ' in 
 all Wistern Varginny," and Traveller's Rest it remained 
 until some later explorer renamed it the Lolo fork of the 
 Bitter Root River. 
 
 Here the boys mended their garments torn and tattered 
 in the mountains, and the hunters went out for game. 
 They returned with three Flatheads. 
 
 "Ay! Ay!" clucked the gentle Flatheads, "the river 
 goes to the great lake. Our relations were there and 
 bought handkerchiefs like these of an old white man that 
 lives by himself." 
 
 Lame and weary, straight across Idaho they struggled, 
 over seams and streaks of precious metal that they saw 
 not, the gold of Ophir concealed in the rocky chambers 
 of the Idaho Alps, struggled into the Lolo trail used 
 by the Indians for ages before any whites ever came into 
 the country. 
 
 Over the Lolo trail went the Nez Perces to battle and to 
 hunt buffalo in the Montana country. Down over this 
 trail once came a war party and captured Wat-ku-ese, a 
 Nez Perce girl, and carried her away to the distant land 
 of white men, so-yap-po, " the crowned ones," she 
 called them, because they wore hats. 
 
 Still ever Wat-ku-ese dreamed of her Nez Perce home 
 and one day escaped with her infant on her back. Along 
 the way white traders were kind to her. On and on, foot 
 sore and weary she journeyed alone. In the Flathead 
 country her baby died and was buried there. One day 
 some Nez Perces came down over the Lolo trail bringing 
 home Wat-ku-ese, weak, sick, dying. 
 
 She was with her people at their camas ground, We- 
 ippe, when Lewis and Clark came down over the Lolo 
 trail. 
 
 " Let us kill them," whispered the frightened Nez 
 Perces. 
 
234 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Wat-ku-ese lay dying in her tent when she heard 
 it. " White men, did you say? No, no, do not harm 
 them. They are the crowned ones who \vere so good to 
 me. Do not be afraid of them. Go near to them." 
 
 Cautiously the Nez Perces approached. The explorers 
 shook their hands. This was to the Indians a new form 
 of greeting. 
 
 Everywhere Indian women were digging the camas 
 root, round like an onion, and little heaps lay piled here 
 and there. They paused in their work to watch the 
 strangers. Some screamed and ran and hid. Little girls 
 hid their baby brothers in the brush. Others brought 
 food. 
 
 So starved and famished were the men that they ate 
 inordinately of the sweet camas and the kouse, the biscuit 
 root. The sudden change to a warmer climate and laxa 
 tive roots resulted in sickness, when the expedition might 
 have been easily attacked but for those words of Wat-ku- 
 ese, who now lay dead in her tent. 
 
 To this day the Nez Perces rehearse the story of Wat- 
 ku-ese. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship 
 with the whites, broken only when Chief Joseph fled over 
 the Lolo trail. But even Chief Joseph found he must give 
 up the vast areas over which he was wont to roam, and 
 come under the laws of civilised life. 
 
 As fast as their weakness permitted councils were 
 held, when the Captains told the Nez Perces of the Great 
 Father at Washington, who had sent them to visit his 
 children. 
 
 Twisted Hair, the Nez Perce Tewat, a great medicine 
 man, dreamer and wizard and wise one, drew on a white 
 elkskin a chart of the rivers. Admiring redmen put 
 their hands over their mouths in amazement. 
 
 No one but Twisted Hair could do such things. He 
 was a learned Indian, knew all the trails, even to the Falls 
 of the Columbia. 
 
 " White men," said he, " live at the Tim-tim [falls]." 
 
 Thus into Idaho had penetrated the story of Ko-na-pe, 
 the wrecked Spaniard, who with his son Soto had set out 
 up the great river to find white people and tarried there 
 
DOWN THE COLUMBIA 235 
 
 until he died. Seven years later Aster's people met Soto, 
 an old man dark as his Indian mother, but still the Indians 
 called him white. Twenty years later Soto's daughter 
 was still living on the Columbia in the days of the Hud 
 son's Bay Company. 
 
 To save time and trouble, canoes were burnt out of logs. 
 Leaving their horses with the Nez Perces, on October 4 
 the explorers were glad to get into their boats with their 
 baggage and float down the clear Kooskooske, into the 
 yellow-green Snake, and on into the blue Columbia. 
 
 At the confluence of the rivers medals were given and 
 councils held on the present site of Lewiston. Day by 
 day through wild, romantic scenes where white man's 
 foot had never trod, the exultant young men were gliding 
 to the sea. 
 
 Ahead of the boats ' on horseback galloped We-ark- 
 koompt, an Indian express. Word flew. The tribes were 
 watching. At the dinner camp, October 16, five Indians 
 came up the river on foot in great haste, took a look and 
 started back, running as fast as they could. 
 
 That night Lewis and Clark were met at the Colum 
 bia by a procession of two hundred Indians with 
 drums, singing, " Ke-hai, ke-hai," the redmen's signal 
 of friendship. 
 
 XVII 
 
 DOWN THE COLUMBIA 
 
 THE arrival at the Columbia was followed by days 
 of councils, with gifts and speeches and smoking. 
 Two Nez Perce chiefs, Twisted Hair the Tewat 
 and Tetoh, introduced the explorers from tribe to tribe, 
 bearing on and on the good words of Wat-ku-ese : "They 
 are crowned ones. Do not be afraid. Go near to them." 
 All the Indian world seemed camped on the Columbia. 
 Everywhere and everywhere were " inconceivable multi- 
 
236 THE CONQUEST 
 
 tudes of salmon." They could be seen twenty feet deep 
 in the water, they lay on the surface, and floated ashore. 
 Hundreds of Indians were splitting and spreading them 
 on scaffolds to dry. The inhabitants ate salmon, slept 
 on salmon, burnt dried salmon to cook salmon. 
 
 With a coal a Yakima chief drew on a robe a map of 
 the river so valuable that Clark afterwards transferred it 
 to paper. That map on the robe was carried home to 
 Jefferson and hung up by him in Monticello. Every trail 
 was marked by moccasin tracks, every village by a clus 
 ter of teepees. 
 
 In the " high countrey " of the Walla Walla they 
 caught sight of " the Mt. Hood of Vancouver," and 
 were eager to reach it. 
 
 "Tarry with us," begged Yellept, the Walla Walla 
 chief. 
 
 " When we return," replied the eager men. Then 
 Clark climbed a cliff two hundred feet above the water 
 and spied St. Helens. Very well Clark remembered Lord 
 St. Helens from whom this peak was named. The very 
 name to him was linked with those old days when " De 
 troit must be taken," for Lord St. Helens and John Jay 
 drew up the treaty that evacuated Detroit. 
 
 Captain Clark and a few of the men still continued in 
 advance walking along the shore. 
 
 Near the beautiful Umatilla a white crane rose over 
 the Columbia. Clark fired. A village of Indians heard 
 the report and marvelled at the sudden descent of the 
 bird. As with outspread, fluttering wings it touched 
 the ground the white men came into view. 
 
 One moment of transfixed horror, and the Indians 
 fled. Captain Clark promptly followed, opened the mat 
 doors of their huts and entered. With bowed heads, 
 weeping and wringing their hands, a crowd of men. 
 women, and children awaited the blow of death. 
 
 Lifting their chins, Clark smiled upon them and offered 
 gifts. Evidently they had not met the Indian express. 
 
 " All tribes know the peace-pipe," he remarked, and 
 drawing forth his pipestone calumet lit it, as was his 
 wont, with a sunglass. 
 
DOWN THE COLUMBIA 237 
 
 As the fire kindled from the rays through the open 
 roof, again the people shrieked. In vain Drouillard tried 
 to pacify them. Not one would touch the pipe lit by the 
 sun. Clark went out and sat on a rock and smoked until 
 the boats arrived. 
 
 " Do not be afraid. Go to them," began the Nez Perce 
 chiefs. 
 
 " They are not men," hurriedly whispered the fright 
 ened Indians. '' We saw them fall from heaven with 
 great thunder. They bring fire from the sky." 
 
 Not until Sacajawea landed with her baby was tran 
 quillity restored. 
 
 " No squaw travels with a war party," that must 
 be admitted, and soon they were smoking with great 
 unanimity. 
 
 " Tim-m-m-m ; tim-m-m-m ! " hummed the Indians 
 at the Falls, at Celilo, poetically imitating the sound of 
 falling waters. 
 
 There was salmon at the Falls of the Columbia, stacks 
 of salmon dried, pounded, packed in baskets, salmon 
 heaped in bales, stored in huts and cached in cellars in 
 the sand. Making a portage around the Falls, the boats 
 slid down. 
 
 " De rapide! de rapide! before we spik some prayer 
 we come on de beeg rock ! " screamed Cruzatte, the 
 bowman. 
 
 Apparently a black wall stretched across the river, but 
 as they neared, a rift appeared where the mighty chan 
 nel of the Columbia narrows to forty-five yards at the 
 Dalles. Crowds of Indians gathered as Clark and Cru 
 zatte stopped to examine the pass. 
 
 " By good steering ! " said Cruzatte. Shaping up his 
 canoe, it darted through the hissing and curling waters 
 like a racehorse. 
 
 Close behind, the other boats shot the boiling caldron, 
 to the great astonishment of Indian villagers watching 
 from above. 
 
 At the Warm Springs Reservation there are Indians 
 yet who remember the old dip-net fishing days and the 
 stories of " Billy Chinook," who then saw York, the 
 
238 THE CONQUEST 
 
 black man. " I was a boy of twelve. When the black 
 man turned and looked at us, we children fled behind the 
 rocks." 
 
 Here at the Dalles were wooden houses, the first that 
 Lewis and Clark had seen since leaving the Illinois coun 
 try, with roofs, doors, and gables like frontier cabins, 
 and still more stacks of salmon. "Ten thousand pounds," 
 said Clark, " dried, baled, and bound for traffic down the 
 river." 
 
 The ancient Indian village of Wishram stands on that 
 spot still, with the same strong smell of salmon. The 
 houses are much the same, and among their treasures 
 may be found a coin of 1801, bartered, no doubt, by 
 Lewis and Clark for a bale of salmon. 
 
 On sped the boats, through mighty mountains, past 
 ancient burial places of the savage dead, to the wild- 
 rushing Cascades. Past these Cascades, five miles of 
 continuous rapids, white with sheets of foam. " We 
 mak' portage," said Cruzatte, his bow grating on the 
 narrow shelf of shore. 
 
 On either side, rocky palisades, " green-mossed and 
 dripping," reached the skies. Tiny waterfalls, leaping 
 from the clouds, fell in rainbow mist a thousand feet 
 below. " Mt. Hood stood white and vast." 
 
 Below the Cascades great numbers of hair-seals slept 
 on the rocks. Swarms of swans, geese, ducks, cranes, 
 storks, white gulls, cormorants, plover swept screaming 
 by. The hills were green, the soft west wind was warm 
 with rain. 
 
 " What a wild delight 
 Of space ! of room ! What a sense of seas ! " 
 
 They had come into a new world, the valley of the 
 lower Columbia, the home of the Chinook wind. 
 
 At Hood River alarmed Indians, dressed in skins of 
 the mountain goat, the Oregon mazama, peered after 
 the passing white men. At every house, and among 
 mouldering remains of ancient tombs, lay scattered in 
 numerable images of wood and stone or of burnt clay, 
 household gods of the Columbian Indian. 
 
DOWN THE COLUMBIA 239 
 
 Flat and flatter grew the heads. Up in the Bitter 
 Root, women alone wore this badge of distinction. Here, 
 every infant lay strapped like a mummy with a padded 
 board across its forehead. 
 
 A new sort of boats now glided alongside the flotilla, 
 great sea canoes manned with Chinook paddles. They 
 were long and light, tapering at the ends, wide in the 
 middle and lifting stern and prow into beaks like a 
 Roman galley. And every canoe was laden with salmon, 
 going down river to trade for beads and wapato. 
 
 Traces of white men began to appear, blue and scar 
 let blankets, brass tea-kettles, and beads. One Indian, 
 with a round hat and a sailor- jacket, wore his hair in a 
 queue in imitation of the " Bostons." 
 
 " I trade with Mr. Haley," said one in good English, 
 showing the bow of iron and other goods that Mr. Haley 
 had given him. " And this is his squaw in the canoe." 
 
 More and more fertile and delightful grew the coun 
 try, shaded by thick groves of tall timber and watered by 
 streams, fair as lay unpeopled Kentucky thirty years be 
 fore. Scarce could Clark repress the recollection of the 
 tales his brother brought home of that first trip to Boons- 
 boro in 1775. 
 
 Nothing surprised them more than the tropic luxuri 
 ance of vegetation. The moist Japan wind nurtured the 
 trees to mammoths, six, eight, and ten feet through. 
 Shrubbery like the hazel grew to be trees. The maple 
 spread its leaves like palm fans ; dogwood of magnolian 
 beauty, wild cherry, crab-apple, interlaced with Oregon 
 grape, blackberries, wild roses, vines of every sort and 
 description, and ferns, ferns, ferns filled the canyons like 
 the jungles of Orinoco. 
 
 On November 4, nearly opposite the present Van 
 couver, they landed at a village on the left side of the 
 river where a fleet of over fifty canoes was drawn up on 
 shore, gathering wapato. 
 
 "Wapato? Wapato?" An Indian treated them to 
 the queen root of the Columbia, round and white, about 
 the size of a small Irish potato. This, baked, was the 
 bread of the Chinook Indian. 
 
240 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " In two days," said Indians in sailor jackets and 
 trousers, shirts, and hats, " in two days, two ships, white 
 people in them." 
 
 " Village there," said an Indian in a magnificent 
 canoe, pointing beyond some islands at the mouth of the 
 Willamette. He was finely dressed and wore a round 
 hat. 
 
 Yes, it might be, villages, villages everywhere, but 
 ships ships below ! They had no time for villages 
 now. Long into the darkness of night the boats sped 
 on, on, past dim forests bending to the wave, past 
 shadowy heights receding into sunset, past campfires on 
 the hills where naked Indians walked between them and 
 the light. 
 
 At a late hour they camped. November rains were 
 setting in, the night was noisy with wild fowl coming 
 up the Columbia to escape the storms of ocean. Trum 
 peter swans blew their shrill clarions, and whistling 
 swans, geese, and other birds in flights of hundreds 
 swept past in noisy serenade, dropping from their wings 
 the spray of the sea. 
 
 None slept. Toward morning the rain began. 
 
 In a wet morning and a rushing wind they bent to the 
 oar, past St. Helens, past Mt. Coffin, past Cathlamet 
 where Queen Sally in scant garments watched from a 
 rock and told the tale in after years. 
 
 " We had been watching for days," she said. " News 
 had come by Indian post of the strangers from the east. 
 They came in the afternoon and were met by our canoes 
 and brought to the village." " There," Clark says in his 
 journals, " we dined on November 26." 
 
 But Lewis and Clark were tired of Indians by this 
 time, and moreover, ships were waiting below ! It was 
 a moment of intense excitement. Even at Cathlamet 
 they heard the surge of ocean rolline on the rocks fortv 
 miles away. Before night the fog lifted and they beheld 
 "the ocean! that ocean, the obiect of all our labours, 
 the reward of all our anxieties. Ocean in view ! O ! the 
 joy." 
 
 Struggling with their unwieldy canoes the landsmen 
 
DOWN THE COLUMBIA 241 
 
 grew seasick in the rising swells of the up-river tide. 
 For miles they could not find a place to camp, so wild 
 and rocky were the shores. 
 
 At last, exhausted, they threw their mats on the beauti 
 ful pebbly beach and slept in the rain. 
 
 Everything was wet, soaked through, bedding, stores, 
 clothing. And all the salt was spoiled. There was noth 
 ing to eat but raw dried salmon, wet with sea water, and 
 many of the men began to be ill from exposure and im 
 proper food. 
 
 " 'T is the divil's own weather," said Pat, coming in 
 from a reconnoitre with his wet hunting shirt glued fast 
 to his skin. Pat could see the " waves loike small moun 
 tains rolling out in the ocean," but just now he, like all 
 the rest, preferred a dry corner by a chimney fire. 
 
 " Une Grande Piqnique ! " exclaimed Cruzatte. 
 
 " Lak' tender de ocean roar ! 
 Blow lak' noting I never see, 
 
 Blow lak' le diable makin' grande tour ! 
 Hear de win' on de beeg pine tree ! " 
 
 And all were hungry. Even Clark, who claimed to 
 be indifferent as to what he ate, caught himself ponder 
 ing on bread and buns. With the peculiar half laugh of 
 the squaw, Sacajawea brought a morsel that she had 
 saved for the child all the way from the Mandan towns, 
 but now it was wet and beginning to sour. Clark took 
 it and remarked in his journal, " This bread I ate with 
 great satisfaction, it being the only mouthful I had tasted 
 for several months." 
 
 Chinook Indians pilfered around the camp. " If any 
 one of your nation steals anything from us, I will have 
 you shot," said Captain Clark, "which thev understand 
 very well," he remarked to the camp as the troublers 
 slunk away. A sentinel stood on constant watch. 
 
 Captain Lewis and eleven of the men went around the 
 bay and found where white people had been camped all 
 summer, but naught remained save the cold white beach 
 and the Indians camping there. The ships had sailed. 
 
 Down there near the Chinook town, facing the ocean. 
 
 16 
 
242 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Captain Lewis branded a tree with his name and the 
 date, and a few days later Captain Clark says, " I marked 
 my name on a large pine tree immediately on the isthmus, 
 at Clatsop." 
 
 It was two hundred years since Captain John Smith 
 sailed up the Chickahominy in Virginia in search of the 
 South Sea. At last, far beyond the Chickahominy, Lewis 
 and Clark sailed up the Missouri and down the Columbia 
 in search of the same South Sea. And here at the mouth 
 of the Oregon they found it, stretching away to China. 
 
 Balboa, Magellan, Cortez, Mackenzie, Lewis and 
 Clark had joined the immortals. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 FORT CLATSOP BY THE SEA 
 
 DECEMBER had now arrived, and southwest 
 storms broke upon the coast with tremendous 
 force. Off Cape Disappointment, the surges 
 dashed to the height of the masthead of a ship, with 
 most terrific roaring. A winter encampment could no 
 longer be delayed. 
 
 " Deer, elk, good skin, good meat," said the Chinook 
 Indians, in pantomime, pointing across the bay to the 
 south. 
 
 Accordingly, thither the eggshell boats were guided, 
 across the tempestuous Columbia, to the little river 
 Netul, now the Lewis and Clark, ten miles from the 
 ocean. 
 
 Beside a spring branch, in a thick grove of lofty firs 
 about two hundred yards from the water, the leather 
 tent was set up and big fires built, while all hands fell 
 to clearing a space for the winter cabins. 
 
 In four days the logs were rolled up, Boonsboro 
 fashion, into shelters for the winter. " The foinest 
 puncheons I iver saw," said Patrick Gass, head carpen- 
 
FORT CLATSOP BY THE SEA 243 
 
 ter, as he set to splitting boards out of the surrounding 
 firs. 
 
 By Christmas seven cabins were covered and the floors 
 laid. The chinks were filled with clay, and fir-log fires 
 were set roaring in the capacious chimneys that filled an 
 entire end of each cabin. On Christmas day they moved 
 in, wet blankets and all, with rounds of firearms and 
 Christmas salutes. 
 
 The leather tent, soaked for days, fell to pieces. The 
 heavy canisters of powder, every one of which had been 
 under the water in many a recent capsize, were con 
 signed in safety to the powder-house. 
 
 On New Year's Eve the palisades were done, and the 
 gates were closed at sunset. 
 
 The first winter-home of civilised people on the Co 
 lumbia has an abiding charm, not unlike that of Plymouth 
 or Jamestown. 
 
 Back through the mists of one hundred years we see 
 gangs of elk, chased by hunters through cranberry bogs, 
 " that shook for the space of half an acre." 
 
 Their soundless footfalls were lost in beds of brown 
 pine needles and cushions of moss. The firing of guns 
 reverberated through the dim gloom like a piece of 
 ordnance. 
 
 It was from such a trip as this that the hunters re 
 turned on the 1 6th of December, reporting elk. All 
 hands set to work carrying up the meat from the loaded 
 boats, skinning and cutting and hanging it up in small 
 pieces in the meathouse, to be smoked by a slow bark 
 fire. But in spite of every precaution, the meat began 
 to spoil. 
 
 :< We must have salt," said Captain Lewis. 
 
 In a few days, five men were dispatched with five 
 kettles to build a cairn for the manufacture of salt from 
 seawater. 
 
 Already Clark had examined the coast with this in 
 view, and the salt-makers' camp was established near 
 Tillamook Head, about fifteen miles southwest of the 
 fort where the old cairn stands to this day. Here the 
 men built " a neat, close camp, convenient to wood, salt 
 
244 THE CONQUEST 
 
 water and the fresh waters of the Clatsop River, within 
 a hundred paces of the ocean," and kept the kettles boiling 
 day and night. 
 
 On that trip to the coast, while the cabins were build 
 ing, Captain Clark visited the Clatsops, and purchased 
 some rude household furniture, cranberries, mats, and 
 the skin of a panther, seven feet from tip to tip, to cover 
 their puncheon floor. 
 
 Other utensils were easily fashioned. Seated on 
 puncheon stools, before the log-fire of the winter night, 
 the men carved cedar cups, spoons, plates, and dreamed 
 of homes across the continent. 
 
 In just such a little log cabin as this, Shannon saw 
 his mother in Ohio woods ; Patrick Gass pictured his 
 father, with his pipe, at Wellsburg, West Virginia; 
 Sergeant Ordway crossed again the familiar threshold 
 at Hebron, New Hampshire. Clark recalled Mulberry 
 Hill, and Lewis, his mind was fixed on Charlottes- 
 ville, or the walls expanded into Monticello and the 
 White House. 
 
 " Mak' some pleasurement now," begged the French 
 men, " w'en Bonhomme Cruzatte tune up hees fidelle 
 for de dance." 
 
 Tales were told and plans were made. Toward mid 
 night these Sinbads of the forest fell asleep, on their 
 beds of fir boughs, lulled by the brook, the whispering 
 of the pines, and the falling of the winter rain. 
 
 This was not like winter rain in eastern climates, but 
 soft and warm as April. The grass grew green, Spring 
 flowers opened in December. The moist Japan wind 
 gives Oregon the temperature of England. 
 
 " I most sincerely regret the loss of my thermometer," 
 said Lewis. " I am confident this climate is much milder 
 than the same latitude on the Atlantic. I never experi 
 enced so warm a winter." 
 
 But about the last of Januarv there came a snow at 
 Clatsop, four inches thick, and icicles hung from the 
 houses during the day. 
 
 " A real touch of winter," said Lewis. " The breath 
 is perceptible in our room by the fire." Like all Ore- 
 
FORT CLATSOP BY THE SEA 245 
 
 gon snow it disappeared in a week and then it was 
 Spring. 
 
 In the centre of the officer's cabin, a fir stump, sawed 
 off smooth and flat for a table, was covered with maps 
 and papers. Books were written in that winter of 1805-6, 
 voluminous records of Oregon plants and trees, birds, 
 beasts, and fishes. They had named rivers and measured 
 mountains, and after wandering more than Homer's 
 heroes, the explorers were ready now to carry a new 
 geography to the States. And here, as everywhere, 
 Lewis was busy with his vocabularies, learning the Chi 
 nook jargon. 
 
 As never before, all the men became scientists. Even 
 Captain Clark's black man took an interest and reported 
 some fabulous finds. 
 
 The houses were dry and comfortable, and within, 
 they had a plentiful supply of elk and salt, " excellent, 
 white, and fine, but not so strong as the rock salt, or that 
 made in Kentucky." 
 
 Meal time was always interesting. Very often the 
 Captains caught themselves asking : " Charboneau, when 
 will dinner be ready? " 
 
 All day the firelight flickered on Sacajawea's hair, as 
 she sat making moccasins, crooning a song in her soft 
 Indian monotone. This was, perhaps, the happiest winter 
 Sacajawea ever knew, with baby Touissant toddling 
 around her on the puncheon floor, pulling her shawl 
 around his chubby face, or tumbling over his own cradle. 
 The modest Shoshone princess never dreamed how the 
 presence of her child and herself gave a touch of domes 
 ticity to that Oregon winter. 
 
 Now and then Indian women came to see Sacajawea, sit 
 ting all day without a word, watching her every motion. 
 
 Sometimes Sacajawea helped Charboneau, with his 
 spits, turning slowly before the fire, or with his elk's 
 tongues or sausage or beaver's tails. Sometimes she 
 made trapper's butter, boiling up the marrow of the shank 
 bones with a sprinkle of salt. 
 
 In the short days darkness came on at four o'clock, 
 and the last of the candles were soon exhausted. Then 
 
246 THE CONQUEST 
 
 the moulds were brought and candles were made of elk 
 tallow, until a heap, shining and white, were ready for 
 the winter evenings. 
 
 " We have had trouble enough with those thieving 
 Chinooks," said Captain Lewis. " Without a special 
 permit, they are to be excluded from the fort." 
 
 The Indians heard it. Did a knock resound at the 
 gate, " No Chinook ! " was the quick accompaniment. 
 
 " Who, then ? " demanded the sentinel, gun in hand. 
 
 " Clatsop," answered Coboway's people entering with 
 roots and cranberries. 
 
 Or, " Cathlamets," answered an up-river tribe with 
 rush bags of wapato on their backs. Roots of the edible 
 thistle white and crisp as a carrot, sweet as sugar, 
 the roasted root of the fern, resembling the dough of 
 wheat, and roots of licorice, varied the monotonous fare. 
 
 These supplies were very welcome, but the purchase 
 money, that was the problem. 
 
 President Jefferson had given to Captain Lewis an un 
 limited letter of credit on the United States, but such a 
 letter would not buy from these Indians even a bushel 
 of wapato. 
 
 The Cathlamets would trade for fishhooks. The Clat- 
 sops preferred beads, knives, or an old file. 
 
 No wonder they valued an old file: the finest work of 
 their beautiful canoes was often done with a chisel fash 
 ioned from an old file. Lewis and Clark had frequent 
 occasion to admire their skill in managing these little 
 boats, often out-riding the waves in the most tumultu 
 ous seas. 
 
 Ashore, these canoe-Indians waddled and rolled like 
 tipsy sailors. Afloat, straight and trim as horse-Indians 
 of the prairie, each deft Chinook glided to his seat along 
 the unrocking boats, and striking up the paddlers' " Ho- 
 ha-ho-ha-ho-ha- " went rowing all their lives, until their 
 arms grew long and strong, their legs shrunk short and 
 crooked, and their heads became abnormally intelligent. 
 
 Nor were these coast Indians lacking in courage, 
 they sometimes ventured into the sea in their wonderful 
 canoes, and harpooned the great whale and towed him in. 
 
FORT CLATSOP BY THE SEA 247 
 
 When it came to prices for their beautiful skins of sea- 
 otter, almost nothing would do. Clark offered a watch, 
 a handkerchief, an American dollar, and a bunch of red 
 beads for a single skin. 
 
 " No ! No ! " in stentorian tone " Tyee ka-mo-suck , 
 chief beads," the most common sort of large blue 
 glass beads, the precious money of that country. Chiefs 
 hung them on their bosoms, squaws bound them on their 
 ankles, pretty maidens hung them in their hair. But 
 Lewis and Clark had only a few and must reserve them 
 for most pressing necessity. 
 
 Since that May morning when Captain Robert Gray 
 discovered the Columbia River, fourteen years before, 
 the Chinook Indians had learned the value of furs. 
 Once they handed over their skins, and took without a 
 murmur what the Boston skippers chose to give. Now, 
 a hundred ships upon that shore had taught them craft. 
 
 One of old King Comcomly's people had a robe of sea- 
 otter, " the fur of which was the most beautiful we had 
 ever seen." In vain Lewis offered everything he had, 
 nothing would purchase the treasured cloak but the belt 
 of blue beads worn by Sacajawea. 
 
 On every hand among these coast tribes were blankets, 
 sailor-clothes, guns, old Revolutionary muskets mended 
 for this trade, powder and ball, the powder in little 
 japanned tin flasks in which the traders sold it. 
 
 In what Clark calls " a guggling kind of language 
 spoken mostly through the throat," with much panto 
 mime and some English, conversation was carried on. 
 
 " Who are these traders? " asked Captain Lewis. 
 
 Old Comcomly, King of the Chinooks, on the north 
 side, and Tyee Coboway, Chief of the Clatsops, on the 
 south bank of the Columbia, tried to remember, and 
 counted on their fingers, 
 
 " Haley, three masts, stays some time," " Tallamon 
 not a trader," " Callalamet has a wooden leg," " David 
 son, no trader, hunts elk," " Skelley, long time ago, only 
 one eye." 
 
 And then there were " Youens, Swipton, Mackey, 
 Washington, Mesship, Jackson, Balch," all traders with 
 
248 THE CONQUEST 
 
 three-masted ships whose names are not identified by 
 any Atlantic list. 
 
 The one translated Washington by Lewis and Clark 
 may have been Ockington of the Belle Savage, 1801, or 
 Tawnington, both of whom are known to have been on 
 the coast in those years. 
 
 In fact, no complete record was ever kept of the ships 
 that swarmed around the Horn and up the Pacific, in 
 those infant years; of our republic, 1787 to 1820. While 
 Europe clustered around the theatre of Napoleonic wars, 
 every harbour of New England had its fur ships and 
 whalers out, flying the Stars and Stripes around the 
 world. 
 
 " What do they say?" inquired Lewis, still pressing 
 investigation. Proud of their acquirements, every Chi 
 nook and Clatsop in the nation could recall some word 
 or phrase. 
 
 " Musket, powder, shot, knife, file, heave the lead, 
 damned rascal ! " 
 
 No wonder Lewis and Clark laughed, these mother 
 words on the savage tongue were like voices out of the 
 very deep, calling from the ships. 
 
 " One hyas tyee ship great chief ship Moore, four 
 masts, three cows on board." 
 
 " Which way did he go?" 
 
 The Indians pantomimed along the northwest coast. 
 
 " From which," says Lewis, " I infer there must be 
 settlements in that direction." 
 
 The great desire, almost necessity, now, seemed to be 
 to wait until some ship appeared upon the shore from 
 which to replenish their almost exhausted stores. 
 
 Whenever the boats went in and out of Meriwether 
 Bay they passed the Memeloose Illahee, the dead country 
 of the Clatsops. Before 1800, as near as Lewis and 
 Clark could ascertain, several hundred of the Clatsops 
 died suddenly of a disease that appeared to be smallpox, 
 the same undoubtedly that cut down Black Bird and his 
 Omahas, rolling on west and north where the Hudson's 
 Bay traders traced it to the borders of the Arctic. 
 
 In Haley's Bay one hundred canoes in one place be- 
 
A WHALE ASHORE 249 
 
 spoke the decimation of the Chinooks, all slumbering 
 now in that almost priceless carved coffin, the Chinook 
 canoe, with gifts around them and feet to the sunset, 
 ready to drift on an unknown voyage. 
 
 There was a time when Indian campfires stretched 
 from Walla Walla to the sea, when fortifications were 
 erected, and when Indian flint factories supplied the 
 weapons of countless warriors. But they are gone. The 
 first settlers found sloughs and bayous lined with burial 
 canoes, until the dead were more than the living. No 
 Indians knew whose bones they were, " those old, old, 
 old people." Red children and white tumbled them out 
 of the cedar coffins and carried away the dead men's 
 treasures. 
 
 ' There was mourning along the rivers. A quietness 
 came over the land." Stone hammers, flint chips, and 
 arrows lie under the forests, and embers of fires two cen 
 turies old. 
 
 The native tribes were disappearing before the white 
 man came, and the destruction of property with the dead 
 kept the survivors always impoverished. 
 
 XIX 
 
 A WHALE ASHORE 
 
 " 4 WHALE ! a whale ashore ! " 
 
 h-\ When Chief Coboway brought word there 
 -* -*-was great excitement at Fort Clatsop. Every 
 body wanted to see the whale, but few could go. Captain 
 Clark appointed twelve men to be ready at daylight. 
 
 Sacajawea, in the privacy of her own room that Sunday 
 evening, spoke to Charboneau. Now Charboneau wanted 
 her to stay and attend to the " 1'Apalois " roasting 
 meats on a stick, and knowing that the child would 
 have to be looked after, slipped over to the Captains, 
 discussing by the fire. 
 
250 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Sacajawea t'ink she want to see de whale. She ought 
 not go." 
 
 " Very well," answered the Captains, scarce heeding. 
 " She better stay at the fort. It would be a hard jaunt 
 for a woman to go over Tillamook Head." 
 
 Charboneau went back. " De Captinne say you cannot 
 go!" 
 
 This was a staggering blow to Sacajawea, but her 
 woman's determination had become aroused and she took 
 the rostrum, so to speak. Leaving the baby Touissant 
 with his father, she in turn slipped over to the Captains. 
 
 Sacajawea was a born linguist. " Captinne, you re 
 member w'en we reach de rivers and you knew not which 
 to follow ? I show de country an' point de stream. Again 
 w'en my husband could not spik, I spik for you. 
 
 " Now, Captinne, I travel great way to see de Beeg 
 Water. I climb de mountain an' help de boat on de 
 rapide. An' now dis monstous fish haf come " - Saca 
 jawea could scarce restrain her tears. Sacajawea was 
 only a woman, and a brave little woman at that. 
 
 Captain Lewis was moved. " Sacajawea, you are one 
 of those who are born not to die. Of course you can go. 
 Go and be getting ready, and," he added, " if Charboneau 
 wants to go too, he will have to carry the baby ! " 
 
 They breakfasted by candle-light. Everybody was 
 ready next morning, but Sacajawea was ahead of them 
 all. Charboneau looked at her out of the corner of his 
 eye, but said nothing. More than once the Captains had 
 reminded him of his duty. 
 
 The sun rose clear and cloudless on a land of spring 
 time, and yet it was only January. Robins sang around 
 the stockade, bluebirds whizzed by, silver in the sunlight. 
 Two canoes proceeded down the Netul into Meriwether 
 Bay, on the way to the Clatsop town. 
 
 After a day's adventure, they camped near a herd of 
 elk in the beautiful moonlight. At noon, next day, they 
 reached the salt-makers. Here Jo Fields, Bratton, and 
 Gibson had their brass kettles under a rock arch, boiling 
 and boiling seawater into a gallon of salt a day. 
 
 Hiring Twiltch, a young Indian, for guide, they 
 
A WHALE ASHORE 251 
 
 climbed Tillamook Head, about thirty miles south of 
 Cape Disappointment. Upon this promontory, Clark's 
 Point of View, they paused before the boisterous Pacific, 
 breaking with fury and flinging its waves above the 
 Rock of Tillamook. 
 
 On one side the blue Columbia widened into bays 
 studded with Chinook and Clatsop villages ; on the other 
 stretched rich prairies, enlivened by beautiful streams 
 and lakes at the foot of the hills. Behind, in serried rank, 
 the Douglas spruce " the tree of Turner's dreams," 
 the king of conifers, stood monarch of the hills. Two 
 hundred, three hundred feet in air they towered, a hun 
 dred feet without a limb, so dense that not a ray of sun 
 could reach the ground beneath. 
 
 Sacajawea, save Pocahontas the most travelled Indian 
 Princess in our history, spoke not a word, but looked with 
 calm and shining eye upon the fruition of her hopes. 
 Now she could go back to the Mandan towns and speak 
 of things that Madame Jussaume had never seen, and of 
 the Big Water beyond the Shining Mountains. 
 
 Down the steep and ragged rocks that overhung the 
 sea, they clambered to a Tillamook village, where lay the 
 great whale, stranded on the shore. Nothing was left 
 but a skeleton, for from every Indian village within trav 
 elling distance, men and women were working like bees 
 upon the huge carcass. Then home they went, trailing 
 over the mountains, every squaw with a load of whale 
 blubber on her back, to be for many a month the dainty 
 of an Indian lodge. 
 
 These Indian lodges or houses were a source of great 
 interest to Lewis and Clark. Sunk four feet into the 
 ground and rising well above, like an out-door cellar, they 
 were covered with ridgepoles and low sloping roofs. The 
 sides were boarded with puncheons of cedar, laboriously 
 split with elkhorn wedges and stone hammers. 
 
 A door in the gable admitted to this half-underground 
 home by means of a ladder. Around the inner walls, 
 beds of mats were raised on scaffolds two or three feet 
 high, and under the beds were deposited winter stores of 
 dried berries, roots, nuts, and fish. 
 
252 THE CONQUEST 
 
 In the centre of each house a fireplace, six or eight feet 
 long, was sunk in the floor, and surrounded by a cedar 
 fender and mats for the family to sit on. The walls, 
 lined with mats and cedar bark, formed a very effective 
 shelter. 
 
 Did some poor stranded mariner teach the savage this 
 semi-civilised architecture, or was it evolved by his own 
 genius? However this may be, these houses were found 
 from Yaquina Bay to Yakutat. 
 
 In such a house as this Captain Clark visited Coboway, 
 chief of the Clatsops, in his village on the sunny side of a 
 hill. As soon as he entered, clean mats were spread. 
 Cobo way's wife, Tse-salks, a Tillamook Princess, brought 
 berries and roots and fish on neat platters of rushes. 
 Syrup of sallal berries was served in bowls of horn and 
 meat in wooden trenchers. 
 
 Naturally, Sacajawea was interested in domestic uten 
 sils, wooden bowls, spoons of horn, skewers and spits 
 for roasting meat, and beautifully woven water-tight 
 baskets. 
 
 Every squaw habitually carried a knife, fastened to the 
 thumb by a loop of twine, to be hid under the robe when 
 visitors came. These knives, bought of the traders, were 
 invaluable to the Indian mother. With it she dug roots, 
 cut wood, meat, or fish, split rushes for her flag mats and 
 baskets, and fashioned skins for dresses and moccasins. 
 Ever busy they were, the most patient, devoted women 
 in the world. 
 
 Sacajawea, with her beautiful dress and a husband 
 who sometimes carried the baby, was a new sort of mortal 
 on this Pacific coast. 
 
 While they were conversing, a flock of ducks lit on the 
 water. Clark took his rifle and shot the head off one. 
 
 The astonished Indians brought the bird and marvelled. 
 Their own poor flintlocks, loaded with bits of gravel when 
 shot failed, often would not go off in cold weather, but 
 here was " very great medicine." They examined the 
 duck, the musket, and the small bullets, a hundred to the 
 pound. 
 
 " Kloshe musquet ! wake ! kum-tux musquet ! A very 
 
A WHALE ASHORE 253 
 
 good musquet! No! do not understand this kind of 
 musquet ! " 
 
 Thus early is it a historical fact that the Chinook 
 jargon was already established on the Pacific coast. This 
 jargon, a polyglot of traders' tongues, like the old Lingua 
 Franca of the Mediterranean, is used by the coast Indians 
 to this day from the Columbia River to Point Barrow on 
 the Arctic. And for its birth we may thank the Boston 
 traders. 
 
 Chinooks, Clatsops, Tillamooks faced that stormy beach 
 and lived on winter stores of roots, berries, fish, and dried 
 meat. Their beautiful elastic bows of white cedar were 
 seldom adequate to kill the great elk, so when the rush 
 bags under the beds were empty, they watched for fish 
 thrown up by the waves. 
 
 " Sturgeon is very good," said a Clatsop in English, 
 peering and prying along the hollows of the beach. But 
 the great whale, Ecola, that was a godsend to the poor 
 people. Upon it now they might live until the salmon 
 came, flooding the country with plenty. 
 
 Old Chief Coboway of the Clatsops watched those 
 shores for sixty years. He did not tell this story to 
 Lewis and Clark, but he told it to his children, and so it 
 belongs here. 
 
 " An old woman came crying to the Clatsop village : 
 ' Something on the shore ! Behold, it is no whale ! Two 
 spruce trees stand upright on it. Ropes are tied to those 
 spruce trees. Behold bears came out of it ! ' Then all 
 the people ran. Behold the bears had built a fire of drift 
 wood on the shore. They were popping corn. They held 
 copper kettles in their hands. They had lids. The bears 
 pointed inland and asked for water. Then two people 
 took the kettles and ran inland. They hid. Some climbed 
 up into the thing. They went down into the ship. It was 
 full of boxes. They found brass buttons in a string half 
 a fathom long. They went out. They set fire. The ship 
 burned. It burned like fat. Then the Clatsops gathered 
 the iron, the copper, and the brass. Then were the Clat 
 sops rich." 
 
 One of these men was Ko-na-pe. He and his com- 
 
254 THE CONQUEST 
 
 panion were held as slaves. Ko-na-pe was a worker in 
 iron and could fashion knives and hatchets. From that 
 time the Clatsops had knives. He was too great to be 
 held as a slave, so the Clatsops gave him and his friend 
 their liberty. They built a cabin at a place now known as 
 New Astoria, but the Indians called it " Ko-na-pe," and 
 it was known by that name long after the country was 
 settled by the whites. 
 
 February had now arrived. For weeks every man not 
 a hunter stood over the kettles with his deer-skin sleeves 
 rolled up, working away at elkskins, rubbing, dipping, 
 and wringing. Then again they went back into the suds 
 for another rubbing and working, and then the beautiful 
 skin, hung up to smoke and dry, came out soft and 
 pliable. 
 
 Shields, the skilful, cut out the garments with a butcher 
 knife, and all set to work with awls for needles and deer 
 sinews for thread. 
 
 For weeks this leather-dressing and sewing had been 
 going on, some using the handy little "housewives" given 
 by Dolly Madison and the ladies of the White House, 
 until Captain Lewis records, " the men are better fitted 
 with clothing and moccasins than they have been since 
 starting on this voyage." 
 
 . Captain Lewis and Captain Clark had each a large coat 
 finished of the skin of the " tiger cat," of which it " took 
 seven robes to make a coat." 
 
 With beads and old razors, Captain Lewis bought 
 high-crowned Chinook hats, of white cedar-bark and bear- 
 grass, woven European fashion by the nimble fingers of 
 the Clatsop girls, fine as Leghorn and water-tight. 
 
 Patrick Gass counted up the moccasins and found three 
 hundred and fifty-eight pairs, besides a good stock of 
 dressed elkskins for tents and bedding. " And I compute 
 131 elk and 20 deer shot in this neighbourhood during the 
 winter/' he added. 
 
 But now the elk were going to the mountains, game 
 was practically unobtainable. Now and then Drouillard 
 snared a fine fat beaver or an otter in his traps ; sometimes 
 the Indians came over with sturgeon, fresh anchovies, or 
 
A WHALE ASHORE 255 
 
 a bag of wapato, but even this supply was precarious and 
 uncertain. 
 
 February n, Captain Clark completed a map of the 
 country, including rivers and mountains from Fort Man- 
 dan to Clatsop, dotting in cross-cuts for the home journey, 
 the feat of a born geographer. 
 
 February 21 the saltmakers returned, with twelve gal 
 lons of salt sealed up to last to the cache on the Jefferson. 
 
 While Shields refitted the guns, others opened and 
 examined the precious powder. Thirty-five canisters 
 remained, and yet, banged as they had been over many a 
 mountain pass, and sunk in many a stream, all but five 
 were found intact as when they were sealed at Pittsburg. 
 Three were bruised and cracked, one had been pierced 
 by a nail, one had not been properly sealed, but by care 
 the men could dry them out and save the whole. 
 
 The greatest necessity now was a boat. A long, slim 
 Chinook canoe made out of a single tree of fir or cedar 
 was beyond price. Preliminary dickers were tried with 
 Chinooks and Clatsops. Finally Drouillard went up to 
 Cathlamet. 
 
 Of all the trinkets that Drouillard could muster, nothing 
 short of Captain Lewis's laced uniform coat could induce 
 Queen Sally's people to part with a treasured canoe. 
 And here it was. Misfortune had become a joke. 
 
 ; ' Well, now, the United States owes me a coat," 
 laughed Lewis, as he found his last civilised garment 
 gone to the savages. 
 
 " Six blue robes, one of scarlet, five made out of the old 
 United States' flag that had floated over many a council, 
 a few old clothes, Clark's uniform coat and hat and a few 
 little trinkets that might be tied in a couple of handker 
 chiefs," this was the reserve fund to carry them two 
 thousand miles to St. Louis. 
 
 But each stout-hearted explorer had his gun and plenty 
 of powder that was wealth. 
 
 " Now, in case we never reach the United States," said 
 Lewis, " what then ? " 
 
 " We must leave a Memorial," answered Clark. And 
 so the Captains prepared this document : 
 
256 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " The object of this list is, that through the medium of 
 some civilised person, who may see the same, it may be made 
 known to the world, that the party consisting of the persons 
 whose names are hereunto annexed, and who were sent out 
 by the Government of the United States to explore the in 
 terior of the continent of North America, did penetrate the 
 same by the way of the Missouri and Columbia rivers, to the 
 discharge of the latter into the Pacific ocean, where they ar 
 rived on the I4th day of November, 1805, and departed the 
 2$d day of March, 1806, on their return to the United States 
 by the same route by which they had come out!' 
 
 To this document every man signed his name, and 
 copies were given to the various chiefs. One was posted 
 at Fort Clatsop to be given to any trader that might arrive 
 in the river, and thus, in case of their death, some account 
 of their exploration might be saved to the world. On the 
 back of some of the papers Clark sketched the route. 
 
 At last only one day's food remained. Necessity com 
 pelled removal. In vain their eyes were strained toward 
 the sea. Never were Lewis and Clark destined to see a 
 summer day on the Columbia, when sails of ships flapped 
 listlessly against the masts, and vessels heaved reluctantly 
 on the sluggish waters, rolling in long swells on Clatsop 
 beach. 
 
 On Sunday, March 23, 1806, the boats were loaded and 
 all was ready. Chief Coboway came over at noon to bid 
 them good bye. 
 
 In gratitude for many favours during the past winter, 
 Lewis and Clark presented their houses and furniture to 
 the kind-hearted old chief. 
 
 Chief Coboway made Fort Clatsop his winter home 
 during the remainder of his life. Years passed. The 
 stockade fell down, young trees grew up through the 
 cabins, but the spring is there still, gushing forth its 
 waters, cool as in the adventurous days of one hundred 
 years ago. 
 
A RACE FOR EMPIRE 257 
 
 XX 
 
 A RACE FOR EMPIRE 
 
 IN this very December of 1805 while Lewis and Clark 
 were struggling with the storms of ocean at the mouth 
 of the Columbia, a thousand miles to the north of 
 them the indefatigable and indomitable Simon Fraser 
 was also building a fort, among the lochs and bens of 
 New Caledonia, the British Columbia of to-day. 
 
 On the very day that Lewis and Clark left Fort Man- 
 dan, Simon Fraser and his men had faced toward the 
 Rockies. While Lewis and Clark were exploring the 
 Missouri, Fraser and his voyageurs were pulling for 
 dear life up the Saskatchewan and over to Athabasca. 
 On the very day that Lewis and Clark moved into Fort 
 Clatsop, Simon Fraser, at the Rocky Mountain Portage, 
 had men busily gathering stones " to get a chimney built 
 for his bedroom." The icy northern winter came down, 
 but in January mortar was made to plaster his trading 
 fort, the Rocky Mountain Portage at the Peace River 
 Pass. 
 
 All that Arctic winter he traded with the natives, killed 
 deer and moose, and made pemmican for an expedition 
 still farther to the west. 
 
 All through the stormy, icy April, building his boats 
 and pounding his pemmican, Fraser stamped and stormed 
 and swore because the snows refused to melt because 
 the rivers yet were blocked with ice. 
 
 The boats were at the door, the bales of goods were 
 tied, when the ice began to break in May. 
 
 The moment the river was clear all hands were roused 
 at daybreak. Simon Fraser turned the Rocky Mountain 
 Portage over to McGillivray, who had arrived on snow 
 shoes, and pressed on west, discovering McLeod Lake 
 and building Fort McLeod upon its shores. Then he 
 portaged over to the Fraser, which he believed to be the 
 
 17 
 
258 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Columbia, and going up the Stuart branch built Fort 
 St. James on Stuart Lake. During the winter and sum 
 mer, after Lewis and Clark reached home, he built Fort 
 Fraser on Fraser Lake, and Fort George upon the Fraser 
 River, still thinking it was the Columbia. 
 
 " Now will I reach the mouth of this Columbia," said 
 Fraser in the Spring of 1808, launching his boat, the Per 
 severance, upon the wildest water of the North. 
 
 " You cannot pass," said the Indians, and they waved 
 and whirled their arms to indicate the mad tumultuous 
 swirling of the waters. 
 
 " Whatever the obstacle," said Simon Fraser, " I shall 
 follow this river to the end," and down he went for days 
 and days through turbulent gulfs and whirlpools, past 
 rocks and rapids and eddies, under frowning, overhang 
 ing precipices in the high water of May. 
 
 The Indians spoke of white people. 
 
 " It must be Lewis and Clark," groaned Fraser, re 
 doubling his effort to win another empire for his king. 
 
 Daily, hourly, risking their lives, at every step in the 
 Mountains the Indians said, "You can go no further." 
 
 But the sturdy Scotchmen gripped their oars and set 
 their teeth, turning, doubling, twisting, shooting past 
 rocky points that menaced death, portaging, lifting 
 canoes by sheer grit and resolution up almost impass 
 able rockways, over cliffs almost without a foothold and 
 down into the wave again. So ran the Northwesters 
 down the wild river to the sea, and camped near the 
 present site of New Westminster. And lo! it was not 
 the Columbia. 
 
 Back came Simon Fraser to Fort William on Lake 
 Superior to report what he had done, and they crowned 
 his brow with the name of his own great river, the 
 Fraser. 
 
 Travellers look down the frowning Fraser gorge to 
 day, and little realise why Simon Fraser made that dar 
 ing journey. 
 
"A SHIP! A SHIP!" 259 
 
 XXI 
 
 "A SHIP! A SHIP!" 
 
 WHILE Lewis and Clark were making prepara 
 tions to leave Fort Clatsop, all unknown to 
 them a ship was trying to cross the bar into 
 the Columbia River. And what a tale had she to tell, 
 of hunger, misery, despair, and death at Sitka. 
 
 Since 1787 the Boston ships had been trading along 
 these shores. In that year 1792, when Captain Robert 
 Gray discovered the Columbia River, there were already 
 twenty-one American ships in the Pacific northwest. 
 
 In May, 1799, the Boston brig Caroline, Captain Cleve 
 land, was buying furs in Sitka Sound, when coasting 
 along over from the north came the greatest of all the 
 "Russians, Alexander von Baranof, with two ships and a 
 fleet of bidarkas. 
 
 " What now will you have?" demanded the Sitka 
 chief, as the expedition entered the basin of Sitka Sound. 
 
 " A place to build a fort and establish a settlement for 
 trade," answered Baranof. 
 
 " A Boston ship is anchored below and buying many 
 skins/' answered the chief. But presents were distrib 
 uted, a trade was made, and Russian axes began felling 
 the virgin forest on the sides of Verstova. 
 
 The next day Captain Cleveland visited Baranof at his 
 fort building. 
 
 "Savages!" echoed Captain Cleveland to Baranof s 
 comment on the natives. " I should say so. I have but 
 ten men before the mast, but on account of the fierce 
 character of these Indians I have placed a screen of hides 
 around the ship, that they may not see the deck nor know 
 how few men I have. Two pieces of cannon are in posi 
 tion and a pair of blunderbusses on the tafrrail." 
 
 But the land was rich in furs. It was this that 
 brought Baranof over from Kadiak. 
 
260 THE CONQUEST 
 
 In three years Sitka was a strong fort, but in June, 
 1802, in the absence of Baranof, it was attacked one 
 day by a thousand Indians armed with muskets bought 
 of the Boston traders. 
 
 In a few hours the fort, a new ship in the harbour, 
 warehouses, cattle sheds, and a bathhouse were burnt 
 to ashes. The poor dumb cattle were stuck full of 
 lances. 
 
 A terrible massacre accompanied the burning. To 
 escape suffocation the Russians leaped from the flaming 
 windows only to be caught on the uplifted lances of the 
 savage Sitkas. Some escaped to the woods, when an 
 English vessel providentially appeared and carried the 
 few remaining survivors to Kadiak. 
 
 That autumn two new ships arrived from Russia with 
 hunters, labourers, provisions, and news of Baranof 's pro 
 motion by the czar. 
 
 Tears coursed down the great man's weather-beaten 
 cheeks. " I am a nobleman ; but Sitka is lost ! I do not 
 care to live; I will go and either die or restore the pos 
 sessions of my august benefactor." 
 
 Then back came Baranof to Sitka on his errand of 
 vengeance, with three hundred bidarkas and six small 
 Russian ships, to be almost wrecked in Sitka Sound. 
 Here he was joined by the Neva just out from Kron- 
 stadt, the first to carry the Russian flag around the 
 world. 
 
 Upon the hill where Sitka stands to-day, the Indians 
 had built a fort of logs piled around with tangled brush. 
 On this the Russians opened fire. But no reply came. 
 With one hundred and fifty men and several guns, Bar 
 anof landed in the dense woods to take the fort by storm. 
 Then burst the sheeted flame. Ten Russians were killed 
 and twenty-six wounded. But for the fleet, Baranof s 
 career would have ended on that day. 
 
 But in time ships with cannon were more than a match 
 for savages armed with Boston muskets. Far into the 
 night a savage chant was wafted into the air the 
 Alaskans had surrendered. At daylight all was still. 
 No sound came from the shore, and when the Russians 
 
"A SHIP! A SHIP!" 261 
 
 visited the Indian hill, the fort was filled with slaugh 
 tered bodies of infant children, slain by their own par 
 ents who felt themselves unable to carry them and escape. 
 The Indian fort was immediately burned to the ground 
 and on its site arose the Russian stronghold of Sitka 
 Castle. 
 
 That new fort at Sitka was just finished and mounted 
 with cannon the summer that Lewis and Clark came 
 down the Columbia. Kitchen gardens were under cul 
 tivation and live stock thriving. 
 
 At Sitka that same autumn the Elizaveta arrived, with 
 the Russian Imperial Inspector of Alaska on board, the 
 Baron von Rezanof, " Chamberlain of the Russian Court 
 and Commander of all America," he called himself. 
 
 " What is this I hear of those Bostonians?" inquired 
 the great Baron, unrolling long portraits of the Imperial 
 family to be hung in Sitka Castle. " Those Bostonians, 
 are they undermining our trade in furs with China? " 
 
 " Ah, yes," answered Count Baranof, " the American 
 republic is greatly in need of Chinese goods, Chinese 
 teas and silks, which formerly had to be purchased in 
 coin. But since these shores have been discovered with 
 their abundance of furs, they are no longer obliged to 
 take coin with them, but load their vessels with products 
 of their own country." 
 
 " All too numerous have become these Boston skippers 
 on this northwest coast," continued Von Rezanof in a 
 decisive tone. " Frequent complaints have been made to 
 the American President that his people are selling fire 
 arms to our Indians, but all to no purpose. It is an out 
 rage. We are justified in using force. I recommend an 
 armed brig to patrol these waters." 
 
 Food supplies were low at Sitka that winter. No ship 
 came. The Elizaveta dispatched to Kadiak for supplies 
 returned no more. No flour, no fish, not even seal blub 
 ber for the garrisons, could be caught or purchased. They 
 were eating crows and eagles and devil-fish. Just then, 
 when a hundred cannon were loaded to sweep the Yankee 
 skippers from the sea, a little Rhode Island ship came 
 sailing into Sitka harbour. 
 
262 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Shall we expel these American traders from the 
 North Pacific?" demanded Von Rezanof. 
 
 "For the love of God, no!" cried Baranof. "That 
 little ship is our saviour ! " 
 
 Into the starving garrison the Yankee Captain De 
 Wolf brought bread and beef, and raised the famine 
 siege of Sitka Castle. Baranof bought the little ship, 
 the Juno, with all her cargo, for eight thousand dollars 
 in furs and drafts on St. Petersburg. In addition Rez 
 anof gave De Wolf a sloop, the Ermak, to carry his men 
 and furs to the Hawaiian Islands. 
 
 " God grant that they may not have paid dear for their 
 rashness in trusting their lives to such a craft!" ex 
 claimed Von Rezanof, as the gallant Yankee Captain 
 spread sail and disappeared from Sitka harbour. 
 
 The Juno, a staunch, copper-bottomed fast vessel of 
 two hundred six tons, built at Bristol, Rhode Island, in 
 1799, was now fitted out for the Russian trade and dis 
 patched to Kadiak. 
 
 The storms that Lewis and Clark heard booming on 
 the Oregon coast that winter, devastated Alaskan shores 
 as well. When the breakers came thundering up the 
 rocks and the winds shook Sitka Castle, Count Baranof 
 in his stronghold could not sleep for thinking, " Oh, the 
 ships ! the ships out on this stormy deep, laden with 
 what I need so much ! " 
 
 The little Juno returned from Kadiak with dried fish 
 and oil, and news of disaster : " The Elizaveta has been 
 wrecked in a heavy gale. Six large bidarkas laden with 
 furs on the way to you went down. Two hundred 
 hunters have perished at sea. Our settlement at Yaku- 
 tat has been destroyed by an Indian massacre." 
 
 " My God ! My God ! " Baranof cried, " how can we 
 repair all these disasters! " 
 
 But ever and ever the gray sea boomed upon the shore 
 where the wretched inmates of Sitka Castle were dying. 
 The relief from the Juno was only temporary. By Feb 
 ruary not a pound of bread a day dared they distribute 
 to the men. 
 
 Long since Rezanof had declared they must have an 
 
"A SHIP! A SHIP!" 263 
 
 agricultural settlement. Now he fixed his eye on the 
 Columbia River. Sitting there in the dreary castle he 
 was writing to the czar, little dreaming that in a hun 
 dred years his very inmost thought would be read in 
 America. 
 
 Starvation at Sitka was imminent, it was impos 
 sible to delay longer. Into the stormy sea Rezanof him 
 self set the Juno's sail on his way to the Columbia. 
 
 While Lewis and Clark were writing out the muster 
 roll to nail to the wall at Fort Clatsop. for any passing 
 ship, Rezanof was striving to cross the Columbia bar. 
 None could see beyond the mists. Contrary winds blew, 
 it rained, it hailed. 
 
 Rezanof sighted the Columbia March 14, 1806, but 
 the current drove. him back. Again on the 2Oth he tried 
 to enter, and on the 2ist, but the stormy river, like a thing 
 of life, beat him back and beat him back, until the Rus 
 sian gave it up, and four days later ran into the harbour 
 of San Francisco. 
 
 In June he returned with wheat, oats, pease, beans, 
 flour, tallow, and salt to the famished traders at Sitka. 
 
 But notwithstanding all these troubles, in 1805-6 Bar- 
 anof dispatched to St. Petersburg furs valued at more 
 than five hundred thousand roubles. 
 
 More and more the Boston traders came back to 
 Alaskan waters. Baranof often found it easier to buy 
 supplies from Boston than from Okhotsk. 
 
 " Furnish me with Aleutian hunters and bidarkas 
 and I will hunt on shares for you," proposed a Boston 
 Captain. 
 
 " Agreed," said Baranof, and for years fleets of bidar 
 kas under Boston Captains hunted and trapped and traded 
 for sea otter southward along Pacific shores. 
 
 " These Boston smugglers and robbers! " muttered the 
 Spaniards of California. " Where do they hide them 
 selves all winter? We know they are on our shores but 
 never a glimpse can we get of their fleet." Meanwhile 
 the Boston traders on the coasts of California raked in 
 the skins and furs, and sailing around by Hawaii reached 
 Sitka in time for Spring sealing in the north. 
 
264 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Some hints of this reached the Russian Directory at St. 
 Petersburg, but no one dared to interfere with Baranof . 
 
 Shipload after shipload of furs he sent home that sold 
 for fabulous sums in the markets of Russia. The czar 
 himself took shares and the Imperial navy guarded the 
 Russias of North America. 
 
 All honour to Baranof, Viking of Sitka, and builder 
 of ships! For forty years he ruled the Northwest, the 
 greatest man in the North Pacific. His name was known 
 on the coast of Mexico, even to Brazil and Havana. The 
 Boston merchants consulted him in making up their car 
 goes. In 1810 he went into partnership with John Jacob 
 Astor to exchange supplies for furs. 
 
 Above all disaster he rose, though ship after ship was 
 lost. But it must be admitted the Russians were not such 
 seamen as the gallant Boston skippers. 
 
 Never again will this land see more hardy sailors than 
 the American tars that travelled the seas at the close of our 
 Revolution. Our little Yankee brigs were creeping down 
 and down the coast and around the Horn, until every vil 
 lage had its skippers in the far Pacific. Some went for 
 furs and some for whales, and all for bold adventure. 
 
 In July, 1806, the Lydia, having just rescued two 
 American sailors from the savages at Vancouver Island, 
 came into the Columbia River for a load of spars, the be 
 ginning of a mighty commerce. Here they heard of Lewis 
 and Clark, and ten miles up, faithful old Chief Coboway 
 gave Captain Hill the muster roll left at Fort Clatsop. 
 This, sent by way of China, reached the United States 
 in 1807, to find the great explorers safe at home. 
 
 With the death of Baranof in 1819 ended the vast plan 
 of Russia to make the northern half of the Pacific its 
 own. Baranof was small and wrinkled and bald, but his 
 eye had life. He would have made a czar like Peter the 
 Great. To him and him alone was due the Russia of 
 America, that for seven million dollars was sold to us 
 in 1870, an empire in itself. 
 
BACK TO CIVILISATION 265 
 
 XXII 
 
 BACK TO CIVILISATION 
 
 THE canoes were loaded, and at one o'clock in the 
 afternoon of Sunday, the 23d day of March, 1806, 
 Lewis and Clark took final leave of Fort Clatsop. 
 
 Back past Cathlamet they came, where Queen Sally 
 still watched by her totem posts ; past Oak Point on 
 Fanny's Island, named by Clark* where two Springs later 
 a Boston ship made the first white settlement in Oregon. 
 Slowly the little flotilla paddled up, past Coffin Rock, 
 immemorial deposit of Indian dead, past snowy St. 
 Helens, a landmark at sea for the ship that would enter 
 the harbour. 
 
 Flowers were everywhere, the hillsides aglow with red 
 flowering currants that made March as gay as the roses 
 of June. The grass was high, and the robins were 
 singing. 
 
 At sunset, March 30, ' they camped on a beautiful 
 prairie, the future site of historic Vancouver. Before 
 them the Columbia was a shimmer of silver. Behind, 
 rose the dim, dark Oregon forest. The sharp cry of the 
 sea-gull rang over the waters, and the dusky pelican and 
 the splendid brown albatross were sailing back to the 
 sea. 
 
 Herds of elk and deer roamed on the uplands and in 
 woody green islands below, where flocks of ducks, geese, 
 and swans were digging up the lily-like wapato with their 
 bills. 
 
 With laboured breath, still bending to the oar, on the 
 first of April they encountered a throng of Indians crowd 
 ing down from above, gaunt, hollow-eyed, almost starved, 
 greedily tarrying to pick up the bones and refuse meat 
 thrown from the camp of the whites. 
 
 " Katah mesika chaco?" inquired Captain Lewis. 
 
 " Halo muck-a-muck" answered the forlorn Indians. 
 " Dried fish all gone. No deer. No elk. No antelope 
 
266 THE CONQUEST 
 
 to the Nez Perce country." Hundreds were coming down 
 for food at Wapato. " Blip salmon chaco." 
 
 " Until the salmon come ! " That had been the cry of 
 the Clatsops. The Chinooks were practising incantations 
 to bring the longed-for salmon. The Cathlamets were 
 spreading their nets. The Wahkiakums kept their boats 
 afloat. Even the Multnomahs were wistfully waiting. 
 And now here came plunging down all the upper country 
 for wapato, " Until the salmon come." 
 
 " And pray, when will that be? " 
 
 " Not until the next full moon," at least the second 
 of May, and in May the Americans had hoped to cross 
 the mountains. All the camp deliberated, and still the 
 Cascade Indians came flocking down into the lower 
 valley. 
 
 " We must remain here until we can collect meat 
 enough to last us to the Nez Perce nation," said the Cap 
 tains, and so, running the gauntlet of starvation, it hap 
 pened that Lewis and Clark camped for ten days near the 
 base of Mt. Hood at the river Sandy. In order to collect 
 as much meat as possible a dozen hunters were sent out; 
 the rest were employed in cutting and hanging the meat 
 to dry. 
 
 Two young Indians came into the camp at the Sandy. 
 
 " Kah mesika Illahee? Where is your country?" 
 was asked them, in the Chinook jargon caught at Clatsop. 
 
 " At the Falls of a great river that flows into the 
 Columbia from the south." 
 
 " From the south ? We saw no such river." 
 
 With a coal on a mat one of the Indians drew it. The 
 Captains looked. 
 
 " Ah ! behind those islands ! " It was where the Mult- 
 nomah chieftain in his war canoe had said, " Village 
 there!" on their downward journey to the sea. Clark 
 gave one of the men a burning glass to conduct him to 
 the spot, and set out with seven men in a canoe. 
 
 Along the south side of the Columbia, back they pad 
 dled to the mysterious inlet hidden behind that emerald 
 curtain. And along with them paddled canoe-loads of 
 men, women, and children in search of food. 
 
BACK TO CIVILISATION 267 
 
 Clark now perceived that what they had called " Image- 
 canoe Island " consisted of three islands, the one in the 
 middle concealing the opening between the other two. 
 
 Here great numbers of canoes were drawn up. Lifting 
 their long, slim boats to their backs, the Indian women 
 crossed inland to the sloughs and ponds, where, frighten 
 ing up the ducks, they plunged to the breast into the icy 
 cold water. There they stood for hours, loosening wapato 
 with their feet. The bulbs, rising to the surface, were 
 picked up and tossed into the boats to feed the hungry 
 children. 
 
 Clark entered an Indian house to buy wapato. 
 
 " Not, not! " with sullen look they shook their heads. 
 No gift of his could buy the precious wapato. 
 
 Deliberately then the captain took out one of Dr. Sau- 
 grain's phosphorus matches and tossed it in the fire. 
 Instantly it spit and flamed. 
 
 <e Me-sah-chie! M e-sah-chie ! " the Indians shrieked, 
 and piled the cherished wapato at his feet. The scream 
 ing children fled behind the beds and hid behind the men. 
 An old man began to speak with great vehemence, im 
 ploring his god for protection. 
 
 The match burned out and quiet was restored. Clark 
 paid for the wapato, smoked, and went on, behind 'the 
 islands. 
 
 As if lifting a veil the boat swept around the willows 
 and the Indian waved his hand. 
 
 " Multnomah ! " 
 
 Before them, vast and deep, a river rolled its smooth 
 volume into the Columbia. At the same moment five 
 snow peaks burst into view, Rainier, Hood, St. Helens, 
 Adams, and to the southeast another snowy cone which 
 Clark at once saluted, " Mount Jefferson ! " 
 
 For the first recorded time a white man gazed on the 
 river Willamette. 
 
 This sudden vision of emerald hills, blue waters, and 
 snowy peaks forced the involuntary exclamation, " The 
 only spot west of the Rocky Mountains suitable for a 
 settlement!" The very air of domestic occupation 
 gleamed on the meadows flecked with deer and waterfall. 
 
268 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Amid the scattered groves of oak and dogwood, bursting 
 now into magnolian bloom, Clark half expected to see 
 some stately mansion rise, as in the park of some old 
 English nobleman. The ever-prevailing flowering cur 
 rant lit the landscape with a hue of roses. 
 
 A dozen miles or more Clark pressed on, up the great 
 inland river, and slept one night near the site of the 
 present Portland. He examined the soil, looked at the 
 timber, and measured a fallen fir three hundred and 
 eighteen feet as it lay. 
 
 Watching the current rolling its uniform flow from 
 some unknown distant source, the Captain began taking 
 soundings. 
 
 " This river appears to possess water enough for the 
 largest ship. Nor is it rash to believe that it may water 
 the country as far as California." For at least two-thirds 
 of the width he could find no bottom with his five-fathom 
 line. 
 
 Along that wide deep estuary, the grainships of the 
 world to-day ride up to the wharves of Portland. The 
 same snow peaks are there, the same emerald hills, and 
 the bounteous smile of Nature blushing in a thousand 
 orchards. 
 
 All along the shores were deserted solitary houses of 
 broad boards roofed with cedar bark, with household fur 
 niture, stone mortars, pestles, canoes, mats, bladders of 
 train oil, baskets, bowls, trenchers all left. The fire 
 places were filled with dead embers, the bunk-line tiers 
 of beds were empty. All had just gone or were going to 
 the fisheries. 
 
 "And where?" 
 
 " To Clackamas nation. Hyas tyee Tumwater. Great 
 Falls. Salmon." 
 
 Had Clark but passed a few miles further up, he would 
 have found hundreds of Indians at the fishing rendez 
 vous, Clackamas Rapids and Willamette Falls. 
 
 " How many of the Clackamas nation ? " 
 
 " Eleven villages, to the snow peak." 
 
 "And beyond?" 
 
 " Forty villages, the Callapooias." With outstretched 
 
BACK TO CIVILISATION 269 
 
 hand the Indian closed his eyes and shook his head, 
 evidently he had never been so far to the south. 
 
 Back around Warrior's Point Clark came, whence the 
 Multnomahs were wont to issue to battle in their huge 
 w r ar canoes. An old Indian trail led up into the interior, 
 where for ages the lordly Multnomahs had held their 
 councils. Many houses had fallen entirely to ruin. 
 
 Clark inquired the cause of decay. An aged Indian 
 pointed to a woman deeply pitted with the smallpox. 
 
 " All died of that. Ahn-cutty! Long time ago! " 
 
 The Multnomahs lived on Wapato Island. A dozen 
 nations gave fealty to Multnomah. All had symbolic 
 totems, carved and painted on door and bedstead, and at 
 every bedhead hiing a war club and a Moorish scimitar 
 of iron, thin and sharp, rude relic of Ko-na-pe's work 
 shop. 
 
 Having now dried sufficient meat to last to the Nez 
 Perces, Lewis and Clark set out for the Dalles, that 
 tragical valley, racked and battered, where the devils 
 held their tourneys when the world was shaped by flood 
 and flame. 
 
 Through the sheeny brown basaltic rock, three rifts 
 let through the river, where, in fishing time, salmon 
 leaped in prodigious numbers, filling the Indians' baskets, 
 tons and tons a day. But the salmon had not yet come. 
 
 At this season the upper tribes came down to the Dalles 
 to traffic robes and silk grass for sea-shells and wapato. 
 Fish was money. After the traders came, beads, beads, 
 became the Indian's one ambition. For beads he would 
 sacrifice his only garment and his last morsel of food. 
 
 In this annual traffic of east and west, the Dalles In 
 dians had become traders, robbers, pirates. No canoe 
 passed that way without toll. Dressed in deerskin, elk, 
 bighorn, wolf, and buffalo, these savages lay now in wait 
 for Lewis and Clark, portaging up the long narrows. 
 
 Tugging, sweating, paddling, poling, pulling by cords, 
 it was difficult work hauling canoes up the narrow way. 
 
 Crowds of Indians pressed in. 
 
 " Six tomahawks and a knife are gone!" 
 
 " Another tomahawk gone ! " 
 
2 ;o THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Out of the road," commanded Lewis. " Whoever 
 steals shall be shot instantly." 
 
 The crowds fell back. Every man toiled on with gun 
 in hand. But from village to village, dishes, blankets, 
 and whatever the Indians could get their hands on, dis 
 appeared. Soon there would be no baggage. 
 
 It seemed impossible to detect a thief. " Nothing but 
 numbers protects us," said the white men. 
 
 Worse even than the pirates of the Sioux, it came 
 almost to pitched battle. Again and again Lewis ha 
 rangued the chiefs for the restoration of stolen property. 
 Once he struck an Indian. Finally he set out to burn a 
 village, but the missing property came to light, hidden in 
 an Indian hut. 
 
 So long did it take to make these portages that food 
 supplies failed. In the heart of a thickly populated and 
 savage country the expedition was bankrupt. 
 
 With what gratitude, then, they met Yellept, chief of 
 the Walla Wallas, waiting upon his hills. 
 
 " Come to my village. You shall have food. You 
 shall have horses." 
 
 Gladly they accompanied him to his village at the 
 mouth of the Walla Walla river. Immediately he called 
 in not only his own but the neighbouring nations, urging 
 them to hospitality. Then Chief Yellept, the most notable 
 man in all that country, himself brought an armful of 
 wood for their fires and a platter of roasted mullets. 
 
 At once all the Walla Wallas followed with armloads 
 of fuel; the campfires blazed and crackled. Footsore, 
 weary, half-starved, Lewis and Clark and their men 
 supped and then slept. 
 
 Fortunately there was among the Walla Wallas a cap 
 tive Shoshone boy who spoke the tongue of Sacajawea. 
 In council the Captains explained themselves and the 
 object of their journey. 
 
 " Opposite our village a shorter route leads to the 
 Kooskooskee," said Yellept. " A road of grass and 
 water, with deer and antelope." 
 
 Clark computed that this cut-off would save eighty 
 miles. 
 
BACK TO CIVILISATION 271 
 
 In vain the Captains desired to press on. 
 
 " Wait," begged Yellept. " Wait." Already he had 
 sent invitations to the Eyakimas, his friends the Black 
 Bears, and to the Cayuses. 
 
 Possibly Sacajawea had hinted something; at any 
 rate with a cry of " Very Great Medicine," the lame, the 
 halt, the blind pressed around the camp. The number of 
 unfortunates, products of Indian battle, neglect, and ex 
 posure, was prodigious. 
 
 Opening the medicine chest, while Lewis bought horses, 
 Clark turned physician, distributing eye-water, splinting 
 broken bones, dealing out pills and sulphur. One Indian 
 with a contracted knee came limping in. 
 
 " My own father, Walla Walla chief," says old Se- 
 cho-wa, an aged Indian woman on the Umatilla to-day. 
 " Lots of children, lots of horses. I, very little girl, 
 follow them." 
 
 With volatile liniments and rubbing the chief was 
 relieved. 
 
 In gratitude Yellept presented Clark with a beautiful 
 white horse ; Clark in turn gave all he had his sword. 
 
 Bidding the chief adieu, the Captains recorded : " We 
 may, indeed, justly affirm, that of all the Indians whom 
 we have met since leaving the United States the Walla 
 Wallas were the most hospitable and sincere." 
 
 Poor old Yellept! One hundred years later his medal 
 was found in the sand at the mouth of the Walla Walla. 
 All his sons were slain in battle or died of disease. When 
 the last one lay stretched in the grave, the old chief stepped 
 in upon the corpse and commanded his people to bury 
 them in one grave together. 
 
 " On account of his great sorrow," says old Se-cho-wa. 
 
 And so he was buried. 
 
272 THE CONQUEST 
 
 XXIII 
 
 CAMP CHOPUNNISH 
 
 AS Lewis and Clark with twenty-three horses set 
 out over the camas meadows that April morning 
 a hundred years ago, the world seemed brighter 
 for the kindness of the Walla Wallas. 
 
 At the Dalles the forest had ended. Now they were 
 on the great Columbian plains that stretch to the Rockies, 
 the northwest granary of to-day. The dry exhilarating 
 air billowed the verdure like a sea. 
 
 Meadow larks sang and flitted. Dove-coloured sage 
 hens, the cock of the plains, two-thirds the size of a 
 turkey, cackled like domestic fowl before the advancing 
 cavalcade. Spotted black-and-white pheasants pecked 
 in the grass like the little topknot " Dominicks " the 
 men had known around their boyhood homes. 
 
 And everywhere were horses. 
 
 " More hor-r-ses between th' Gr-reat Falls av th' 
 Columby and th' Nez Perces than I iver saw in th' same 
 space uv countery in me loife before," said Patrick Gass. 
 " They are not th' lar-r-gest soize but very good an' 
 active." 
 
 " Of an excellent race, lofty, elegantly formed, and 
 durable," those Cayuse horses are described by Lewis 
 and Clark. " Many of them appear like fine English 
 coursers, and resemble in fleetness and bottom, as well as 
 in form and colour, the best blooded horses of Virginia." 
 
 A hundred years ago, the Cayuse of the Columbian 
 plains was a recent importation from the bluest blooded 
 Arabian stock of Spain. White-starred, white-footed, 
 he was of noble pedigree. Traded or stolen from tribe 
 to tribe, these Spanish horses found a home on the Co 
 lumbia. All winter these wild horses fattened on the 
 plain ; madly their Indian owners rode them ; and when 
 they grew old, stiff, and blind, they went, so the Indians 
 said, to Horse Heaven on the Des Chutes to die. 
 
CAMP CHOPUNNISH 273 
 
 Following the old Nez Perces trail, that became a 
 stage road in the days of gold, and then a railroad, 
 Lewis and Clark came to the land of the Nez Perces, 
 Chopunnish. 
 
 Thirty-one years later the missionary Spalding planted 
 an apple-tree where Lewis and Clark reached the Snake 
 at the mouth of Alpowa creek, May 4, 1806. 
 
 We-ark-koompt, the Indian express, came out to meet 
 them. Over the camp of Black Eagle the American flag 
 was flying. Chiefs vied with one another to do them 
 honour. Tunnachemootoolt, Black Eagle, spread his 
 leather tent and laid a parcel of wood at the door. 
 " Make this your lodge while you remain with me." 
 Hohastilpilp, Red Wolf, came riding over the hills with 
 fifty people. 
 
 The Captains had a fire lighted, and all night in the 
 leather tent on the banks of the Kooskooske the chiefs 
 smoked and pondered on the journey of the white men. 
 
 Lewis and Clark drew maps and pointed out the far 
 away land of the President. Sacajawea and the Sho- 
 shone boy interpreted until worn out, and then fell asleep. 
 And ever within Black Eagle's village was heard the dull 
 " thud, thud, thud," of Nez Perce women pounding the 
 camas and the kouse, " with noise like a nail-factory," 
 said Lewis. All night long their outdoor ovens were 
 baking the bread of kouse, and the kettles of camas mush, 
 flavoured with yamp, simmered and sweetened over the 
 dull red Indian fires. The hungry men were not dis 
 posed to criticise the cuisine of the savage, not even when 
 they were offered the dainty flesh of dried rattlesnake! 
 
 Labiche killed a bear. In amazement the redmen gath 
 ered round. 
 
 " These bears are tremendous animals to the Indians, 
 kill all you can," said Captain Lewis. Elated, every 
 hunter went bear-hunting. 
 
 " Wonderful men that live on bears ! " exclaimed the 
 Indians. 
 
 Again the council was renewed, and they talked of 
 wars. Bloody Chief, fond of war, showed wounds re 
 ceived in battle with the Snakes. 
 
 18 
 
274 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " It is not good," said Clark. " It is better to be at 
 peace. Here is a white flag. When you hold it up it 
 means peace. We have given such flags to your enemies, 
 the Shoshones. They will not fight you now." 
 
 Fifty years later, that chief, tottering to his grave, said, 
 " I held that flag. I held it up high. We met and talked, 
 but never fought again." 
 
 " We have confided in the white men. We shall follow 
 their advice," Black Eagle went proclaiming through the 
 village. 
 
 All the kettles of soup were boiling. From kettle to 
 kettle Black Eagle sprinkled in the flour of kouse. " We 
 have confided in the white men. Those who are 
 to ratify this council, come and eat. All others stay 
 away." 
 
 The mush was done, the feast was served ; a new dawn 
 had arisen on the Nez Perces. 
 
 Finding it impossible to cross the mountains, a camp 
 was established at Kamiah Creek, on a part of the present 
 Nez Perce reservation in Idaho county, Idaho, where 
 for a month they studied this amiable and gentle people. 
 Games were played and races run, Coalter outspeeding 
 all. Frazer, who had been a fencing master in Rutland, 
 back in Vermont, taught tricks, and the music of the fid 
 dles delighted them. 
 
 Stout, portly, good-looking men were the Nez Perces, 
 and better dressed than most savages, in their whitened 
 tunics and leggings of deerskin and buffalo, moccasins 
 and robes and breastplates of otter, and bandeaus of fox- 
 skins like a turban on the brow. The women were small, 
 of good features and generally handsome, in neatly woven 
 tight-fitting grass caps and long buckskin skirts whitened 
 with clay. 
 
 Upon the Missouri the eagle was domesticated. Here, 
 too, the Nez Perce had his wicker coop of young eaglets 
 to raise for their tail feathers. Any Rocky Mountain 
 Indian would give a good horse for the black-and-white 
 tail feather of a golden eagle. They fluttered from the 
 calumet and hung in cascades from head to foot on- the 
 sacred war bonnet. 
 
CAMP CHOPUNNISH 275 
 
 A May snowstorm whitened the camas meadows and 
 melted again. Thick black loam invited the plough, but 
 thirty Springs should pass before Spalding established 
 his mission and gave ploughs to the redmen. Twisted 
 Hair saw the advent of civilisation. Red Wolf planted 
 an orchard. Black Eagle went to see Clark at St. Louis 
 and died there. 
 
 Captain Lewis held councils, instructing, educating, 
 enlightening the Kamiahs, so that to this day they are 
 among the most advanced of Indian tribes. 
 
 Captain Clark, with simple remedies and some knowl 
 edge of medicine, became a mighty "tomanowos" among 
 the ailing. With basilicons of pitch and oil, wax and 
 resins, a sovereign remedy for skin eruptions, with horse- 
 mint teas and doses of sulphur and cream-of-tartar, with 
 eye-water, laudanum, and liniment, he treated all sorts 
 of ills. Fifty patients a day crowded to the tent of the 
 Red Head. Women suffering from rheumatism, the re 
 sult of toil and exposure in the damp camas fields, came 
 dejected and hysterical. They went back shouting, " The 
 Red Head chief has made me well." 
 
 The wife of a chief had an abscess. Clark lanced it, 
 and she slept for the first time in days. The grateful 
 chief brought him a horse that was immediately slaugh 
 tered for supper. A father gave a horse in exchange for 
 remedies for his little crippled daughter. 
 
 W 7 ith exposure to winds, alkali sand, and the smoke 
 of chimneyless fires, few Indians survived to old age 
 without blindness. 
 
 " Eye-water ! Eye-water ! " They reached for it as 
 for a gift from the gods. Clark understood such eyes, 
 for the smoke of the pioneer cabin had made affections 
 of the eye a curse of the frontier. 
 
 But affairs were now at their lowest. Even the medi 
 cines were exhausted, and the last awl, needle, and skein 
 of thread had gone. Off their shabby old United States 
 uniforms the soldiers cut the last buttons to trade for 
 bread. But instead of trinkets the sensible Nez Perces 
 desired knives, buttons, awls for making moccasins, 
 blankets, kettles. Shields the gunsmith ingeniously 
 
276 THE CONQUEST 
 
 hammered links of Drouillard's trap into awls to ex 
 change for bread. 
 
 The tireless hunters scoured the country. Farther and 
 farther had scattered the game. Even the bears had de 
 parted. Thirty-three people ate a deer and an elk, or 
 four deer a day. There was no commissariat for this 
 little army but its own rifles. And yet, supplies must 
 be laid in for crossing the mountains. 
 
 Every day Captain Lewis looked at the rising river 
 and the melting snows of the Idaho Alps. 
 
 ' That icy barrier, which separates me from my friends 
 and my country, from all which makes life estimable 
 patience patience ' : 
 
 " The snow is yet deep on the mountains. You will 
 not be able to pass them until the next full moon, or about 
 the first of June," said the Indians. 
 
 " Unwelcome intelligence to men confined to a diet of 
 horse meat and roots ! " exclaimed Captain Lewis. 
 
 Finally even horse-flesh failed. Suspecting the situa 
 tion, Chief Red Wolf came and said, " The horses on 
 these hills are ours. Take what you need." 
 
 He wore a tippet of human scalps, but, says Lewis, 
 " we have, indeed, on more than one occasion, had to 
 admire the generosity of this Indian, whose conduct pre 
 sents a model of what is due to strangers in distress." 
 
 Gradually the snows melted, and the high water 
 subsided. 
 
 ' The doves are cooing. The salmon will come," said 
 the Indians. Blue flowers of the blooming camas cov 
 ered the prairies like a lake of silver. With sixty-five 
 horses and all the dried horse meat they could carry, on 
 June 1 6, 18065 Lewis and Clark started back over the 
 Bitter Root Range on the Lolo trail by which they had 
 entered. 
 
OVER THE BITTER ROOT RANGE 277 
 
 XXIV 
 
 OVER THE BITTER ROOT RANGE 
 
 DOG-TOOTH violets, roses, and strawberry blos 
 soms covered the plain of Weippe without end, 
 but the Lolo trail was deep with snow. Deep and 
 deeper grew the drifts, twelve and fifteen feet. The air 
 was keen and cold with winter rigours. To go on in 
 those grassless valleys meant certain death to all their 
 horses, and so, for the first time, they fell back to wait 
 yet other days for the snows to melt upon the mountains. 
 
 " We must have experienced guides." Drouillard and 
 Shannon were dispatched once more to the old camp, 
 and lo ! the salmon had come, in schools and shoals, red 
 dening the Kooskooskee with their flickering fins. 
 
 Again they faced the snowy barrier with guides who 
 traversed the trackless region with instinctive sureness. 
 
 * They never hesitate," said Lewis. ; ' They are never 
 embarrassed. So undeviating is their step that whenever 
 the snow has disappeared, even for a hundred paces, we 
 find the summer road." 
 
 Up in the Bitter Root peaks, like the chamois of the 
 Alps, the Oregon mazama, the mountain goat, frolicked 
 amid inaccessible rocks. And there, in the snows of the 
 mountain pass, most significant of all, were found the 
 tracks of barefooted Indians, supposed to have been Flat- 
 heads, fleeing in distress from pursuing Blackfeet. Such 
 was the battle of primitive man. 
 
 The Indians regarded the journey of the white men 
 into the country of their hereditary foes as a venture to 
 certain death. 
 
 "Danger!" whispered the guides, significantly rap 
 ping on their heads, drawing their knives across their 
 throats, and pointing far ahead. 
 
 Every year the Nez Perces followed the Lolo trail, 
 stony and steep and ridgy with rocks and crossed with 
 
278 THE CONQUEST 
 
 fallen trees, into the Buffalo Illahee, the buffalo country 
 of the Missouri. And for this the Blackfeet fought them. 
 
 The Blackfeet, too, had been from time immemorial 
 the deadly foe of the Flatheads, their bone of contention 
 for ever the buffalo. The Blackfeet claimed. as their own 
 all the country lying east of the main range, and looked 
 upon the Flatheads who went there to hunt as intruders. 
 
 The Flathead country was west and at the base of the 
 main Rockies, along the Missoula and Clark's Fork and 
 northward to the Fraser. With their sole weapon, the 
 arrow, and their own undaunted audacity, twice a year 
 occurred the buffalo chase, once in Summer and once in 
 Winter. But " the ungodly Blackfeet," scourge of the 
 mountains, lay in wait to trap and destroy the Flatheads 
 as they would a herd of buffalo. 
 
 And so it had been war, bitter war, for ages. But a 
 new force had given to the Blackfeet at the west and 
 the Sioux at the east supremacy over the rest of the tribes, 
 that was the white man's gun from the British forts 
 on the Saskatchewan. 
 
 For spoils and scalps the Blackfeet, Arabs of the 
 North, raided from the Saskatchewan to Mexico. They 
 besieged Fort Edmonton at the north, and left their toma 
 hawk mark on the Digger Indian's grave at the south. 
 The Shoshone-Snakes, too, were immemorial and implac 
 able enemies of both the Blackfeet and the Columbia 
 tribes. They fought to the Dalles and Walla Walla and 
 up through the Nez Perces to Spokane. Their mad 
 raiders threw up the dust of the Utah desert, and chased 
 the lone Aztec to his last refuge in Arizona cliffs. 
 
 The Blackfeet fought the Shoshones, the Crows, by 
 superior cunning, fought the Blackfeet, the Assiniboines 
 fought the Crows, and the Sioux, the lordly Sioux, 
 fought all. 
 
 It was time for the white man's hand to stay the diabol 
 ical dance of death. 
 
BEWARE THE BLACKFEET! 279 
 
 XXV 
 
 BEWARE THE BLACKFEET! 
 
 ON the third of July, at the mouth of Lolo creek, 
 the expedition separated, Lewis to cross to the 
 Falls of the Missouri and explore Marias River, 
 Clark to come to the three forks and cross to the Yellow 
 stone. 
 
 With nine men and five Indians Captain Lewis crossed 
 the Missoula on a raft, and following the Nez Perce 
 trail along the River-of-the-Road-to-Buffalo, the Big 
 Blackfoot of to-day, came out July 7, the first of white 
 men, on the opening through the main range of the 
 Rockies now known as the Lewis and Clark Pass. A 
 Blackfoot road led down to the churning waters of the 
 Great Falls. 
 
 Pawing, fighting, ten thousand buffaloes were bellow 
 ing in one continuous roar that terrified the horses. The 
 plain was black with a vast and angry army, bearing 
 away to the southwest, flinging the dust like a simoom, 
 through which deep-mouthed clangor rolled like thunder 
 far away. And at their immediate feet, Drouillard noted 
 fresh tracks of Indians dotting the soil ; grizzly bears, 
 grim guardians of the cataract, emitted hollow growls, 
 and great gray wolves hung in packs and droves along 
 the skirts of the buffalo herds, glancing now and then 
 toward the little group of horsemen. 
 
 In very defiance of danger, again Lewis pitched his 
 camp beside the Falls, green and foamy as Niagara. 
 Again buffalo meat, marrow bones, ribs, steaks, juicy 
 and rich, sizzled around the blaze, and the hungry men 
 ate, ate, ate. They had found the two extremes want 
 on one side of the mountains and abundance on the 
 other. 
 
 While Lewis tried to write in his journal, huge brown 
 mosquitoes, savage as the bears, bit and buzzed. Lewis's 
 
2 8o THE CONQUEST 
 
 dog howled with the torture, the same little Assiniboine 
 dog that had followed all their footsteps, had guarded 
 and hunted as well as the best, had slept by the fire at 
 Clatsop and been stolen at the Dalles. 
 
 Hurrying to their cache at the Bear Islands, it was 
 discovered that high water had flooded their skins and 
 the precious specimens of plants were soaked and ruined. 
 A bottle of laudanum had spoiled a chestful of medicine. 
 But the charts of the Missouri remained uninjured, and 
 trunks, boxes, carriage wheels, and blunderbuss were all 
 right. 
 
 :< Transport the baggage around the Falls and wait 
 for me at the mouth of Maria's River to the first of Sep 
 tember," said Captain Lewis, setting out with Drouillard 
 and the Fields boys. " If by that time I am not there, go 
 on and join Captain Clark and return home. But if my 
 life and health are spared, I shall meet you on the 5th of 
 August." 
 
 It was not without misgivings that Sergeant Gass and 
 his comrades saw the gallant Captain depart into the 
 hostile Blackfoot country. With only three men at his 
 back it was a daring venture. Already the five Nez 
 Perces, fearful of their foes, had dropped off to seek their 
 friends the Flatheads. In vain Lewis had promised to 
 intercede and make peace between the tribes. Their 
 terror pf the Blackfeet surpassed their confidence in white 
 men. 
 
 " Look ! " 
 
 On the second day out Drouillard suddenly pointed, 
 and leaning far over on his horse, examined a trail that 
 would have escaped an eye less keen than his. " Black- 
 feet ! " the vicious and profligate rovers that of all it was 
 most desirable not to meet! 
 
 Hastily crossing the Teton into a thick wood, the party 
 camped that night unmolested. 
 
 On the eighth day Captain Lewis suddenly spied several 
 Indians on a hilltop intently watching Drouillard in the 
 valley. Thirty horses, some led, some saddled, stood like 
 silhouettes against the sky. Kneeling they scanned the 
 movements of the unconscious hunter below. 
 
BEWARE THE BLACKFEET! 281 
 
 " Escape is impossible. We must make the most of 
 our situation. If they attempt to rob us, we will resist to 
 the last extremity. I would rather die than lose my 
 papers and instruments." 
 
 Boldly advancing with a flag in his hand, followed by 
 the two Fields brothers, Lewis drew quite near before 
 the Indians perceived these other white men. Terrified, 
 they ran about in confusion. Evidently with them a 
 stranger meant a foe. 
 
 Captain Lewis dismounted, and held out his hand. 
 
 Slowly the chief Blackfoot approached, then wheeled 
 in flight. At last, with extreme caution, the two parties 
 met and shook hands. Lewis gave to one a 'flag, to an 
 other a medal, to a third a handkerchief. The tumultuous 
 beating of the Indians' hearts could almost be heard. 
 There proved to be but eight of them, armed with two 
 guns, bows, arrows, and eye-daggs, a sort of war-hatchet. 
 
 " I am glad to see you," said Lewis. " I have much 
 to say. Let us camp together." 
 
 The Indians assented and set up their semi-circular 
 tent by the willows of the river. Here Drouillard, the 
 hunter, skilled in the sign language of redmen, drew 
 out their story. 
 
 Yes, they knew white men. They traded on the Sas 
 katchewan six days' march away. 
 
 Yes, there were more of them, two large bands, on the 
 forks of this river, a day above. 
 
 What did they trade at the Saskatchewan? Skins, 
 wolves, and beaver, for guns and ammunition. 
 
 Then Lewis talked. He came from the rising sun. 
 He had been to the great lake at the west. He had seen 
 many nations at war and had made peace. He had 
 stopped to make peace between the Blackfeet and the 
 Flatheads. 
 
 " We are anxious for peace with the Flatheads. But 
 those people have lately killed a number of our relatives 
 and we are in mourning." 
 
 Yes, they would come down and trade with Lewis if 
 he built a fort at Maria's River. 
 
 Until a late hour they smoked, then slept. Lewis and 
 
282 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Drouillard lay down and slept with the Indians, while 
 the two Fields boys kept guard by the fire at the door of 
 the tent. 
 
 " Let go my gun." 
 
 It was the voice of Drouillard in the half-light of the 
 tent at sunrise struggling with a Blackfoot. With a start 
 Lewis awoke and reached for his gun. It was gone. The 
 deft thieves had all but disarmed the entire party. 
 
 Chase followed. In the scuffle for his gun, Reuben 
 Fields stabbed a Blackfoot to the heart. 
 
 No sooner were the guns recovered than the horses 
 were gone. " Leave the horses or I will shoot," shouted 
 Lewis, chasing out of breath to a steep notch in the river 
 bluffs. Madly the Indians were tearing away with the 
 horses. Lewis fired and killed a Blackfoot. Bareheaded, 
 the Captain felt a returning bullet whistle through his 
 hair, but the Indians dropped the horses, and away went 
 swimming across the Marias. 
 
 Delay meant death. Quickly saddlirig their horses, 
 Lewis and his men made for the Missouri as fast as pos 
 sible, hearing at every step in imagination the pursuing 
 "hoo-oh! whoop-ah-hooh ! " that was destined to make 
 Marias River the scene of many a bloody massacre by the 
 vengeful Blackfeet. 
 
 Expecting interception at the mouth of Marias River, 
 the white men rode with desperation to form a junction 
 with their friends. All day, all night they galloped, until, 
 exhausted, they halted at two o'clock in the morning to 
 rest their flagging horses. 
 
 That forenoon, having ridden one hundred and twenty 
 miles since the skirmish, they reached the mouth of 
 Marias River, just in time to see Sergeant Gass, the fleet 
 of canoes, and all, descending from above. Leaping from 
 their horses, they took to the boats, and soon left the spot, 
 seventy, eighty, a hundred miles a day, down the swift 
 Missouri/ 
 
DOWN THE YELLOWSTONE 283 
 
 XXVI 
 
 DOWN THE YELLOWSTONE 
 
 AS Lewis turned north toward Marias River, Clark 
 with the rest of the party and fifty horses set his 
 face along the Bitter Root Valley toward the 
 south. Every step he trod became historic ground in 
 the romance of settlement, wars, and gold. Into this 
 Bitter Root Valley were to come the first white settlers 
 of Montana, and upon them, through the Hell Gate Pass 
 of the Rockies, above the present Missoula, were to sweep 
 again and again the bloodthirsty Blackfeet. 
 
 " It is as safe to enter the gates of hell as to enter that 
 pass/' said the old trappers and traders. 
 
 More and more beautiful became the valley, pink as a 
 rose with the delicate bloom of the bitter-root, the May 
 flower of Montana. Here for ages the patient Flatheads 
 had dug and dried their favourite root until the whole 
 valley was a garden. 
 
 As Clark's cavalcade wound through this vale, deer 
 flitted before the riders, multitudinous mountain streams 
 leaped across their way, herds of bighorns played around 
 the snowbanks on the heights. Across an intervening 
 ridge the train descended into Ross Hole, where first 
 they met the Flatheads. There were signs of recent 
 occupation; a fire was still burning; but the Flatheads 
 were gone. 
 
 Out of Ross Hole Sacajawea pointed the way by 
 Clark's Pass 3 over the Continental Divide, to the Big 
 Hole River where the trail disappeared or scattered. But 
 Sacajawea knew the spot. " Here my people gather the 
 kouse and the camas ; here we take the beaver ; and 
 yonder, see, a door in the mountains." 
 
 On her little pony, with her baby on her back, the 
 placid Indian girl led the way into the labyrinthine 
 Rockies. 
 
284 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Clark followed, descending into the beautiful Big Hole 
 prairie, where in 1877 a great battle was to be fought 
 with Chief Joseph, exactly one hundred years after the 
 1777 troubles, when George Rogers Clark laid before 
 Patrick Henry his plan for the capture of Illinois. Out 
 of the Big Hole, Chief Joseph was to escape with his 
 women, his children, and his dead, to be chased a thou 
 sand miles over the very summit of the Rockies ! 
 
 Standing there on the field of future battle, " On 
 ward ! " still urged Sacajawea, " the gap there leads to 
 your canoes!" The Bird Woman knew these highlands, 
 - they were her native hills. As Sacajawea fell back, 
 the men turned their horses at a gallop. 
 
 Almost could they count the milestones now, down 
 Willard creek, where first paying gold was discovered in 
 Montana, past Shoshone cove, over the future site of 
 Bannock to the Jefferson. 
 
 Scarcely taking the saddles from their steeds, the eager 
 men ran to open the cache hid from the Shoshones. To 
 those who so long had practised self-denial it meant 
 food, clothing, merchandise an Indian ship in the 
 wild. Everything was safe, goods, canoes, tobacco. In 
 a trice the long-unused pipes were smoking with the 
 weed of old Virginia. 
 
 " Better than any Injun red-wilier k'nick-er-k'nick ! " 
 said Coalter, the hunter. 
 
 Leaving Sergeant Pryor with six men to bring on the 
 horses, Captain Clark and the rest embarked in the 
 canoes, and were soon gliding down the emerald Jef 
 ferson, along whose banks for sixty years no change 
 should come. 
 
 Impetuous mountain streams, calmed to the placid 
 pool of the beaver dam, widened into lakes and marshes. 
 Beaver, otter, musk-rats innumerable basked along the 
 shore. Around the boats all night the disturbed deni 
 zens flapped the water with their tails, angry at the 
 invasion of their solitude. 
 
 At the Three Forks, Clark's pony train remounted 
 for the Yellowstone, prancing and curveting along the 
 beaver-populated dells of the Gallatin. 
 
DOWN THE YELLOWSTONE 285 
 
 Before them arose, bewildering, peak on peak, but 
 again the Bird Woman, Sacajawea, pointed out the Yel 
 lowstone Gap, the Bozeman Pass of to-day, on the great 
 Shoshone highway. Many a summer had Sacajawea, 
 child of elfin locks, ridden on the trailing travoises 
 through this familiar gateway into the buffalo haunts of 
 Yellowstone Park. 
 
 Slowly Clark and his expectant cavalcade mounted the 
 Pass, where for ages the buffalo and the Indian alone had 
 trod. As they reached the summit, the glorious Yellow 
 stone Alps burst on their view. At their feet a rivulet, 
 born on the mountain top, leaped away, bright and clear, 
 over its gravelly bed to the Yellowstone in the plains 
 below. 
 
 It was the brother of George Rogers Clark that stood 
 there, one to the manner born of riding great rivers or 
 breaking through mountain chains. But thirty years had 
 elapsed since that elder brother and Daniel Boone had 
 threaded the Cumberland Gap of the Alleghanies. The 
 highways of the buffalo became the highways of the 
 nation. 
 
 1 1 It is no more than eighteen miles," said Clark, glanc 
 ing back from the high snowy gap, half piercing, half 
 surmounting the dividing ridge between the Missouri 
 and the Yellowstone, so nearly do their headwaters in 
 terlock. In coming up this pass, Clark's party went 
 through the present city limits of Bozeman, the county 
 seat of Gallatin, and over the route of future Indians, 
 trappers, miners, road builders, and last and greatest 
 of all, armies of permanent occupation that are march 
 ing still to the valleys of fertile Montana. Up the 
 shining Yellowstone, over the Belt range, through the 
 tunnel to Bozeman, the iron horse flits to-day, on, west 
 erly one hundred miles to Helena, almost in the exact 
 footsteps trodden by the heroic youth of one hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 Among the cottonwood groves of the Yellowstone, 
 Clark's men quickly fashioned a pair of dugouts, lashed 
 together with rawhide; and in these frail barks, twenty- 
 eight feet long, the Captain and party embarked, leav- 
 
286 THE CONQUEST 
 
 ing Sergeant Pryor, Shannon, Windsor, and Hall to 
 bring on the horses. All manner of trouble Pryor had 
 with those horses. Lame from continual travel, he made 
 moccasins for their feet. They were buffalo runners, 
 trained for the hunt. At sight of the Yellowstone herds 
 away they flew, to chase in the old wild Indian fashion 
 of their red masters. No sooner had Pryor rounded them 
 up and brought them back than they disappeared utterly, 
 stolen by the Crows. Not one of the entire fifty horses 
 was ever recovered. 
 
 Here was a serious predicament. Down the impetu 
 ous Yellowstone Clark's boats had already gone. Alone 
 in the heart of the buffalo country these four men were 
 left, thousands of miles from the haunts of civilised man. 
 
 " We must join Captain Clark at all hazards. We 
 must improvise boats," said Shannon. 
 
 Sergeant Pryor recalled the Welsh coracles of the 
 Mandans. " Can we make one? " 
 
 Long slim saplings were bent to form a hoop for the 
 rim, another hoop held by cross-sticks served for the 
 bottom. Over this rude basket green buffalo hides 
 were tightly drawn, and in these frail craft they took 
 to the water, close in the wake of their unconscious 
 Captain. 
 
 And meanwhile Clark was gliding down the Yellow 
 stone. On either bank buffaloes dotted the landscape, 
 under the shade of trees and standing in the water like 
 cattle, or browsing on a thousand hills. Gangs of stately 
 elk, light troops of sprightly antelopes, fleet and grace 
 ful as the gazelle of Oriental song, deer of slim elastic 
 beauty, and even bighorns that could be shot from the 
 boat. Sometimes were heard the booming subterranean 
 geysers hidden in the hollows of the mountains, but none 
 in the party yet conceived of the wonders of Yellow 
 stone Park that Coalter came back to discover that same 
 Autumn. 
 
 One day Clark landed to examine a remarkable rock. 
 Its sides were carved with Indian figures, and a cairn 
 was heaped upon the summit. Stirred by he knew not 
 what impulse, Clark named it Pompey's Pillar, and 
 
DOWN THE YELLOWSTONE 287 
 
 carved his name upon the yielding sandstone, where his 
 bold lettering is visible yet to-day. 
 
 More and more distant each day grew the Rockies, 
 etched fainter each night on the dim horizon of the west. 
 More and more numerous grew the buffaloes, delaying 
 the boats with their countless herds stampeding across the 
 Yellowstone. For an hour one day the boats waited, 
 the wide river blackened by their backs, and before night 
 two other herds, as numerous as the first, came beating 
 across the yellow-brown tide. 
 
 But more than buffaloes held sway on the magic Yel 
 lowstone. Wrapped in their worn-out blankets the men 
 could not sleep for the scourge of mosquitoes ; they could 
 not sight their rifles for the clouds of moving, whizzing, 
 buzzing, biting insects. Even the buffalo were stifled by 
 them in their nostrils. 
 
 Nine hundred miles now had they come down the Yel 
 lowstone, to its junction with the Missouri half a mile 
 east of the Montana border, but no sign yet had they 
 found of Lewis. Clark wrote on the sand, " W. C. A 
 few miles further down on the right hand side." 
 
 August 8, Sergeant Pryor and his companions ap 
 peared in their little skin tubs. Four days later, there 
 was a shout and waving of caps, the boats of Cap 
 tain Lewis came in sight at noon. But a moment later 
 every cheek blanched with alarm. 
 
 "Where is Captain Lewis?" demanded Clark, run 
 ning forward. 
 
 There in the bottom of a canoe, Lewis lay as one dead, 
 pale but smiling. He had been shot. With the gentle 
 ness of a brother Clark lifted him up, and they carried 
 him to camp. 
 
 " A mistake, an accident, 't is nothing," he whis 
 pered. 
 
 And then the story leaked out. Cruzatte, one-eyed, 
 near-sighted, mistaking Lewis in his dress of brown 
 leather for an elk, had shot him through the thigh. With 
 the assistance of Patrick Gass, Lewis had dressed the 
 wound himself. On account of- great pain and high 
 fever he slept that night in the boat. And now the party 
 were happily reunited. 
 
288 THE CONQUEST 
 
 XXVII 
 
 THE HOME STRETCH 
 
 IN the distance there was a gleam of coloured blankets 
 where the beehive huts of the Mandan village lay. A 
 firing of guns and the blunderbuss brought Black Cat 
 to the boats. 
 
 " Come and eat." And with the dignity of an old 
 Roman, the chief extended his hand. 
 
 " Come and eat," was the watchword of every chieftain 
 on the Missouri. Even the Sioux said, " Come and eat ! " 
 
 Hospitable as Arabs, they spread the buffalo robe and 
 brought the pipe. While the officers talked with the 
 master of the lodge, the silent painstaking squaws put 
 the kettles on the fire, and slaughtered the fatted dog for 
 the honoured guests. 
 
 " How many chiefs will accompany us to Washing 
 ton? " That was the first inquiry of the business-pushing 
 white men. Through Jussaume the Indians answered. 
 
 " I would go," said the Black Cat, " but de Sioux - 
 
 " De Sioux will certainly kill us," said Le Borgne of 
 the Minnetarees. " Dey are waiting now to intercept 
 you on de river. Dey will cut you off." 
 
 " We stay at home. We listen to your counsel," piped 
 up Little Cherry. " But dey haf stolen our horses. Dey 
 haf scalp our people." 
 
 " We must fight to protect ourselves," added the Black 
 Cat. "We live in peace wit' all nation -- 'cept de 
 Sioux ! " 
 
 In vain Captain Clark endeavoured to quiet their ap 
 prehensions. " We shall not suffer the Sioux to injure 
 one of our red children." 
 
 " I pledge my government that a company of armed 
 men shall guard you on your return," added Lewis. 
 
 At this point Jussaume reported that Shahaka, or Big 
 White, in his wish to see the President, had overcome his 
 fears. He would go to Washington. 
 
THE HOME STRETCH 289 
 
 Six feet tall, of magnificent presence, with hair white 
 and coarse as a horse's mane, Shahaka, of all the chiefs, 
 was the one to carry to the States the tradition of a white 
 admixture in the Mandan blood. " The handsomest 
 Injun I iver saw," said Patrick Gass. 
 
 Arrangements for departure were now made as rapidly 
 as possible. Presents of corn, beans, and squashes, more 
 than all the boats could carry, were piled around the white 
 men's camp. 
 
 The blacksmith's tools were intrusted to Charboneau 
 for the use of the Mandans. The blunderbuss, given to 
 the Minnetarees, was rolled away to their village with 
 great exultation. 
 
 " Now let the Sioux come! " It was a challenge and 
 a refuge. 
 
 The iron corn mill was nowhere to be seen. For 
 scarcely had Lewis and Clark turned their backs for the 
 upper Missouri before it had been broken into bits to barb 
 the Indian arrows. 
 
 Sacajawea looked wistfully. She, too, would like to 
 visit the white man's country. 
 
 " We will take you and your wife down if you choose 
 to go," said Captain Clark to Charboneau. 
 
 " I haf no acquaintance, no prospect to mak' a leaving 
 dere," answered the interpreter. " I mus' leeve as I haf 
 done." 
 
 " I will take your son and have him educated as a white 
 child should be," continued the Captain. 
 
 Charboneau and Sacajawea looked at one another and 
 at their beautiful boy now nineteen months old, prattling 
 in their midst. 
 
 " We would be weeling eef de child were weaned," 
 slowly spake Charboneau. " Een wan year,- he be ole 
 enough to leaf he moder. I den tak' eem to you eef you 
 be so friendly to raise eem as you t'ink proper." 
 
 " Bring him to me in one year. I will take the child," 
 said Captain Clark. 
 
 Captain Lewis paid Charboneau five hundred dollars, 
 loaded Sacajawea with what gifts he could, and left them 
 in the Mandan country. 
 
290 THE CONQUEST 
 
 All was now ready for the descent to St. Louis. The 
 boats, lashed together in pairs, were at the shore. Big 
 White was surrounded by his friends, seated in a circle, 
 solemnly smoking. The women wept aloud; the little 
 children trembled and hid behind their mothers. 
 
 More courageous than any, Shahaka immediately sent 
 his wife and son with their baggage on board. The inter 
 preter, Jussaume, with his wife and two children, accom 
 panied them. Yes, Madame Jussaume was going to 
 Washington ! 
 
 Sacajawea, modest princess of the Shoshones, heroine 
 of the great expedition, stood with her babe in arms 
 and smiled upon them from the shore. So had she 
 stood in the Rocky Mountains pointing out the gates. 
 So had she followed the great rivers, navigating the 
 continent. 
 
 Sacajawea's hair was neatly braided, her nose was 
 fine and straight, and her skin pure copper like the statue 
 in some old Florentine gallery. Madonna of her race, 
 she had led the way to a new time. To the hands of this 
 girl, not yet eighteen, had been intrusted the key that 
 unlocked the road to Asia. 
 
 Some day upon the Bozeman Pass, Sacajawea's statue 
 will stand beside that of Clark. Some day, where the 
 rivers part, her laurels will vie with those of Lewis. 
 Across North America a Shoshone Indian Princess 
 touched hands with Jefferson, opening her country. 
 
 All the chiefs had gathered to see the boats start. 
 " Stay but one moment," they said. 
 
 Clark stepped back. Black Cat handed him a pipe, as 
 if for benediction. The solemn smoke-wreaths soon 
 rolled upward. 
 
 " Tell our Great Fader de young men will remain at 
 home and not mak' war on any people, except in self- 
 defence." 
 
 " Tell de Rickara to come and visit. We mean no 
 harm." 
 
 " Tak' good care dis chief. He will bring word from 
 de Great Fader." 
 
 It was a promise and a prayer. Strong chiefs turned 
 
THE HOME STRETCH 291 
 
 away with misgiving and trepidation as they saw Shahaka 
 depart with the white men. 
 
 Dropping below their old winter quarters at Fort Man- 
 dan, Lewis and Clark saw but a row of pickets left. The 
 houses lay in ashes, destroyed by an accidental fire. All 
 were there for the homeward pull but Coalter. He had 
 gone back with Hancock and Dickson, two adventurers 
 from Boone's settlement, to discover the Yellowstone 
 Park. 
 
 On the fourth day out three Frenchmen were met ap 
 proaching the Mandan nation with the message, - 
 
 " Seven hundert Sioux haf pass de Rickara to mak' 
 war on de Mandan an' Minnetaree/' Fortunately, Sha 
 haka did not understand, and no one told him. 
 
 The Arikara village greeted the passing boats. Lewis, 
 still lame, requested Clark to go up to the village. Like 
 children confessing their misdeeds the Arikaras began : 
 
 " We cannot keep the peace ! Our young men follow 
 the Sioux ! " 
 
 The wild Cheyennes, with their dogs and horses and 
 handsome leathern lodges, were here on a trading visit, 
 to exchange with the Arikaras meat and robes for corn 
 and beans. They were a noble race, of straight limbs 
 and Roman noses, unaccustomed to the whites, shy and 
 cautious. 
 
 " We war against none but the Sioux, with whom we 
 have battled for ever," they said. 
 
 Everywhere there was weeping and mourning. " My 
 son, my son, he has been slain by the Sioux ! " 
 
 Between the lands of the warring nations surged seas 
 of buffalo, where to-day are the waving bonanza wheat 
 fields of North Dakota. 
 
 From an eminence Clark looked over the prairies. 
 
 " More buffalo than ever I have seen before at one time," 
 
 - and he had seen many. " If it be not impossible to 
 
 calculate the moving multitude that darkens the plains, 
 
 twenty thousand would be no exaggerated estimate." 
 
 They were now well into the country of the great 
 Sioux Indian Confederacy. Arms and ammunition were 
 inspected. 
 
292 THE CONQUEST 
 
 The sharp air thrilled and filled them with new vigour. 
 No wonder the Sioux were never still. The ozone of 
 the Arctic was in their veins, the sweeping winds drove 
 them, the balsamic prairie was their bed, the sky their 
 canopy. They never shut themselves up in stuffy mud 
 huts, as did the Mandans; they lived in tents. Unre 
 strained, unregenerate, there was in them the fire of the 
 Six Nations, of King Philip and of Pontiac. Tall, hand 
 some, finely formed, agile, revengeful, intelligent, capable, 
 they loved their country and they hated stranger s< 
 So did the Greeks. An effeminate nation would have 
 fallen before them as did the Roman before the Goth, but 
 in the Anglo-Saxon they met their master. 
 
 " Whoop-ah-ho-o-oh ! " 
 
 As anticipated, Black Buffalo and his pirate band were 
 on the hills. Whether that fierce cry meant defiance or 
 greeting no man could tell. 
 
 " Whoop-ah-ho-o-oh ! " 
 
 The whole band rushed down to the shore, and even 
 out into the water, shouting invitations to land, and 
 waving from the sand-banks. 
 
 But too fresh in memory was the attempt to carry off 
 Captain Clark. Jubilant, hopeful, and full of the fire of 
 battle as the white men were, yet no one wished to test 
 the prowess of the Sioux. 
 
 Unwilling to venture an interview, the boats continued 
 on their way. Black Buffalo shook his war bonnet defi 
 antly, and returning to the hill smote the earth three times 
 with the butt of his rifle, the registration of a mighty oath 
 against the whites. 
 
 Leaving behind them a wild brandishing of bows, 
 arrows, and tomahawks, and an atmosphere filled with 
 taunts, insults, and imprecations, the boats passed out of 
 sight. 
 
 Wafted on the wind followed that direful " Whoop- 
 ah-ho-o-oh ! " ending with the piercing shrill Indian yell 
 that for sixty years froze the earliest life blood of Min 
 nesota and Dakota. 
 
 Here in the land of the Teton Sioux was to be planted 
 the future Fort Rice, where exactly sixty years after 
 
THE HOME STRETCH 293 
 
 Lewis and Clark, there crossed the Missouri one of the 
 most powerful, costly, and best equipped expeditions ever 
 sent out against hostile Indians, four thousand cavalry, 
 eight hundred mounted infantry, twelve pieces of artillery, 
 three hundred government teams, three hundred beef 
 steers, and fifteen steamboats to carry supplies, to be 
 joined here on the Fourth of July, 1864, by an emigrant 
 train of one hundred and sixty teams and two hundred 
 and fifty people, the van guard of Montana settlement. 
 The Sioux were defeated in the Bad Lands, and the emi 
 grants were carried safely through to Helena, where they 
 and their descendants live to-day. 
 
 Already sweeping up the Missouri, Lewis and Clark 
 met advancing empire. Near Vermilion River, James 
 Aird was camping with a license to trade among the 
 Sioux. 
 
 " What is the news from St. Louis?" 
 
 There on the borders of a future great State, Lewis 
 and Clark first heard that Burr and Hamilton had fought 
 a duel and Hamilton was killed; that three hundred 
 American troops were cantoned at Bellefontaine, a new 
 log fort on the Missouri ; that Spain had taken a United 
 States frigate on the Mediterranean; that two British 
 ships of war had fired on an American ship in the port 
 of New York, killing the Captain's brother. 
 
 Great was the indignation in the United States against 
 Jefferson and the impressment of American seamen. 
 
 " The money spent for Louisiana would have been 
 much better used in building fighting ships." 
 
 " The President had much better be protecting our 
 rights than cutting up animals and stuffing the skins of 
 dead raccoons." 
 
 "Where is our national honour? Gone, abandoned 
 on the Mississippi." 
 
 And these coureurs on the Mississippi heard that the 
 conflict foreseen by Napoleon, when he gave us Louisi 
 ana, was raging now in all its fury, interdicting the com 
 merce of the world. 
 
 To their excited ears the river rushed and rocked, the 
 earth rumbled, with the roar of cannon. To themselves 
 
294 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Lewis and Clark seemed a very small part of the forces 
 that make and unmake nations, and yet that expe 
 dition meant more to the world than the field of Waterloo ! 
 
 The next noon, on ascending the hill of Floyd's Bluff 
 they found the Indians had opened the grave of their com 
 rade. Reverently it was filled again. 
 
 Home from the buffalo hunt in the plains of the Ne 
 braska, the Omahas were firing guns to signal their return 
 to gather in their harvest of corn, beans, and pumpkins. 
 Keel boats, barges, and bateaux came glistening into 
 view, Auguste Chouteau with merchandise to trade 
 with the Yanktons, another Chouteau to the Platte, a 
 trader with two men to the Pawnee Loupes, and Joseph 
 La Croix with seven men bound for the Omahas. 
 
 Through the lessening distance Clark recognised on 
 one of the barges his old comrade, Robert McClellan, the 
 wonderful scout of Wayne's army, who had ridden on 
 many an errand of death. Since Wayne's victory Mc 
 Clellan had been a ranger still, but now the Indians were 
 quieting down, all except Tecumseh. 
 
 * The country has long since given you up," he told 
 the Captain. " We have word from Jefferson to seek for 
 news of Lewis and Clark. The general opinion in the 
 United States is that you are lost in the unfathomable 
 depths of the continent. But President Jefferson has 
 hopes. The last heard of you was at the Mandan villages." 
 
 With a laugh they listened to their own obituaries. On 
 the same barge with McClellan was Gravelines with 
 orders from Jefferson to instruct the Arikaras in agri 
 culture, and Dorion to help make way through the Sioux. 
 
 " Brave Raven, the Arikara chief, died in Washing 
 ton," said Gravelines. " I am on my way to them with 
 a speech from the President and the presents which have 
 been made to the chief." 
 
 How home now tugged at their heart strings ! Eager 
 to be on the way, they bade farewell to McClellan. 
 
 Down, down they shot along, wind, current, and paddle 
 in their favour, past shores where the freebooting Kansas 
 Indians robbed the traders, past increasing forests of 
 walnut, elm, oak, hickory. 
 
THE HOME STRETCH 295 
 
 The men were now reduced to a biscuit apiece. Wild 
 turkeys gobbled on shore, but the party paused not a 
 moment to hunt. 
 
 On the twentieth a mighty shout went up. They heard 
 the clank of cow bells, and saw tame cattle feeding on the 
 hills of Charette, the home of Daniel Boone. With cheers 
 and firing of guns they landed at the village. 
 
 " We are indeet astonished/' exclaimed the joyful habi 
 tants, grasping their hands. " You haf been given up for 
 det long tarn since." The men were scattered among the 
 families for the night, honoured guests of Charette. 
 
 " Plaintee tarn we wish ourself back on ole San Loui'," 
 said Cruzatte to his admiring countrymen. 
 
 To their surprise Lewis and Clark found new settle 
 ments all the way down from Charette. September 21, 
 firing a tremendous salute from the old stone tower be 
 hind the huts, all St. Charles paid tribute to the Homeric 
 heroes who had wandered farther than Ulysses and slain 
 more monsters than Hercules. 
 
 Just above the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi 
 Rivers loomed the fresh mud chimneys of the new log 
 Fort Bellefontaine, Colonel Thomas Hunt in command, 
 and Dr. Saugrain, surgeon, appointed by Jefferson. 
 
 The Colonel's pretty little daughter, Abby Hunt, looked 
 up in admiration at Lewis and Clark, and followed all 
 day these " Indian white men " from the north. Forty 
 years after she told the story of that arrival. " They 
 wore dresses of deerskin, fringed and worked with por 
 cupine quills, something between a military undress frock 
 coat and an Indian shirt, with leggings and moccasins, 
 three-cornered cocked hats and long beards." 
 
 Standing between the centuries in that log fort on the 
 Missouri, pretty little Abby Hunt herself was destined to 
 become historic, as the wife of Colonel Snelling and the 
 mother of the first white child born in Minnesota. 
 
 After an early breakfast with Colonel Hunt, the expe 
 dition set out for the last stretch homeward. They 
 rounded out of the Missouri into the Mississippi, and 
 pulled up to St. Louis at noon, Tuesday, September 23, 
 1806, after an absence of nearly two years and a half. 
 
296 THE CONQUEST 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 THE OLD STONE FORTS OF ST. LOUIS 
 
 IT was noon when Lewis and Clark sighted the old 
 stone forts of the Spanish time. Never had that fron 
 tier site appeared so noble, rising on a vast terrace 
 from the rock-bound river. 
 
 As the white walls burst on their view, with simul 
 taneous movement every man levelled his rifle. The 
 Captains smiled and gave the signal, the roar of 
 thirty rifles awoke the echoes from the rocks. 
 
 Running down the stony path to the river came the 
 whole of St. Louis, eager, meagre, little Frenchmen, 
 tanned and sallow and quick of gait, smaller than the 
 Americans, but graceful and gay, with a heartfelt wel 
 come; black-eyed French women in camasaks and ker 
 chiefs, dropping their trowels in their neat little gardens 
 where they had been delving among the hollyhocks ; gay 
 little French children in red petticoats; and here and 
 there a Kentuckian, lank and lean, eager, all tripping 
 and skipping down to the water's edge. 
 
 Elbowing his way among them came Monsieur Au- 
 guste Chouteau, the most noted man in St. Louis. Pierre, 
 his brother, courtly, well-dressed, eminently social, came 
 also ; and even Madame, their mother, did not disdain to 
 come down to welcome her friends, Les Americains. 
 
 It was like the return of a fur brigade, with shouts of 
 laughter and genuine rejoicing. 
 
 " Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! eet ees Leewes an' Clark 
 whom ve haf mournt as det in dose Rock Mountain. 
 What good word mought dey bring from te fur 
 countree." 
 
 With characteristic abandon the emotional little French 
 men flung their arms around the stately forms of Lewis 
 and Clark, and more than one pretty girl that day printed 
 a kiss on their bearded lips. 
 
THE OLD STONE FORTS OF ST. LOUIS 297 
 
 " Major Christy, well, I declare !" An old Wayne's 
 army comrade grasped Captain Clark by the hand. What 
 memories that grasp aroused! William Christy, one of 
 his brother officers, ready not more than a dozen years 
 ago to aid in capturing this same San Luis de Ilinoa ! 
 
 " I have moved to this town. I have a tavern. Send 
 your baggage right up ! " And forthwith a creaking cha- 
 rette came lumbering down the rocky way. 
 
 " Take a room at my house." Pierre Chouteau grasped 
 the hands of both Captains at once. And to Chouteau' s 
 they went. 
 
 " But first we must send word of our safe arrival to 
 the President," said Lewis, feeling unconsciously for 
 certain papers that had slept next his heart for many a 
 day. 
 
 " Te post haf departed from San Loui'," remarked a 
 bystander. 
 
 "Departed? It must be delayed. Here, Drouillard, 
 hurry with this note to Mr. Hay at Cahokia and bid him 
 hold the mail until to-morrow noon." 
 
 Drouillard, with his old friend Pascal Cerre, the son 
 of Gabriel, set off at once across the Mississippi. The 
 wharf was lined with flatboats loaded with salt for 
 'Kasky and furs for New Orleans. 
 
 Once a month a one-horse mail arrived at Cahokia. 
 Formerly St. Louis went over there for mail, St. 
 Louis was only a village near Cahokia then ; but already 
 Les Americains were turning things upside down. 
 
 " We haf a post office now. San Loui' haf grown." 
 
 Every one said that. To eyes that had seen nothing 
 more stately than Fort Mandan or Clatsop, St. Louis 
 had taken on metropolitan airs. In the old fort where 
 lately lounged the Spanish governor, peering anxiously 
 across the dividing waters, and whence had lately 
 marched the Spanish garrison, American courts of jus 
 tice were in session. Out of the old Spanish martello 
 tower on the hill, a few Indian prisoners looked down on 
 the animated street below. 
 
 With the post office and the court house had come the 
 American school, and already vivacious French children 
 
298 THE CONQUEST 
 
 were claiming as their own, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jef 
 ferson, and George Washington. 
 
 Just opposite the Chouteau mansion was the old Span 
 ish Government House, the house where George Rogers 
 Clark had met and loved the dazzling Donna. 
 
 Aaron Burr had lately been there, feted by the people, 
 plotting treason with Wilkinson in the Government House 
 itself; and now his disorganised followers, young men of 
 birth and education from Atlantic cities, stranded in St. 
 Louis, were to become the pioneer schoolmasters of Upper 
 Louisiana. 
 
 New houses were rising on every hand. In the good 
 old French days, goods at fabulous prices were kept in 
 boxes. Did Madame or Mademoiselle wish anything, it 
 must be unpacked as from a trunk. Once a year goods 
 arrived. Sugar, gunpowder, blankets, spices, knives, 
 hatchets, and kitchen-ware, pell-mell, all together, were 
 coming out now onto shelves erected by the thrifty 
 Americans. Already new stores stood side by side with 
 the old French mansions. 
 
 "Alas! te good old quiet times are gone/' sighed the 
 French habitants, wiping a tear with the blue bandana. 
 
 And while they looked askance at the tall Americans, 
 elephantine horses, and Conestoga waggons, that kept 
 crossing the river, the prices of the little two-acre farms 
 of the Frenchmen w^ent up, until in a few years the old 
 French settlers were the nabobs of the land. 
 
 Already two ferry lines were transporting a never- 
 ending line through this new gateway to the wider West. 
 Land-mad settlers were flocking into " Jefferson's Pur 
 chase," grubbing out hazel roots, splitting rails, making 
 fences, building barns and bridges. Men whose sole 
 wealth consisted in an auger, a handsaw, and a gun, 
 were pushing into the prairies and the forests. Long- 
 bearded, dressed in buckskin, with a knife at his belt 
 and a rifle at his back, the forest-ranging backwoods 
 man was over-running Louisiana. 
 
 "Why do you live so isolated?" the stranger would 
 ask. 
 
 " I never wish to hear the bark of a neighbour's dog. 
 
THE OLD STONE FORTS OF ST. LOUIS 299 
 
 When you hear the sound of a neighbour's gun it is time 
 to move away." 
 
 Thus, solitary and apart, the American frontiersman 
 took up Missouri. 
 
 Strolling along the Rue Royale, followed by admiring 
 crowds, Lewis and Clark found themselves already at 
 the Pierre Chouteau mansion, rising like an old-world 
 chateau amid the lesser St. Louis. Up the stone steps, 
 within the demi-fortress, there were glimpses of fur 
 warehouses, stables, slaves' quarters, occupying a block, 
 practically a fort within the city. 
 
 Other guests were there before them, Charles Gra- 
 tiot, who had visited the Clarks in Virginia, and John P. 
 Cabanne, who was to wed Gratiot's daughter, Julia. 
 On one of those flatboats crowding the wharf that morn 
 ing came happy Pierre Menard, the most illustrious citi 
 zen of Kaskaskia, with his bride of a day, Angelique 
 Saucier. Pierre Menard's nephew, Michel Menard, was 
 shortly to leave for Texas, to become an Indian trader 
 and founder of the city of Galveston. 
 
 At the board, too, sat Pierre Chouteau, the younger, 
 just returned from a trip up the Mississippi with Julien 
 Dubuque, where he had helped to start Dubuque and open 
 the lead mines. 
 
 Out of the wild summer grape the old inhabitants of 
 St. Louis had long fabricated their choicest Burgundy. 
 But of late the Chouteaus had begun to import their wine 
 from France, along with ebony chairs, claw-footed tables, 
 and other luxuries, the first in this Mississippi wild. For 
 never had the fur-trade been so prosperous. 
 
 There was laughter and clinking of glasses, and ques 
 tions of lands beyond the Yellowstone. Out of that hour 
 arose schemes for a trapper's conquest along the trail on 
 which ten future States were strung. 
 
 " The mouth of the Yellowstone commands the rich 
 fur-trade of the Rocky mountains," said Captain Clark. 
 Captain Lewis dwelt on the Three Forks as a strategic 
 point for a fort. No one there listened with more breath 
 less intent than the dark-haired boy, the young Chouteau, 
 who was destined to become the greatest financier of the 
 
300 THE CONQUEST 
 
 West, a king of the fur trade, first rival and then partner 
 of John Jacob Astor. 
 
 No wonder the home-coming of Lewis and Clark was 
 the signal for enterprises such as this country had never 
 yet seen. They had penetrated a realm whose monarch 
 was the grizzly bear, whose queen was the beaver, whose 
 armies were Indian tribes and the buffalo. 
 
 Gallic love of gaiety and amusement found in this re 
 turn ample opportunity for the indulgence of hospitable 
 dancing and feasting. Every door was open. Every 
 house, from Chouteau's down, had its guest out of the 
 gallant thirty-one. 
 
 Hero-worship was at its height. Hero-worship is 
 characteristic of youthful, progressive peoples. Whole 
 nations strive to emulate ideals. The moment that ceases, 
 ossification begins. 
 
 Here the ideals were Lewis and Clark. They had been 
 west ; their men had been west. They, who had traced 
 the Missouri to its cradle in the mountains, who had 
 smoked the calumet with remotest tribes, who had car 
 ried the flag to the distant Pacific, became the lions of 
 St. Louis. 
 
 Such spontaneous welcome made a delightful impres 
 sion upon the hearts of the young Captains, and they felt 
 a strong inclination to make the city their permanent 
 home. 
 
 The galleries of the little inns of St. Louis were filled 
 with Frenchmen, smoking and telling stories all day long. 
 Nothing hurried, nothing worried them ; the rise of the 
 river, the return of a brigade, alone broke the long sum 
 mer day of content. 
 
 But here was something new. 
 
 Even York, addicted to romance, told Munchausen 
 tales of thrilling incidents that never failed of an appre 
 ciative audience. Trappers, flat-boatmen, frontiersmen, 
 and Frenchmen loved to spin long yarns at the Green 
 Tree Inn, but York could outdo them all. He had been 
 to the ocean, had seen the great whale and sturgeon that 
 put all inland fish stories far into the shade. 
 
 Petrie, Auguste Chouteau's old negro, who came with 
 
THE OLD STONE FORTS OF ST. LOUIS 301 
 
 him as a boy and grew old and thought he owned 
 Auguste Chouteau, Petrie, who always said, " Me and 
 the Colonel," met in York for the first time one greater 
 than himself. 
 
 Immediately upon their return Lewis and Clark had 
 repaired to the barber and tailor, and soon bore little re 
 semblance to the tawny frontiersmen in fringed hunt 
 ing-shirts and beards that had so lately issued from the 
 wilderness. 
 
 In the upper story of the Chouteau mansion, the Cap 
 tains regarded with awe the high four-poster with its 
 cushiony, billowy feather-bed. 
 
 " This is too luxurious ! York, bring my robe and 
 bear-skin." 
 
 Lewis and Clark could not sleep in beds that night. 
 They heard the watch call and saw the glimmer of camp- 
 fires in their dreams. The grandeur of the mountains 
 was upon them, cold and white and crowned with stars, 
 the vastness of the prairie and the dashing of ocean, the 
 roar of waterfalls, the hum of insects, and the bellowing 
 of buffalo. 
 
 They knew now the Missouri like the face of a 
 friend ; they had stemmed its muddy mouth, had evaded 
 its shifting sandbanks, had watched its impetuous falls 
 that should one day whirl a thousand wheels. Up wind 
 ings green as paradise they had drunk of its crystal 
 sources in the mountains. 
 
 They had seen it when the mountains cast their shadows 
 around the campfires, and in the blaze of noon when the 
 quick tempest beat it into ink. They had seen it white 
 in Mandan winter, the icy trail of brave and buffalo; 
 and they had seen it crimson, when far-off peaks were 
 tipped with amethystine gold. 
 
 In the vast and populous solitude of nature they had 
 followed the same Missouri spreading away into the 
 beaver-meadows of the Madison, the Jefferson, and the 
 Gallatin, and had written their journals on hillsides 
 where the windflower and the larkspur grew wild on 
 Montana hills. 
 
 An instinct, a relic, an inheritance of long ago was 
 
302 THE CONQUEST 
 
 upon them, when their ancestors roved the earth untram 
 melled by cities and civilisation, when the rock was man's 
 pillow and the cave his home, when the arrow in his 
 strong hand brought the fruits of the chase, when gar 
 ments of skin clad his limbs, and God spoke to the white 
 savage under the old Phoenician stars. 
 
 In their dreams they felt the rain and wind beat on 
 their leather tent. Sacajawea's baby cried, Spring nodded 
 with the rosy clarkia, screamed with Clark's crow, and 
 tapped with Lewis's woodpecker. 
 
 " Rat-tat-tat ! " Was that the woodpecker ? No, some 
 one was knocking at the door of their bed chamber. And 
 no one else than Pierre Chouteau himself. 
 
 " Drouillard is back from Cahokia ready to carry your 
 post. The rider waits." 
 
 This was the world again. It was morning. Throw 
 ing off robes and bear-skins, and rising from the hard 
 wood floor where they had voluntarily camped that night, 
 both Captains looked at the tables strewn with letters, 
 where until past midnight they had sat the night before. 
 
 There lay Clark's letter to his brother, George Rogers, 
 and there, also, was the first rough draft of Lewis's letter 
 to the President, in a hand as fine and even as copper 
 plate, but interlined, and blotted with erasures. 
 
 In the soft, warm St. Louis morning, with Mississippi 
 breezes rustling the curtain, after a hurried breakfast 
 both set to work to complete the letters. 
 
 For a time nothing was heard but the scratching of 
 quill pens, as each made clean copies of their letters 
 for transmission to the far-off centuries. But no cen 
 turies troubled then ; to-day, to-day, was uppermost. 
 
 York stuck in his head, hat in hand. " Massah Clahk, 
 Drewyer say he hab jus' time, sah." 
 
 " Well, sir, tell Drouillard the whole United States 
 mail service can wait on us to-day. We are writing to 
 the President." 
 
 Before ten o'clock Drouillard was off to Cahokia with 
 messages that gave to the nation at large its first intima 
 tion that the Pacific expedition was a consummated fact. 
 
TO WASHINGTON 303 
 
 XXIX 
 
 TO WASHINGTON 
 
 THERE were hurried days at St. Louis, a village 
 that knew not haste before. The skins were sunned 
 and stored in the rooms of Cadet Chouteau. Boxes 
 of specimens were packed for the Government. Captain 
 Lewis opened his trunk and found his papers all wet. 
 The hermetically sealed tin cases that held the precious 
 journals alone had saved these from destruction. 
 
 The Captains had their hands full. The restless men 
 must be paid and discharged. Nine of the adventurers 
 within a week after the return to St. Louis sold their 
 prospective land claims for a pittance. Seven of these 
 claims were bought by their fellow soldiers; Sergeant 
 John Ordway took several of the men and settled on the 
 site of the present city of New Madrid. 
 
 Robert Frazer received two hundred and fifty dollars 
 for his claim, and prepared to publish his travels, a 
 volume that never saw the light. In addition to land 
 grants, the men received double pay amounting altogether 
 to eleven thousand dollars. 
 
 A grand dinner, given by St. Louis, a ball and farewell, 
 and the Captains were on the way with their Mandan 
 chief, Big White, and his Indians, and Gass, Shannon, 
 Ordway, Pryor, and Bratton. 
 
 ' The route by which I propose travelling to Washing 
 ton is by way of Cahokia, Vincennes, Louisville, the Crab 
 Orchard, Fincastle, Staunton, and Charlottesville," Cap 
 tain Lewis had written in that letter to Jefferson. " Any 
 letters directed to me at Louisville will most probably 
 meet me at that place." 
 
 With well-filled saddle-bags, the returning heroes 
 crossed to Cahokia and set out across Illinois in the 
 Indian summer of 1806. 
 
 Governor Harrison was at Vincennes, and Vigo, and a 
 hundred others to welcome. 
 
304 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Hurrah for old Kentucky ! " cried Clark, as he caught 
 sight of its limestone shores. On many a smiling hilltop, 
 the log cabin had expanded into a baronial country seat, 
 with waxed floors and pianos. Already the stables were 
 full of horses, the halls were full of music. 
 
 Clark, Lewis, and Big White climbed the cliff to the 
 Point of Rock. Who but chiefs should visit there? 
 
 With newspapers around him, sat George Rogers 
 Clark, following the career of Napoleon. That calm and 
 splendid eye kindled at sight of his brother. His locks 
 had grown longer, his eye a deeper black under the 
 shaggy brows, but the Revolutionary hero shone in every 
 lineament as he took the hands of the two explorers. 
 
 With the dashing waters at their feet, upon the lonely 
 Point of Rock, above the Falls of the Ohio, William Clark 
 stopped first to greet his brother from the great expe 
 dition. Painters may find a theme here, and future 
 romancers a page in drama. 
 
 Without delay, taking his rusty three-cornered chapcau 
 from its peg, and donning his faded uniform, the con 
 queror of Illinois accompanied the explorers to Locust 
 Grove, ablaze that night with welcome. 
 
 Lucy, Fanny, Edmund were there ; and Jonathan from 
 Mulberry Hill ; Major Croghan, the courtly host of old ; 
 and the lad, George Croghan, now in his fifteenth year. 
 All too quickly fled the hours ; the hickory flamed and the 
 brass andirons shone not brighter than the happy faces. 
 
 Spread around for exhibition were Mandan robes, 
 fleeces of the mountain goat, Clatsop hats, buffalo horns, 
 and Indian baskets, Captain Clark's " tiger-cat coat," 
 Indian curios, and skins of grizzly bears, each article 
 suggestive of adventure surpassing Marco Polo or the 
 Arabian nights. Another huge box, filled with bones for 
 the President, had been left with George Rogers Clark at 
 the Point of Rock. 
 
 Louisville received the explorers with bonfires and can- 
 nonry. A grand ball was given in their honour, in which 
 the Indians, especially, shone in medals and plumage. " 
 
 The next day there was a sad visit to Mill Creek, where 
 lamenting parents received the last token and listened 
 
TO WASHINGTON 305 
 
 to the final word concerning their beloved son, Sergeant 
 Charles Floyd. 
 
 A cold wind and a light fall of snow warned them no 
 time must be lost in crossing the Kentucky mountains; 
 but encumbered with the Indian retinue they made slow 
 progress along that atrocious road, on which the fol 
 lowers of Boone had " sometimes paused to pray and 
 sometimes stopped to swear." 
 
 A few days beyond Cumberland Gap, Clark's heart 
 beat a tattoo ; they had come to Fincastle ! Among its 
 overhanging vines and trees, the Hancock mansion was 
 in holiday attire, Harriet Kennedy had just been 
 married to Dr. Radford of Fincastle. 
 
 Colonel Hancock had been proud to entertain George 
 Rogers Clark, still more was he now delighted with the 
 visit of the famous explorers. 
 
 " La! " exclaimed Black Granny at the announcement 
 of Captain Clark. " Miss Judy?" Black Granny had 
 nursed Miss Judy from the cradle. 
 
 Sedately Miss Judy came down the long staircase, - 
 not the child that Clark remembered, but a woman, petite, 
 serious. The chestnut brown curls with a glint of gold 
 were caught with a high back comb, and a sweeping gown 
 had replaced the short petticoats that lately tripped over 
 the foothills of the Blue Ridge. 
 
 " My pretty cousin going to marry that ugly man? " 
 exclaimed Harriet, when she heard of the early engage 
 ment. 
 
 There was nothing effeminate about Clark, nor arti 
 ficial. His features were rugged almost to plainness ; his 
 head was high from the ear to the top, a large brain 
 chamber. 
 
 " Absolutely beautiful," said Judy to herself, associ 
 ating those bronzed features with endless winds that blew 
 on far-off mountains. 
 
 Behind the respectable old Hancock silver, Judy's 
 mother turned the tea and talked. Turning up his laced 
 sleeves to carve the mutton, Colonel Hancock asked a 
 thousand questions regarding that wonderful journey. 
 
 " We passed the winter on the Pacific, then crossed the 
 
 20 
 
306 THE CONQUEST 
 
 mountains, and my division came down the Yellowstone," 
 Clark was saying. " By the way, Judy, I have named a 
 river for you, the Judith." 
 
 A peal of laughter rang through the dining-room. 
 
 " Judith ! Judith, did you say ? Why, Captain Clark, 
 my. name is Julia." 
 
 Clark was confounded. He almost feared Judy was 
 making fun of him. 
 
 " Is it, really, now? I always supposed Judy stood for 
 Judith." 
 
 Again rang out the infectious peal, in which Clark 
 himself joined; but to this day rolls the river Judith in 
 Montana, named for Clark's mountain maid of Fincastle. 
 
 ' That I should live to see you back from the Pacific ! " 
 was Aunt Molly's greeting at " The Farm," at Char- 
 lottesville. " I reckoned the cannibal savages would eat 
 you. We looked for nothing less than the fate of Captain 
 Cook." 
 
 But Maria, whose eyes had haunted Lewis in many a 
 long Montana day, seemed strangely shy and silent. In 
 fact, she had another lover, perhaps a dearer one. 
 
 Uncle Nicholas was sick. He was growing old, but 
 still directed the negroes of a plantation that extended 
 from Charlottesville to the Fluvanna. 
 
 It was sunset when Captain Lewis reached the home at 
 Locust Hill, and was folded to his mother's bosom. With 
 daily prayer had Lucy Meriwether followed her boy 
 across the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Meriwether' s little pet sister, Mary Marks, had blos 
 somed into a bewitching rose. 
 
 " Here is a letter from the President." 
 
 Captain Lewis read his first message from Jefferson in 
 more than two years and a half. 
 
 Turning to Big White, the chief, who at every step had 
 gazed with amazement at the white man's country, 
 
 " The President says ' Tell my friend of Mandan that 
 I have already opened my arms to receive him." 
 
 " Ugh ! Ugh ! " commented Big White, with visions of 
 barbaric splendour in his untutored brain. 
 
 That afternoon the entire party rode over to Monticello 
 
THE PLAUDITS OF A NATION 307 
 
 to show the chief the President's Indian hall, where all 
 their gifts and tokens had been arranged for display. 
 The next day, by Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Alex 
 andria, the party set out for the national capital. Every 
 step of the way was a triumphal progress. 
 
 XXX 
 
 THE PLAUDITS OF A NATION 
 
 IT was well into January before both Captains reached 
 Washington. Workmen were still building at the 
 Capitol, rearing a home for Congress. Tools of car 
 pentry and masonry covered the windy lawn where Jef 
 ferson rode daily, superintending as on his own Virginia 
 plantation. 
 
 Never had Captain Lewis seen his old friend, the 
 President, so moved as when black Ben, the valet, with 
 stentorian call announced, " Captains Meh wether Lewis 
 and William Clahk ! " 
 
 In silk stockings and pumps they stood in the Blue 
 Room. At sight of that well-known figure in blue coat 
 faced with yellow, red plush waistcoat, and green vel 
 veteen breeches, Meriwether Lewis bounded as a boy 
 toward his old friend. 
 
 The gray-haired president visibly trembled as he 
 strained the two sons of his country to his heart. Tears 
 gushed from his eyes, " The suspense has been awful." 
 Then pausing, with difficulty he controlled his emotion. 
 " But the hopes, the dreams, the ambitions of twenty 
 years are now vindicated, and you are safe, boys, you 
 are safe. I felt that if you were lost the country would 
 hold me responsible." 
 
 If others had asked questions about the route, Jeffer 
 son now overwhelmed them with an avalanche, put with 
 the keenness of a scholar and the penetration of a 
 scientist. For with the possible exception of Franklin, 
 
3o8 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was the most learned man of his 
 time. 
 
 Into the President's hands Lewis placed the precious 
 journals, obtained at such a cost in toil and travel. Each 
 pocket volume, morocco-bound, had as soon as filled been 
 cemented in a separate tin case to prevent injury by wet 
 ting. But now Lewis had slipped the cases off and dis 
 played them neat and fresh as on the day of writing. 
 
 On rocking boats, on saddle pommels, and after dark 
 by the flickering campfire, had the writing been done. 
 T's were not always crossed, nor i's dotted, as hurriedly 
 each event was jotted down to be read and criticised after 
 a hundred years. Written under such circumstances, and 
 in such haste, it is not remarkable that words are mis 
 spelled and some omitted. A considerable collection of 
 later letters gives ample evidence that both the Captains 
 were graceful correspondents. 
 
 And the vocabularies, the precious vocabularies gath 
 ered from Council Bluffs to Clatsop, were taken by Jef 
 ferson and carefully laid away for future study. 
 
 Big White and his Indians were entertained by Jeffer 
 son and the cabinet. Dolly Madison, Mrs. Gallatin, and 
 other ladies of the White House, manifested the liveliest 
 interest as the tall Shahaka, six feet and ten inches, stood 
 up before them in his best necklace of bear's claws, admir 
 ing the pretty squaws that talked to them. 
 
 " And was your father a chief, and your father's 
 father?" Mrs. Madison inquired of Shahaka. She was 
 always interested in families and lineage. " And what 
 makes your hair so white ? " But Shahaka had never 
 heard of Prince Madoc. 
 
 Never had the village-capital been so gay. Dinners 
 and balls followed in rapid succession, eulogies and 
 poems were recited in honour of the explorers. There 
 was even talk of changing the name of the Columbia to 
 Lewis River. 
 
 In those days everybody went to the Capitol to hear 
 the debates. The report of Lewis and Clark created a 
 lively sensation. Complaints of the Louisiana Purchase 
 ceased. From the Mississippi to the sea, the United 
 
THE PLAUDITS OF A NATION 309 
 
 States had virtually taken possession of the continent. 
 Members of Congress looked at one another with dilated 
 eyes. With lifted brow and prophetic vision the young 
 republic pierced the future. The Mississippi, once her 
 utmost border, was now but an inland river. Beyond it, 
 the Great West hove in sight, with peaks of snow and 
 the blue South Sea. The problem of the ages had been 
 solved; Lewis and Clark had found the road to Asia. 
 
 The news fell upon Europe and America as not less 
 than a revelation. 
 
 Congress immediately gave sixteen hundred acres of 
 land each to the Captains, and double pay in gold and 
 three hundred and twenty acres to each of their men, to 
 be laid out on the west side of the Mississippi. On the 
 third day of March, 1807, Captain Lewis was appointed 
 Governor of Louisiana; and on March 12, Captain Clark 
 was made Brigadier General, and Indian Agent for 
 Louisiana. 
 
 Tall, slender, but twenty-nine, Henry Clay was in the 
 Senate, advocating roads, roads and canals to the West. 
 He was planning, pleading, persuading for a canal around 
 the Falls of the Ohio, he was appealing for the improve 
 ment of the Wilderness Road through which Boone had 
 broken a bridle trace. His prolific imagination grasped 
 the Chesapeake and Ohio canal and an interior connec 
 tion with the Lakes. 
 
 Henry Clay " Harry Clay " as Kentucky fondly 
 called him had a faculty for remembering names, 
 faces, places. As yesterday, he recalled William Clark 
 at Lexington. 
 
 And Clark remembered Clay, standing in an ox- 
 waggon, with flashing eyes, hair wildly waving, and 
 features aglow, addressing an entranced throng. The 
 same look flashed over him now as he stepped toward 
 the heroes of the Pacific. 
 
 " Congratulations, Governor." 
 
 " Congratulations, General." 
 
 The young men smiled at their new titles. 
 
 Another was there, not to be forgotten, strong fea 
 tured, cordial, cheerful, of manly beauty and large dark 
 
3 io THE CONQUEST 
 
 eyes, endeavouring to interest Congress in his inven 
 tions, Robert Fulton of the steamboat. 
 
 Wherever they went, a certain halo seemed to hang 
 around these men of adventure. They were soldiers and 
 hunters, and more. Through heat and cold, and mount 
 and plain, four thousand miles by canoe, on foot and 
 horseback, through forests of gigantic pines and along 
 the banks of unknown rivers, among unheard-of tribes 
 who had never seen a white man, they had carried the 
 message of the President and brought back a report on 
 the new land that is authority to this day. 
 
 "What did you find?" Eager inquirers crowded on 
 every side to hear the traveller's tale. At Louisville, men 
 drove in from distant plantations; at Fincastle their 
 steps were thronged along the village walks; in Wash 
 ington they were never alone. 
 
 " What did we find? Gigantic sycamores for canoes, 
 the maple for sugar, the wild cherry and . walnut for 
 joiner's work, red and white elm for cartwrights, the 
 osage orange for hedges impenetrable, white and black 
 oak for ship and carpenter work, pine for countless uses, 
 and durable cedar. 
 
 "What did we find? All sorts of plants and herbs 
 for foods, dyes, and medicines, and pasturage unending", 
 Boone's settlers on the Missouri frontier have farms of 
 wheat, maize, potatoes, and little cotton fields, two acres 
 sufficient for a family. Hemp is indigenous to the soil. 
 Even in the Mandan land, the Indians, with implements 
 that barely scratch the earth, have immense gardens of 
 corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes. 
 
 "What did we find? Oceans of beaver and seas of 
 buffalo, clay fit for bricks and white clay for pottery, salt 
 springs, saltpetre, and plaster, pipestone, and quarries 
 of marble red and white, mines of iron, lead and coal, 
 horses to be bought for a song, cedar, and fir trees six 
 and eight feet in diameter, enormous salmon that block 
 the streams." 
 
 No wonder the land was excited at the report of Lewis 
 and Clark.. All at once the unknown mysterious West 
 stood revealed as the home of natural resources. Their 
 
THE PLAUDITS OF A NATION 311 
 
 travels became the Robinson Crusoe of many a boy who 
 lived to see for himself the marvels .of that trans- 
 Mississippi. 
 
 Sergeant Gass received his pay in gold and went home 
 to Wellsburg, West Virginia, to find his old father 
 smoking still beside the fire. With the help of a Scotch 
 schoolmaster Patrick published his book the next year, im 
 mortalising the name of the gallant Irish Sergeant. Then 
 he " inlisted " again, and fought the Creeks, and in 1812 
 lost an eye at Lundy's Lane. Presently he married the 
 daughter of a Judge, and lived to become a great student 
 in his old age, and an authority on Indians and early 
 times. 
 
 John Ordway went home to New Hampshire and 
 married, and returned to live on his farm near New 
 Madrid. 
 
 William Bratton tarried for a time in Kentucky, served 
 in the War of 1812 under Harrison, and was at Tippe- 
 canoe and the Thames. He married and lived at Terre 
 Haute, Indiana, and is buried at Waynetown. 
 
 George Gibson settled at St. Louis, and lived and died 
 there. Nathaniel Pryor and William Werner became 
 Indian agents under William Clark; Pryor died in 1831 
 among the Osages. George Drouillard went into the 
 fur trade and was killed by the Blackfeet at the Three 
 Forks of the Missouri. John Coalter, after adventures 
 that will be related, settled at the town of Daniel Boone, 
 married a squaw and died there. John Potts was killed 
 by the Blackfeet on the river Jefferson. Sacajawea and 
 Charboneau lived for many years among the Mandans, 
 and their descendants are found in Dakota to this day. 
 
 Of the voyageurs who went as far as the Mandan 
 town, Lajaunnesse accompanied Fremont across the 
 mountains; and two others, Francis Rivet and Philip 
 Degie, were the earliest settlers of Oregon, where they 
 lived to a great old age, proud of the fact that they had 
 " belonged to Lewis and Clark." 
 
Book III 
 
 THE RED HEAD CHIEF 
 
Book III 
 
 THE RED HEAD CHIEF 
 
 I 
 
 THE SHADOW OF NAPOLEON 
 
 "f | ^HANK God for the safety of our country!" 
 ejaculated Jefferson, in one of his long talks with 
 -- Lewis regarding the upheaval across the sea. 
 
 In 1802 Napoleon had been declared Consul for life; 
 May 1 8, 1804, four days after Lewis and Clark started, 
 he had been saluted Emperor of France. Then came 
 Jena. When Lewis and Clark reached the Mandan towns, 
 Napoleon was entering Berlin with the Prussian monarchy 
 at his feet. 
 
 While they camped at Clatsop in those December days 
 of 1805, and while Baranof prayed for ships in his lonely 
 Sitkan outpost, across seas " the sun of Austerlitz " had 
 risen. Against Russian and Austrian, Napoleon had 
 closed a war with a clap of thunder. 
 
 Every breeze bore news that overawed the world. 
 
 " Napoleon has taken Italy." 
 
 " Napoleon has conquered Austria." 
 
 " Napoleon has defeated Russia." 
 
 " Napoleon has ruined Prussia." 
 
 " Napoleon has taken Spain." 
 
 While Lewis and Clark were at Washington came the 
 battles of Eylau and Dantzic. In December Napoleon 
 annexed Portugal, and the Court of Lisbon fled to 
 Brazil, to escape his arms and to rear anew the House 
 of Braganza. 
 
3 i6 THE CONQUEST 
 
 How much more remained to conquer? How soon 
 might the theatre of action come over the sea ? Still there 
 was England. 
 
 For a time the Napoleonic wars had thrown the carry 
 ing trade of the ocean into American hands. American 
 fanners could not reach the coast fast enough with their 
 fleets of grain, the food for armies. Cotton went up to a 
 fabulous price. Enterprise fired the young republic. 
 Ships were building two thousand miles inland to carry 
 her products to the ocean. She grew, she throve, and an 
 ever-increasing inland fleet carried to and fro the red life 
 of a growing nation. 
 
 On the other hand, the torch of liberty, lit in America 
 and burning there still with calm and splendid lustre, 
 carried by French soldiers to France had kindled a conti 
 nent, sweeping like a firebrand through a conflagration of 
 abuses. All tradition was overturning. America alone 
 was quiet, the refuge of the world. Every ship that 
 touched our shores brought fugitives fleeing from battle- 
 scarred fields where Europe groaned in sobs and blood. 
 
 Napoleon was now master of almost the entire coast of 
 Europe. Did he cast regretful eyes this way? America 
 feared it. Nothing but fear of England ever made 
 Napoleon give us Louisiana. 
 
 In May, 1806, England blockaded the French coast. 
 Napoleon retaliated by the Berlin Decrees, shutting up 
 all England, interdicting the commerce of the world. 
 
 And so, when Lewis and Clark returned, the giants 
 were locked in struggle, like Titans of old, tearing up 
 kingdoms, palatinates, and whole empires to hurl at each 
 other. 
 
 And we had Louisiana. 
 
 When Captain Lewis went to Washington he was the 
 bearer of a mass of papers on land claims sent by Auguste 
 Chouteau. 
 
 " I have had some disturbing news from Louisiana," 
 said Jefferson. " In the first place, Monsieur Auguste 
 Chouteau writes requesting self-government, and that 
 Louisiana remain for ever undivided. Now the day may 
 come when we shall desire to cut Louisiana up into sov- 
 
THE SHADOW OF NAPOLEON 317 
 
 ereign states, not now, I grant, but in time, in time. 
 
 " Then the French people of New Orleans protest 
 against American rule. Such is the dissatisfaction, it is 
 said, that the people of Louisiana are only waiting for 
 Bonaparte's victory in his war with the allies to return to 
 their allegiance with France. 
 
 " St. Louis asks for a Governor ' who must reside in 
 the territory/ hence I propose to put you there." 
 
 So it came about that Meriwether Lewis wrote back 
 in February, " I shall probably come on to St. Louis for 
 the purpose of residing among you.'' 
 
 There was trouble with Spain. In July, 1806, every 
 body thought there would be a war with her. But Na 
 poleon was Spain's protector. It would never do to de 
 clare war against Napoleon. Napoleon ! the very word 
 meant subjugation. 
 
 " Why are we safe from Bonaparte ? " exclaimed Jef 
 ferson. " Only because he has not the British fleet at his 
 command." 
 
 Even while Congress was at its busiest, devising a 
 government for New Orleans, not at all was Jefferson 
 sure of the loyalty of the French of Louisiana. 
 
 "If they are not making overtures to Napoleon, they 
 are implicated in the treason of Aaron Burr." 
 
 All Washington was aflame over Aaron Burr. Only 
 two years before Captain Lewis had left him in the seat 
 of honour at Washington. The greatest lawyers in the 
 country now were prosecuting his trial at Richmond, 
 Randolph of Roanoke foreman of the jury and John 
 Marshall presiding. 
 
 Borne with the throng, Lewis went over to Richmond. 
 Washington Irving was there, Winfield Scott, and An 
 drew Jackson, " stamping up and down, damning Jeffer 
 son and extolling Burr." 
 
 Burr's friends, outcrying against Jefferson, caught 
 sight of Meriwether Lewis; his popularity in a degree 
 counteracted their vituperation. William Wirt of Mary 
 land came down after making his great speech, to present 
 a gold watch to his friend Meriwether Lewis. 
 
 With saddened heart Captain Lewis left Richmond, 
 
318 THE CONQUEST 
 
 The beautiful Theodosia had come to stay with her father 
 at the penitentiary. Lewis always liked Aaron Burr. 
 What was he trying to do? The Mississippi was ours 
 and Louisiana. But even the Ursuline nuns welcomed 
 Burr to New Orleans, and the Creoles quite lost their 
 heads over his winning address. All seemed to confirm 
 the suspicions of Jefferson, who nightly tossed on his 
 couch of worry. 
 
 It was necessary for Captain, now Governor, Lewis, 
 to go to Philadelphia, to place his zoological and botanical 
 collections in the hands of Dr. Barton. Scarce had the 
 now famous explorer reached the city before he was 
 beset by artists. Charles Willson Peale, who had painted 
 the portraits of the most prominent officers of the Rev 
 olution, who had followed Washington and painted him 
 as a Virginia colonel, as commander-in-chief, and as pres 
 ident, who had sat with him at Valley Forge and limned 
 his features, cocked hat and all, on a piece of bed-ticking, 
 Peale now wanted to paint Lewis and Clark. 
 
 Of course such a flattering invitation was not to be 
 resisted, and so, while Peale' s assistants were mounting 
 Lewis's antelopes, the first known to naturalists, and 
 preparing for Jefferson the head and horns of a Rocky 
 Mountain ram, Governor Lewis was sitting daily for his 
 portrait. 
 
 This detained him in Philadelphia, when suddenly, on 
 the 27th of June, the great upheaval of Europe cast 
 breakers on our shores that made the country rock. 
 
 It seemed as if in spite of herself the United States 
 would be drawn into the Napoleonic wars. England 
 needed sailors, she must have sailors, she claimed and 
 demanded them from American ships on the high 
 seas. 
 
 " You shall not search my ship," said the Captain 
 of the American frigate Chesapeake off the Virginian 
 capes. Instantly and unexpectedly, the British frigate 
 Leopard rounded to and poured broadsides into the 
 unprepared Chesapeake. 
 
 " Never," said Jefferson, " has this country been in 
 such a state of excitement since Lexington." 
 
AMERICAN RULE IN ST. LOUIS 319 
 
 " Fired on our ship ! " The land was aflame. By 
 such white heat are nations welded. 
 
 It was a bold thing for England to disavow. But no 
 apologies could now conceal the fact, that not Napoleon, 
 but England, was destined to be our foe, England, who 
 claimed the commerce of the world. 
 
 Meriwether Lewis came home to hear Virginia ringing 
 for war; not yet had she forgotten Yorktown. 
 
 The mountains of Albemarle were clothed in all the 
 brilliancy of summer beauty when Lewis kissed his mother 
 good-bye, and set out to assume the governorship of 
 Louisiana. 
 
 II 
 
 AMERICAN RULE IN ST. LOUIS 
 
 IMMEDIATELY after his appointment in charge of 
 Indian affairs, Clark left Washington, with Pryor 
 and Shannon, Big White and Jussaume and their 
 Indian families. The Ohio, swollen to the highest notch, 
 bore them racing into the Mississippi. 
 
 " Manuel Lisa haf gone up de Meessouri," was the 
 news at St. Louis. All winter Manuel Lisa had been 
 flying around St. Louis with Pierre Menard and George 
 Drouillard, preparing for an early ascent into the fur 
 country. So also had been the Chouteaus, intending to 
 escort Big White back to the Mandans. 
 
 At any time an Indian trader was a great man in St. 
 Louis. He could command fabulous prices for his skill, 
 and still more now could Drouillard, fresh from the un- 
 exploited land beyond the Mandans. All his money 
 Drouillard put into the business, and with the earliest 
 opening of 1807, Lisa Menard and Drouillard set out for 
 the upper Missouri with an outfit of sixteen thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 " Wait for the Mandan chief," said Frederick Bates, 
 the new Territorial Secretary. 
 
3 20 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Manuel Lisa was not a man to wait. " While others 
 consider whether they will start, I am on my way," he 
 answered. 
 
 Dark, secret, unfathomable, restless, enterprising, a 
 very Spaniard for pride, distrusted and trusted, a judge 
 of men, Manuel Lisa had in him the spirit of De Soto 
 and Coronado. 
 
 For twenty years Lisa had traded with Indians. Of 
 late the Spanish government had given him exclusive 
 rights on the Osage, a privilege once held by the Chou- 
 teaus, but alas for Lisa! a right now tumbled by the ces 
 sion. For the United States gave no exclusive privileges. 
 
 He reached the ear of Drouillard ; they went away to 
 gether. No one better than Lisa saw the meaning of 
 that great exploration. 
 
 Coincidently with the arrival of Clark and Big White 
 out of the Ohio, came down a deputation of Yankton 
 Sioux with old Dorion from the Missouri. With that 
 encampment of Indians, around, behind, before the Gov 
 ernment House, began the reign of the Red Head chief 
 over the nations of the West that was to last for thirty 
 years. St. Louis became the Red Head's town, and the 
 Red Head's signature came to be known to the utmost 
 border of Louisiana. 
 
 " We want arms and traders," said the Yankton Sioux. 
 
 Both were granted, and laden with presents, before the 
 close of May they were dispatched again to their own 
 country. And with them went Big White in charge of 
 Ensign Pryor, Sergeant George Shannon, and Pierre 
 Chouteau, with thirty-two men for the Mandan trade. 
 
 Even the Kansas knew that Big White had gone down 
 the river, and were waiting to see him go by. 
 
 " The whites are as the grasses of the prairie," said Big 
 White. 
 
 In July the new Governor, Meriwether Lewis, arrived 
 and assumed the Government. With difficulty the offi 
 cers had endeavoured to harmonise the old and the new. 
 All was in feud, faction, disorder. 
 
 St. Louis was a foreign village before the cession. 
 Nor was this changed in a day. 
 
AMERICAN RULE IN ST. LOUIS 321 
 
 " Deed not de great Napoleon guarantee our leeb- 
 ertee?" said the French. " We want self-government." 
 
 But Lewis and Clark, these two had met the French 
 ideal of chivalry in facing the Shining Mountains and 
 the Ocean. Pretty girls sat in the verandas to see them 
 pass. Fur magnates set out their choicest viands. The 
 conquest of St. Louis was largely social. With less tact 
 and less winning personalities we might have had discord. 
 
 Whatever Lewis wanted, Clark seconded as a sort of 
 Lieutenant Governor. It seemed as if the two might 
 go on forever as they had done in the great expedition. 
 Ever busy, carving districts that became future States, 
 laying out roads, dispensing justice and treating with 
 Indians, all went well until the i6th of October, when a 
 wave of sensation swept over St. Louis. 
 
 " Big White, the Mandan chief, is back. The Ameri 
 can flag at the bow of his boat has been fired on and 
 he is compelled to fall back on St. Louis." 
 
 All summer the vengeful Arikaras had been watching. 
 
 " They killed our chief, the Brave Raven." 
 
 The Teton Sioux plotted. " They will give the Man- 
 dans arms and make our enemies stronger than we are." 
 So in great bands, Sioux and Arikaras had camped along 
 the river to intercept the returning brave. 
 
 ''' These are the machinations of the British," said 
 Americans in St. Louis. 
 
 : ' This is a trick of Manuel Lisa," said the fur traders. 
 " His boats passed in safety, why not ours? " 
 
 In fact, there had been a battle. Not with impunity 
 should trade be carried into the land of anarchy. Three 
 men were killed and several wounded, including Shannon 
 and Rene Jussaume. And they in turn had killed Black 
 Buffalo, the Teton chief that led the onslaught. 
 
 All the way down the Missouri George Shannon had 
 writhed with his wounded knee. Blood poisoning set in. 
 They left him at Bellefontaine. 
 
 " Dees leg must come off," said Dr. Saugrain, the army 
 surgeon. 
 
 He sent for Dr. Farrar, a young American physician 
 who had lately located in St. Louis. Together, without 
 
 21 
 
322 THE CONQUEST 
 
 anesthetics, they performed the first operation in thigh 
 amputation ever known in that region. m 
 
 " Woonderful ! woonderful ! " exclaimed the Creoles. 
 " Dees Dogtors can cut une man all up." Great already 
 was the reputation of Dr. Saugrain ; to young Farrar it 
 gave a prestige that made him the Father of St. Louis 
 surgery. 
 
 Shannon lay at the point of death for eighteen months, 
 but youth rallied, and he regained sufficient strength to 
 journey to Lexington, where he took up the study of law. 
 He lived to become an eminent jurist and judge, ^and the 
 honoured progenitor of many distinguished bearers of his 
 name. 
 
 Ill 
 
 FAREWELL TO FINCASTLE 
 
 GENERAL CLARK had had a busy summer, 
 travelling up and down the river, assisting the 
 Governor at St. Louis in reducing his tumultuous 
 domain to order, treating with Indians, conferring with 
 Governor Harrison in his brick palace at Old Vincennes, 
 consulting with his brothers, General Jonathan and 
 General George Rogers Clark at the Point of Rock. 
 Now, in mid-autumn, he was again on his way to 
 Fincastle. 
 
 Never through the tropic summer had Julia been absent 
 from his thoughts. A little house in St. Louis had been 
 selected that should shelter his bride; and now, as fast 
 as hoof and horse could speed him, he was hastening 
 back to fix the day for his wedding. 
 
 October shed glory on the burnished forests. Here 
 and there along the way shone primitive farmhouses, 
 the homes of people. The explorer's heart beat high. 
 He had come to that time in his life when he, too, should 
 have a home. Those old Virginia farmhouses, steep of 
 roof and sloping at the eaves, four rooms below and two 
 
FAREWELL TO FINCASTLE 323 
 
 in the attic, with great chimneys smoking at either end, 
 seemed to speak of other fond and happy hearts. 
 
 The valley of Virginia extends from the Potomac to 
 the Carolina line. The Blue Ridge bounds it on one side, 
 the Kittatinnys on the other, and in the trough-like valley 
 between flows the historic Shenandoah. 
 
 From the north, by Winchester, scene of many a 
 border fray and destined for action more heroic yet, 
 Clark sped on his way to Fincastle. Some changes had 
 taken place since that eventful morning when Governor 
 Spotswood looked over the Blue Ridge. A dozen miles 
 from Winchester stood Lord Fairfax's Green w.ay Court, 
 overshadowed by ancient locusts, slowly mouldering to 
 its fall. Here George Washington came in his boyhood, 
 surveying for the gaunt, raw-boned, near-sighted old 
 nobleman who led him hard chases at the fox hunt. 
 
 From the head spring of the Rappahannock to the head 
 spring of the Potomac, twenty-one counties of old Vir 
 ginia once belonged to the Fairfax manor, now broken 
 and subdivided into a thousand homes. Hither had come 
 tides of Quakers, and Scotch-Presbyterians, penetrating 
 farther and farther its green recesses, cutting up the fruit 
 ful acres into colonial plantations. 
 
 " The Shenandoah, it is the very centre of the United 
 States," said the emigrants. 
 
 The valley was said to be greener than any other, its 
 waters were more transparent, its -soil more fruitful. At 
 any rate German-Pennsylvanians pushed up here, rear 
 ing barns as big as fortresses, flanked round with hay 
 stacks and granaries. Now and then Clark met them, 
 in loose leather galligaskins and pointed hats, sunning in 
 wide porches, smoking pipes three feet long, while their 
 stout little children tumbled among the white clover. 
 
 Here and there negroes were whistling with notes as 
 clear as a fife, and huge Conestoga waggons loaded with 
 produce rumbled along to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Rich 
 mond. Every year thousands of waggons went to mar 
 ket, camping at night and making the morning ring with 
 Robin Hood songs and jingling bells. 
 
 Yonder lived Patrick Henry in his last years, at pic- 
 
324 THE CONQUEST 
 
 turesque Red Hill on the Staunton. Here in his old age 
 he might have been seen under the trees in his lawn, 
 buried in revery, or on the floor, with grandchildren 
 clambering over him or dancing to his violin. 
 
 But Clark was not thinking of Patrick Henry, or Fair 
 fax, in fact he scarcely remembered their existence, 
 so intent was his thought on his maid of the mountains, 
 Julia Hancock. 
 
 The leaves were falling from elm and maple, strewing 
 the path with gold and crimson. The pines grew taller 
 in the twilight, until he could scarcely see the bypaths 
 chipped and blazed by settlers' tomahawks. 
 
 Sunset was gilding the Peaks of Otter as Clark drew 
 rein at the little tavern near Fincastle. 
 
 " I was rented 'to the King of England by my Prince 
 of Hesse Cassel," the Hessian proprietor was saying, 
 " I was rented out to cut the throats of people who had 
 never done me any harm. Four pence three farthings a 
 day I got, and one penny farthing went to His Royal 
 Highness, the Prince. I fought you, then I fell in love 
 with you, and when the war was over I stayed in 
 America." 
 
 Clark listened. It was a voice out of the Revolution. 
 
 After a hurried luncheon the tireless traveller was again 
 in his saddle; and late that night in the moonlight he 
 opened the gate at Colonel Hancock's. 
 
 York had followed silently through all the journey, 
 York, no longer a slave, for in consideration of his ser 
 vices on the expedition the General had given him his 
 freedom. But "as a voluntary body-guard he would not 
 be parted from his master. 
 
 " For sho' ! who cud tek cah o' Mars Clahk so well as 
 oldYawk?" 
 
 " What if love-lorn swains from a dozen plantations 
 have tried to woo and win my pretty cousin! The 
 bronzed face of Lochinvar is bleaching," said the teas 
 ing Harriet when she heard that the wedding date was 
 really set. " One day, who knows, his skin may be white 
 as yours." 
 
 Sudden as a flood in the Roanoke came Julia's tears. 
 
FAREWELL TO FINCASTLE 325 
 
 Relenting, the lively, light-hearted Harriet covered her 
 cousin's curls with kisses. 
 
 " The carriage and horses are at your service. Hunt, 
 fish, loung^ as you please," said Colonel Hancock, " for 
 I must be at the courthouse to try an important case." 
 
 With thousands of acres and hundreds of negroes, it 
 was the dream of Colonel Hancock to one day drop 
 these official cares and retire altogether into the privacy 
 of his plantation. Already, forty miles away, at the 
 very head spring- of the Roanoke river, he was build 
 ing a country seat to be called " Fotheringay," after 
 Fotheringay Castle. 
 
 Back and forth in the gorgeous October weather rode 
 Clark and Julia, watching the workmen at Fotheringay. 
 
 Now and then the carriage stopped at an orchard. 
 Passers were always at liberty to help themselves to the 
 fruit. Peaches so abundant that they fed the hogs with 
 them, apples rosy and mellow, grapes for the vintage, 
 were in the first flush of abundance. What a contrast to 
 that autumn in the Bitter Root Mountains ! 
 
 Then late in November to Fincastle came Governor 
 Lewis and his brother Reuben, on their way to the west. 
 He, too, had been to Washington on business concerning 
 St. Louis. 
 
 " The great success of York among the Mandans has 
 decided Reuben to take Tom along," laughed Lewis, as 
 Reuben's black driver dismounted from the carriage 
 the same family chariot in which Meriwether had brought 
 his mother from Georgia, now on the way to become the 
 state coach of Louisiana. 
 
 Black Tom beamed, expansively happy, on York who 
 had been " tuh th' Injun country " where black men were 
 " Great Medicine." 
 
 " Ha, Your Excellency," laughed the teasing Harriet, 
 " the beauty of Fincastle dines with us to-night, Miss 
 Letitia Breckenridge." 
 
 " Wait and the Governor will court you," some one 
 whispered to the charming Letitia. 
 
 " I have contemplated accompanying my father to 
 Richmond for some time," replied Letitia. " If I stay 
 
326 THE CONQUEST 
 
 now it will look like a challenge, therefore I determine 
 to go." 
 
 Governor Lewis underwent not a little chafing when 
 two days after his arrival the lovely Letitia was gone, 
 to become the wife of the Secretary of War in John 
 Quincy Adams's cabinet. 
 
 " Miss Breckenridge is a very sweet-looking girl," 
 wrote Reuben to his sister, " and I should like to have 
 her for a sister. General Clark's intended is a charming 
 woman. When I tell you that she is much like my sweet 
 heart you will believe I think so." 
 
 " What are you doing? " Clark asked of Julia, as she 
 sat industriously stitching beside the hickory fire in the 
 great parlour at Fincastle. 
 
 " Working a little screen to keep the fire from burning 
 my face," answered the maiden, rosy as the glow itself. 
 Much more beautiful than the little Sacajawea, stitching 
 moccasins beside the fire at Clatsop, she seemed to Clark ; 
 and yet the feminine intuition was the same, to sew, to 
 stitch, to be an artist with the needle. 
 
 " The mistletoe hung in Fincastle hall, 
 The holly branch shone on the old oak wall, 
 And the planter's retainers were blithe and gay, 
 A-keeping their Christmas holiday." 
 
 There was sleighing at Fincastle when the wedding 
 day came, just after New Year's, 1808. The guests 
 came in sleighs from as far away as Greenway Court, 
 for all the country-side knew and loved Judy Hancock. 
 
 Weeping, soft-hearted Black Granny tied again the 
 sunny curls and looped the satin ribbons of her beloved 
 " Miss Judy." The slaves vied with one another, strew 
 ing the snow with winter greens that no foot might 
 touch the chill. 
 
 The wainscoted and panelled walls glowed with green 
 ery. Holly hung over the carved oaken chimneys, and 
 around the fowling pieces and antlers of the chase that 
 betokened the hunting habits of Colonel Hancock. Silver 
 tankards marked with the family arms sparkled on the 
 damask table cloth, and silver candlesticks and snuffers 
 
THE BOAT HORN 327 
 
 and silver plate. Myrtleberry wax candles gave out an 
 incense that mingled with the odour of hickory snapping 
 in the fireplace. 
 
 " Exactly as her mother looked," whispered the grand 
 mother when Judy came down, grandmother, a brisk 
 little white-capped old lady in quilted satin, who remem 
 bered very well the mother of Washington. 
 
 The stars hung blazing on the rim of the Blue Ridge 
 and the snow glistened, when out of the great house came 
 the sound of music and dancing. There were wedding 
 gifts after the old Virginia fashion, and when all had 
 been inspected Clark handed his bride a small jewel case 
 marked with her name. 
 
 The cover flew open, revealing a set of topaz and 
 pearls, " A gift from the President." 
 
 Out into the snow went these wedding guests of a hun 
 dred years ago, to scatter and be forgotten. 
 
 IV 
 
 THE BOAT HORN 
 
 ALL the romance of the old boating time was in 
 Clark's wedding trip down the Ohio. It was on 
 a May morning when, stepping on board a flatboat 
 at Louisville, he contrasted the daintiness of Julia with 
 that of any other travelling companion he had ever known. 
 
 The river, foaming over its rocky bed, the boatmen 
 blowing their long conical bugles from shore to shore, 
 the keelboats, flat-bottoms, and arks loaded with emi 
 grants all intent on " picking guineas from gooseberry 
 bashes," spoke of youth, life, action. Again the boat 
 man blew his bugle, echoes of other trumpets answered, 
 " Farewell, farewell, fare we-11." Soon they were into 
 the full sweep of the pellucid Ohio, mirroring skies and 
 shores dressed in the livery of Robin Hood. 
 
 Frowning precipices and green islets arose, and pro- 
 
328 THE CONQUEST 
 
 jecting headlands indenting the Ohio with promontories 
 like a chain of shining lakes. Hills clothed in ancient 
 timber, hoary whitened sycamores draped in green clus 
 ters of mistletoe, and magnificent groves of the dark green 
 sugar tree reflected from the water below. Shut in to the 
 water's edge, a woody wilderness still, the river glided 
 between its umbrageous shores. 
 
 Now and then the crowing of cocks announced a clear 
 ing where the axe of the settler had made headway, or 
 some old Indian mound blossomed with a peach orchard. 
 Flocks of screaming paroquets alighted in the treetops, 
 humming birds whizzed into the honeysuckle vines and 
 flashed away with dewdrops on their jewelled throats. 
 
 On the water with them, now near, now far, were other 
 boats, ferry flats and Alleghany skiffs, pirogues hol 
 lowed from prodigious sycamores, dug-outs and canoes, 
 stately barges with masts and sails and lifted decks like 
 schooners, keel boats, slim and trim for low waters, Ken 
 tucky arks, broadhorns, roomy and comfortable, filled up 
 with chairs, beds, stoves, tables, bound for the Sangamon, 
 Cape Girardeau, Arkansas. 
 
 Floating caravans of men, women, children, servants, 
 cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, and fowl were travelling down 
 the great river. Some boats fitted up for stores dropped 
 off at the settlements, blowing the bugle, calling the 
 inhabitants down to trade. 
 
 Here a tinner with his tinshop, with tools and iron, a 
 floating factory, there a blacksmith shop with bellows 
 and anvil, dry-goods boats with shelves for cutlery and 
 cottons, produce boats with Kentucky flour and hemp, 
 Ohio apples, cider, maple sugar, nuts, cheese, and fruit, 
 and farther down, Tennessee cotton, Illinois corn, and 
 cattle, Missouri lead and furs, all bound for New Orleans, 
 a panorama of endless interest to Julia. Here white- 
 winged schooners were laden entirely with turkeys, 
 tobacco, hogs, horses, potatoes, or lumber, Nature pour 
 ing forth perennial produce from a hundred tributary 
 streams. 
 
 A bateau could descend from the mouth of the Ohio to 
 New Orleans in three weeks ; three months of toil could 
 
THE BOAT HORN 329 
 
 barely bring it back. How could boats be made to go 
 against the current? Everywhere and everywhere in 
 ventive minds were puzzling over motors, paddles 
 duck-foot, goose-foot, and elliptical, wings and sails, 
 side-wheels, stern-wheels, and screws, and steam was 
 in the air. 
 
 As the sun went down in lengthening shadows a purple 
 haze suffused the waters. Adown La Belle Riviere, " the 
 loveliest stream that ever glistened to the moon," arose 
 the evening cadence of the boatmen, 
 
 " Some row up, but we row down, 
 
 All the way to Shawnee Town, 
 Pull away ! Pull away ! 
 Pull away to Shawnee Town." 
 
 The crescent moon shone brightly on crag and stream 
 and floating forest, the air was mild and moist, the boat 
 glided as in a dream, and the mocking bird enchanted the 
 listening silence. 
 
 To Clark no Spring had ever seemed so beautiful. Sit 
 ting on deck with Julia he could not forget that turbulent 
 time when as a boy he first plunged down these waters. 
 Symbolic of his whole life it seemed, until now the storm 
 and stress of youth had calmed into the placid current 
 of to-day. The past, the rough toil-hardened past of 
 William Clark, fell away, and as under a lifted silken 
 curtain he floated into repose. The rough old life of 
 camps and forts was gone forever. 
 
 And to Julia, everything was new and strange, La 
 Belle Riviere itself whispered of Louisiana. Like an 
 Alpine horn the bugle echoed the dreamlife of the waters. 
 
 The fiddles scraping, boatmen dancing, the smooth 
 stream rolling calmly through the forest, the girls who 
 gathered on shore to see the pageant pass, the river 
 itself, momentarily lost to view, then leaping again in 
 Hogarth's line of beauty, all murmured perpetual 
 music. 
 
 Then slumber fell upon the dancers, but still Clark and 
 Julia sat watching. From clouds of owls arose voices of 
 the night, cries of wolves reverberated on shore, the 
 
330 THE CONQUEST 
 
 plaintive whippoorwill in the foliage lamented to the 
 moon, meteors rose from the horizon to sweep majesti 
 cally aloft and burst in a showering spray of gems below. 
 
 The very heavens were unfamiliar. Awed, impressed, 
 by the mysteries around them, they slept. 
 
 Before sun-up the mocking-bird called from the highest 
 treetop and continued singing until after breakfast, imi 
 tating the jay, the cardinal, and the lapwing, then sailing 
 away into a strain of his own wild music. 
 
 At the mouth of the Wabash arks were turning in to 
 old Vincennes. Below, broader grew the Ohio, unbroken 
 forests still and twinkling stars. Here and there arose the 
 graceful catalpa in full flower, and groves of cottonwoods 
 so tall that at a distance one could fancy some planter's 
 mansion hidden in their depths. Amid these Eden scenes 
 appeared here and there the deserted cabin of some mur 
 dered woodman whose secret only the Shawnee knew. 
 
 Wild deer, crossing the Ohio, heard the bugle call, 
 and throwing their long branching antlers on their shoul 
 ders sank out of sight, swimming under the water until 
 the shore opened into the sheltering forest. 
 
 At times the heavens were darkened with the flights of 
 pigeons ; there was a song of the thrush and the echoing 
 bellow of the big horned owl. Wild turkeys crossed 
 their path and wild geese screamed on their journey to the 
 lakes. 
 
 One day the boats stopped, and before her Julia beheld 
 the Mississippi sweeping with irresistible pomp and wrath, 
 tearing at the shores, bearing upon its tawny bosom the 
 huge drift of mount and meadow, whole herds of drowned 
 buffalo, trunks of forest trees and caved-in banks of silt, 
 leaping, sweeping seaward in the sun. Without a pause 
 the bridegroom river reached forth his brawny arm, and 
 gathered in the starry-eyed Ohio. Over his Herculean 
 shoulders waved her silver tresses, deep into his bosom 
 passed her gentle transparency as the twain made one 
 swept to the honeymoon. 
 
 All night Clark's bateau lay in a bend while York and 
 the men kept off the drift that seemed to set toward them 
 in their little cove as toward a magnet. 
 
A BRIDE IN ST. LOUIS 331 
 
 On the 26th of May Governor Lewis received a letter 
 from Clark asking for help up the river. Without delay 
 the Governor engaged a barge to take their things to 
 Bellefontaine and another barge to accommodate the Gen 
 eral, his family and baggage. 
 
 Dispatching a courier over the Bellefontaine road, 
 Governor Lewis sent to Colonel Hunt a message, asking 
 him to send Ensign Pryor to meet the party. 
 
 With what delight Clark and his bride saw the barges 
 with Ensign Pryor in charge, coming down from St. 
 Louis. Then came the struggle up the turbulent river. 
 Clark was used to such things, but never before had he 
 looked on them with a bride at his side. With sails and 
 oars and cordelles all at once, skilled hands paddled and 
 poled and stemmed the torrent, up, up to the rock of the 
 new levee. 
 
 Thus the great explorer brought home his bride to St. 
 Louis in that never-to-be-forgotten May-time one hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 V 
 
 A BRIDE IN ST. LOUIS 
 
 "AN Americaine bride, General Clark haf brought! 
 
 i\^ She haf beeutiful eyes! She haf golden hair!" 
 L .A. The Creole ladies were in a flutter. 
 
 " Merci! She haf a carriage ! " they cried, peeping 
 from their lattices. Governor Lewis himself had met 
 the party at the shore, and now in the first state coach 
 St. Louis had ever seen, was driving along the Rue de 
 1'Eglise to Auguste Chouteau's. 
 
 "Merci! She haf maids enough!" whispered the 
 gazers, as Rachel, Rhody, Chloe, Sarah, brought up the 
 rear with their mistress's belongings. Then followed 
 York, looking neither to the right nor the left. He knew 
 St. Louis was watching, and he delighted in the stir. 
 
332 THE CONQUEST 
 
 The fame of the beauty of General Clark's American 
 bride spread like wild-fire. For months wherever she 
 rode or walked admiring crowds followed, eager to catch 
 a glimpse of her face. Thickly swathed in veils, Julia 
 concealed her features from the public gaze, but that only 
 increased the interest. 
 
 " She shall haf a party, une grande reception," said 
 Pierre Chouteau, and the demi-fortress was opened to a 
 greater banquet than even at the return of Lewis and 
 Clark. 
 
 Social St. Louis abandoned itself to gaiety. Dancing 
 slippers were at a premium, and all the gay silks that 
 ever came up from New Orleans were refurbished with 
 lace and jewels. 
 
 ' They are beautiful women," said Julia that night. 
 " I thought you told me there were only Indians here." 
 
 Clark laughed. " Wait until you walk in the streets." 
 
 And sure enough, with the arrival of the beautiful 
 Julia came also certain Sacs and lowas who had been 
 scalping settlers within their borders. With bolted hand 
 cuffs and leg shackles they were shut up in the old 
 Spanish martello tower. From the Chouteau house Julia 
 could see their cell windows covered with iron gratings 
 and the guard pacing to and fro. 
 
 At the trial in the old Spanish garrison house on the 
 hill the streets swarmed with red warriors. 
 
 " How far away St. Louis is from civilisation," re 
 marked Julia. " We* seem in the very heart of the In 
 dian country." 
 
 " The Governor has organised the militia, and our 
 good friend Auguste Chouteau is their colonel," an 
 swered her husband, reassuringly. 
 
 " Why these fortifications, these bastions and stone 
 towers ? " inquired Julia, as they walked along the Rue. 
 
 ' They were built a long time ago for defences against 
 the Indians. In fact my brother defended St. Louis once 
 against an Indian raid." 
 
 ' Tell me the story," cried Julia. And walking along 
 the narrow streets under the honey-scented locusts, Clark 
 told Julia of the fight and fright of 1 780. 
 
A BRIDE IN ST. LOUIS 333 
 
 " And was that when the Spanish lady was here? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And what became of her finally? " 
 
 " She fled with the nuns to Cuba at the cession of New 
 Orleans." 
 
 Trilliums red and white, anemones holding up their 
 shell-pink cups, and in damp spots adder's tongues and 
 delicate Dutchman's breeches, were thick around them as 
 they walked down by the old Chouteau Pond. Primeval 
 forests surrounded it, white-armed sycamores and thickets 
 of crab-apple. 
 
 " This is the mill that makes bread for St. Louis. 
 Everybody comes down to Chouteau' s mill for flour. It 
 is so small I am not surprised that they call St. Louis 
 'Pain Court' 'short of bread.' To-morrow the washer 
 women will be at the pond, boiling clothes in iron pots 
 and drying them on the hazel bushes." 
 
 As they came back in the flush of evening all St. 
 Louis had moved out of doors. The wide galleries were 
 filled with settees and tables and chairs, and the neigh 
 bourly Creoles were visiting one another, and greeting 
 the passers-by. 
 
 Sometimes the walk led over the hill to the Grand 
 Prairie west of town. The greensward waved in the 
 breezes like a wheatfield in May. Cabanne's wind-mill 
 could be seen in the distance across the prairie near the 
 timber with its great wings fifty and sixty feet long flying 
 in the air like things of life. 
 
 Cabanne the Swiss had married Gratiot's daughter. 
 
 St. Louis weddings generally took place at Easter, so 
 other brides and grooms were walking there in those 
 May days a hundred years ago. Night and morning, as 
 in Acadia, the rural population still went to and from 
 the fields with their cattle and carts and old-style wheel 
 ploughs. 
 
 In November Clark and his bride moved into the Rene 
 Kiersereau cottage on the Rue Royale. The old French 
 House of Rene Kiersereau dated back to the beginning 
 of St. Louis. Built of heavy timbers and plastered with 
 rubble and mortar, it bade fair still to withstand the wear 
 
334 THE CONQUEST 
 
 and tear of generations. With a long low porch in front 
 and rear, and a fence of cedar pickets like a miniature 
 stockade, it differed in no respect from the other modest 
 cottages of St. Louis. Back of the house rushed the 
 river; before it, locusts and lightning bugs flitted in the 
 summer garden. Beside the Kiersereau house Clark had 
 his Indian office in the small stone store of Alexis Marie. 
 
 Into this little house almost daily came Meriwether 
 Lewis, and every moment that could be spared from 
 pressing duties was engrossed in work on the journals 
 of the expedition. Sometimes Julia brought her harp 
 and sang. But into this home quiet were coming con 
 stant echoes of the Indian world. 
 
 " Settlers are encroaching on the Osage lands. We 
 shall have trouble/' said Governor Lewis. Under an 
 escort of a troop of cavalry Clark rode out into the In 
 dian country to make a treaty with the Osages. The 
 Shawnees and Delawares had been invited to settle near 
 St. Louis to act as a shield against the barbarous Osages. 
 The Shawnees and Delawares were opening little farms 
 and gardens near Cape Girardeau, building houses and 
 trying to become civilised. But settlers had gone on 
 around them into the Osage wilderness. 
 
 " I will establish a fort to regulate these difficulties," 
 said the General, and on his return Fort Osage was built. 
 
 " Settlers are encroaching on our lands," came the cry 
 from Sacs, Foxes, and lowas. Governor Lewis himself 
 held a council with the discontented tribes and estab 
 lished Fort Madison, the first United States post up the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 But there were still Big White and his people not yet 
 returned to the Mandan country, and this was the most 
 perplexing problem of all. 
 
THE FIRST FORT IN MONTANA 335 
 
 VI 
 
 THE FIRST FORT IN MONTANA 
 
 MANUEL LISA had enemies and ambition. These 
 always go together. 
 Scarcely had Clark and his bride settled at St. 
 Louis before down from the north came Manuel Lisa's 
 boats, piled, heaped, and laden to the gunwale edge with 
 furs out of the Yellowstone. His triumphant guns sa 
 luted Charette, St. Charles, St. Louis. He had run the 
 gauntlet of Sioux, Arikara, and Assiniboine. He had 
 penetrated the Yellowstone and established Fort Lisa at 
 the mouth of the Bighorn in the very heart of the Crow- 
 land, the first building in what is now Montana. 
 
 " Dey say you cause de attack on Big White," buzzed 
 a Frenchman in his ear. Angry at such an imputation, 
 the Spaniard hastened to Governor Lewis. 
 
 " I disclaim all responsibility for that disaster. The 
 Arikaras fired across my bow. I stopped. But I had 
 my men-at-arms, my swivels ready. I understood pres 
 ents. I smoked the pipe of peace, with a musket in my 
 hand. Of course I passed. Even the Mandans fired on 
 me, and the Assiniboines. Should that dismay a trader?" 
 
 Manuel Lisa, the successful, was now monarch of the 
 fur trade. Even his enemies capitulated. 
 
 " If he is stern in -discipline, the service demands it. 
 He has gone farther, dared more, accomplished more, and 
 brought home more, than any other. What a future for 
 St. Louis ! We must unite our forces." 
 
 And so the city on the border reached out toward her 
 destiny. Pierre and Auguste Chouteau,- William Clark 
 and Reuben Lewis, locked fortunes with the daring, in 
 domitable Manuel Lisa. Pierre Menard, Andrew Henry, 
 and others, a dozen altogether, put in forty thousand dol 
 lars, incorporating the Missouri Fur Company. Into the 
 very heart of the Rocky Mountains it was resolved to 
 
336 THE CONQUEST 
 
 push, into those primeval beaver meadows whither Lewis 
 and Clark had led the way. 
 
 " Abandon the timid methods of former trade, 
 plunge at once deep into the wilderness," said Lisa; 
 " ascend the Missouri to its utmost navigable waters, 
 and by establishing posts monopolise the trade of the 
 entire region." 
 
 Already had Lisa dreamed of the Santa Fe, now he 
 looked toward the Pacific. 
 
 And now, too, was the time to send Big White back 
 to the Mandans. Under the convoy of two hundred and 
 fifty people, enlisted soldiers and engages, American 
 hunters, Creoles, and Canadian voyageurs, the fur 
 flotilla set sail with tons of traps and merchandise. 
 
 As the flotilla pulled out, a tall gaunt frontiersman 
 with two white men and an Indian came pulling into 
 St. Louis. Clark turned a second time, " Why, Daniel 
 Boone!" 
 
 " First rate ! first rate ! " Furrowed as a sage and 
 tanned as a hunter, with a firm hand-grasp, the old man 
 stepped ashore. Two summers now had Daniel Boone 
 and his two sons brought down to St. Louis a cargo of 
 salt, manufactured by themselves at Boone's Lick, a dis 
 covery of the old pioneer. 
 
 " Any settlers comin' ? We air prepared to tote 'em 
 up." 
 
 Ever a welcome guest to the home of General Clark, 
 Daniel Boone strode along to the cottage on the Rue. 
 At sight of Julia he closed his eyes, dazzled. 
 
 " Tears to me she looks like Rebecca." 
 
 Never, since that day when young Boone went hunting 
 deer in the Yadkin forest and found Rebecca Bryan, a 
 ruddy, flax-haired girl, had he ceased to be her lover. 
 And though years had passed and Rebecca had faded, 
 to him she was ever the gold-haired girl of the Yadkin. 
 Poor Rebecca! Hers had been a hard life in camp and 
 cabin, with pigs and chickens in the front yard and rain 
 dripping through the roof. 
 
 " Daniel ! " she sometimes said, severely. 
 
 " Wa-al, now Rebecca, thee knows I did n't have time 
 
A MYSTERY 337 
 
 to mend that air leak in the ruff last summer ; I war gone 
 too long at the beaver. But thee shall have a new house." 
 And again the faithful Rebecca stuffed a rag in the ceil 
 ing with her mop-handle and meekly went on baking 
 hoe-cake before the blazing forelog. 
 
 Daniel had long promised a new house, but now, at 
 last, he was really going to build. For this he was study 
 ing St. Louis. 
 
 A day looking at houses and disposing of his salt and 
 beaver-skins, and back he went, with a boatload of emi 
 grants and a cargo of school-books. Mere trappers came 
 and went, Boone brought settlers. Pathfinder, judge, 
 statesman, physician to the border, he now carried equip 
 ments for the first school up the Missouri. 
 
 VII 
 
 A MYSTERY 
 
 FURS were piled everywhere, the furs that had been 
 wont to go to Europe, otter, beaver, deer, and 
 bear and buffalo. American ships, that had sped 
 like eagles on every sea, were threatened now by Eng 
 land if they sailed to France, by France if they sailed to 
 England. 
 
 " If our ships, our sailors, our goods are to be seized, 
 it is better to keep them at home," said Jefferson. 
 
 " War itself would be better than that," pled Gallatin. 
 
 The whole world was taking sides in the cataclysm over 
 the sea. Napoleon recognised no neutrals. England rec 
 ognised none. Denmark tried it, and the British fleet 
 burned Copenhagen. Ominously the conflagration glim 
 mered, such might be the fate of any American seaport. 
 
 " If we must fight let us go with France," said some. 
 " Napoleon will guarantee us the cession of Canada and 
 Nova Scotia." 
 
 But Jefferson, carrying all before him, on Tuesday, 
 
338 THE CONQUEST 
 
 December 22, 1807, signed an embargo act, shutting 
 up our ships in our own harbours. In six months com 
 mercial life-blood ceased to flow. Ships rotted at the 
 wharfs. Grass grew in the streets of Baltimore and 
 Boston. 
 
 St. Louis traders tried to go over to Canada, but were 
 stopped at Detroit "by that evil embargo." 
 
 St. Louis withered. " De Meeseppi ees closed. Tees 
 worse dan de Spaniard ! " 
 
 This unpopularity of Jefferson cast Governor Lewis 
 into deepest gloom. The benevolent President's system 
 of peaceable coercion was bringing the country to the 
 verge of rebellion. England cared not nor France, and 
 America was stifling with wheat, corn, and cattle, without 
 a market. 
 
 Fur, fur, the currency and standard of value in St. 
 Louis was valueless. Taxes even could no longer be paid 
 in shaved deerskins. Peltry bonds, once worth their 
 weight in gold, had dropped to nothing. Moths and mil 
 dew crept into the Chouteau warehouses. A few weeks 
 more and the fruits of Lisa's adventure would perish. 
 
 Into the Clark home there had come an infant boy, 
 " named Meriwether Lewis," said the General, when the 
 Governor came to look at the child. Every day now he 
 came to the cradle, for, weary with cares, the quiet domes 
 tic atmosphere rested him. He moved his books and 
 clothes, and the modest little home on the Rue became the 
 home of the Governor. Beside the fire Julia stitched, 
 stitched at dainty garments while the General and the 
 Governor worked on their journals. Now and then their 
 eyes strayed toward the sleeping infant. 
 
 " This child is fairer than Sacajawea's at Clatsop," re 
 marked Lewis. " But it cries the same, and is liable to 
 the same ills." 
 
 "And did you name a river for Sacajawea, too?" 
 laughed Julia. 
 
 " Certainly, certainly, but the Governor's favourite 
 river was named Maria," slyly interposed Clark. 
 
 A quick flush passed over the Governor's cheek. He 
 had lately purchased a three-and-a-half arpent piece of 
 
A MYSTERY 339 
 
 land north of St. Louis for a home for his mother, or 
 was it for Maria? However, in June Clark took Julia 
 and the baby with him on a trip to Louisville, and the 
 same month Maria was married to somebody else. 
 
 But on the Ohio the joyous activity had ceased. No 
 longer the boatman's horn rang over cliff and scar. Jef 
 ferson's embargo had stagnated the waters. 
 
 When General Clark returned to St. Louis in July he 
 found his friend still more embarrassed and depressed. 
 
 " My bills are protested," said the Governor. " Here 
 is one for eighteen dollars rejected by the Secretary of 
 the Treasury. This has given me infinite concern, as the 
 fate of others drawn for similar purposes cannot be in 
 doubt. Their rejection cannot fail to impress the public 
 mind unfavourably with respect to me." 
 
 " And what are these bills for?" inquired Clark. 
 
 " Expenses incurred in governing the territory," an 
 swered Lewis. 
 
 General Clark did not have to look back many years 
 to recall the wreck of his brother on this same snag of 
 protested bills, and exactly as with George Rogers Clark 
 the proud and sensitive heart of Meriwether Lewis was 
 cut to the core. 
 
 " More painful than the rejection, is the displeasure 
 which must arise in the mind of the executive from my 
 having drawn for public moneys without authority. A 
 third and not less embarrassing circumstance is that my 
 private funds are entirely incompetent to meet these bills 
 if protested." 
 
 With the generosity of his nature Clark gave Lewis 
 one hundred dollars, and Lewis arranged as soon as pos 
 sible to go to Washington with his vouchers to see the 
 President. 
 
 With the courage of upright convictions, Governor 
 Lewis contended with the difficulties of his office, and in 
 due course received the rest of his protested bills. If he 
 raged at heart he said little. If he spent sleepless nights 
 tossing, and communing with himself, he spoke no word 
 to those around him. Though the dagger pierced he 
 made no sign. Borrowing money of his friends as George 
 
340 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Rogers Clark had done, he met his bills as best he might. 
 But his haggard face and evident illness alarmed his 
 friends. 
 
 " You had better take a trip to the east," they urged. 
 "' You have malarial fever." 
 
 He decided to act on this suggestion, and with the 
 journals of the western expedition and his vouchers the 
 Governor bade his friends farewell and dropped down 
 the river, intending to take a coasting vessel to New 
 Orleans and pass around to Washington by sea. 
 
 But at the Chickasaw Bluffs, now Memphis, Lewis 
 was ill. Moreover, rumours of war were in the air. 
 
 " These precious manuscripts that I have carried now 
 for so many miles, must not be lost," thought Lewis, 
 " nor the vouchers of my public accounts on which my 
 honour rests. I will go by land through the Chickasaw 
 country." 
 
 The United States agent with the Chickasaw Indians, 
 Major Neely, arriving there two days later, found Lewis 
 still detained by illness. " I must accompany and watch 
 over him," he said, when he found that the Governor 
 was resolved to press on at all hazards. " He is very ill." 
 
 One hundred years ago the Natchez trace was a new 
 military road that had been cut through the wilderness 
 of Tennessee to the Spanish country. Over this road the 
 pony express galloped day and night and pioneer caravans 
 paused at nightfall at lonely wayside inns. Brigands in 
 fested the forest, hard on the trail of the trader returning 
 from New Orleans with a pouch of Spanish silver in his 
 saddlebags. 
 
 Over that road Aaron Burr had travelled on his visit 
 to Andrew Jackson at Nashville, and on it Tecumseh was 
 even now journeying to the tribes of the south. 
 
 " Two of the horses have strayed," was the servant's 
 report at the end of one day's journey. But even that 
 could not delay the Governor. 
 
 " I will wait for you at the house of the first white 
 inhabitant on the road," said Lewis, as Neely turned back 
 for the lost roadsters. 
 
 It was evening when the Governor arrived at Grinder's 
 
A MYSTERY 341 
 
 stand, the last cabin on the borders of the Chickasaw 
 country. 
 
 " May I stay for the night? " he inquired of the woman 
 at the door. 
 
 " Come you alone ? " she asked. 
 
 " My servants are behind. Bring me some wine." 
 
 Alighting and bringing in his saddle, the Governor 
 touched the wine and turned away. Pulling of! his loose 
 white blue-striped travelling gown, he waited for his 
 servants. 
 
 The woman scanned her guest, of elegant manners 
 and courtly bearing, he was evidently a gentleman. But 
 a troubled look on his face, an impatient walk to and fro, 
 denoted something wrong. She listened, he was talk 
 ing to himself. His sudden wheels and turns and strides 
 startled her. 
 
 :< Where is my powder? I am sure there was some 
 powder in my canister/' he said to the servants at the 
 door. 
 
 After a mouthful of supper, he suddenly started up, 
 speaking in a violent manner, flushed and excited. Then, 
 lighting his pipe, he sat down by the cabin door. 
 
 " Madame, this is a very pleasant evening." 
 
 Mrs. Grinder noted the kindly tone, the handsome, 
 haggard face, the air of abstraction. Quietly he smoked 
 for a time, then again he flushed, arose excitedly, and 
 stepped into the yard. There he began pacing angrily to 
 and fro. 
 
 But again he sat down to his pipe, and again seemed 
 composed. He cast his eyes toward the west, that West, 
 the scene of his toils and triumphs. 
 
 " What a sweet evening it is ! " He had seen that same 
 sun silvering the northern rivers, gilding the peaks of the 
 Rockies, and sinking into the Pacific. It all came over 
 him now, like a soothing dream, calming the fevered soul 
 and stilling its tumult. 
 
 The woman was preparing the usual feather-bed for 
 her guest. 
 
 " I beg you, Madame, do not trouble yourself. Pernia, 
 bring my bearskins and buffalo robe." 
 
342 THE CONQUEST 
 
 The skins and robe were spread on the floor and the 
 woman went away to her kitchen. The house was a 
 double log cabin with a covered way between. Such 
 houses abound still in the Cumberland Mountains. 
 
 " I am afraid of that man," said the woman in the 
 kitchen, putting her children in their beds. " Something 
 is wrong. I cannot sleep." 
 
 The servants slept in the barn. Neely had not come. 
 Night came down with its mysterious veil upon the 
 frontier cabin. 
 
 But still that heavy pace was heard in the other cabin. 
 Now and then a voice spoke rapidly and incoherently. 
 
 " He must be a lawyer," said the woman in the kitchen. 
 Suddenly she heard the report of a pistol, and something 
 dropped heavily to the floor. There was a voice, " O 
 Lord!" 
 
 Excited, peering into the night, the trembling woman 
 listened. Another pistol, and then a voice at her door, 
 - " Oh, madame, give me some water and heal my 
 wounds ! " 
 
 Peering into the moonlight between the open unplas- 
 tered logs, she saw her guest stagger and fall. Presently 
 he crawled back into the room. Then again he came to 
 the kitchen door, but did not speak. An empty pail stood 
 there with a gourd, he was searching for water. Cow 
 ering, terrified, there in the kitchen with her children the 
 woman waited for the light. 
 
 At the first break of day she sent two of the children 
 to the barn to arouse the servants. And there, on his 
 bearskins on the cabin floor, they found the shattered 
 frame of Meriwether Lewis, a bullet in his side, a shot 
 under his chin, and a ghastly wound in his forehead. 
 
 "Take my rifle and kill me!" he begged. "I will 
 give you all the money in my trunk. I am no coward, but 
 I am so strong, so hard to die ! Do not be afraid of 
 me, Pernia, I will not hurt you." 
 
 And as the sun rose over the Tennessee trees, Meri 
 wether Lewis was dead, on the nth of October, 1809. 
 
A LONELY GRAVE IN TENNESSEE 343 
 
 VIII 
 
 A LONELY GRAVE IN TENNESSEE 
 
 A HERO of his country was dead, the Governor of 
 its largest Territory, dead, on his way to Wash 
 ington, where fresh honours awaited him, dead, 
 far from friends and kindred in a wild and boundless 
 forest. 
 
 Did he commit suicide in a moment of aberration, or 
 was he foully murdered by an unknown hand on that nth 
 of October, 1809? President Jefferson, who had ob 
 served signs of melancholy in him in early life, favoured 
 the idea of suicide, but in the immediate neighbourhood 
 the theory of murder took instant shape. Where was 
 Joshua Grinder? Where were those servants? Where 
 was Neely himself? 
 
 " I never for a moment entertained the thought of sui 
 cide," said his mother, when she heard the news. " His 
 last letter was full of hope. I was to live with him in 
 St. Louis." 
 
 Of all men in the world why should Meriwether Lewis 
 commit suicide? The question has been argued for a 
 hundred years and is to-day no nearer solution than ever. 
 
 " Old Grinder killed him and got his money," said the 
 neighbours. " He saw he was well dressed and evidently 
 a person of distinction and wealth." Grinder was ar 
 rested and tried but no proof could be secured. 
 
 " Alarmed by his groans the robbers hid his pouch of 
 gold coins in the earth, with the intention of securing it 
 later," said others. " They never ventured to return, - 
 it lies there, buried, to this day." And the superstitions 
 of the neighbourhood have invested the spot with the 
 weird fascination of Captain Kidd's treasure, or the 
 buried box of gold on Neacarney. 
 
 " He was killed by his French servant," said the Lewis 
 family. Later, when Pernia visited Charlottesville and 
 
344 THE CONQUEST 
 
 sent word to Locust Hill, Meriwether's mother refused 
 to see him. 
 
 John Marks, half-brother of Meriwether Lewis, went 
 immediately to the scene of tragedy, but nothing more 
 could be done or learned. Proceeding to St. Louis, the 
 estate was settled. 
 
 When at last the trunks arrived at Washington they 
 were found to contain the journals, papers on the 
 protested bills, and the well-known spy-glass used by 
 Lewis on the expedition. But there were no valuables 
 or money. 
 
 Years after, Meriwether's sister and her husband un 
 expectedly met Pernia on the streets of Mobile, and Mary 
 recognised in his possession the William Wirt watch and 
 the gun of her brother. On demand they were promptly 
 surrendered. 
 
 In the lonely heart of Lewis county, Tennessee, stands 
 to-day a crumbling gray stone monument with a broken 
 shaft of limestone erected by the State on the spot where, 
 in the thirty-fifth year of his age, Meriwether Lewis met 
 his death. In solitude and desolation, moss overlies his 
 tomb, but his name lives on, brightening with the years. 
 
 IX 
 
 TRADE FOLLOWS THE FLAG 
 
 jour, Ms'ieu, you want to know where dat 
 
 ne?" The polite Creole lifted his cap. 
 " 'Pears now, maybe I heerd he wuz Guv'ner," 
 said the keen-eyed trapper thoughtfully. 
 
 " GufFner Lewees ees det, kilt heeself . Generale 
 Clark leeves on de Rue Royale, next de Injun office." 
 
 In unkempt beard, hair shaggy as a horse's mane, and 
 clothing all of leather, the stranger climbed the rocky 
 path, using the stock of his gun for a staff. 
 
 It did not take long to find the Indian office. With a 
 
TRADE FOLLOWS THE FLAG 345 
 
 dozen lounging braves outside and a council within, sat 
 William Clark, the Red Head Chief. 
 
 General Clark noted the shadow in the door that bright 
 May morning. Not in vain had these men faced the West 
 together. 
 
 "Bless me, it's Coalter! Where have you been? 
 How did you come?" 
 
 From the mountains, three thousand miles in thirty 
 days, in a small canoe, Coalter had come flying down 
 the melting head-snows of the Rockies. He was haggard 
 with hunger and loss of sleep. 
 
 Leading his old companion to the cottage, Clark soon 
 had him surrounded with the comforts of a civilised meal. 
 Refreshed, gradually the trapper unfolded his tale. 
 
 When John Coalter left Lewis and Clark at the Mandan 
 towns and went back with Hancock and Dickson, in that 
 Summer of 1806, they, the first of white men, entered the 
 Yellowstone Park of to-day. In the Spring, separating 
 from his companions, Coalter set out for St. Louis in a 
 solitary canoe. At the mouth of the Platte he met Manuel 
 Lisa and Drouillard coming up. And with them, John 
 Potts, another of the Lewis and Clark soldiers. On the 
 spot Coalter re-enlisted and returned a third time to the 
 wilderness. 
 
 Such a man was invaluable to that first venture in the 
 north. After Lisa had stockaded his fort at the mouth 
 of the Bighorn, he sent Coalter to bring the Indians. 
 Alone he set out with gun and knapsack, travelled five 
 hundred miles, and brought in his friends the Crows. 
 That laid the foundation of Lisa's fortune. 
 
 When Lisa came down with his furs in the Spring, 
 Coalter and Potts with traps on their backs set out for 
 the beaver-meadows of the Three Forks, the Madison, 
 the Jefferson, and the Gallatin. 
 
 " We knew those Blackfoot sarpints would spare no 
 chance to skelp us," said Coalter, " so we sot our traps by 
 night an' tuk 'em afore daylight. Goin' up a creek six 
 miles from the Jefferson, examinin' our traps one mornin', 
 on a suddent we heerd a great noise. But the banks wuz 
 high an' we cud n't see. 
 
346 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " ' Blackfeet, Potts. Let 's retreat/ sez I. 
 
 " ' Blackfut nuthin'. Ye must be a coward. Thet 's 
 buffaloes/ sez Potts. An' we kep' on. 
 
 " In a few minutes five or six hunderd Injuns appeared 
 on both sides uv the creek, beckonin' us ashore. I saw 
 't warnt no use an' turned the canoe head in. 
 
 " Ez we touched, an Injun seized Potts' rifle. I jumped 
 an' grabbed an' handed it back to Potts in the canoe. He 
 tuk it an' pushed off. 
 
 " An' Injun let fly an arrer. Jest ez I heard it whizz, 
 Potts cried, * Coalter, I 'm wounded.' 
 
 ' Don't try to get off, Potts, come ashore/ I urged. 
 But no, he levelled his rifle and shot a Blackfoot dead on 
 the spot. Instanter they riddled Potts, dead, he floated 
 down stream. 
 
 ' Then they seized and stripped me. I seed 'em 
 consultin'. 
 
 ' Set 'im up fer a target/ said some. I knew ther 
 lingo, lernt it 'mongst the Crows, raound Lisa's fort, 
 at the Bighorn. But the chief asked me, ' Can ye run 
 fast?' 
 
 ' No, very bad runner/ I answered." 
 
 Clark smiled. Well he remembered Coalter as the 
 winner in many a racing bout. 
 
 '' The chief led me aout on the prairie, ' Save yerself 
 ef ye can.' 
 
 " Et thet instant I heerd, ' Whoop-ahahahahah-hooh ! ' 
 like ten thousand divils, an' I Hew. 
 
 11 It wuz six miles to the Jefferson ; the graound wuz 
 stuck like a pinquishen with prickly-pear an' sand burrs, 
 cuttin' my bare feet, but I wuz half acrosst before I ven 
 tured to look over the shoulder. The sarpints ware 
 pantin' an' fallin' behind an' scatterin'. But one with a 
 spear not more 'n a hunderd y cards behind was gainin'. 
 
 " I made another bound, blood gushed from my nos 
 trils. Nearer, nearer I heerd his breath and steps, ex- 
 pectin' every minute to feel thet spear in my back. 
 
 " Agin I looked. Not twenty yeards behind he ran. 
 On a suddint I stopped, turned, and spread my arms. 
 The Blackfoot, astonished at the blood all over my front, 
 
TRADE FOLLOWS THE FLAG 347 
 
 perhaps, tried to stop but stumbled an' fell and broke his 
 spear. I ran back, snatched the point, and pinned him to 
 the earth. 
 
 " The rest set up a hidjus yell. While they stopped 
 beside ther fallen comrade, almost faintin' I ran inter the 
 cottonwoods on the borders uv the shore an' plunged ento 
 the river. 
 
 " Diving under a raft of drift-timber agin the upper 
 point of a little island, I held my head up in a little open 
 ing amongst the trunks of trees covered with limbs and 
 brushwood. 
 
 " Screechin', yellin' like so many divils, they come onto 
 the island. Thro' the chinks I seed 'em huntin', huntin', 
 huntin', all day long. I only feared they might set the 
 raft on fire. 
 
 " But at night they gave it up ; the voices grew faint 
 and fer away; I swam cautiously daown an' acrost, an' 
 landin' travelled all night. 
 
 " But I wuz naked. The broilin' sun scorched my skin, 
 my feet were filled with prickly-pears, an' I wuz hungry. 
 Game, game plenty on the hills, but I hed no gun. It was 
 seven days to Lisa's fort on the Bighorn. 
 
 " I remembered the Injun turnip that Sacajawea found 
 in there, an' lived on it an' sheep sorrel until I reached 
 Lisa's fort, blistered from head to heel." 
 
 As in a vision the General saw it all. Judy's eyes were 
 filled with tears. Through the Gallatin, the Indian Valley 
 of Flowers, where Bozeman stands to-day, the lonely 
 trapper had toiled in the July sun and over the Bozeman 
 Pass, whither Clark's cavalcade had ridden two summers 
 before. 
 
 Six years now had Coalter been gone from civilisation, 
 but he had discovered the Yellowstone Park. No one in 
 St. Louis would believe his stories of hot water spouting 
 in fountains, " Coalter' s Hell," but William Clark traced 
 his route on the map that he sent for publication. 
 
 John Coalter now received his delayed reward for the 
 expedition, double pay and three hundred acres of land, 
 and went up to find Boone at Charette. 
 
 "What! Pierre Menard!" Another boat had come 
 
348 THE CONQUEST 
 
 out of the north. General Clark grasped the horny hand 
 of the fur trader. " What luck? " 
 
 " Bad, bad," gloomily answered the trader with a shake 
 of his flowing mane. " Drouillard is dead, and the rest 
 are likely soon to be." 
 
 " What do you mean?" 
 
 "Blackfeet!" 
 
 Clark guessed all, even before he heard the full details 
 behind locked doors of the Missouri Fur Company at the 
 warehouse of Pierre Chouteau. 
 
 " As you knew," began Menard, " we spent last winter 
 at Fort Lisa on the Bighorn. When Lisa started down 
 here in March we packed our traps on horses, crossed to 
 the Three Forks, and built a double stockade of logs at 
 the confluence of the rivers. Every night the men came 
 in with beaver, beaver, beaver. We confidently expected 
 to bring down not less than three hundred packs this fall 
 but that hope is shattered. On the I2th of April our men 
 were ambuscaded by Blackfeet. Five were killed. All 
 their furs, traps, horses, guns, and equipments are 
 without doubt by this time at Fort Edmonton on the 
 Saskatchewan." 
 
 " But you expected to visit the Snakes and Flatheads," 
 suggested one to rouse the despondent trader from his 
 revery. 
 
 " I did. And the object was to obtain a Blackfoot 
 prisoner if possible in order to open communication with 
 his tribe. They are the most unapproachable Indians we 
 have known. They refuse all overtures. 
 
 " Just outside the fort Drouillard was killed. A high 
 wind was blowing at the time, so he was not heard, but 
 the scene of the conflict indicated a desperate defence. 
 
 " Despair seized our hunters. They refused to go out. 
 Indeed, it was impossible to go except in numbers, so 
 Henry and I concluded it was best to report. I set out by 
 night, and here I am, with these men and thirty packs of 
 beaver. God pity poor Henry at the Three Forks ! " 
 
 Thus at one blow were shattered the high hopes of the 
 Missouri Fur Company. All thought of Andrew Henry, 
 tall, slender, blue-eyed, dark-haired, a man that spoke 
 
TRADE FOLLOWS THE FLAG 349 
 
 seldom, but of great deeds. Would he survive a winter 
 among the Blackfeet? 
 
 But there was another cause of disquiet to the Missouri 
 Fur Company. 
 
 " Have you heard of John Jacob Astor?" 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " He has gone with Wilson Price Hunt to Montreal to 
 engage men for an expedition to the Columbia." 
 
 " What, Hunt who kept an Indian shop here on the 
 Rue ? " They all knew him. He had come to St. Louis 
 in 1804 and become an adept in outfitting. 
 
 Two or three times Astor had offered to buy stock in 
 the Missouri Fur Company but had been refused. Jef 
 ferson himself had recommended him to Lewis. Now 
 he was carrying trade into the fur country over their 
 heads. Already he had a great trade on the lakes, and to 
 the headwaters of the Mississippi. He had profited by 
 the surrender of Detroit and Mackinaw. Another stride 
 took him to the Falls of St. Anthony ; and now, along the 
 trail of Lewis and Clark he planned to be first on the 
 Pacific. With ships by sea and caravans by land, he 
 could at last accomplish the wished-for trade to China. 
 
 " But I, too, planned the Pacific trade," said Manuel 
 Lisa, coming down in the Autumn. There was some 
 jealousy that a New York man should be first to follow 
 the trail to the sea. 
 
 The winter was one of anxiety, for Astor' s men had 
 arrived in St. Louis and had gone up the Missouri to camp 
 until Spring. Anxiety, too, for Andrew Henry, out there 
 alone in the Blackfoot country. 
 
 Could they have been gifted with sufficient sight, the 
 partners in St. Louis might even then have seen the brave 
 Andrew Henry fighting for his life on that little tongue 
 of land between the Madison and the Jefferson. No trap 
 ping could be done. It was dangerous to go any distance 
 from the fort except in large parties. Fearing the entire 
 destruction of his little band, Henry moved across the 
 mountains into the Oregon country, and wintered on 
 what is now Henry's Fork of the river Snake, the first 
 American stronghold on the Columbia. 
 
350 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " We must exterminate Hunt's party," said Manuel 
 Lisa. 
 
 " No," said Pierre Chouteau. " Next year he will 
 send again and again, and in time will exterminate us. 
 Your duty will be to protect his men on the water, and 
 may God Almighty have mercy on them in the mountains, 
 for they will never reach their destination." 
 
 From his new home at Charette John Coalter saw 
 Astor's people going by, bound for the Columbia. To 
 his surprise they inquired for him. 
 
 " General Clark told us you were the best informed 
 man in the country." 
 
 Coalter told them of the hostility of the Blackfeet and 
 the story of his escape. He longed to return with them 
 to the mountains, but he had just married a squaw and he 
 decided to stay. Moreover, a twinge in his limbs warned 
 him that that plunge in the Jefferson had given him 
 rheumatism for life. 
 
 Daniel Boone, standing on the bank at Charette when 
 Hunt went by, came down and examined their outfit. 
 " Jist returned from my traps on the Creek," he said, 
 pointing to sixty beaver skins. 
 
 Tame beavers and otters, caught on an island opposite 
 Charette Creek, were playing around his cabin. And his 
 neighbours had elk and deer and buffalo, broken to the 
 yoke. 
 
 Several seasons had Boone with his old friend Callo- 
 way trapped on the Kansas; now he longed for the 
 mountains. 
 
 " Another year and I, too, will go to the Yellowstone," 
 said Daniel Boone. 
 
 " Andrew Henry must be rescued. His situation is 
 desperate. He may be dead," said General Clark, Presi 
 dent of the Missouri Fur Company at St. Louis. 
 
 Three weeks behind Hunt, Lisa set out in a swift barge 
 propelled by twenty oars, with a swivel on the bow and 
 two blunderbusses in the cabin. Lisa had been a sea- 
 captain, he rigged his boat with a good mast, mainsail 
 and topsail, and led his men with a ringing boat-song. 
 
 Then followed a keelboat race of a thousand miles up 
 
TRADE FOLLOWS THE FLAG 351 
 
 the Missouri. June 2 Lisa caught up with Hunt near the 
 present Bismarck, and met Andrew Henry coming down 
 with forty packs of beaver. 
 
 To avoid the hostile Blackfeet, Hunt bought horses 
 and crossed through the Yellowstone-Crow country to 
 the abandoned fort of Henry on the Snake, and on to 
 the Columbia. 
 
 Aboard that barge with Lisa went Sacajawea. True 
 to her word, she had brought the little Touissant down 
 to St. Louis, where Clark placed him with the Catholic 
 sisters to be trained for an interpreter. Sacajawea was 
 dressed as a white woman ; she had quickly adopted their 
 manners and language; but, in the words of a chron 
 icler who saw her there, " she had become sickly, and 
 longed to revisit her native country. Her husband also 
 had become wearied of civilised life." 
 
 So back they went to the Minnetarees, bearing pipes 
 from Clark to the chiefs. Five hundred dollars a year 
 Charboneau now received as Indian agent for the United 
 States. For more than thirty years he held his post, and 
 to this day his name may be traced in the land of Dakota. 
 
 We can see Sacajawea now, startled and expectant, 
 her heart beating like a trip-hammer under her bodice, 
 looking at Julia ! No dreams of her mountains had ever 
 shown such sunny hair, such fluffs of curls, like moonrise 
 on the water. And that diaphanous cloud, was it a 
 dress? No Shoshone girl ever saw such buckskin, finer 
 than blossom of the bitter-root. 
 
 " I am come," said Sacajawea. 
 
 A whole year she had tarried among the whites, quickly 
 accommodating herself to their ways. But in the level 
 St. Louis she dreamed of her northland, and now she was 
 going home! 
 
352 THE CONQUEST 
 
 TECUMSEH 
 
 " ""T is madness to contend against the whites," said 
 I Black Hoof, chief of the Shawnees. " The more 
 
 Awe fight the more they come." 
 
 He had led raids against Boonsboro, watched the Ohio, 
 and sold scalps at Detroit. Three times his town was 
 burnt behind him, twice by Clark and once by Wayne. 
 Then he gave up, signed the treaty at Greenville, and 
 for ever after kept the peace. Now he was living with 
 a band of Shawnees at Cape Girardeau, and made fre 
 quent visits to his old friend, Daniel Boone. 
 
 Indian Phillips was with those who besieged Boons 
 boro. Phillips was a white man stolen as a child who 
 had always lived with the Shawnees. To him Daniel 
 Boone was the closest of friends. They hunted together 
 and slept together. Boone took Phillips' bearskins and 
 sold them with his own in St. Louis. 
 
 " If I should die while I am out with you, Phillips, you 
 must mark my grave and tell the folks so they can carry 
 me home." 
 
 Long after those Indians in the West had welcomed 
 Boone's sons, an old squaw said, " I was an adopted 
 sister during his captivity with the Ohio Indians." 
 
 Sometimes Boone went over to Cape Girardeau, and 
 sat with his friends talking over old times. 
 
 " Do you remember, Dan," Phillips would say, " when 
 we had you prisoner at Detroit? You remember the 
 British traders gave you a horse and saddle and Black 
 Fish adopted you, and you and he made an agreement 
 you would lead him to Boonsboro and make them sur 
 render and bury the tomahawk, and live like brothers 
 and sisters ? " 
 
 " Yes, I remember," said Boone, smiling at the recol 
 lection of those arts of subterfuge. 
 
TECUMSEH 353 
 
 " Do you remember one warm day when Black Fish 
 said, ' Dan, the corn is in good roasting ears. I would 
 like to have your horse and mine in good condition be 
 fore we start to Boonsboro. We need a trough to feed 
 them in. I will show you a big log that you can dig out.' 
 Black Fish led you to a big walnut log. You worked a 
 while and then lay down. Black Fish came and said, 
 ' Well, Dan, you have n't done much/ 
 
 " ' No/ you answered, * you and your squaw call me 
 your son, but you don't love me much. When I am at 
 home I don't work this way, I have negroes to work 
 for me.' 
 
 " ' Well,' said Black Fish, ' come to camp and stay with 
 your brothers.' ' 
 
 Quietly the two old men chuckled together. Boone 
 always called Black Fish, father, and when he went 
 hunting brought the choicest bit to the chief. 
 
 But now Boone' s visits to Girardeau were made with 
 a purpose. 
 
 " What is Tecumseh doing? " 
 
 " Tecumseh ? He says no tribe can sell our lands. He 
 refuses to move out of Ohio." 
 
 Old Black Hoof had pulled away from Tecumseh. 
 The Shooting Star refused to attend Wayne's treaty at 
 Greenville. In 1805 he styled himself a chief, and organ 
 ised the young blood of the Shawnees into a personal 
 band. 
 
 About this time Tecumseh met Rebecca Galloway, 
 whose father, James Galloway, had moved over from 
 Kentucky to settle near Old Chillicothe. At the Gallo 
 way hearth Tecumseh was ever a welcome guest. 
 
 '' Teach me to read the white man's book," said Tecum 
 seh to the fair Rebecca. 
 
 With wonderful speed the young chief picked up the 
 English alphabet. Hungry for knowledge, he read and 
 read and Rebecca read to him. Thereafter in his wonder 
 ful war and peace orations, Tecumseh used the language 
 of his beloved Rebecca. For, human-like, the young chief 
 lost his heart to the white girl. Days went by, dangerous 
 days, while Rebecca was correcting Tecumseh' s speech, 
 
 23 
 
354 THE CONQUEST 
 
 enlarging his English vocabulary, and reading to him 
 from the Bible. 
 
 " Promise me, Tecumseh, never, never will you permit 
 the massacre of helpless women and children after cap 
 ture." Tecumseh promised. 
 
 " And be kind to the poor surrendered prisoner."-" 
 
 " I will be kind," said Tecumseh. 
 
 But time was fleeting, game was disappearing, 
 Tecumseh was an Indian. His lands were slipping from 
 under his feet. 
 
 It was useless to speak to the fair Rebecca. Terrified 
 at the fire she had kindled, she saw him no more. En 
 raged, wrathful, he returned to his band. Tecumseh 
 never loved any Indian woman. A wife or two he tried, 
 then bade them " Begone! " 
 
 When Lewis and Clark returned from the West, Te 
 cumseh and his brother, the Prophet, were already plan 
 ning a vast confederation to wipe out the whites. 
 
 Jefferson heard of these things. 
 
 "He is visionary," said the President, and let him go 
 on unmolested. 
 
 " The Seventeen Fires are cheating us ! " exclaimed 
 Tecumseh. " The Delawares, Miamis, and Pottawatta- 
 mies have sold their lands! The Great Spirit gave the 
 land to all the Indians. No tribe can sell without the 
 consent of all. The whites have driven us from the sea- 
 coast, they will shortly push us into the Lakes." 
 
 The Governor-General of Canada encouraged him. 
 Then came rumours of Indian activity. Like the Her 
 mit of old, Tecumseh went out to rouse the redmen in a 
 crusade against the whites. Still Jefferson paid no heed. 
 
 About the time that Clark and his bride came down 
 the Ohio, the distracted Indians were swarming on Tip- 
 pecanoe Creek, a hundred miles from Fort Dearborn, the 
 future 'Chicago. All Summer, whisperings came into 
 St. Louis, " Tecumseh is persuading the Sacs, Foxes, 
 and Osages to war." 
 
 " I will meet the Sacs and Foxes," said Lewis. 
 
 Clark went out and quieted the Osages. Boone's son 
 and Auguste Chouteau went with him. 
 
TECUMSEH 355 
 
 " The Great Spirit bids you destroy Vincennes and 
 sweep the Ohio to the mouth," was the Prophet's re 
 ported advice to the Chippewas. 
 
 " Give up our land and buy no more, and I will ally 
 with the United States," said Tecumseh to General Har 
 rison at Vincennes, in August of 1809. 
 
 " It cannot be," said Harrison. 
 
 ' Then I will make war and ally with England," re 
 torted the defiant chieftain. 
 
 The frontier had much to fear from an Indian war. 
 More and more vagrant red men hovered around St. 
 Louis, Sacs, Foxes, Osages, who had seen Tecumseh. 
 The Illinois country opposite swarmed with them, mak 
 ing raids on the farmers, killing stock, stealing horses. 
 Massacres and depredations began. 
 
 : 'T is time to fortify," said Daniel Boone to his sons 
 and neighbours. 
 
 In a little while nine forts had been erected in St. 
 Charles county alone, and every cabin was stockaded. 
 The five stockades at Boone' s Lick met frequent assaults. 
 Black Hawk was there, the trusted lieutenant of Tecum 
 seh. The whole frontier became alarmed. 
 
 Then Manuel Lisa came down the river. 
 
 ' The British are sending wampum to the Sioux. All 
 the Missouri nations are urged to join the confederacy." 
 
 In fact, the Prophet with his mystery fire was visiting 
 all the northwest tribes, even the Blackfeet. Ten thou 
 sand Indians promised to follow him back. Dressed in 
 white buckskin, with eagle feathers in his hair, Tecumseh, 
 on a spirited black pony, came to Gomo and Black Par 
 tridge on Peoria Lake in the summer of 1810. 
 
 " I cannot join you," said Black Partridge, the Pot- 
 tawattamie, holding up a silver medal. " This token was 
 given to me at Greenville by the great chief [Wayne]. 
 On it you see the face of our father at Washington. As 
 long as this hangs on my neck I can never raise my toma 
 hawk against the whites." 
 
 Gomo refused. " Long ago the Big Knife [George 
 Rogers Clark] came to Kaskaskia and sent for the chiefs 
 of this river. We went. He desired us to remain still 
 
356 THE CONQUEST 
 
 in our own villages, saying that the Americans were able, 
 of themselves, to fight the British." 
 
 " Will anything short of the complete" conquest of the 
 Canadas enable us to prevent their influence on our In 
 dians?" asked Governor Edwards of Illinois. Edwards 
 and Clark planned together for the protection of the 
 frontier. 
 
 In July, 1811, Tecumseh went to Vincennes and held 
 a last stormy interview with Harrison without avail. 
 Immediately he turned south to the Creeks, Choctaws, 
 Chickasaws, and Seminoles. They watched him with 
 kindling eyes. 
 
 " Brothers, you do not mean to fight ! " thundered Te 
 cumseh to the hesitating Creeks. " You do not believe 
 the Great Spirit has sent me. You shall know. From 
 here I go straight to Detroit. When I arrive there I 
 shall stamp on the ground, and shake down every house 
 in this village." 
 
 As Tecumseh strode into the forest the terrified Creeks 
 watched. They counted the days. Then came the awful 
 quaking and shaking of the New Madrid earthquake. 
 
 " Tecumseh has reached Detroit ! Tecumseh has 
 reached Detroit!" cried the frantic Creeks, as their 
 wigwams tumbled about them. 
 
 Tecumseh was coming leisurely up among the tribes 
 of Missouri, haranguing Black Hoof at Cape Girardeau, 
 Osages, and Kickapoos, and lowas at Des Moines. 
 
 But Tippecanoe had been fought and lost. 
 
 " There is to be an attack," said George Rogers Clark 
 Floyd, tapping at the door of Harrison's tent at three 
 o'clock in the morning of November 7, 1811. Harrison 
 sprang to his horse and with him George Croghan and 
 John O'Fallon. 
 
 It was a battle for possession. Every Indian trained 
 by Tecumseh knew his country depended upon it. Every 
 white knew he must win or the log cabin must go. In 
 the darkness and rain the combatants locked in the 
 death struggle of savagery against civilisation. Tecum 
 seh reached the Wabash to find the wreck of Tippecanoe. 
 
 " Wretch ! " he cried to his brother, " vou have ruined 
 
TECUMSEH 357 
 
 all ! " Seizing the Prophet by the hair, Tecumseh shook 
 him and beat him and cuffed him and almost killed him, 
 then dashed away to Canada and offered his tomahawk 
 to Great Britain. 
 
 " The danger is not over," said Clark after Harrison's 
 battle. 
 
 To save as many Indians as possible from the machina 
 tions of Tecumseh, immediately after Tippecanoe Clark 
 summoned the neighbouring tribes to a council at St. 
 Louis. Over the winter snows the runners sped, calling 
 them in for a trip to Washington. 
 
 It was May of 1812 when Clark got together his chiefs 
 of the Great and Little Osages, Sacs, Foxes, Shawnees, 
 and Delawares. 
 
 " Ahaha ! Great Medicine ! " whispered the Indians, 
 when General Clark discovered their wily plans. 
 
 Nothing could be hid from the Red Head Chief. 
 Feared and beloved, none other could better have handled 
 the inflammable tribes at that moment. Old chiefs among 
 them remembered his brother of the Long Knives, and 
 looked upon this Clark as his natural successor. And 
 the General took care not to dispel this fancy, but on 
 every occasion strengthened and deepened it. 
 
 Never before in St. Louis had Indians been watched so 
 strenuously. Moody, taciturn, repelling familiarity, they 
 bore the faces of men who knew secrets. Tecumseh had 
 whispered in their ear. " Shall we listen to Tecumseh? " 
 They were wavering. 
 
 Cold, impassively stoic, they heeded no question when 
 citizens impelled by curiosity or friendly feeling endeav 
 oured to draw them into conversation. If pressed too 
 closely, the straight forms lifted still more loftily, and 
 wrapping their blankets closer about them the council 
 chiefs strode contemptuously away. 
 
 But if Clark spoke, every eye was attention. 
 
 " Before we go," said Clark, " I advise you to make 
 peace with one another and bury the hatchet." 
 
 They did, and for the most part kept it for ever. 
 
 It was May 5 when Clark started with his embassy of 
 ninety chiefs to see their " Great God, the President," as 
 
358 THE CONQUEST 
 
 they called Madison, following the old trail to Vincennes, 
 Louisville, and Pittsburg. Along with them went a body 
 guard of soldiers, and also Mrs. Clark, her maids, and 
 the two little boys, on the way to Fincastle. Mrs. Clark's 
 especial escort was John O'Fallon, nineteen years of 
 age, aide to Harrison at Tippecanoe, who had come to, 
 his uncle at St. Louis immediately after the battle. 
 
 In their best necklaces of bears' claws the chiefs ar 
 rived at Washington. War had been declared against 
 Great Britain. There was a consultation with the 
 President. 
 
 " We, too, have declared war," announced the redmen, 
 as they strode with Clark from the White House. But 
 Black Hawk of the Rock River Sacs was not there. He 
 had followed Tecumseh. 
 
 About the same time, on the eastern bank of the Detroit 
 river Tecumseh was met by anxious Ohio chiefs who re 
 membered Wayne. 
 
 " Let us remain neutral," they pleaded. " This is the 
 white man's war." 
 
 Tecumseh shook his tomahawk above the Detroit. 
 " My bones shall bleach on this shore before I will join 
 in any council of neutrality." 
 
 " The Great Father over the Big Water will never bury 
 his war-club until he quiets these troublers of the earth," 
 said General Brock to Tecumseh' s redmen. Then came 
 larger gifts than ever from " their British Father." 
 
 "War is declared! Go," said Tecumseh, "cut off Fort 
 Dearborn before they hear the news ! " Two emissaries 
 from Tecumseh came flying into the Illinois. 
 
 That night the Indians started for Chicago on her 
 lonely lake. Black Partridge mounted his pony and 
 tried to dissuade them. He could not. Then spurring 
 he reached Fort Dearborn first. With tears he threw 
 down his medal before the astonished commander. 
 
 " My young men have gone on the warpath. Here is 
 your medal. I will not wear an emblem of friendship 
 when I am compelled to act as an enemy." 
 
 Before the sun went down the shores of Lake Michi 
 gan were red with the blood of men, women, and chil- 
 
TECUMSEH 359 
 
 dren. Like the Rhine of old France, the lakes were still 
 the fighting border. 
 
 President Madison felt grateful to Clark for the step 
 he had taken with the Indians. 
 
 " Will you command the army at Detroit? " 
 
 " I can do more for my country by attending to the 
 Indians/' was the General's modest reply. 
 
 The country waited to hear that Hull had taken Upper 
 Canada. Instead the shocked nation heard, " Hull has 
 surrendered! " 
 
 "Hull has surrendered!" 
 
 Runners flew among the Indians to the remotest border, 
 the Creeks heard it before their white neighbours. 
 Little Crow and his Sioux snatched up the war hatchet. 
 Detroit had fallen with Tecumseh and Brock at the head 
 of the Anglo-Indian army. 
 
 " We shall drive these Americans back across the 
 Ohio," said General Brock. 
 
 At this, the old and popular wish of the Lake Indians, 
 large numbers threw aside their scruples and joined in 
 the war that followed. 
 
 In December General Clark was appointed Governor 
 of the newly organised territory of Missouri. 
 
 Meanwhile in the buff and blue stage coach, a huge 
 box mounted on springs, Julia and her children were 
 swinging toward Fotheringay. The air was hot and 
 dusty, the leather curtains were rolled up to catch the 
 slightest breeze, and the happy though weary occupants 
 looked out on the Valley of Virginia. 
 
 Forty miles a day the coach horses travelled, leaving 
 them each evening a little nearer their destination. The 
 small wayside inns lacked comforts, but such as they 
 were our travellers accepted thankfully. Now and then 
 the post-rider blew his horn and dashed by them, or in 
 the heat of the day rode leisurely in the shade of poplars 
 along the road, furtively reading the letters of his pack 
 as he paced in the dust. 
 
 And still over the mountains were pouring white- 
 topped Conestoga waggons, careening down like boats 
 at sea, laden with cargoes of colonial ware, pewter, and 
 
360 THE CONQUEST 
 
 mahogany. The golden age of coaching times had come, 
 and magnificent horses, dappled grays and bays in scar 
 let-fringed housings and jingling bells, seemed bearing 
 away the world on wheels. 
 
 To the new home Julia was coming, at Fotheringay. 
 
 Before the coach stopped Julia perceived through en 
 shrining trees Black Granny standing in the wide hall 
 way. Throwing up her apron over her woolly head to 
 hide the tears of joy, 
 
 " Laws a-honey ! Miss Judy done come hum ! " 
 
 " Fotheringay ! " sang out the dusty driver with an 
 unusual flourish of whip-lash and echo-waking blast of 
 the postillion's horn. In a trice the steps were down, and 
 surrounded by babies and bandboxes, brass nail-studded 
 hair trunks and portmanteaus of pigskin, " Miss Judy " 
 was greeted by the entire sable population of Fotherin 
 gay. Light-footed as a girl she ran forward to greet her 
 father, Colonel Hancock. The Colonel hastened to his 
 daughter, 
 
 " Hull has surrendered," he said. 
 
 XI 
 
 CLARK GUARDS THE FRONTIER 
 
 THE Indian hunt was over ; they were done making 
 their sugar ; the women were planting corn. The 
 warriors hid in the thick foliage of the river bor 
 ders, preparing for war. 
 
 " Madison has declared war against England ! " 
 The news was. hailed with delight. Now would end 
 this frightful suspense. In Illinois alone, fifteen hundred 
 savages under foreign machinations held in terror forty 
 thousand white people, officers and soldiers of George 
 Rogers Clark and others who had settled on the unde 
 fended prairies. 
 
 "Detroit has fallen!" 
 
CLARK GUARDS THE FRONTIER 361 
 
 " Mackinac is gone ! " 
 
 " The savages have massacred the garrison at Fort 
 Dearborn ! " 
 
 : ' They are planning to attack the settlements on the 
 Mississippi. If the Sioux join the confederacy " 
 cheeks paled at the possibility. 
 
 The greatest body of Indians in America resided on the 
 Mississippi. Who could say at what hour the waters 
 would resound with their whoops? Thousands of them 
 could reach St. Louis or Cahokia from their homes in five 
 or six days. Immense quantities of British gifts were 
 coming from the Lakes to the Indians at Peoria, Rock 
 Island, Des Moines. 
 
 ' Yes, we shall attack when the corn is ripe," said the 
 Indians at Fort Madison. 
 
 " Unless I hear shortly of more assistance than a few 
 rangers I shall bury my papers in the ground, send my 
 family off, and fight as long as possible," said Edwards, 
 the Governor of Illinois. 
 
 In Missouri, surrounded by Pottawattamies, cham 
 pion horsethieves of the frontier, and warlike Foxes, 
 lowas, and Kickapoos, the settlers ploughed their fields 
 with sentinels on guard. Horns hung at their belts to 
 blow as a signal of danger. In the quiet hour by the fire 
 side, an Indian would steal into the postern gate and shoot 
 the father at the hearth, the mother at her evening task. 
 
 Presently the settlers withdrew into the forts, unable 
 to raise crops. With corn in the cabin loft, the bear hunt 
 in the fall, the turkey hunt at Christmas, and venison 
 hams kept over from last year, still there was plenty. 
 
 Daniel (0oone, the patriarch of about forty families, 
 ever on the lookout with his long thin eagle face, ruled 
 by advice and example. The once light flaxen hair was 
 gray, but even yet Boone's step was springy as the In 
 dian's, as gun in hand he watched around the forts. 
 
 Maine, Montana, each has known it all, the same run 
 ning fights of Kentucky and Oregon. Woe to the little 
 children playing outside the forted village, woe to the 
 lad driving home the cows, woe to the maid at milking 
 time. 
 
362 THE CONQUEST 
 
 The alarm was swelled by Quas-qua-ma, a chief of the 
 Sacs, a very pacific Indian and friend of the whites, who 
 came by night to bring warning and consult Clark. In 
 his search Quas-qua-ma tip-toed from porch to porch. 
 Frightened habitants peered through the shutters. 
 
 "What ees wanted?" 
 
 " The Red Head Chief." 
 
 But Clark had not arrived. 
 
 " We must take this matter into our own hands," said 
 the people. " British and Indians came once from Macki- 
 nac. They may again." 
 
 " Mackinac ? They are at Fort Madison now, murder 
 ing our regulars and rangers. How long since they 
 burned our boats and cargoes at Fort Bellevue? Any 
 day they may drop down on St. Louis." 
 
 " We must fortify." 
 
 " The old bastions may be made available for service." 
 
 " The old Spanish garrison tower must be refitted for 
 the women and children." 
 
 Such were the universal conclusions. Men went up the 
 river to the islands to bring down logs. Another party 
 set to work to dig a wide, deep ditch for a regular 
 stockade. 
 
 When Clark arrived to begin his duties as Territorial 
 Governor he found St. Louis bordering on a state of 
 panic. There was the cloud-shadow of the north. Below, 
 one thousand Indians, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, 
 Creeks, and Catawbas on a branch of the Arkansas within 
 three days' journey of Saint Genevieve were crossing the 
 river at Chickasaw Bluffs. Tecumseh's belts of wampum 
 were flying everywhere. 
 
 In their best necklaces of bears' claws Clark's ninety 
 chiefs came home, laden with tokens of esteem. Civilised 
 military dress had succeeded the blanket; the wild fierce 
 air was gone. 
 
 " We have declared war against Kinchotch [King 
 George]," said the proud chiefs, taking boat to keep their 
 tribes quiet along the west. 
 
 A sense of security returned to St. Louis. W T ould they 
 not act as a barrier to tribes more remote ? The plan for 
 
CLARK GUARDS THE FRONTIER 363 
 
 local fortification was abandoned, but a cordon of family 
 blockhouses was built from Bellefontaine to Kaskaskia, 
 a line seventy-five miles in length, along which the rangers 
 rode daily, watching the red marauders of Illinois. The 
 Mississippi was picketed with gunboats. 
 
 " Whoever holds Prairie du Chien holds the Upper 
 Mississippi," said Governor Clark. " I will go there 
 and break up that rendezvous of British and Indians." 
 
 Who better than Clark knew the border and the In 
 dian ? He could ply the oar, or level the rifle, or sleep at 
 night on gravel stones. 
 
 " It requires time and a little smoking with Indians if 
 you wish to have peace with them." 
 
 As soon as possible a gunboat, the Governor Clark, 
 and several smaller boats, manned with one hundred and 
 fifty volunteers and sixty regular troops, went up into 
 the hostile country. Fierce Sacs glared from Rock Island, 
 Foxes paused in their lead digging at Dubuque's mines, 
 lead for British cannon. 
 
 Although on Missouri territory, Prairie du Chien was 
 still occupied by Indians and traders to the exclusion of 
 Americans. Six hundred, seven hundred miles above 
 St. Louis, a little red bird whispered up the Mississippi, 
 " Long Knives coming! " The traders retired. 
 
 " Whoever enjoys the trade of the Indians will have 
 control of their affections and power," said Clark. " Too 
 long have we left this point unfortified." 
 
 A great impression had been made on the savages by 
 the liberality of the British traders. Their brilliant red 
 coats " Eenah ! eenah ! eenamah ! " exclaimed the 
 Sioux. 
 
 But now the Long Knives ! Wabasha, son of Wabasha 
 of the Revolution, remembered the Long Knives. When 
 Clark arrived at Prairie du Chien Wabasha refused to 
 fight him. Red Wing came down to the council. Upon 
 his bosom Rising Moose proudly exhibited a medal given 
 him by Captain Pike in 1805. The Indians nicknamed 
 him " Tammaha, the Pike." 
 
 Twenty-five leagues above Tammaha' s village lived 
 Wabasha, and twenty-five above Wabasha, the Red Wing, 
 
364 THE CONQUEST 
 
 all great chiefs of the Sioux, all very friendly now to the 
 Long Knife who had come up in his gunboat. 
 
 Since time immemorial Wabasha had been a friend of 
 the British, twice had he, the son of Wabasha I., been to 
 Quebec and received flags and medals. But now he re 
 membered Captain Pike who visited their northern waters 
 while Lewis and Clark were away at the west. Grasping 
 the hand of Clark, 
 
 " We have the greatest friendship for the United 
 States," said the chiefs, all except Little Crow. He 
 was leading a war party to the Lakes. 
 
 Leaving troops to erect a fort and maintain a garrison 
 at the old French Prairie du Chien, Governor Clark re 
 turned to his necessary duties at St. Louis. Behind on 
 the river remained the gunboat to guard the builders. 
 
 "A fort at the Prairie?" cried the British traders at 
 Mackinac. That cuts off our Dakota trade." And forth 
 with an expedition was raised to capture the garrison. 
 
 Barely was the rude fortification completed before a 
 force of British and Chippewas were marching upon it. 
 
 " I will not fight the Big Knives any more," said Red 
 Wing. 
 
 :< Why?" asked the traders. 
 
 " The lion and the eagle fight. Then the lion will go 
 home and leave us to the eagle." Red Wing was famed 
 for foretelling events at Prairie du Chien. 
 
 In June Manuel Lisa came down the Missouri. 
 
 " De Arrapahoe, Arikara, Gros Ventre, and Crow are 
 at war wit' de American. De British Nort'west traders 
 embroil our people wit' de sauvages to cut dem off ! " 
 
 " We must extend the posts of St. Louis to the British 
 border," cautioned Clark to Lisa. " And if necessary 
 arm the Yanktons and Omahas against the Sacs and 
 lowas. I herewith commission you, Lisa, my especial 
 sub-agent among the nations of the Missouri to keep 
 them at peace." 
 
 Very well Clark knew whom he was trusting. Now 
 that war had crippled the Missouri Fur Company, Lisa 
 alone represented them in the field. Familiar with the 
 fashions of Indians, the size and colour of the favourite 
 
CLARK GUARDS THE FRONTIER 365 
 
 blanket, the shape and length of tomahawks, no trader 
 was more a favourite than Manuel Lisa. Besides, he still 
 maintained the company's posts, Council Bluffs wdth 
 the Omahas, six hundred miles up the Missouri, and 
 another at the Sioux, six hundred miles further still, 
 with two hundred hunters in his employ. Here was a 
 force not to be despised. 
 
 Ten months in the year Lisa was buried in the wilder 
 ness, hid in the forest and the prairie, far from his wife 
 in St. Louis. Wily, winning, and strategic, no trader 
 knew Indians better. 
 
 " And," continued the Governor, " I offer you five hun 
 dred dollars for sub-agent's salary." 
 
 " A poor five hundred tollar ! " laughed Lisa. " Eet 
 will not buy te tobacco which I give annually to dose who 
 call me Fader. But Lisa will go. His interests and dose 
 of de Government are one." 
 
 Then after a moment's frowning reflection, "I haf 
 suffered enough," almost wailed Lisa, " I haf suffered 
 enough in person and in property under a different gov 
 ernment, to know how to appreciate de one under w'ich 
 I now live." 
 
 Even while they were consulting, "Here is your friend, 
 de Rising Moose!" announced old Antoine Le Claire. 
 
 " Rising Moose? " Governor Clark started to his feet 
 as one of the Prairie du Chien chiefs came striding 
 through the door. 
 
 " The fort is taken, but I will not fight the Long Knife. 
 Tammaha is an American." 
 
 All the way down on the gunboat riddled with bullets, 
 Tammaha had come with the fleeing soldiers to offer his 
 tomahawk to Governor Clark. The guns were not yet 
 in when the enemy swept down on the fort at Prairie 
 du Chien. 
 
 " Prairie du Chien lost? It shall be recovered. Wait 
 until Spring." 
 
 And the British, too, said, " Wait until Spring and we 
 will take St. Louis." But they feared the gunboats. 
 
 Governor Clark accepted Tammaha' s service, commis 
 sioning him a chief of the - Red Wing band of Sioux. 
 
3 66 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Wait and go up with Lisa. Tell your people the Long 
 Knife counsels them to remain quiet." 
 
 When Lisa set out for the north as agent of both the 
 fur business and that of the Government, he carried with 
 him mementoes and friendly reminders to all the principal 
 chiefs of the northern tribes. 
 
 Big Elk of the Omahas, Black Cat and Big White of 
 the Mandans, Le Borgne of the Minnetarees, even the 
 chiefs of the dreaded Teton Sioux were not forgotten. 
 The Red Head had been there, had visited their country. 
 He was the son of their Great Father, they would 
 listen to the Red Head Chief. 
 
 At this particular juncture of our national history, 
 Clark the Red Head and Manuel Lisa the trader formed 
 a fortunate combination for the interests of the United 
 States. Their words to the northern chiefs were weighty. 
 Their gifts were continued pledges of sacred friendship. 
 While the eyes of the nation were rivetted on the conflict 
 in the East and on the ocean, Clark held the trans-Missis 
 sippi with even a stronger grip than his illustrious brother 
 had held the trans-Alleghany thirty years before. 
 
 Along with Lisa up the Missouri to the Dakotas went 
 Tammaha, the Rising Moose, and crossed to Prairie du 
 Chien. 
 
 " Where do you come from and what business have 
 you here?" cried the British commander, rudely jerking 
 Tammaha' s bundle from his back and examining it for 
 letters. 
 
 " I come from St. Louis," answered the Moose. " I 
 promised the Long Knife I would come to Prairie du 
 Chien and here I am." 
 
 " Lock him in the guard house. He ought to be shot ! " 
 roared the officer. 
 
 " I am ready for death if you choose to kill me," an 
 swered Rising Moose. 
 
 At last in the depth of winter they sent him away. 
 
 Determined now, the old chief set out in the snows to 
 turn all his energy against the British. 
 
 " The Old Priest," said some of the Indians, " Tam 
 maha talks too much ! " 
 
CLARK GUARDS THE FRONTIER 367 
 
 All along the Missouri, from St. Louis to the Mandans, 
 Lisa held councils with the Indians with wonderful suc 
 cess. But the Mississippi tribes, nearer to Canada, were 
 for the most part won over to Great Britain. 
 
 In other directions Governor Clark sent out for reports 
 from the tribes. The answer was appalling. As if all 
 were at war, a cordon of foes stretched from the St. 
 Lawrence to the Arkansas and Alabama. 
 
 Even Black Partridge, at the Fort Dearborn mas 
 sacre he had snatched Mrs. Helm from the tomahawk and 
 held her in the lake to save her life. Late that night at 
 an Indian camp a friendly squaw-mother dressed her 
 wounds. Black Partridge loved that girl. 
 
 " Lieutenant Helm is a prisoner among the Indians," 
 said agent Forsythe at Peoria. " Here are presents, Black 
 Partridge. Go ransom him. Here is a written order on 
 General Clark for one hundred dollars when you bring 
 him to the Red Head Chief." 
 
 Black Partridge rode to the Kankakee village and 
 spread out his presents. " And you shall have one hun- 
 tret tollars when you bring him to te Red Head Chief." 
 
 " Not enough ! Not enough ! " cried the Indians. 
 
 " Here, then, take my pony, my rifle, my ring," said 
 the Partridge, unhooking the hoop of gold from his nose. 
 The bargain was made. The man was ransomed, and 
 mounted on ponies all started for St. Louis. Lieutenant 
 Helm was saved. 
 
 Late at night, tired and hungry, the rain falling in 
 torrents, without pony or gun, Black Partridge arrived 
 at his village on Peoria Lake. His village ? It was gone. 
 Black embers smouldered there. 
 
 Wrapped in his blanket, Black Partridge sat on the 
 ground to await the revelation 'of dawn. Wolves howled 
 a mournful wail in his superstitious ear. Day dawned. 
 There lay the carnage of slaughter, his daughter, his 
 grandchild, his neighbours, dead. The rangers had burnt 
 his town. 
 
 Breathing vengeance, " I will go on the war path," 
 said Black Partridge, the Pottawattamie. 
 
 Two hundred warriors went from the wigwams of 
 
3 68 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Illinois under Black Partridge, Shequenebec sent a hun 
 dred from his stronghold at the head of Peoria Lake, 
 Mittitass led a hundred from his village at the portage on 
 the Riviere des Plaines. Painted black they came, invet 
 erate since Tippecanoe. 
 
 " Look out for squalls," wrote John O'Fallon from 
 St. Louis to his mother at Louisville. " An express ar 
 rived from Fort Madison yesterday informing that the 
 sentinels had been obliged to fire upon the Indians almost 
 every night to keep them at their distance. Indians are 
 discovered some nights within several feet of the pickets." 
 
 Black Hawk was there. Very angry was Black Hawk 
 at the building of Fort Madison at the foot of Des Moines 
 rapids. 
 
 While Lewis and Clark were gone in 1804, William 
 Henry Harrison, directed by Jefferson, made a treaty 
 with the Sacs and Foxes by which they gave up fifty mil 
 lions of acres. Gratiot, Vigo, the Chouteaus, and officers 
 of the state and army, Quasquama and four other chiefs, 
 attached their names to that treaty in the presence of 
 Major Stoddard. 
 
 " I deny its validity ! " cried Black Hawk. " I never 
 gave up my land." 
 
 Now Black Hawk was plotting and planning and at 
 tacking Fort Madison, until early in September a panting 
 express arrived at St. Louis. 
 
 " Fort Madison is burned, Your Excellency." 
 
 " How did it happen? " inquired the Governor. 
 
 " Besieged until the garrison was reduced to potatoes 
 alone, we decided to evacuate. Digging a tunnel from the 
 southeast blockhouse to the river, boats were made ready. 
 Slipping out at night, crowding through the tunnel on 
 hands and knees, our last "man set fire to Fort Madison. 
 Like tinder the stockade blazed, kissing the heavens. 
 Indians leaped and yelled with tomahawks, expecting our 
 exit. At their backs, under cover of darkness, we escaped 
 down the Mississippi." 
 
THE STORY OF A SWORD 369 
 
 XII 
 
 THE STORY OF A SWORD 
 
 HOW me what kind of country we have to march 
 rough," said the British General to Tecumseh, 
 ter Detroit had fallen. 
 
 Taking a roll of elm-bark Tecumseh drew his scalping 
 knife and etched upon it the rivers, hills, and woods he 
 knew so well. And the march began, to be checked 
 at Fort Stephenson by a boy of twenty-one. 
 
 It was the dream and hope of the British Fur Com 
 panies to extend their territory as far within the Ameri 
 can border as possible. The whole War of 1812 was a 
 traders' war. Commerce, commerce, for which the world 
 is battling still, was the motive power on land and sea. 
 
 At the Lakes now, the British fur traders waved their 
 flags again above the ramparts of Detroit. " We must 
 hold this post, its loss too seriously deranges our 
 plans." 
 
 Smouldering, the old Revolutionary fires had burst 
 anew. Did George III. still hope to conquer America? 
 
 "Hull surrendered?" America groaned at the stain, 
 the stigma, the national disgrace! In a day regiments 
 leaped to fill the breach. " Detroit must be re-taken ! " 
 
 Along the Lakes battle succeeded battle in swift suc 
 cession. 
 
 At Louisville two mothers, Lucy and Fanny, were 
 anxious for their boys. Both George Croghan and John 
 O'Fallon had been with Harrison at Tippecanoe. Both 
 had been promoted. Then came the call for swords. 
 
 " Get me a sword in Philadelphia," wrote O'Fallon to 
 his mother. 
 
 " Send me a sword to Cincinnati," begged Croghan. 
 
 Sitting under the trees at Locust Grove the sisters 
 were discussing the fall of Detroit. Fanny had John 
 O'Fallon' s letter announcing the burning of Fort Madi- 
 
 24 
 
370 THE CONQUEST 
 
 son. Lucy was devouring the last impatient scrawl from 
 her fiery, ambitious son, George Croghan, now caged in 
 an obscure fort on Sandusky River near Lake Erie. 
 
 " The General little knows me," wrote Croghan. " To 
 assist his cause, to promote in any way his welfare, I 
 would bravely sacrifice my best and fondest hopes. I am 
 resolved on quitting the army as soon as I am relieved of 
 the command of this post." 
 
 Scarcely had the two mothers finished reading when a 
 shout rang through the streets of Louisville. 
 
 " Hurrah for Croghan ! Croghan ! Croghan ! " 
 
 " Why, what is the matter? " 
 
 Pale with anxiety Lucy ran to the gate. The whole 
 street was filled with people coming that way. In a few 
 hurried words she heard the story from several lips at 
 once. 
 
 " Why, you see, Madam, General Harrison was afraid 
 Tecumseh would make a flank attack on Fort Stephenson, 
 in charge of George Croghan, and so ordered him to 
 abandon and burn it. But no, he sent the General 
 word, ' We are determined to hold this place, and by 
 heaven we will ! ' 
 
 " That night George hastily cut a ditch and raised a 
 stockade. Then along came Proctor and Tecumseh with 
 a thousand British and Indians, and summoned him to 
 surrender. 
 
 " The boy had only one hundred and sixty inexperi 
 enced men and a single six-pounder, but he sent back 
 answer : ' The fort will be defended to the last extremity. 
 No force, however great, can induce us to surrender. We 
 are resolved to hold this post or bury ourselves in its 
 ruins.' ' 
 
 Tears ran down Lucy's cheeks as she listened. she 
 caught at the gate to keep from falling. Before her 
 arose the picture of that son with red hair flying, and 
 fine thin face like a blooded warhorse, she knew that 
 look. 
 
 " Again Proctor sent his flag demanding surrender to 
 avoid a terrible massacre. 
 
 " ' When this fort is taken there will be none to mas- 
 
THE STORY OF A SWORD 371 
 
 sacre,' answered the boy, ' for it will not be given up 
 while a man is left to resist ! ' 
 
 " The enemy advanced, and when close at hand, Cro- 
 ghan unmasked his solitary cannon and swept them down. 
 Again Proctor advanced, and again the rifle of every 
 man and the masked cannon met them. Falling back, 
 Proctor and Tecumseh retreated, abandoning a boatload 
 of military stores on the bank." 
 
 " Hurrah for Croghan ! Croghan ! Croghan ! " again 
 rang down the streets of Louisville. The bells rang out 
 a peal as the Stars and Stripes ran up the flag-staff. 
 
 " The little game cock, he shall have my sword," said 
 George Rogers Clark, living again his own great days. 
 
 And with that sword there was a story. 
 
 When Tippecanoe was won and the world was ring 
 ing with " Harrison!" men recalled another hero who 
 " with no provisions, no munitions, no cannon, no shoes, 
 almost without an army," had held these same redmen 
 at bay. 
 
 "And does he yet live?" 
 
 " He lives, an exile and a hermit on a Point of Rock 
 on the Indiana shore above the Falls of the Ohio." 
 
 " Has he no recognition? " 
 
 Men whispered the story of the sword. 
 
 When John Rogers went back from victorious Vin- 
 cennes with Hamilton a prisoner-of-war, the grateful 
 Virginian Assembly voted George Rogers Clark a sword. 
 
 " And you, Captain Rogers, may present it." 
 
 The sword was ready, time passed, difficulties multi 
 plied. Clark presented his bill to the Virginia Legisla 
 ture. To his amazement and mortification the House of 
 Delegates refused to allow his claim. 
 
 Clark went home, sold his bounty lands, and ruined 
 himself to pay for the bread and meat of his army. 
 
 And then it was rumoured, " To-day a sword will be 
 presented to George Rogers Clark." 
 
 All the countryside gathered, pioneers and veterans, 
 with the civic and military display of that rude age to see 
 their hero honoured. The commissioner for Virginia 
 appeared, and in formal and complimentary address de- 
 
372 THE CONQUEST 
 
 livered the sword. The General received it; then draw 
 ing the long blade from its scabbard, plunged it into the 
 earth and broke it off at the hilt. Turning to the com 
 missioner, he said, 
 
 " Captain Rogers, return to your State and tell her 
 for me first to be just before she is generous." 
 
 For years those old veterans had related to their chil 
 dren and grandchildren the story of that tragic day when 
 Clark, the hero, broke the sword Virginia gave him. 
 
 But a new time had come and new appreciation. While 
 the smoke of Tippecanoe was rolling away a member of 
 the Virginia Legislature related anew the story of that 
 earlier Vincennes and of the sword that Clark, " with 
 haughty sense of wounded pride and feeling had broken 
 and cast away." With unanimous voice Virginia voted 
 a new sword and the half-pay of a colonel for the re 
 mainder of his life. 
 
 The commissioners found the old hero partially para 
 lysed. Lucy had gone to him at the Point of Rock. 
 " Brother, you are failing, you need care, I will look 
 after you," and tenderly she bore him to her home at 
 Locust Grove, where now, all day long, in his invalid 
 chair, George Rogers Clark studied the long reach of 
 the blue Ohio or followed Napoleon and the boys of 
 1812. 
 
 Nothing had touched him like this deed of his nephew, 
 " Yes, yes, he shall have my sword ! " 
 
 The next morning after the battle General Harrison 
 wrote to the Secretary of War : " I am sorry I cannot 
 submit to you Major Croghan's official report. He was 
 to have sent it to me this morning, but I have just heard 
 that he was so much exhausted by thirty-six hours of 
 constant exertion as to be unable to make it. It will not 
 be among the least of General Proctor's mortifications to 
 find that he has been baffled by a youth who has just 
 passed his twenty-first year. He is, however, a hero 
 worthy of his gallant uncle, General George Rogers 
 Clark" 
 
 The cannon, " Old Betsy," stands yet in Fort Stephen- 
 son at Fremont, Ohio, where every passing year they 
 
THE STORY OF A SWORD 373 
 
 celebrate the victory of that second day of August, 1813, 
 the first check to the British advance in the War of 
 1812. 
 
 A few days later, Perry's victory on Lake Erie opened 
 the road to Canada and Detroit was re-taken. 
 
 " Britannia, Columbia, both had set their heels upon 
 Detroit, and young Columbia threw Britannia back across 
 the Lakes," says the chronicler. 
 
 Then followed the battle of the Thames and the 
 death of Tecumseh. A Canadian historian says, " But 
 for Tecumseh, it is probable we should not now have a 
 Canada." 
 
 What if he had won Rebecca? Would Canada now 
 be a peaceful sister of the States ? 
 
 Tecumseh fought with the fur traders, their inter 
 ests were his, to keep the land a wild, a game preserve 
 for wild beasts and wilder men. Civilisation had no part 
 or place in Tecumseh' s plan. 
 
 With the medal of George III. upon his breast, Tecum 
 seh fell, on Canadian soil, battle-axe in hand, hero and 
 patriot of his race, the last of the great Shawnees. Te 
 cumseh' s belt and shot pouch were sent to Jefferson and 
 hung on the walls of Monticello. Tecumseh' s son passed 
 with his people beyond the Mississippi. 
 
 From his invalid chair at Locust Grove George Rogers 
 Clark was writing to his brother : 
 
 " Your embarkation from St. Louis on your late hazard 
 ous expedition [to Prairie du Chien] was a considerable 
 source of anxiety to your friends and relatives. They were 
 pleased to hear of your safe return. . . . 
 
 "As to Napoleon . . . the news of his having abdicated 
 the throne " 
 
 "Napoleon abdicated?" Governor Clark scarce fin 
 ished the letter. Having crushed him, what armies might 
 not England hurl hitherward! New danger menaced 
 America. 
 
 " Napoleon abdicated ! " New Orleans wept. 
 
 Then followed the word, " England is sailing into the 
 Gulf, Sir Edward Pakenham, brother-in-law of the 
 
374 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Duke of Wellington, with a part of Wellington's victori 
 ous army, fifty ships, a thousand guns and twenty thou 
 sand men! " 
 
 Never had Great Britain lost sight of the Mississippi. 
 This was a part of the fleet that burned Washington and 
 had driven Dolly Madison and the President into igno 
 minious flight. 
 
 Terrified, New Orleans, the beautiful Creole maiden, 
 beset in her orange bower, flung out her arms appealing 
 to the West ! And that West answered, " Never, while 
 the Mississippi rolls to the Gulf, will we leave you un 
 protected." And out of that West came Andrew Jack 
 son and tall Tennesseeans, Kentuckians, Mississippians, 
 in coonskin caps and leathern hunting shirts, to seal for 
 ever our right to Louisiana. 
 
 The hottest part of the battle was fought at Chal- 
 mette, above the grave of the Fighting Parson. Im 
 mortal Eighth of January, 1815! Discontented Creoles 
 of 1806 proved loyal Americans, vindicating their right 
 to honour. 
 
 Napoleon laughed when he heard it at Elba, "I 
 told them I had given England a rival that one day would 
 humble her pride." 
 
 Even the Ursuline nuns greeted their deliverers with 
 joy, and the dim old cloistered halls were thrown open 
 for a hospital. 
 
 " I expect at this moment," said Lord Castlereagh 
 in Europe, " that most of the large seaport towns of 
 America are laid in ashes, that we are in possession 
 of New Orleans, and have command of all the rivers 
 of the Mississippi Valley and the Lakes." 
 
 But he counted without our ships at sea. The War of 
 1812 was fought upon the ocean, " the golden age of 
 naval fighting." Bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh, 
 under the " Gridiron Flag," tars of the American Revo 
 lution, sailor boys who under impressment had fought 
 at Trafalgar, led in a splendid spectacular drama, the 
 like of which England or the world had never seen. She 
 had trained up her own child. A thousand sail had 
 Britain America a dozen sloops and frigates alto- 
 
THE STORY OF A SWORD 375 
 
 gether, but the little tubs had learned from their 
 mother. 
 
 " The territory between the Lakes and the Ohio shall 
 be for ever set apart as an Indian territory," said Eng 
 land at the opening of the peace negotiations. " The 
 United States shall remove her armed vessels from 
 the lakes and give England the right of navigating the 
 Mississippi." 
 
 Clay, Gallatin, Adams packed up their grips prepara 
 tory to starting home, when England bethought herself 
 and came to better terms. 
 
 The next year America passed a law excluding for 
 eigners from our trade, and the British fur traders re 
 luctantly crossed the border. But they held Oregon by 
 " Joint Occupation." 
 
 " All posts captured by either power shall be restored," 
 said the treaty. " There shall be joint occupancy of the 
 Oregon Country for ten years." 
 
 " A great mistake ! a great mistake ! " cried out Thomas 
 Hart Benton, a young lawyer who had settled in St. 
 Louis. " In ten years that little nest egg of * Joint Occu 
 pation ' will hatch out a lively fighting chicken." 
 
 Benton was a Western man to the core, he felt a 
 responsibility for all that sunset country. And why 
 should he not? Missouri and Oregon touched borders 
 on the summit of the Rockies. Were they not next-door 
 neighbours, hobnobbing over the fence as it were ? Every 
 day at Governor Clark's at St. Louis, he and Benton dis 
 cussed that Oregon " Joint Occupancy " clause. 
 
 " As if two nations ever peacefully occupied the same 
 territory! I tell you it is a physical impossibility," ex 
 claimed Benton, jamming down his wine-glass with a 
 crash. 
 
 The War of 1812, how Astor hated it! " But for 
 that war," he used to say, " I should have been the richest 
 man that ever lived." As it was, the British fur com 
 panies came in and gained a foothold from which they 
 were not ousted until American ox-teams crossed the 
 plains and American frontiersmen took the country. A 
 million a year England trapped from Oregon waters. 
 
376 THE CONQUEST 
 
 XIII 
 
 PORTAGE DBS SIOUX 
 
 ME and make treaties of friendship." 
 As his brother had done at the close of the 
 Revolution, so now William Clark sent to the 
 tribes to make peace after the War of 1812. 
 
 " No person ought to be lazy to be de bearer of such 
 good news," said old Antoine Le Claire, the interpreter. 
 
 Up the rivers and toward the Lakes, runners carried 
 the word of the Red Head Chief, " Come, come to St. 
 Louis!" 
 
 To the clay huts of the sable Pawnees of the Platte, 
 to the reed wigwams of the giant Osages, to the painted 
 lodges of the Omahas, and to the bark tents of the Chip- 
 pewas, went " peace talks " and gifts and invitations. 
 
 " De lowas are haughty an' insolent!" St. Vrain, 
 first back, laid their answer on the table. 
 
 " De Kickapoo are glad of de peace, but de Sauk an' 
 Winnebago insist on war! De Sauk haf murdered deir 
 messenger ! " 
 
 That was Black Hawk. With a war party from 
 Prairie du Chien he was met by the news of peace. 
 
 " Peace? " Black Hawk wept when he heard it. He 
 had been at the battle of the Thames. 
 
 " De messenger to de Sioux are held at Rock River ! " 
 
 One by one came runners into the Council Hall, and, 
 cap in hand, stood waiting. Outside, their horses pawed 
 on the Rue, their boats were tied at the river. 
 
 " Some one must pass Rock River, to the Sioux, Chip- 
 pewas, and Menomonees," said Clark. Not an interpreter 
 stirred. 
 
 " We dare not go into dose hostile countrie," said 
 Antoine Le Claire, spokesman for the rest. 
 
 " What ? With an armed boat ? " 
 
 The silence was painful as the Governor looked over 
 the council room. 
 
PORTAGE DES SIOUX 377 
 
 " I will go." 
 
 Every eye was turned toward the speaker, James Ken- 
 nerly, the Governor's private secretary, the cousin of 
 Julia and brother of Harriet of Fincastle. The same 
 spirit was there that led a whole generation of his people 
 to perish in the Revolution. His father had been dragged 
 from the field of Cowpens wrapped in the flag he had 
 rescued. 
 
 At the risk of his life, when no one else would venture, 
 the faithful secretary went up the Mississippi to bring in 
 the absent tribes. Black-eyed Elise, the daughter of Dr. 
 Saugrain, wept all night to think of it. Governor Clark 
 himself had introduced Elise to his secretary. How she 
 counted the days ! 
 
 " The Chippewas would have murdered me but for the 
 timely arrival of the Sioux," said Kennedy, on his safe 
 return with the band of Rising Moose. 
 
 " The Red Coats are gone! " said Rising Moose. " I 
 rush in. I put out the fire. I save the fort." 
 
 Without waiting for troops from St. Louis, forty-eight 
 hours after the news of peace the British had evacuated 
 Prairie du Chien. A day or two later they returned, took 
 the cannon, and set fire to the fort with the American flag 
 flying. 
 
 Into the burning fort went Rising Moose, secured the 
 flag and an American medal, and brought them down to 
 St. Louis. 
 
 While interpreters were speeding by horse and boat 
 over half a hundred trails, Manuel Lisa, sleepless warden 
 of the plains, arrived with forty-three chiefs and head 
 men of the Missouri Sioux. Wild Indians who never 
 before had tasted bread, brought down in barges camped 
 on the margin of the Mississippi, the great council chiefs 
 of their tribes, moody, unjoyous, from the Stony Moun 
 tains. For weeks other deputations followed, to the num 
 ber of two thousand, to make treaties and settle troubles 
 arising out of the War of 1812. 
 
 Whether even yet a council could be held was a query 
 in Governor Clark's mind. Across the neighbouring 
 Mississippi, Sacs, Foxes, lowas were raiding still, cap- 
 
378 THE CONQUEST 
 
 turing horses and attacking people. That was Black 
 Hawk. 
 
 The eyes of the Missouri Sioux flashed. " Let us go 
 and fight those Sacs and lowas. They shall trouble us 
 no more." With difficulty were they held to the council. 
 
 There was a steady and unalterable gloom of counte 
 nance, a melancholy, sullen musing among the gathered 
 tribes, as they camped on the council ground at Portage 
 des Sioux on the neck of land between the two rivers at 
 St. Charles. Over this neck crossed Sioux war parties 
 in times past, avoiding a long detour, bringing home their 
 scalps. 
 
 Resplendent with oriental colour were the bluffs and 
 the prairies. Chiefs and warriors had brought their 
 squaws and children, Sioux from the Lakes and the 
 high points of the Mississippi in canoes of white birch, 
 light and bounding as cork upon the water ; Sioux of the 
 Missouri in clumsy pirogues ; Mandans in skin coracles, 
 barges, dug-outs, and cinnamon-brown fleets of last year's 
 bark. 
 
 The panorama of forest and prairie was there, Sioux 
 of the Leaf, Sioux of the Broad Leaf, and Sioux Who 
 Shoot in the Pine Tops, in hoods of feathers, Chinese 
 featured Sioux, of smooth skins and Roman noses, the 
 ideal Indian stalking to and fro with forehead banded 
 in green and scarlet and eagle plumes. 
 
 For Wabasha, Little Crow, and Red Wing had come, 
 great sachems of the Sioux nation. The British officers 
 at Drummond's Island in Lake Huron had sent for Little 
 Crow and Wabasha. 
 
 " I would thank you in the name of George III. for 
 your services in the war." 
 
 " My father," said Wabasha, " what is this I see on the 
 floor before me ? A few knives and blankets ! Is this all 
 you promised at the beginning of the war? Where are 
 those promises you made ? You told us you would never 
 let fall the hatchet until the Americans were driven be 
 yond the mountains. Will these presents pay for the 
 men we lost? I have always been able to make a living 
 and can do so still." 
 
PORTAGE DES SIOUX 379 
 
 " After we have fought for you," cried Little Crow, 
 " endured many hardships, lost some of our people, and 
 awakened the vengeance of our powerful neighbours, you 
 make a peace and leave us to obtain such terms as we can ! 
 You no longer need us and offer these goods for having 
 deserted us. We will not take them." 
 
 Kicking the presents contemptuously with his foot, 
 Little Crow turned away. 
 
 " Arise, let us go down to the Red Head Parshasha ! " 
 In handsome bark canoes propelled by sails alone, the 
 Sioux came down to St. Louis. 
 
 Walking among their elliptical tents, lounging on pan 
 ther skins at their wigwam doors, waited the redmen, 
 watching, lynx-eyed, losing nothing of the scene before 
 them. Beaded buckskin glittered in the sun, tiny bells 
 tinkled from elbow to ankle, and sashes outrivalled 
 Louisiana sunsets. 
 
 Half-naked Osages with helmet-crests and eagle-quills, 
 full-dressed in breech-clouts and leggings fringed with 
 scalp-locks, the tallest men in North America, from their 
 warm south hills, mingled with Pottawattamies of the 
 Illinois, makers of fire, Shawnees with vermilion around 
 their eyes, Sacs, of the red badge, and Foxes, adroitest 
 of thieves, all drumming on their tambourines. Winne- 
 bagoes, fish eaters, had left their nets on the northern 
 lakes, Omahas their gardens on the Platte, and Ojibway 
 arrow makers sat chipping, chipping as the curious 
 crowds walked by. For all the neighbouring country 
 had gathered to view the Indian camp of 1815. 
 
 Oblivious, contemptuous perhaps, of staring crowds, 
 the industrious women skinned and roasted dogs on sticks, 
 the warriors gambled with one another, staking their 
 tents, skins, rifles, dogs, and squaws. Here and there 
 sachems were mending rifles, princesses carrying water, 
 children playing ball. 
 
 About the first of July, Governor Clark of Missouri, 
 Governor Ninian Edwards of Illinois, and Auguste Chou- 
 teau of St. Louis, opened the council, one of the great 
 est ever held in the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 Auguste Chouteau; prime vizier of all the old Spanish 
 
380 THE CONQUEST 
 
 commandants, now naturally slipped into the same office 
 with Clark, and Governor Edwards of Illinois, who as a 
 father had guarded the frontier against the wiles of Te- 
 cumseh, and had risked his entire fortune to arm the 
 militia, all in queues, high collared coats, and ruffled 
 shirts, faced each other and the chiefs. 
 
 In front of their neatly arranged tents sat the tawny 
 warriors in imposing array, with dignified attention to the 
 interpretation of each sentence. 
 
 : ' The long and bloody war is over. The British have 
 gone back over the Big Water," said Governor Clark, 
 " and now we have sent for you, my brothers, to conclude 
 a treaty of peace." 
 
 " Heigh ! " cried all the Indians in deep-toned reso 
 nance that rolled like a Greek chorus to the bluffs beyond. 
 The sky smiled down as on the old Areopagus, the leaves 
 of the forest rustled, the river swept laughing by. 
 
 " Every injury or act of hostility by one or either 
 of us against the other, shall be mutually forgiven and 
 forgot." 
 
 "Heigh! heigh! heig-h!" 
 
 " There shall be perpetual peace and friendship between 
 us." 
 
 "Heigh!" 
 
 "You will acknowledge yourselves under the protection 
 of the United States, and of no other nation, power, or 
 sovereign whatsoever." 
 
 " Heigh ! " 
 
 A Teton Sioux who had come down with Lisa strug 
 gled to his feet, approached, shook hands with the com 
 missioners, then retreated and fixed his keen eye on the 
 Governor. His voice rang clear over the assembled 
 thousands, 
 
 " We have come down expressly to notify you, our 
 father, that we will assist in chastising those nations hos 
 tile to our government." 
 
 The two factions faced each other. Scowls of light 
 ning hate flashed over the council. But the wisdom and 
 tact of Clark were equal to regiments. " The fighting has 
 ended," he said. " The peace has come." 
 
PORTAGE DES SIOUX 381 
 
 " Heigh ! " shouted all the Indians. " Heig-h ! " 
 
 Partisan was there, the Teton chief, who with Black 
 Buffalo had made an attempt to capture Clark on the way 
 to the Pacific. And now Partisan was bristling to fight 
 for Clark. 
 
 Wabasha arose, like a figure out of one of Catlin's 
 pictures, in a chief's costume, with bullock horns and 
 eagle feathers. There was a stir. With a profile like the 
 great Conde, followed by his pipe bearers with much cere 
 mony, the hereditary chief from the Falls of St. Anthony 
 walked up to Governor Clark. 
 
 " I shake hands," he said. 
 
 Every neck was craned. When before had Wabasha 
 stood? In their northern councils he spoke sitting. " I 
 am called upon to stand only in the presence of my Great 
 Father at Washington or Governor Clark at St. Louis. 
 But I am not a warrior," said Wabasha. " My people 
 can prosper only at peace with one another and the whites. 
 Against my advice some of my young men went into the 
 war." 
 
 The fiery eyes of Little Crow flashed, the aquiline curve 
 of his nose lifted, like the beak of an eagle. He had come 
 down from his bark-covered cabin near St. Paul. 
 
 " I am a war chief! " said Little Crow. " But I am 
 willing to conclude a peace." 
 
 "I alone was an American," said Rising Moose, "when 
 all my people fought with the British." All the rest of 
 his life Tammaha, Rising Moose, wore a tall silk hat and 
 carried Governor Clark's commission in his bosom. 
 
 Big Elk, the Omaha, successor of Blackbird, spoke with 
 action energetic and graceful. 
 
 " Last Winter when you sent your word by Captain 
 Manuel Lisa, in the night one of the whites wanted my 
 young men to rise. He told them if they wanted good 
 presents, to cross to the British. This man was Baptiste 
 Dorion. When I was at the Pawnees I wanted to bring 
 some of them down, but the whites who live among them 
 told them not to go, that no good came from the Amer 
 icans, that good only came from the British. I have told 
 Captain Manuel to keep those men away from us. Take 
 
382 THE CONQUEST 
 
 care of the Sioux. Take care. They will fly from under 
 your wing." 
 
 * Sacs who had been hostile engaged in the debate. 
 Noble looking chiefs, with blanket thrown around the 
 body in graceful folds, the right arm, muscular and 
 brawny, bare to the shoulder, spoke as Cato might have 
 spoken to the Roman Senate. 
 
 " My father, it is the request of my people to keep the 
 British traders among us." As he went on eloquently 
 enumerating their advantages in pleading tone and voice 
 and glance and gesture, hah ! the wild rhetoric of the 
 savage! how it thrilled the assembled concourse of In 
 dians and Americans ! 
 
 Clark shook his head. " It cannot be. We can admin 
 ister law, order, and justice ourselves. Come to us for 
 goods, the British traders belong beyond the border." 
 
 The Indians gave a grunt of anger. 
 
 " It has been promised already," cried another chief. 
 "The Americans have double tongues!" 
 
 " Heigh ! " ran among the Indians. Many a one 
 touched his tongue and held up two fingers, " You lie ! " 
 
 With stern and awful look Clark immediately dismissed 
 the council. The astonished chiefs covered their mouths 
 with their hands as they saw the commissioners turn their 
 backs to go out. 
 
 That afternoon a detachment of United States artillery 
 arrived and camped in full view of the Indians. They 
 had been ordered to the Sac country. Colonel Dodge's 
 regiment of dragoons, each company of a solid colour, 
 blacks and bays, whites, sorrels, grays and creams, went 
 through the manoeuvres of battle, charge and repulse, in 
 splendid precision. It was enough. The Sac chiefs, 
 cowed, requested the renewal of the council. 
 
 " My father," observed the offending chief of the day 
 before, " you misunderstood me. I only meant to say 
 we have always understood from our fathers that the 
 Americans used two languages, the French and the 
 English ! " 
 
 Clark smiled and the council proceeded. 
 
 But by night, July u, the Sacs, Foxes, and Kickapoos 
 
PORTAGE DES SIOUX 383 
 
 secretly left the council. At the same time came reports 
 of great commotion at Prairie du Chien where the north 
 ern tribes were divided by the British traders. 
 
 Head bent, linked arm in arm with Paul Louise, his 
 little interpreter, the giant Osage chief, White Hair, gave 
 strict attention. White Hair had been in St. Clair's de 
 feat, and in seeking to scalp a victim had grasped his 
 wig ! This he ever after wore upon his own head, a crown 
 of white hair. He said, "I felt a fire within me, it drove 
 me to the fight of St. Clair. His army scattered. I re 
 turned to my own people. But the fire still burned, 
 and I went over the mountains toward the western 
 sea." 
 
 Every morning the Osages set up their matutinal wail, 
 dolefully lamenting, weeping as if their hearts would 
 break. 
 
 "What is the matter?" inquired Governor Clark, riding 
 out in concern. 
 
 u We are mourning for our ancestors," answered the 
 chief, shedding copious tears and sobbing anew, for ages 
 the custom of his people. 
 
 " They are dead long ago, -let them rest! " said the 
 Governor. 
 
 Brightening up, White Hair slipped on his wig and 
 followed him to the council. 
 
 Houseless now and impoverished Black Partridge and 
 his people clung to Colonel George Davenport as to a 
 father. Poor helpless Pottawattamies ! 
 
 " Come with me," said Davenport, " I will take you to 
 St. Louis." 
 
 So down in a flotilla of canoes had come Davenport 
 with thirteen chiefs, all wreathed in turkey feathers, em 
 blems of the Pottawattamies. No more they narrated 
 their heroic exploits in fighting with Tecumseh. 
 
 Grave, morose, brooding over his wrongs, Black Par 
 tridge was seventy now, his long coarse unkempt hair 
 in matted clusters on his shoulders, but figure still erect 
 and firm. " I would be a friend to the whites," he said. 
 " I was compelled to go with my tribe." The silver me 
 dallion^ of George Washington was gone from his breast. 
 
384 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Many and sad had been the vicissitudes since that day, 
 when, in a flood of tears, he had thrown it down at the 
 feet of the commander at Fort Dearborn. Tall, slim, with 
 a high forehead, large nose and piercing black eyes, with 
 hoops of gold in his ears, Black Partridge was a typical 
 savage, asking for civilisation. But it rolled over him. 
 Here and there a missionary tarried to talk, but com 
 merce, commerce, the great civiliser, arose like a flood, 
 drowning the redmen. 
 
 " The settlements are crowding our border," Black 
 Partridge spoke for his people on their fairy lake, Peoria. 
 " And whom shall we call Father, the British at Maiden 
 or the Americans at St. Louis? Who shall relieve our 
 distresses? " 
 
 " Put it in your mind," said Auguste Chouteau, the 
 shrewd old French founder of St. Louis, " put it in your 
 mind, that when de British made peace with us, dey left 
 you in de middle of de prairie without a shade against 
 sun or rain. Left you in de middle of de prairie, a sight 
 to pity. We Americans have a large umbrella; keeps 
 off de sun and rain. You come under our umbrella." 
 
 And they did. 
 
 The Indian has a fine sense of justice. The situation 
 was evident. Abandoned by the British who had led 
 him into the war, he stood ready at last to return to the 
 friends on whom he was most dependent. 
 
 One by one the chiefs came forw r ard and put their 
 mark to the treaty of peace and friendship. Clark 
 brought the peace pipes, every neck was craned to scan 
 them. 
 
 Sioux pipes sometimes cost as much as forty horses, 
 finely wrought pipes of variegated red and white from 
 the Minnesota quarries, Shoshone pipes of green, and 
 pipes of purple from Queen Charlottes, were sold for skins 
 and slaves, but these, Clark's pipes of silver bowls and 
 decorated stems, these were worth a hundred horses! 
 
 Puffing its fragrant aroma, the fierce wild eye of the 
 savage softened. Twenty thousand dollars' worth of 
 goods was distributed in presents, flags, blankets, and 
 rifles, ornaments and clothing. 
 
PORTAGE DES SIOUX 385 
 
 " Ah, ha ! Great Medicine ! " whispered the Indians 
 as the beautiful gifts came one by one into their hands. 
 
 " We need traders," said Red Wing, sliding his hand 
 along the soft nap of the blankets. " That made us go 
 into the war. Without traders we have to clothe ourselves 
 in grass and eat the earth." 
 
 " You shall have traders," answered Clark. " I shall 
 not let you travel five or six hundred miles to a British 
 post." 
 
 Every September thereafter he sent them up a few 
 presents to begin their fall hunting, and counselled his 
 agents to listen to their complaints and render them 
 justice. 
 
 " We must depend on policy rather than arms," said 
 the Governor. " For they are our children, the wards of 
 the nation." 
 
 The Indians were dined in St. Louis and entertained 
 with music and dancing. By their dignity, moderation, 
 and untiring forbearance, the Commissioners of Portage 
 des Sioux exemplified the paternal benevolence of the 
 Government. 
 
 At the end of the council Lisa started back with his 
 chiefs, on a three months' voyage to their northern home, 
 and on the last day of September Clark dismissed the rest. 
 
 Thus making history, the summer had stolen away. 
 All next summer and the next were spent in making 
 treaties, until at last there was peace along the border. 
 
 "Did you sign?" finally asked some one of Black 
 Hawk of the British band. 
 
 " I touched the goose quill," answered the haughty 
 chief. 
 
 So ended the War of 1812. 
 
3 86 THE CONQUEST 
 
 XIV 
 
 "FOR OUR CHILDREN, OUR CHILDREN!" 
 
 AS soon as the Indian scare was silenced, all the 
 world seemed rushing to Missouri. Ferries ran 
 by day and night. Patriarchal planters of Vir 
 ginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia passed ever west in 
 long, unending caravans of flocks, servants, herds, into 
 the new land of the Louisianas. New Englanders and 
 Pennsylvanians, six, eight, and ten horses to a waggon, 
 and cattle with their hundred bells, tinkled through the 
 streets of St. Louis. 
 
 " Where are you going, now?" inquired the citizens. 
 ' To Boone's Lick, to be sure." 
 
 " Go no further," said Clark, ever enthusiastic about 
 St. Louis. " Buy here. This will be the city." 
 
 " But ah ! " exclaimed the emigrant. " If land is so 
 good here what must Boone's Lick be! " 
 
 Perennial childhood of the human heart, ever looking 
 for Canaan just beyond ! 
 
 The Frenchmen shrugged their shoulders at the strange 
 energy of these progressive " Bostonnais." It annoyed 
 them to have their land titles looked into. " A process ! 
 a lawsuit ! " they clasped their hands in despair. But 
 ever the people of St. Louis put up their lands to a better 
 figure, and watched out of their little square lattices for 
 the coming of les Americains. 
 
 All the talk was of land, land, land ! The very wealth 
 of ancient estates lay unclaimed for the first heir to enter, 
 the gift of God. 
 
 In waggons, on foot and horseback, with packhorses, 
 handcarts, and wheelbarrows, with blankets on their 
 backs and children by the hand, the oppressed of the old 
 world fled across the new. 
 
 " Why do you go into the wilderness? " 
 
 " For my children, my children," answered the pioneer. 
 
" FOR OUR CHILDREN, OUR CHILDREN ! " 387 
 
 More and more came people in a mighty flood, peas 
 ants, artisans, sons of the old crusaders, children of feudal 
 knights of chivalry and romance, descendants of the hardy 
 Norsemen who captured Europe five hundred years be 
 fore, scions of Europe's most titled names, thronging to 
 our West. 
 
 Frosts and crop failures in the Atlantic States and a 
 financial panic uprooted old Revolutionary centres. " A 
 better country, a better country!" was the watchword 
 of the mobile nation. 
 
 " Let 's go over to the Territory," said the soldiers of 
 1812. " Let us go to Arkansas, where corn can be had 
 for sixpence a bushel and pork for a penny a pound. 
 Two days' work in Texas is equal to the labour of a 
 week in the North." And on they pressed into No Man's 
 Land, a land of undeveloped orchards, maple syrup and 
 honey, fields of cotton and wool and corn. 
 
 Conestoga waggons crowded on the Alleghanies, teams 
 fell down precipices and perished, but the tide pushed 
 madly on. Colonies of hundreds were pouring into Mich 
 igan, Wisconsin, Illinois. New towns were named for 
 their founders, new counties, lakes, rivers, streams, and 
 hills, the settlers wrote their names upon the geogra 
 phy of the nation. 
 
 In the midst of the war Daniel Boone had come down 
 to Clark at St. Louis. 
 
 " I have spoken to Henry Clay about your claim," said 
 the Governor. " He says Congress will do something 
 for you." 
 
 " Now Rebecca, thee shall hev a house ! " 
 
 That house, the joint product of Nathan, the Colonel, 
 and his slaves, was a work of years. Not far from the 
 old cabin by the spring it stood, convenient to the Judg 
 ment Tree. For Boone still held his court beneath the 
 spreading elm. 
 
 The stones were quarried and chiselled, two feet thick, 
 and laid so solidly that to-day the walls of the old Boone 
 mansion are as good as new. The plaster was mixed 
 and buried in the ground over winter to ripen. Roomy 
 and comfortable, two stories and an attic it was built, 
 
3 88 THE CONQUEST 
 
 with double verandas and chimneys at either end, the 
 finest mansion on the border. 
 
 But in March Rebecca died. Boone buried her where 
 he could watch the mound. 
 
 The house was finished. The Colonel bought a coffin 
 and put it under the bed to be ready. Sometimes he tried 
 his coffin, to see how it would seem when he slept beside 
 Rebecca. 
 
 In December came the land, a thousand arpents in his 
 Spanish grant. " If I only cud hev told Rebecca/' sobbed 
 Daniel, kneeling at her grave. " She war a good woman, 
 and the faithful companion of all my wanderings." 
 
 In the Spring Boone sold his land, and set out for 
 Kentucky. 
 
 " Daniel Boone has come! Daniel Boone has come! " 
 Old hunters, Revolutionary heroes, came for miles to see 
 their leader who had opened Kentucky. There was a re 
 ception at Maysville. Parties were given in his honour 
 wherever he went. Once more he embraced his old 
 friend, Simon Kenton. 
 
 " How much do I owe ye ? " he said to one and another. 
 
 Whatever amount they named, that he paid, and de 
 parted. One day the dusty old hunter re-entered his son's 
 house on the Femme Osage with fifty cents in his pocket. 
 
 " Now I am ready and willing to die. I have paid all 
 my debts and nobody can say, ' Boone was a dishonest 
 man.' ' 
 
 Then came the climax of his life. 
 
 " Nate, I am goin' to the Yellowstone." 
 
 While Clark was holding his peace treaties, Daniel 
 Boone, eighty-two years old, with a dozen others set 
 out in boats for the Upper Missouri. 
 
 Autumn came. Somewhere in the present Montana, 
 they threw up a winter camp and were besieged by In 
 dians. A heavy snow-storm drove the Indians off. In 
 early Spring, coming down the Missouri on the return, 
 again they were attacked by Indians and landed in a 
 thicket of the opposite shore. Under cover of a storm 
 in the night Boone ordered them into the boat, and 
 silently in the pelting rain they escaped. 
 
" FOR OUR CHILDREN, OUR CHILDREN ! " 389 
 
 Boone himself brought the furs to St. Louis, and 
 went back with a bag full of money and a boat full of 
 emigrants. 
 
 Farther and farther into his district emigrants began 
 setting up their four-post sassafras bedsteads and scour 
 ing their pewter platters. Women walked thirty miles to 
 hear the first piano that came into the Boone settlement. 
 
 In the last year of the war Boone' s favourite grandson 
 was killed at Charette. 
 
 " The history of the settlement of the western country 
 is my history," said the old Colonel in his grief. " Two 
 darling sons, a grandson, and a brother have I lost by 
 savage hands, besides valuable horses and abundance of 
 cattle. Many sleepless nights have I spent, separated 
 from the society of men, an instrument ordained of God 
 to settle the wilderness." 
 
 ' You must paint Daniel Boone," said Governor Clark 
 to Chester Harding, a young American artist fresh from 
 Paris in the summer of 1819. The Governor was 
 Harding' s first sitter. He invited the Indians into his 
 studio. 
 
 " Ugh ! ugh ! ugh ! " grunted the Osage chiefs, putting 
 their noses close and rubbing their fingers across the 
 Governor's portrait. 
 
 In June Harding set out up the Missouri to paint 
 Boone. In an old blockhouse of the War of 1812, he 
 found him lying on a bunk, roasting a strip of venison 
 wound around his ramrod, turning it before the fire. 
 
 "What? Paint my pictur' ?" 
 
 ' Yes, on canvas. Make a portrait, you know." 
 
 The old man consented. With amazement the fron 
 tiersman saw the picture grow, still more amazed, his 
 grandchildren watched the likeness of "granddad" grow 
 ing on the canvas. 
 
 Ruddy and fair, with silvered locks, always humming 
 a tune, he sat in his buckskin hunting-shirt trimmed with 
 otter's fur, and the knife in his belt he had carried on his 
 first expedition to Kentucky. 
 
 Every day now, in his leisure hours, the old pioneer 
 was busily scraping with a piece of glass. " Making a 
 
390 THE CONQUEST 
 
 powder-horn," he said. " Goin' to hunt on the Fork in 
 the Fall." 
 
 A hundred miles up the Kansas he had often set his 
 traps, but Boone's legs were getting shaky, his eyes were 
 growing dim. Every day now he tried his coffin, it 
 was shining and polished and fair, of the wood he loved 
 best, the cherry. People came for miles to look at Boone's 
 coffin. 
 
 XV 
 TOO GOOD TO THE INDIANS 
 
 MANUEL LISA had out-distanced all his com 
 petitors in the fur trade. But the voice of envy 
 whispered, " Manuel must cheat the Government, 
 and Manuel must cheat the Indians, otherwise Manuel 
 could not bring down every summer so many boats loaded 
 with rich furs." 
 
 " Good ! " exclaimed Lisa to Governor Clark, when 
 the fleets were tying up at St. Louis in 1817. " My ac 
 counts with the Government will show whether I receive 
 anything out of which to cheat it." 
 
 " I have not blamed you, Manuel," explained the Gov 
 ernor. " On the contrary I have conveyed to the Govern 
 ment my high appreciation of your very great services in 
 quieting the Indians of the Missouri. It is not necessary 
 to worry yourself with the talk of babblers who do not 
 understand." 
 
 " Cheat the Indians ! " The Spaniard stamped the 
 floor. " The respect and friendship which they have for 
 me, the security of my possessions in the heart of their 
 country, respond to this charge, and declare with voices 
 louder than the tongues of men that it cannot be true. 
 
 " * But Manuel gets so much rich fur.' ' Lisa ground 
 out the words with scorn. 
 
 " Well, I will explain how I get it. First I put into 
 my operations great activity, I go a great distance, 
 
TOO GOOD TO THE INDIANS 391 
 
 while some are considering whether they will start to 
 day or to-morrow. I impose upon myself great priva 
 tions, ten months in a year I am buried in the forest, 
 at a vast distance from my own house. I appear as the 
 benefactor, and not as the pillager, of the Indians. I 
 carried among them the seed of the large pumpkin, from 
 which I have seen in their possession the fruit weighing 
 one hundred and sixty pounds. Also the large bean, the 
 potato, the turnip, and these vegetables now make a great 
 part of their subsistence. This year I have promised to 
 carry the plough. Besides, my blacksmiths work inces 
 santly for them, charging nothing. I lend them traps, 
 only demanding preference in their trade. My estab 
 lishments are the refuge of the weak and of the old men 
 no longer able to follow their lodges; and by these 
 means I have acquired the confidence and friendship of 
 these nations, and the consequent choice of their trade. 
 These things I have done, and I propose to do more." 
 
 In short, Manuel Lisa laid down his commission as 
 sub-agent to embark yet more deeply in the fur trade. 
 
 " What is that noise at the river? " 
 
 Ten thousand shrieking eagles and puffs of smoke 
 arose from the yellow-brown Mississippi below. The 
 entire population of St. Louis was flocking to the river 
 brink to greet the General Pike, the first steamboat 
 that ever came up to St. Louis. People rushed to the 
 landing but the Indians drew back in terror lest the 
 monster should climb the bank and pursue them inland. 
 Pell-mell into Clark's Council House they tumbled im 
 ploring protection. 
 
 Never had St. Louis appeared so beautiful as when 
 Julia and the children came into their new home in 1819. 
 Clark, the Governor, had built a mansion, one of the 
 finest in St. Louis. Wide verandas gave a view of the 
 river, gardens of fruit and flowers bloomed. 
 
 But Julia was ill. 
 
 " Take her back to the Virginia mountains," said Dr. 
 Farrar, the family physician. " St. Louis heats are too 
 much for her." 
 
 In dress suit, silk hat, and sword cane, Farrar was a 
 
392 THE CONQUEST 
 
 notable figure in old St. Louis, riding night and day as 
 far out as Boone's Lick, establishing a reputation that 
 remains proverbial yet. He had married Anne Thruston, 
 the daughter of Fanny. 
 
 " Let her try a trip on the new steamboat/' said the 
 Doctor. 
 
 So after her picture was painted by Chester Harding 
 in that Spring of 1819, Clark and Julia and the little boys, 
 Meriwether Lewis, William Preston, and George Rogers 
 Hancock, set out for New Orleans in the " new-fangled 
 steamboat." 
 
 It was a long and dangerous trip; the river was en 
 cumbered with snags ; every night they tied up to a tree. 
 
 " Travel by night? Could n't think of it! We 'd be 
 aground before morning! " said the Captain. 
 
 Around by sea the Governor and his wife sailed by 
 ship to Washington. 
 
 " I will join you at the Sweet Springs," said President 
 Monroe to the Governor and his wife in Washington. 
 
 ' The Sweet Springs cure all my ills," said Dolly Madi 
 son at Montpelier. 
 
 " She will recover at the Sweet Springs," said Jeffer 
 son at Monticello. 
 
 But at the Sweet Springs Julia grew so ill they had to 
 carry her on a bed to Fotheringay. 
 
 " Miss Judy done come home sick ! " The servants 
 wept. 
 
 Something of a physician himself, Clark began the use 
 of fumes of tar through a tube, and to the surprise of all 
 " Miss Judy " rallied again. 
 
 " As soon as I can leave her in safety I shall return to 
 St. Louis," wrote the Governor to friends at the Missouri 
 capital. 
 
 " If I should die," said Julia sweetly one day, " and 
 you ever think of marrying again, consider my cousin 
 Harriet." 
 
 " Ah, but you will be well, my darling, when Spring 
 comes." 
 
 And she was better in the Spring, thinking of the new 
 house at St. Louis. Julia was a very neat and careful 
 
TOO GOOD TO THE INDIANS 393 
 
 housekeeper. Everything- was kept under lock and key, 
 she directed the servants herself, and was the light of a 
 houseful of company. For the Governor's house was 
 the centre of hospitality, never a noted man came that 
 way, but, " I must pay my respects to the Governor." 
 Savants from over the sea came to look at his Indian 
 museum. General Clark had made the greatest collec 
 tion in the world, and had become an authority on In 
 dian archaeology. 
 
 Governor Clark, too, was worried about affairs in St. 
 Louis. Missouri was just coming in as a State, and a 
 new executive must be elected under the Constitution. 
 
 " Go," said Julia, " I shall be recovered soon now." 
 Indeed, deceptive roses were blooming in her cheeks. 
 
 With many regrets and promises of a speedy return, 
 Clark hastened back to his official duties. He found Mis 
 souri in the midst of a heated campaign, coming in as a 
 State and electing a Governor. For seven years he had 
 held the territorial office with honour. 
 
 But a new candidate was before the people. 
 
 " Governor Clark is too good to the Indians ! " That 
 was the chief argument of the opposing faction. " He 
 looks after their interests to the disadvantage of the 
 whites." 
 
 " To the disadvantage of the whites? How can that 
 be? " inquired his friends. " Did he not in the late war 
 deal severely with the hostile tribes? And what do you 
 say of the Osage lands? When hostilities began Presi 
 dent Madison ordered the settlers out of the Boone's 
 Lick country as invaders of Indian lands. What did 
 the Governor do? He remonstrated, he delayed the exe 
 cution of those orders until they were rescinded, and the 
 settlers were allowed to remain." 
 
 "How could he do that?" 
 
 " How ? Why, he simply told the Indians those lands 
 were included in the Osage treaty of 1808. He made 
 that treaty, and he knew. No Indian objected. They 
 trusted Clark; his explanation was sufficient. And his 
 maps proved it." 
 
 " Too good to the Indians ! Too good to the In- 
 
394 THE CONQUEST 
 
 dians!" What Governor before ever lost his head on 
 such a charge? 
 
 At that moment, flying down the Ohio, came a swift 
 messenger, " Mrs. Clark is dead at Fotheringay." 
 
 With the shock upon him, General Clark sent a card 
 to the papers, notifying his fellow citizens of his loss, 
 and of his necessary absence until the election was over. 
 And with mingled dignity and sorrow he went back to 
 Fotheringay to bury the beloved dead. 
 
 Granny Molly, " Black Granny," who had laced " Miss 
 Judy's " shoes and tied up her curls with a ribbon in the 
 old Philadelphia days, never left her beloved mistress. 
 
 A few days before " Miss Judy " went away, little 
 Meriwether Lewis, then eleven years of age, came to 
 her bedside with his curly hair dishevelled and his broad 
 shirt collar tumbled. 
 
 " Aunt Molly," said the mother, " watch my boy and 
 keep him neat. He is so beautiful, Granny ! " 
 
 After her body was placed on two of the parlour chairs, 
 Granny Molly noticed a little dust on the waxed floor. 
 " Miss Judy would be 'stressed if she could see it." 
 Away she ran, brought a mop, and had it all right by the 
 time the coffin came. 
 
 Down on her kn^es scrubbing, scrubbing for the last 
 time the floor for " Miss Judy," tears trickled down the 
 ebony cheeks. 
 
 " Po', po' Miss Judy. You 's done gwine wid de 
 angels." 
 
 They laid her in the family tomb, overlooking the 
 green valley of the Roanoke. Two weeks after her 
 death, Colonel Hancock himself also succumbed. 
 
 To a double funeral the Governor came back. High 
 on the hillside they laid them, in a mausoleum excavated 
 out of the solid rock. 
 
 " De Cunnel, he done watch us out ob dat iron window 
 up dah," said the darkies. "He sits up dah in a stone 
 chair so he can look down de valley and see his slaves at 
 deir work." 
 
 To this day the superstitious darkies will not pass his 
 tomb. 
 
TOO GOOD TO THE INDIANS 395 
 
 On his way to Washington, Governor Clark stopped 
 again at Monticello. 
 
 " Ah, the joyous activity of my grandfather ! " ex 
 claimed Thomas Jefferson Randolph. " He mounts his 
 horse early in the morning, canters down the mountain 
 and across country to the site of the university. All day 
 long he assists at the work. He has planned it, engaged 
 workmen, selected timber, bought bricks. He has sent 
 to Italy for carvers of stone." 
 
 Out of those students flocking to consult Jefferson had 
 grown the University of Virginia. Books and professors 
 were brought from England, and the institution opened 
 in 1825. 
 
 Martha Jefferson's husband, Thomas Mann Randolph, 
 was Governor of Virginia now, but the sage of Monti- 
 cello paid little attention. All his talk was of schools, 
 schools and colleges for Virginia. 
 
 "Slavery in Missouri?" Clark broached the discus 
 sion that was raging at the West. 
 
 Instantly the sage of Monticello was attentive. 
 
 " This momentous question, like a firebell in the night, 
 awakened and filled me with terror. It is the knell of 
 the Union. Since Bunker Hill we have never had so omi 
 nous a .question." He who had said, " Pensacola and 
 Florida will come in good time," and, " I have ever 
 looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which 
 could be made to our system of States," had corre 
 sponded with the Spanish minister concerning a canal 
 through the isthmus, and sent Lewis and Clark to open 
 up a road to Asia, Jefferson, more than any other, 
 had the vision of to-day. 
 
 Governor Clark went on to Washington. 
 
 Ramsay Crooks and Russell Farnham of the Astor 
 expedition were quartered at the same hotel with Floyd 
 of Virginia and Benton of Missouri. 
 
 Beside their whale-oil lamps they talked of Oregon. 
 Benton was writing for Oregon, he made a noise in 
 all the papers. John Floyd framed a bill, the first for 
 Oregon occupancy. 
 
 Missouri was just coming in as a State. The moment 
 
396 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Benton, her first Senator, was seated, he flew to Floyd's 
 support. 
 
 " We must occupy the Columbia," said Benton. "Mere 
 adventurers may enter upon it as ^neas entered upon the 
 Tiber, and as our forefathers came upon the Potomac, 
 the Delaware, and the Hudson, and renew the phenome 
 non of individuals laying the foundation of future em 
 pire. Upon the people of eastern Asia the establishment 
 of a civilised power upon the opposite coast of America 
 cannot fail to produce great and wonderful results. 
 Science, liberal principles, government, and the true re 
 ligion, may cast their lights across the intervening sea. 
 The valley of the Columbia may become the granary of 
 China and Japan, and an outlet for their imprisoned and 
 exuberant population." 
 
 Staid Senators smiled and called Benton a dreamer, 
 but he and Floyd were the prophets of to-day. 
 
 For thirty years after Astor had been driven out, 
 England and her fur companies enriched themselves in 
 Oregon waters. For thirty years Benton stood in his 
 place and fought to save us Oregon. From the bedside 
 of the dying Jefferson, and from the lips of the living 
 Clark, he took up the great enterprise of an overland 
 highway to India. 
 
 When Governor Clark came sorrowing back to St. 
 Louis with the little boys, Missouri was a State and a 
 new Governor sat in the chair, but though governors 
 came and governors went, the officer that had held the 
 position through all the territorial days was always called 
 " Governor " Clark. As United States superintendent 
 of Indian affairs for the West, Governor Clark now be 
 came practically autocrat of the redmen for life. 
 
 " If you ever think of marrying again, consider my 
 cousin Harriet." 
 
 More than a year Governor Clark " considered," and 
 then the most noted citizen of St. Louis married the hand 
 some widow Radford. 
 
 " From Philadelphia she haf a wedding trousseau," 
 said the vivacious Creole girls, drinking tea in their wide 
 verandas. " She haf de majesty look, like one queen." 
 
THE RED HEAD CHIEF 397 
 
 From the home of her brother, James Kennerly, the 
 fun-loving Harriet of other years went to become the 
 grave and dignified hostess in the home of the ex- 
 governor. 
 
 XVI 
 
 THE RED HEAD CHIEF 
 
 " TTASTEN, Ruskosky, rebraid my queue. Kings 
 I I and half kings are in there as plenty as black- 
 A A berries in the woods, and I must see what is the 
 matter." 
 
 Hurriedly the Polish valet, who dressed Clark in his 
 later years, knelt to button the knees of his small clothes 
 and fasten on a big silk bow in place of a buckle. Di 
 rectly the tall figure wrapped in a cloak entered the council 
 chamber connected with his study. 
 
 The walls of the council chamber were covered with 
 portraits of distinguished chiefs, and with Indian arms 
 and dresses, the handsomest the West afforded. Nothing 
 pleased the redmen better than to be honoured by the 
 acceptance of some treasure for this museum. 
 
 Against this wall the Indians sat, and the little gray- 
 haired interpreter, Antony Le Claire, lit the tomahawk 
 pipe. As the fumes rolled upward the Red Head Chief 
 took his seat at the table before him. The Indians lifted 
 their heads. Justice would now be done. 
 
 It was a sultry day and the council doors were open. 
 But sultrier still was the debate within. 
 
 " Our Father," said the Great and Little Osages, " we 
 have come to meet our enemies, the Delawares and Shaw- 
 nees and Kickapoos and Peorias, in your Council Hall. 
 We ourselves can effect a peace." 
 
 And so the Red Head listened. " Make your peace." 
 
 Six days they argued, Paul Louise interpreter. Hot 
 
 and hotter grew the debate, and mutual recriminations. 
 
398 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " White Hair's warriors shot at one of my young 
 men." 
 
 " But you, Dela wares, robbed our relations," cried the 
 Osage chiefs. 
 
 " You stole our otter-skins," retorted the Delawares. 
 
 " And you hunted on our lands." 
 
 " Last Summer when we were absent, you bad-hearted 
 Osages destroyed our fields of corn and cut up our gar 
 dens," cried the angry Shawnees, who always sided with 
 the Delawares. 
 
 " You speak with double tongues 
 
 Clark stepped in and hushed the controversy. 
 
 " Who gave you leave to hunt on Osage lands? " 
 
 " White Hair and his principal braves," answered the 
 Delawares. 
 
 " When did they shoot at your man? " 
 
 " At the Big Bend of the Arkansas." 
 
 " Who owned the peltries the Osages took? " 
 
 " All of us." 
 
 " Very well then, restitution must be made." 
 
 Soothing as a summer breeze was his gentle voice, 
 " My children, I cannot have you injured. The Dela 
 wares are my children, and the Osages, the Shawnees, 
 the Kickapoos, and the Peorias. I cannot permit any one 
 to injure my children. Whoever does that is no longer 
 child of mine. You must bury the sharp hatchet under 
 ground." 
 
 He calmed the heated tribes and effected peace. Like 
 little children they gave each other strings of beads, pipes, 
 and tobacco, and departed reconciled. 
 
 " Bring all your difficulties to me or to Paul Louise and 
 we will judge for you," said the Red Head Chief, as one 
 by one they filed in plumed array down the steps of the 
 Council House. 
 
 Scarce had the reconciled tribes departed before officers 
 of the law brought in seven chiefs, hostages of the lowas, 
 " Accused by the Sacs, Your Honour, of killing cattle ; 
 accused by the whites of killing settlers." 
 
 " My father." The mournful appealing tone of the 
 Indian speaker always affected Clark. He was singularly 
 
THE RED HEAD CHIEF 399 
 
 fitted to be their judge and friend. " My son." There 
 was an air of sympathy and paternal kindness as the Red 
 Head Chief listened. His heart was stirred by their 
 wrongs, and his face would redden with indignation as he 
 listened to the pitiful tales of his children. 
 
 With bodies uncovered to the waist, with blanket on 
 the left arm and the right arm and breast bare, a chief 
 stepped forth to be examined concerning a border fray 
 with the backwoodsmen. 
 
 Drawing himself to his full height, and extending his 
 arm toward Clark, the Iowa began : 
 
 " Red Head, if I had done that of which my white 
 brother accuses me, I would not stand here now. The 
 words of my red head father have passed through both 
 my ears and I have remembered them. I am accused. 
 I am not guilty. 
 
 " I thought I would come down to see my red head 
 father to hold a talk with him. 
 
 " I come across the line. I see the cattle of my white 
 brother dead. I see the Sauk kill them in great numbers. 
 I said there would be trouble. I thought to go to my 
 village. I find I have no provisions. I say, ' Let us go 
 down to our white brother and trade for a little/ I do not 
 turn on my track to my village." 
 
 Then turning to the Sacs and pointing, - 
 
 " The Sauk who tells lies of me goes to my white 
 brother and says, ' The loway has killed your cattle.' 
 
 " When the lie has talked thus to my white brother, he 
 comes up to my village. We hear our white brother com 
 ing. We are glad and leave our cabins to tell him he is 
 welcome. While I shake hands with my white brother, 
 my white brother shoots my best chief through the 
 head, shoots three my young men, a squaw, and her 
 children. 
 
 " My young men hear, they rush out, they fire, four 
 of my white brothers fall. My people fly to the woods, 
 and die of cold and hunger." 
 
 Dropping his head and his arm, in tragic attitude he 
 stands, the picture of despair. The lip of the savage 
 quivers. He lifts his eyes, 
 
400 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " While I shake hands my white brother shoots my 
 chief, my son, my only son." 
 
 Only by consummate tact can Clark handle these dis 
 tressing conflicts of the border. Who is right and who is 
 wrong? The settlers hate the Indians, the Indians dread 
 and fear the settlers. 
 
 " Governor Clark," said the Shawnees and Delawares, 
 " since three or four years we are crowded by the whites 
 who steal our horses. We moved. You recommended 
 us to raise stock and cultivate our ground. That advice 
 we have followed, but again white men have come." 
 
 The Cherokees complained, " White people settle with 
 out our consent. They destroy our game and produce 
 discord and confusion." 
 
 Clark could see the heaving of their naked breasts and 
 their lithe bodies, the tigers of their kind, shaken by 
 irrepressible emotion. 
 
 And again in the Autumn, 
 
 " What is it? " inquired the stranger as pennons came 
 glittering down the Missouri. 
 
 " Oh, nothing, only another lot of Indians coming 
 down to see their red-headed daddy," was the irreverent 
 response, as the solemn, calm-featured braves glided into 
 view, gazing as only savages can gaze at the wonders of 
 civilisation. 
 
 "What! going to war?" cried Clark, in a tone of 
 thunder, as they made known their errand at the Council 
 House. " Your Great Father, the President, forbids it. 
 He counsels his children to live in peace. If you insist on 
 listening to bad men I shall come out there and make you 
 desist." 
 
 The stormy excitement subsided. They shrank from 
 his reproofs, and felt and feared his power. 
 
 " Go home. Take these gifts to my children, and tell 
 them they were sent by the Red Head Chief." 
 
 Viewed with admiration, the presents were carefully 
 wrapped in skins to be laid away and treasured on many 
 a weary march and through many a sad vicissitude. A 
 few days in St. Louis, then away go the willowy copper- 
 skin paddlers to dissuade their braves from incurring the 
 
THE RED HEAD CHIEF 401 
 
 awful displeasure of the Red Head Chief. The West of 
 that day was sown with his medals that disappeared only 
 with the tribes. 
 
 In time they came to know Clark's signature, and pre 
 served it as a sacred talisman. Could the influence of one 
 man have availed against armies of westward pressing 
 trappers, traders, and pioneers, the tribes would have been 
 civilised. 
 
 " Shall we accept the missionaries? Shall we hearken 
 to their teaching? " 
 
 " Yes," he said to the Osages. " Yes," to the Pawnees, 
 to the Shawnees, and " Yes," to a delegation that came 
 from the far-off Nez Perces beyond the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 In days of friction and excitement Clark did more than 
 regiments to preserve peace on the frontier. He was a 
 buffer, a perpetual break-water between the conflicting 
 races. 
 
 As United States superintendent of Indian affairs the 
 Red Head Chief grew venerable. The stately old officer 
 lived in style in St. Louis, and as in the colonial time Sir 
 William Johnson ruled from the Atlantic to the Missis 
 sippi, so now Clark's word was Indian law from the Mis 
 sissippi to the Pacific. His voice was raised in continual 
 advantage to the Indian. While civilisation was pushing 
 west and west, and crowding them out of their old do 
 mains, he was softening as much as possible the rigour of 
 their contact with whites. 
 
 " Our position with regard to the Indians has entirely 
 changed," he used to say. " Before Wayne's campaigns 
 in 1794 and events of 1818, the tribes nearest our settle 
 ments were a formidable and terrible enemy. Since then 
 their power has been broken, their warlike spirit subdued, 
 and themselves sunk into objects of pity and commisera 
 tion. While strong and hostile, it has been our obvious 
 duty to weaken them ; now that they are weak and harm 
 less, and most of their lands fallen into our hands, justice 
 and humanity require us to cherish and befriend them. 
 To teach them to live in houses, to raise grain and stock, 
 to plant orchards, to set up landmarks, to divide their 
 possessions, to establish laws for their government, to get 
 
 26 
 
402 THE CONQUEST 
 
 the rudiments of common learning, such as reading, 
 writing, and ciphering, are the first steps toward improv 
 ing their condition." 
 
 This was the policy of Jefferson, reaffirmed by Clark. 
 It was the key to all Clark's endeavours. 
 
 At Washington City he discussed the question with 
 President Monroe. 
 
 " But to take these steps with effect the Indians should 
 be removed west of the Mississippi and north of the 
 Missouri." 
 
 " Let them move singly or in families as they please," 
 said Clark. " Place agents where the Indians cross the 
 Mississippi, to supply them with provisions and ammu 
 nition. A constant tide is now going on from Ohio, 
 Indiana, Illinois. They cross at St. Louis and St. Gene- 
 vieve, and my accounts show the aid which is given them. 
 Many leading chiefs are zealous in this work, and are 
 labouring hard to collect their dispersed and broken tribes 
 at their new and permanent homes." 
 
 " And the land? " inquired the President. 
 
 " It is well watered with numerous streams and some 
 large rivers, abounds with grass, contains prairies, land 
 for farms, and affords a temporary supply of game. 
 
 " It is in vain for us to talk about learning and religion ; 
 these Indians want food. The Sioux, the Osages, are 
 powerful tribes, they are near our border, and my 
 official station enables me to know the exact truth. They 
 are distressed by famine; many die for want of food; 
 the living child is buried with the dead mother because 
 no one can spare it food through its helpless infancy. 
 
 " Grain, stock, fences are the first things. Property 
 alone can keep up the pride of the Indian and make him 
 ashamed of drunkenness, lying, and stealing. 
 
 " The period of danger with an Indian is when he 
 ceases to be a hunter and before he gets the means of 
 living from flocks and agriculture. In the transit from 
 a hunter to a farmer, he degenerates from a proud and 
 independent savage to a beggar, drunkard, thief. To 
 counteract the danger, property in horses, hogs, and 
 cattle is indispensable. They should be assisted in mak- 
 
THE RED HEAD CHIEF 403 
 
 ing fences and planting orchards, and be instructed in 
 raising cotton and making cloth. Small mills should be 
 erected to save the women the labour of pounding corn, 
 and mechanics should be employed to teach the young 
 Indians how to make ploughs, carts, wheels, hoes, and 
 axes." 
 
 Benton and other great men argued in the Senate. 
 " In contact with the white race the Indians degenerate. 
 They are a dangerous neighbour within our borders. 
 They prevent the expansion of the white race, and the 
 States will not be satisfied until all their soil is open to 
 settlement." 
 
 And so, to remove the Indians to a home of their own 
 became the great work of Clark's life. 
 
 "A home where the whites shall never come!" the 
 Indians were delighted. " We will look at these lands." 
 
 " I recommend that the government send special agents 
 to collect the scattered bands and families and pay their 
 expenses to the lands assigned them," said Clark, esti 
 mating the cost at one hundred thousand dollars. But 
 not all of the tribes would listen. 
 
 In November, 1826, Clark drove from St. Louis in his 
 carriage to the Choctaw nation in Alabama, to persuade 
 them to move west of the Mississippi. 
 
 " After many years spent in reflection," said the Com 
 missioners, " your Great Father, the President, has de 
 termined upon a plan for your happiness. The United 
 States has a large unsettled country on the west side of 
 the great river Mississippi into which they do not 
 intend their white settlements shall enter. This is the 
 country in which our Great Father intends to settle his 
 red children. 
 
 " Many of the tribes are now preparing to remove and 
 are making application for land. The Cherokees and 
 Muscogees have procured lands, and your people can have 
 five times as much land in that fine country as they are 
 now living on in this." 
 
 Never before in the conquest of nations had the weaker 
 race been offered such advantageous terms. Two days 
 passed while the Indians considered and argued among 
 themselves. 
 
404 THE CONQUEST 
 
 "What shall we give to you?" asked the Commis 
 sioners. " These lands and titles to them, provisions 
 and clothing, a cow and corn and farming implements 
 to each family, and blacksmiths and ploughmakers and 
 annuities." 
 
 " Friends and brothers of the Choctaw nation," said 
 Clark in the council, " I have spent half the period of 
 an accustomed life among you. Thirty-six years ago I 
 passed through your country and saw your distressed 
 condition. Now I see part of your nation much improved 
 in prosperity and civilisation. This affords me much 
 happiness. But I am informed that a very large ma 
 jority of the Choctaw nation are seeking food among the 
 swamps by picking cotton for white planters. 
 
 " Cannot provision be made to better their condition ? 
 
 " Let me recommend that the poorer and less enlight 
 ened be moved without delay to their lands west of the 
 Mississippi. There will I take pleasure in advancing their 
 interests. In my declining years it would be a great con 
 solation to me to see them prosper in agriculture. 
 
 " Come to my country where I can have it in my power 
 to act as your father and your friend. You shall be pro 
 tected and peaceful and happy." 
 
 The Choctaws were touched, but they answered, 
 
 " We cannot part with our country. It is the land of 
 our birth, the hills and streams of our youth." 
 
 XVII 
 
 THE GREAT COUNCIL AT PRAIRIE 
 DU CHIEN 
 
 ST. LOUIS was a cold place in those prairie years; 
 a great deal of snow fell, and sleighbells rang be 
 side the Great River. No Indians came during the 
 cold weather, but with the springing grass and blossom 
 ing trees, each year the Indians camped around the twin 
 lakes at Maracasta, Clark's farm west of St. Louis. 
 
THE GREAT COUNCIL 
 
 405 
 
 There were wigwams all over Maracasta. James Ken- 
 nerly, Clark's Indian deputy, busy ever with the ruddy 
 aborigines, dealing out annuities, arranging for treaties 
 and instructing the tribes, kept open house for the chiefs 
 at Cote Plaquemine, the Persimmon Hill. Clark's boys 
 shot bows and arrows with the little Indians, Kennedy's 
 little girls made them presents of " kinnikinick," dried 
 leaves of the sumac and red osier dogwood, to smoke in 
 their long pipes. 
 
 Every delegation came down laden with gifts for the 
 Red Head, costly furs, buffalo robes, bows, arrows, 
 pipes, moccasins. 
 
 Tragedies of the plains came daily to the ears of Gen 
 eral Clark, far, far beyond the reach of government in 
 the wild battle-ground of the West. 
 
 In 1822 the Sioux and Cheyennes combined against 
 the Crows and fell upon their villages. In the slaughter 
 of that day five thousand defenceless men, women, and 
 children were butchered on the prairie. All their lodges 
 and herds of horses and hundreds of captive girls were 
 carried away. As a people the Crows never recovered. 
 
 Drunk with victory the triumphant Sioux rolled back 
 on the Chippewas, Sacs, Foxes, and lowas. 
 
 " If continued, these wars will embroil all the tribes 
 of the West," said Clark. " We must do something 
 more to promote peace. They must become civilised." 
 
 President Monroe was working up a new Indian policy, 
 with Clark as a chief adviser. 
 
 " Go, Paul Louise, take this talk to my Osages. I am 
 coming up to their country. Tell them to meet me on the 
 first of June." 
 
 In his canoe, with his squaw and his babies, the wiz 
 ened little Frenchman set out. He could not read, he 
 could not write, he could only make his mark, but the 
 Indians loved and trusted Paul Louise. 
 
 " And you, Baronet Vasquez, take this to the Kansas 
 nation." 
 
 Vasquez belonged to the old Spanish regime. As a 
 youth he had gone out with the Spanish garrison at the 
 cession of St. Louis, to return a fur trader. 
 
4 o6 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Then came Lafayette from the memories of Monti- 
 cello. Escorted by a troop of horse, he had ascended that 
 historic mountain. The alert lithe figure of the little 
 Marquis leaped from the carriage; at the same moment 
 the door opened, revealing the tall, bent, wasted figure 
 of Jefferson in the pillared portico. The music ceased, 
 and every head uncovered. Slowly the aged Jefferson 
 descended the steps, slowly the little Marquis approached 
 his friend, then crying, with , outstretched arms, " Ah, 
 Jefferson ! " " Ah, Lafayette ! " each fell upon the 
 other's bosom. The gentlemen of the cavalcade turned 
 away with tears, and the two were left to solitude and 
 recollection. 
 
 Long and often had Jefferson and Lafayette laboured 
 together in anxious and critical periods of the past. It 
 was in chasing " the boy " Lafayette that the British 
 came to Charlottesville. When Jefferson was minister in 
 Paris, the young and popular nobleman assisted the un 
 accustomed American at the Court of France. Together 
 they had seen the opening of the French Revolution. 
 What memories came back as they sat in the parlour at 
 Monticello, discussing the momentous events of two con 
 tinents in which they had been actors ! 
 
 " What would I have done with the Queen?" asked 
 the aged Jefferson. " I should have shut her up in a 
 convent, putting harm out of her power. I have ever 
 believed if there had been no Queen there would have 
 been no French Revolution." 
 
 Lafayette went to Montpelier to see Madison, and then 
 to Yorktown, over the same road which he himself had 
 opened in 1781 in the retreat before Cornwallis. One 
 long ovation- followed his route. Even old ladies who 
 had seen him in their youth pressed forward with the 
 plea, " Let me see the young Marquis again ! " forgetful 
 of the flight of years. Echoes of his triumphal tour 
 had reached the border. St. Louis, a city and a State 
 not dreamed of in Revolutionary days, begged the honour 
 of entertaining Lafayette. 
 
 Far down the river they saw the smoke of his steamer, 
 coming up from New Orleans. 
 
THE GREAT COUNCIL 407 
 
 " Welcome! " the hills echoed. " Vive Lafayette! " 
 
 The Marquis lifted his eyes, white stone houses gay 
 with gardens and clusters of verdure arose before him 
 in a town of five thousand inhabitants. Below stood the 
 massive stone forts of the Spanish time, and on the brow 
 of the bluff frowned the old round tower, the last fading 
 relic of feudalism in North America. 
 
 Every eye was fixed upon the honoured guest. A few 
 were there who could recall the pride of Lafayette in his 
 American troops, with their helmets and flowing crests 
 and the sabres he himself had brought from France. The 
 banquet, the toasts, the ball, all these have passed into 
 tradition. 
 
 The Marquis visited Clark's cabinet of Indian curios. 
 
 " I present you this historic cloak of an Indian chief," 
 said the General, offering a robe like a Russian great 
 coat. 
 
 In turn, Lafayette presented his mess chest, carried 
 through the Revolution, and placed on the Governor's 
 finger a ring of his hair. Later Clark sent him the 
 live cub of a grizzly bear, that grew to be a wonder in 
 the Jardin des Plantes of Paris. 
 
 "And your great brother, George Rogers Clark?" 
 inquired the Marquis. 
 
 " He died seven years ago at Louisville," answered the 
 Governor. 
 
 " In securing the liberties of this country I esteem him 
 second only to Washington," said Lafayette. 
 
 " Those thieving Osages have taken six more of my 
 horses," complained Chouteau the next morning at the 
 office of Governor Clark. 
 
 " And four blankets and three axes of me," added 
 Baptiste Dardenne. 
 
 " Worse yet, they have stolen my great-coat and razor 
 case," said Manuel Roderique. 
 
 Two thousand dollars' worth of claims were paid in 
 that summer of 1825. 
 
 " We must get them out of the way," persisted the ex 
 asperated whites. 
 
 " Acts and acts of Congress regulating trade and in- 
 
4 o8 THE CONQUEST 
 
 tercourse with the tribes are of no avail. They must be 
 removed, and as far as possible. They are banditti, rob 
 bers ! " said Benton. 
 
 In spite of all proclamations clothes disappeared from 
 the line, silk stockings and bed-quilts and ladies' hats 
 mysteriously went into the wigwams of the vagrants. 
 
 ''' This state of affairs is intolerable! " exclaimed Ben- 
 ton. " Governor Clark, if you will conclude a treaty re 
 moving those tribes to the West I will stake my honour 
 on putting a ratification through Congress. I '11 present 
 the case ! " 
 
 Again the great senator ground out the words be 
 tween his teeth, " / 'II present the case. It will be a 
 kindness to both parties. The poor Indians have lost 
 all, we must reimburse them, we must take care of 
 them, they must have a home, but far away, far 
 away!" shaking his fingers and closing his eyes with 
 the significant shrug so well known to the friends of 
 Colonel Benton. 
 
 " Not so bad as eet once was," urged the kind-hearted 
 Creoles. " Not so bad by far. In de old Spanish days 
 dey once left St. Genevieve wit'out a horse to turn a 
 mill. Dey came in to de village in de night and carried 
 away everyt'ing dey could find. Nobody ever pursue 
 dem. But lesAmencams, dey chase dem. But den," com 
 mented the tolerant Creoles, " de Osage do not kill, like 
 de Kickapoo and de Cherokee. Dey take de goods, steal 
 de furs, beat with ramrods, drive him off, but dey 
 don't kill! " 
 
 So in May, after the departure of Lafayette, Gov 
 ernor Clark steamed up the Missouri, met the Kansas 
 and Osage Indians, and made treaties for the cession of 
 all their lands within the present boundary of Missouri. 
 
 " You shall have lands, hogs, fowls, cattle, carts, and 
 farming tools to settle farther west." 
 
 This was wealth to the poor Osages, whose hunting 
 fields had become exhausted. 
 
 " Go to the earth and till it, it will give you bread and 
 meat and clothes and comfort and happiness. You may 
 talk about your poverty always, and it will never make 
 
THE GREAT COUNCIL 409 
 
 you better off. You must be industrious," said Clark. 
 " And your old friend, Boone, shall be your farmer." 
 
 For almost forty years now they had known Daniel 
 M. Boone, the son of the great pioneer, since, indeed, 
 those days when as a boy of eighteen he trapped on 
 the Kansas. Two springs later the removal was made, 
 and Boone, as " farmer for the Kansas Indians," took 
 up his residence in the Kaw Valley where his chimney 
 stacks may yet be seen near the present Lecompton. The 
 next year was born Napoleon Boone, the first white child 
 in Kansas. 
 
 All this time the northern clans were gathering at 
 Prairie du Chien, a work of months. June 30 Governor 
 Clark's barge started north from St. Louis, laden with 
 presents, provisions, interpreters. 
 
 " We are afraid to come," said the Omahas. " We are 
 afraid to cross the hostile territory." 
 
 William Preston Clark, in looks and dress the blonde 
 double of the poet Byron, said, " Let me bring them, 
 father." 
 
 So young Clark, intimate with Indians, went after 
 the Omahas and brought them safely in. But Big Elk 
 left his medal with his son, " I never expect to reach 
 home alive," he said. " We cross the country of the 
 Sacs!" 
 
 The Yanktons refused. " Shall we be butchered by 
 the Sacs?" But later they came to St. Louis, smoked 
 with the Sacs and shook hands. Even the Sioux feared 
 the Sacs, the warriors of the central valley. 
 
 Mahaska, head chief of the lowas, with his braves 
 went up with Clark, and Rant-che-wai-me, the Flying 
 Pigeon. Rant-che-wai-me had been to Washington. A 
 year ago, when her husband left her alone at the wig 
 wam on the Des Moines, she set out for St. Louis. The 
 steamer was at the shore, the chief was about to embark, 
 when he felt a blow upon his back. Shaking his plumes 
 in wrath, Mahaska turned, to behold the Flying 
 Pigeon, with uplifted tomahawk in her hand. 
 
 " Am I your wife? " she cried. 
 
 " You are my wife," answered the surprised chief. 
 
4 io THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Are you my husband? " 
 
 " I am your husband." 
 
 " Then will I, too, go with you to shake the Great 
 Father by the hand." 
 
 Mahaska smiled, " You are my pretty wife, Flying 
 Pigeon; you shall go to Washington." Clark, too, 
 smiled, " Yes, she can go." 
 
 The pretty Rant-che-wai-me was feted at the White 
 House, and had her picture painted by a great artist as 
 a typical Iowa Princess. And now she was going to 
 Prairie du Chien. 
 
 Not for ten years had Clark visited his northern terri 
 tory. Few changes had come on the Mississippi. Twice 
 a year Colonel George Davenport brought a hundred 
 thousand dollars' worth of goods to his trading post at 
 Rock Island. 
 
 Beyond, Julien Dubuque lay in perpetual state on his 
 hills, wrapped only in a winding sheet in his tomb, ex 
 posed to the view of every traveller that cared to climb 
 the grassy height to gaze through the grated windows 
 of his lonely mausoleum. 
 
 " The Great Chief, the Red Head is coming," whis 
 pered all the Indians, as Clark's barges hove in sight. 
 
 Prairie du Chien was alive with excitement. Gov 
 ernor Cass of Michigan was already there. Not only the 
 village, but the entire banks of the river for miles above 
 and below were covered with high-pointed buffalo tents. 
 Horses browsed upon the bluffs in Arabian abandon. 
 Below, tall and warlike, Chippewas and Winnebagoes 
 from Superior and the valley of St. Croix jostled Me- 
 nomonees, Pottawattamies, and Ottawas from Lake 
 Michigan and Green Bay. 
 
 " Whoop-oh-hoo-oh ! "' 
 
 Major Taliferro from the Falls of St. Anthony made 
 the grand entry with his Sioux and Chippewas, four 
 hundred strong, drums beating, flags flying. Taliferro 
 was very popular with the Sioux, even the squaws 
 said he was " Weechashtah Washtay" a handsome 
 man. 
 
 Over from Sault Ste. Marie the learned agent School- 
 
THE GREAT COUNCIL 41 1 
 
 craft had brought one hundred and fifty Chippewas, 
 brothers of Hiawatha. 
 
 Keokuk, the Watchful Fox, with his Sacs and lowas, 
 was the last to arrive. Leagued against the Sioux, they 
 had camped on an island below to paint and dress, 
 and came up the Mississippi attired in full war costume 
 singing their battle-song. It was a thrilling sight when 
 they came upon the scene with spears, battle-lances, and 
 crested locks like Roman helmets, casting bitter glances 
 at their ancient foe, the Sioux. Nearly nude, with feather 
 war-flags flying, and beating tambourines, the Sacs landed 
 in compact ranks, breathing defiance. From his earliest 
 youth Keokuk had fought the Sioux. 
 
 " Bold, martial, flushed with success, Keokuk landed, 
 majestic and frowning," said Schoolcraft, " and as an 
 other Coriolanus spoke in the council and shook his war 
 lance at the Sioux." 
 
 At the signal of a gun, every day at ten o'clock, the 
 chiefs assembled. 
 
 " Children," said Governor Clark to the assembled 
 savages, " your Great Father has not sent us here to ask 
 anything from you we want nothing not the small 
 est piece of your land. We have come a great way to 
 meet for your own good. Your Great Father the Presi 
 dent has been informed that war is carried on among his 
 red children, the Sacs, Foxes, and Chippewas on one 
 side and the Sioux on the other, and that the wars of 
 some of you began before any of you were born." 
 
 " Heigh ! heigh ! " broke forth the silent smokers. 
 "Heigh! heigh!" exclaimed the warriors. "Heigh! 
 < heigh ! " echoed the vast and impatient concourse around 
 the council. 
 
 " Your father thinks there is no cause for continuation 
 of war between you. There is land enough for you to 
 live and hunt on and animals enough. Why, instead of 
 peaceably following the game and providing for your 
 families, do you send out war parties to destroy each 
 other ? The Great Spirit made you all of one colour and 
 placed you upon the land. You ought to live in peace as 
 brothers of one great family. Your Great Father has 
 
4 i2 THE CONQUEST 
 
 heard of your war songs and war parties, they do not 
 please him. He desires that his red children should bury 
 the tomahawk." 
 
 " Heigh! heigh!" 
 
 " Children ! look around you. See the result of wars 
 between nations who were once powerful and are now 
 reduced to a few wandering families. You have exam 
 ples enough before you. 
 
 " Children, your wars have resulted from your having 
 no definite boundaries. You do not know what belongs 
 to you, and your people follow the game into lands 
 claimed by other tribes." 
 
 " Heigh ! heigh ! " 
 
 " Children, you have all assembled under your Father's 
 flag. You are under his protection. Blood must not be 
 spilt here. Whoever injures one of you injures us, and 
 we will punish him as we would punish one of our own 
 people." 
 
 " Heigh! heigh! heigh! " cried all the Indians. 
 
 " Children," said General Cass, " your Great Father 
 does not want your land. He wants to establish boun 
 daries and peace among you. Your Great Father has 
 strong limbs and a piercing eye, and an arm that extends 
 from the sea to Red River. 
 
 " Children, you are hungry. We will adjourn for two 
 hours." 
 
 " Heigh ! heigh ! heigh-h ! " rolled the chorus across 
 the Prairie. 
 
 As to an army, rations were distributed, beef, bread, 
 corn, salt, sugar, tobacco. Each ate, ate, ate, till not 
 a scrap was left to feed a humming-bird. 
 
 Revered of his people, Wabasha and his pipe-bearers 
 were the observed of all. 
 
 " I never yet was present at so great a council as 
 this," said Wabasha. Three thousand were at Prairie 
 du Chien. 
 
 The Sioux? Far from the northwest they said their 
 fathers came, the Tartar cheek was theirs. Wabasha 
 and his chiefs alone had the Caucasian countenance. 
 
 Three mighty brothers ruled the Sioux in the days 
 
THE GREAT COUNCIL 413 
 
 of Pontiac, Wabasha, Red Wing, and Little Crow. 
 Their sons, Wabasha, Red Wing, and Little Crow ruled 
 still. 
 
 "Boundaries?" they knew not the meaning of the 
 word. Restless, anxious, sharp-featured Little Crow 
 fixed his piercing hazel eye upon the Red Head, 
 
 '' Taku-wakan! that is incomprehensible!" 
 
 " Heigh! What does this mean?" exclaimed the 
 Chippewas. 
 
 " We are all one people," sagely observed Mahaska, 
 the Iowa. " My father, I claim no lands in particular." 
 
 " I never yet heard that any one had any exclusive 
 right to the soil," said Chambler, the Ottawa. 
 
 " I have a tract of country. It is where I was born 
 and now live," said Red Bird, the Winnebago. " But 
 the Foxes claim it and the Sacs, the Menomonees, and 
 Omahas. W r e use it in common." 
 
 Red Bird was a handsome Indian, dressed Yankton 
 fashion in white unsoiled deerskin and scarlet, and glove- 
 fitting moccasins, the dandy of his tribe. 
 
 The debate grew animated. " Our tract is so small," 
 cried the Menomonees, " that we cannot turn around 
 without touching our neighbours." Then every Indian 
 began to describe his boundaries, crossing and recross- 
 ing each other. 
 
 ' These are the causes of all your troubles," said Clark. 
 "It is better for each of you to give up some disputed 
 claim than to be fighting for ever about it." 
 
 That night the parties two by two discussed their lines, 
 the first step towards civilisation. They drew maps on 
 the ground, " my hunting ground," and " mine," and 
 " mine." After days of study the boundary rivers were 
 acknowledged, the belt of wampum was passed, and the 
 pipe of peace. 
 
 Wabasha, acknowledged by every chief to be first of 
 the Seven Fires of the Sioux, was treated by all with 
 marked distinction and deference. And yet Wabasha, 
 dignified and of superior understanding, when asked, 
 " Wabasha ? What arrangement did you make with the 
 Foxes about boundaries?" replied, "I never made any 
 
4 i 4 THE CONQUEST 
 
 arrangement about the line. The only arrangement I 
 made was about peace ! " 
 
 " When I heard the voice of my Great Father," said 
 Mongazid, the Loon's Foot, from Fond du Lac, " when 
 I heard the voice of my Father coming up the Mississippi, 
 calling to this treaty, it seemed as a murmuring wind. I 
 got up from my mat where I sat musing, and hastened 
 to obey. My pathway has been clear and bright. Truly 
 it is a pleasant sky above our heads this day. There is 
 not a cloud to darken it. I hear nothing but pleasant 
 words. The raven is not waiting for his prey. I hear 
 no eagle cry, ' Come, let us go, the feast is ready, 
 the Indian has killed his brother.' ' 
 
 Shingaba Wassin of Sault Ste. Marie, head chief of 
 the Chippewas, had fought with Britain in the War of 
 1812 and lost a brother at the battle of the Thames. He 
 and a hundred other chiefs with their pipe bearers signed 
 the treaty. Everybody signed. And all sang, even the 
 girls, the Witcheannas of the Sioux. 
 
 " We have buried our bad thoughts in the ashes of the 
 pipe," said Little Crow. 
 
 " I always had good counsel from Governor Clark," 
 observed Red Wing. 
 
 " You put this medal on my neck in 1812," said De- 
 corah, the Winnebago, " and when I returned I gave 
 good advice to the young men of our village." 
 
 After a fierce controversy and the rankling of a hun 
 dred wrongs, the warring tribes laid down their lances 
 and buried the tomahawk. Sacs and Sioux shook hands ; 
 the dividing lines were fixed ; all the chiefs signed, and 
 the tribes were at peace for the first time in a thousand 
 years. 
 
 " Pray God it may last," said Clark, as his boat 
 went away homeward along with the Sacs down the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 The great Council at Prairie du Chien was over. 
 
THE LORDS OF THE RIVERS 415 
 
 XVIII 
 
 THE LORDS OF THE RIVERS 
 
 FOR thirty years after the cession, St. Louis was a 
 great military centre. Sixty thousand dollars a 
 year went into the village from Bellefontaine, and 
 still more after the opening of Jefferson Barracks in 1826. 
 Nor can it be denied that the expenditure of large sums 
 of money in Indian annuities through the office of Gov 
 ernor Clark did much for the prosperity of the frontier 
 city. 
 
 And ever the centre of hospitality was the home of 
 Governor Clark. Both the Governor and his wife en 
 joyed life, took things leisurely, both had the magnetic 
 faculty of winning people, and they set a splendid table. 
 
 " I like to see my house full," said the Governor. 
 There were no modern hotels in those days, and his house 
 became a stopping place for all noted visitors to St. Louis. 
 
 Their old-fashioned coach, with the footman up behind 
 in a tall silk hat, met at the levee many a distinguished 
 stranger, travellers, generals, dukes, and lords from 
 Europe who came with letters to the Indian autocrat of 
 the West. All had to get a pass from Clark, and all 
 agents and sub-agents were under and answerable to him. 
 
 But unspoiled in the midst of it passed the plain, un- 
 aristocratic Red Head Chief and friend of the oppressed. 
 For years he corresponded with Lafayette, and yet Clark 
 was not a scholar. He was a man of affairs, of which this 
 country has abounded in rich examples. 
 
 Prince Paul of Wurtemberg came, the Duke of Saxe- 
 Weimar, and Maximilian, Prince of Wied, all seeking 
 passports for the Indian country, all coming back with 
 curios for their palaces and castles. 
 
 Very politely Mrs. Clark listened to their broken Eng 
 lish and patiently conversed with them when the Gov 
 ernor was away. 
 
4 i6 THE CONQUEST 
 
 One of the first pianos came to the Clark parlours, and 
 on special occasions the Indian council room was cleared 
 and decorated for grand balls. Many a young " mille- 
 toer," as the Creoles called them, dashed up from Jefferson 
 Barracks to win a bride among the girls of St. Louis. 
 
 For the preservation of peace and the facilitation of 
 Indian removals, Fort Des Moines was built among the 
 lowas, Fort Atkinson near the present Omaha, Fort 
 Snelling at the Falls of St. Anthony, and Fort Leaven- 
 worth on the borders of Kansas. 
 
 Half the area of the United States lay out there, with 
 no law, no courts, but those of battle. As quietly as pos 
 sible, step by step, the savage land was taken into custody. 
 And the pretty girls of St. Louis did their share to recon 
 cile the " milletoers " to life at the frontier posts. 
 
 "Ho for Santa Fe!" One May morning in 1824 a 
 caravan of waggons passed through the streets of St. 
 Louis. 
 
 Penned in the far-off Mexican mountains a little colony 
 of white people were shut from the world. Twice before 
 a few adventurous pack-trains had penetrated their moun 
 tain solitudes, as Phoenicians of old went over to Egypt, 
 India, Arabia. 
 
 ff Los Americanos! Los Americanos! " shouted the 
 eager mountain dwellers, rushing out to embrace the 
 traders and welcome them to their lonely settlement. 
 Silks, cottons, velvets, hardware, were bought up in a 
 trice, and the fortunate traders returned to St. Louis 
 with horseload after horseload of gold and silver bullion. 
 
 " Those people want us. But the Spanish authorities 
 are angry and tax us as they used to tax the traders at 
 New Orleans. The people beg us to disregard their tyran 
 nous rulers, they must have goods." 
 
 In 1817 young Auguste Chouteau tried it, and was 
 cast into prison and his goods confiscated. 
 
 " What wish you? " demanded the Spanish Governor, 
 in answer to repeated solicitations from the captive. 
 
 " Mi libertad Gobernador." 
 
 Wrathfully they locked him closer than ever in the old 
 donjon of Santa Fe. 
 
THE LORDS OF THE RIVERS 417 
 
 "My neighbour's son imprisoned there without cause!" 
 exclaimed Governor Clark. All the old Spanish ani 
 mosity roiled in his veins. He appealed to Congress. 
 There was a rattling among the dry bones, and Chouteau 
 and his friends were released. 
 
 And now, on the I5th of May, 1824, eighty men set 
 out in the first waggon train, with twenty thousand dol 
 lars' worth of merchandise for the isolated Mexican cap 
 ital. In September the caravan returned with their capital 
 increased a hundred-fold in sacks of gold and silver and 
 ten thousand dollars' worth of furs. 
 
 The Santa Fe trade was established never to be shaken, 
 though Indian battles, like conflicts with Arab sheiks of 
 the desert, grew wilder than any Crusader's tale. Young 
 men of the Mississippi dreamed of that " farther west " 
 of Santa Fe and Los Angeles. 
 
 " We must have a safe road," said the traders. " We 
 may wander off into the desert and perish." 
 
 In the same year Senator Benton secured an appropri 
 ation of ten thousand dollars for staking the plains to 
 Santa Fe. 
 
 " We must have protection," said the traders to Gov 
 ernor Clark at the Council House. At Council Grove, a 
 buffalo haunt in a thickly wooded bottom at the head 
 waters of the Neosho in the present Kansas, Clark's agents 
 met the Osage Indians and secured permission for the 
 caravans to pass through their country. But the dreaded 
 Pawnees and Comanches were as yet unapproachable. 
 
 In spite of the inhumanity of Spaniards, in spite of mur 
 derous Pawnees, in spite of desert dust and red-brown 
 grass and cacti, year by year the caravans grew, the 
 people became more friendly and solicitous of each other's 
 trade, until one day New Mexico was ready to step over 
 into the ranks of the States. 
 
 And one day Kit Carson, whose mother was a Boone, 
 only sixteen and small of his age, ran away from a hard 
 task-master to join the Santa Fe caravan and grow up on 
 the plains. 
 
 Daniel Boone was dead, at eighty-six, just as Missouri 
 came in as a State. Jesse, the youngest of the Boone 
 
 27 
 
418 THE CONQUEST 
 
 boys to come out from Kentucky, was in the Constitu 
 tional Convention that adjourned in his honour, and 
 Jesse's son, Albert Gallatin Boone, in 1825, joined as 
 private secretary that wonderful Ashley expedition that 
 keel-boated up the Platte, crossed from its head-waters 
 over to Green River, kept on west, discovered the Great 
 South Pass of the Rockies, the overland route of future 
 emigration, and set up its tents on the borders of Utah 
 Lake. 
 
 Overwhelmed with debt Ashley set out, he came 
 back a millionaire with the greatest collection of furs 
 ever known up to that time. Everything was Ashley 
 then, " Ashley boats " and " Ashley beaver," - he was 
 the greatest man in St. Louis, and was sent to Congress. 
 
 Sixty years ago the Lords of the Rivers ruled St. Louis. 
 
 The Rocky Mountain Fur Company went out and 
 camped on the site of a dozen future capitals. From the 
 Green River Valley under the Wind River Mountains of 
 Wyoming, from the Tetons of Colorado, the Uintahs of 
 Utah, and the Bitter Roots of Idaho, from, the shining 
 Absarokas and the Bighorn Alps, they came home with 
 mink and otter, beaver, bear, and buffalo. 
 
 The American Fur Company came to St. Louis, and 
 the Chouteaus, at first the rivals, became the partners of 
 John Jacob Astor. Born in the atmosphere of furs, for 
 forty years Pierre Chouteau the younger had no rival in 
 the Valley except Clark. The two stood side by side, one 
 representing commerce, the other the Government. 
 
 Pierre Chouteau, the largest fur trader west of the 
 Alleghanies, sent his boats to Itasca, the headwaters of 
 the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Yellowstone, the Osage, 
 the Kansas, and the Platte, employing a thousand men 
 and paying skilled pilots five thousand dollars for a single 
 expedition. With Chouteau' s convoys came down Clark's 
 chiefs, going back in the same vessels. To their untu 
 tored minds the trader's capital and the Red Head Town 
 were synonymous. 
 
 If there was a necessary conflict between the policy of 
 the government and that of the fur trade, no one could 
 have softened it more than the Red Head diplomat. With 
 
THE LORDS OF THE RIVERS 419 
 
 infinite tact and unfailing good sense, he harmonised, 
 reconciled, and pushed for the best interest of the Indian. 
 
 " Give up the chase and settle into agricultural life," 
 said Clark's agents to the Indians. 
 
 "Go to the chase," said the trader. 
 
 Clark sent up hoes to supersede the shoulder-blade of 
 the buffalo. The trader sent up fusils and ammunition. 
 The two combined in the evolution of the savage. The 
 squaw took the hoe, the brave the gun. 
 
 Winter expresses came down to St. Louis from the 
 far-off Powder and the Wind River Mountains. " Send 
 us merchandise." With the first breaking ice of Spring 
 the boats were launched, the caravans ready. 
 
 Deck-piled, swan-like upon the water the Missouri 
 steamboat started. Pierre Chouteau was there to see her 
 off, Governor Clark was there to bid farewell to his chiefs. 
 Engages of the Company, fiercely picturesque, with leg 
 knives in their garters, jumped to store away the cargo. 
 
 Up as far as St. Charles Clark and the Chouteaus some 
 times went with the ladies of their families to escort the 
 up-bound steamer, and with a last departing, " Bon voy 
 age! bon voyage, mes voyageurs!" disembarked to re 
 turn to St. Louis. 
 
 On, on steamed the messenger of commerce and civili 
 sation, touching later at Fort Pierre Chouteau in the 
 centre of the great Sioux country, the capital of South 
 Dakota to-day, at Fort Union at the Yellowstone, where 
 McKenzie lived in state like the Hudson's Bay magnates 
 at the north, at Fort Benton at the foot of the Great Falls 
 of the Missouri. Traders from St. Louis laid the foun 
 dations of Kansas City and Topeka, built the first forts 
 at Council Bluffs and Omaha, pre-empted the future sites 
 of Yankton and Bismarck. 
 
 "A boat! a boat!" 
 
 For a hundred miles Indian runners brought word. 
 
 Barely had the steamer touched the wharf before the 
 solitude became populous with colour and with sound. 
 Night and day went on the loading and unloading of furs 
 and merchandise. A touch of the hand, a farewell, 
 before the June rise falls, back a hundred miles a day she 
 
420 THE CONQUEST 
 
 snorts to St. Louis with tens of thousands of buffalo 
 robes, buffalo tongues, and buffalo hides, and carefully 
 wrapped bales of the choicest furs. The cargoes opened, 
 weighed, recounted, repacked, down the river the smoke 
 stacks go in endless procession on the way to New York. 
 
 Overland on horseback rode Pierre Chouteau to Phila 
 delphia or New York, to arrange shipments to France 
 and England, and to confer with John Jacob Astor. Back 
 up from New Orleans came boatloads of furniture to 
 beautify the homes of St. Louis, bales on bales of copper 
 and sheet-iron kettles, axes and beaver traps, finger rings, 
 beads, blankets, bracelets, steel wire and ribbons, the in- 
 dispensables of the frontier fur trade. 
 
 Sometimes fierce battles were fought up the river, and 
 troops were dispatched, for commerce, the civiliser, 
 stops not. The sight of troops paraded in uniforms, the 
 glare of skyrockets at night, the explosion of shells and 
 the colours of bunting and banners, the blare of brass 
 bands and the thunder of artillery, won many a bloodless 
 victory along the prairies of the West. 
 
 But blood flowed, fast and faster, when trapping 
 gave way to Days of Gold and the pressure of advanc 
 ing settlement. 
 
 The trapper saw no gold. Otter, beaver, mink, and fox 
 filled his horizon. Into every lonely glen where the beaver 
 built his house, the trapper came. A million dollars a 
 year was the annual St. Louis trade. 
 
 Rival fur companies kept bubbling a tempest in a tea 
 pot. They fought each other, fought the Hudson's Bay 
 Company. West and west passed the fighting border, 
 St. Lawrence, Detroit, Mackinaw, Mandan, Montana, 
 Oregon. 
 
 Astor, driven out by the War of 1812, had been super 
 seded on the Columbia by Dr. John McLoughlin, a Hud 
 son's Bay magnate who combined in himself the functions 
 of a Chouteau and a Clark. But the story of McLoughlin 
 is a story by itself. 
 
FOUR INDIAN AMBASSADORS 421 
 
 XIX 
 FOUR INDIAN AMBASSADORS 
 
 AS the years went by Clark's plant of the Indian 
 Department extended. In his back row were 
 found the office and Council House, rooms for 
 visiting Indians, an armory for repairs of Indian guns 
 and blacksmiths' shops for Indian work, extending from 
 Main Street to the river. 
 
 Daily he sat in his office reading reports from his 
 agents of Indian occurrences. 
 
 Four muskrats or two raccoon skins the Indians paid 
 for a quart of whiskey. 
 
 " Whiskey ! " Clark stamped his foot. " A drunken 
 Indian is more to be dreaded than a tiger in the jungle! 
 An Indian cannot be found among a thousand who would 
 not, after a first drink, sell his horse, his gun, or his last 
 blanket for another drink, or even commit a murder to 
 gratify his passion for spirits. There should be total 
 prohibition." And the Government made that the law. 
 
 " I hear that you have sent liquor into the .Indian coun 
 try," he said to the officers of the American Fur Com 
 pany. " Can you refute the charge? " 
 
 And the great Company, with Chouteau and Astor at 
 its head, hastened to explain and extenuate. 
 
 There was trouble with Indian agents who insisted 
 on leaving their posts and coming to St. Louis, troubles 
 with Indians who wanted to see the President, enough 
 of them to have kept the President for ever busy with 
 Indian affairs. 
 
 The Sacs and the Sioux were fighting again. 
 
 " Why not let us fight? " said Black Hawk. " White 
 men fight, they are fighting now." 
 
 Twice in the month of May, 1830, Sacs and Foxes 
 came down to tell of their war with the Sioux. " We 
 might sell our Illinois lands and move west," hinted the 
 
422 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Sacs and Foxes. Instantly Clark approved and wrote to 
 Washington. 
 
 " I shall have to go up there and quiet those tribes," 
 said Clark. In July, 1830, again he set out for Prairie 
 du Chien. Indian runners went ahead announcing, " The 
 Red Head Chief! the Red Head Chief! " 
 
 Seventy-eight Sacs and Foxes crowded into his boats 
 and went up. This time in earnest, Clark began buying 
 lands, giving thousands of dollars in annuities, provi 
 sions, clothing, lands, stock, agricultural implements. 
 Many of these Indians came on with him down to St. 
 Louis to get their presents and pay. 
 
 There came a wailing from the Indians of Illinois. 
 " The game is gone. Naked and hungry, we need 
 help." 
 
 " Poor, misguided, and unreflecting savages ! " ex 
 claimed the Governor. ' The selfish policy of the traders 
 would keep them in the hunter's state. The Government 
 would have them settled and self-supporting." 
 
 Funds ran out, but Clark on his own credit again 
 and again went ahead with his work of humanity, mov 
 ing families, tribes, nations. Assistance in provisions 
 and stock was constantly called for. The great western 
 migration of tribes from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, was 
 sweeping on, the movement of a race. The Peorias were 
 crossing, the Weas, Piankeshaws, and others forgotten 
 to-day. 
 
 ' Those miserable bands of Illinois rovers, those 
 wretched nations in want of clothes and blankets ! " 
 Clark wrote to Washington, begging the Department for 
 help. Their annuities, a thousand dollars a year for 
 twelve years, had expired. 
 
 " Exchange your lands for those in the West," he 
 urged the Indians. To the Government he recommended 
 an additional annuity to be used in breaking up, fencing, 
 and preparing those lands for cultivation. 
 
 Horses were stolen from the settlers by tens and twen 
 ties and fifties, and cattle killed. The farmers were 
 exasperated. 
 
 " Banditti, robbers, thieves, they must get out ! The 
 
FOUR INDIAN AMBASSADORS 423 
 
 Indians hunt on our lands, and kill our tame stock. They 
 are a great annoyance." 
 
 For two years Governor Edwards had been asking for 
 help. 
 
 " The General Government has been applied to long 
 enough to have freed us from so serious a grievance. If 
 it declines acting with effect, it will soon learn that these 
 Indians will be removed, and that very promptly." 
 
 Clark himself was personally using every exertion to 
 prevail on the Indians to move as the best means of pre 
 serving tranquillity, and did all he could without actual 
 coercion. The Indians continued to promise to go, but 
 they still remained. 
 
 " More time," said the Indians. " Another year." 
 
 The combustible train was laid, only a spark was 
 needed, only a move of hostility, to fire the country. 
 Will Black Hawk apply that spark? 
 
 " We cannot go," said the Pottawattamies. " The sale 
 of our lands was made by a few young men without our 
 consent." 
 
 Five hundred Indians determined to hold all the north 
 ern part of Illinois for ever. 
 
 Sacs, Foxes, Pottawattamies, sent daily letters and 
 
 complaints. "Our Father! our Father! our Father!" 
 
 - it was a plea and a prayer, and trouble, trouble, 
 
 trouble. Black Partridge's letters make one weep. 
 
 " Some of my people will be dead before Spring." 
 
 Meanwhile agents were ahead surveying lands in that 
 magic West. The Indians were becoming as interested 
 in migration as the whites had been; the same causes 
 were pushing them on. 
 
 Clark was busily making contracts for saw-mills and 
 corn-mills on the Platte and Kansas, arranging for means 
 of transportation, for provisions for use on the way and 
 after they settled, for oxen and carts and stock, when 
 one day four strange Indians, worn and bewildered, ar 
 rived at St. Louis, out of that West. Some kind hand 
 guided them to the Indian office. 
 
 That tunic, that bandeau of fox skins, Clark re 
 called it as the tribal dress of a nation beyond the Rocky 
 
424 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Mountains. With an expression of exquisite joy, old 
 Tunnachemootoolt, for it was he, the Black Eagle, rec 
 ognised the Red Head of a quarter of a century before. 
 Clark could scarcely believe that those Indians had trav 
 elled on foot nearly two thousand miles to see him at St. 
 Louis. 
 
 As but yesterday came back the memory of Camp 
 Chopunnish among the Nez Perces of Oregon. Over 
 Tunnachemootoolt' s camp the American flag was flying 
 when they arrived from the Walla Walla. 
 
 It did not take long to discover their story. Some 
 winters before an American trapper (in Oregon tradi 
 tion reputed to have been Jedediah Smith), watched the 
 Nez Perces dance around the sun-pole on the present site 
 of Walla Walla. 
 
 " It is not good," said the trapper, " such worship is 
 not acceptable to the Great Spirit. You should get the 
 white man's Book of Heaven." 
 
 Voyageurs and Iroquois trappers from the Jesuit 
 schools of Canada said the same. Then Ellice, a chief's 
 son, came back from the Red River country whither the 
 Hudson's Bay Company had sent him to be educated. 
 From several sources at once they learned that the white 
 men had a Book that taught of God. 
 
 " If this be true it is certainly high time that we had 
 the Book." The chiefs called a national council. " If 
 our mode of worship is wrong we must lay it aside. We 
 must know about this. It cannot be put off." 
 
 " If we could only find the trail of Lewis and Clark 
 they would tell us the truth." 
 
 " Yes, Lewis and Clark always pointed upward. They 
 must have been trying to tell us." 
 
 So, benighted, bewildered, the Nez Perces talked 
 around their council fires. Over in the buffalo country 
 Black Eagle's band met the white traders. 
 
 " They come from the land of Lewis and Clark," said 
 the Eagle. " Let us follow them." 
 
 And so, four chiefs were deputed for that wonder 
 ful journey, two old men who had known Lewis and 
 Clark, Black Eagle and the Man-of-the-Morning, 
 
FOUR INDIAN AMBASSADORS 425 
 
 whose mother was a Flathead, and two young men, 
 Rabbit-Skin-Leggings of the White Bird band on 
 Salmon River, Black Eagle's brother's son, and No- 
 Horns-On-His-Head, a young brave of twenty, who was 
 a doubter of the old beliefs. 
 
 ' They went out by the Lolo trail into the buffalo 
 country of Montana," say their descendants still living 
 in Idaho. 
 
 One day they reached St. Louis and inquired for the 
 Red Head Chief. 
 
 Very well Governor Clark remembered his Nez Perce- 
 Flathead friends. His silver locks were shaken by roars 
 of laughter at their reminders of his youth, the bear 
 hunts, the sale of buttons for camas and for kouse. The 
 hospitality of those chiefs who said, " The horses on 
 these hills are ours, take what you need," should now be 
 rewarded. 
 
 With gratitude and with the winsomeness for which 
 he was noted, he invited them into his own house and 
 to his own table. Mrs. Clark devoted herself to their 
 entertainment. 
 
 Black Eagle insisted on an early council. " We have 
 heard of the Book. We have come for the Book." 
 
 " What you have heard is true," answered Clark, puz 
 zled and sensible of his responsibility. Then in simple 
 language, that they might understand, he related the 
 Bible stories of the Creation, of the commandments, of 
 the advent of Christ and his crucifixion. 
 
 " Yes," answered Clark to their interrogatories, " a 
 teacher shall be sent with the Book." 
 
 Just as change of diet and climate had prostrated Lewis 
 and Clark with sickness among the Nez Perces twenty- 
 five years before, so now the Nez Perces fell sick in St. 
 Louis. The Summer was hotter than any they had 
 known in their cool northland. Dr. Farrar was called. 
 Mrs. Clark herself brought them water and medicine as 
 they lay burning with fever in the Council House. They 
 were very grateful for her attentions, " the beautiful 
 squaw of the Red Head Chief." 
 
 But neither medicine nor nursing could save the aged 
 Black Eagle. 
 
426 THE CONQUEST 
 
 " The most mournful procession I ever saw/' said a 
 young woman of that day, " was when those three In 
 dians followed their dead companion to the grave." 
 
 His name is recorded at the St. Louis cathedral as 
 "Keepeelele, buried October 31, 1831," a " ne Perce de 
 la tribu des Choponeek, nation appellee Tete Plate." 
 " Keepeelele," the Nez Perces of to-day say " was the 
 old man, the Black Eagle." Sometimes they called him 
 the " Speaking Eagle," as the orator on occasions. 
 
 Still the other Indians remained ill. 
 
 " I have been sent by my nation to examine lands for 
 removal to the West," said William Walker, chief of the 
 Wyandots. 
 
 William Walker was the son of a white man, stolen 
 as a child from Kentucky and brought up by the Indians. 
 His mother was also the descendant of a stolen white 
 girl. Young William, educated at the Upper Sandusky 
 mission, became a chief. 
 
 The semi-Christian Wyandots desired to follow their 
 friends to the West. Sitting there in the office, transact 
 ing business, Governor Clark spoke of the Flathead Nez 
 Perces. 
 
 " I have never seen a Flathead, but have often heard 
 of them," answered William Walker. Curiosity prompted 
 him to step into the next room. Small in size, delicately 
 formed, and of exact symmetry except the flattened head, 
 they lay there parched with fever. 
 
 1 Their diet at home consists chiefly of vegetables and 
 fish," said the Governor. " As a nation they have the 
 fewest vices of any tribe on the continent of America." 
 
 November 10, ten days after the burial of Black Eagle, 
 Colonel Audrain of St. Charles, a member of * the Legis 
 lature, died also at Governor Clark's house. His body 
 was conveyed to St. Charles in the first hearse ever 
 seen there. On December 25, Christmas Day, 1831, 
 Mrs. Clark herself died after a brief illness. 
 
 There was sickness all over St. Louis. Was it a 
 beginning of that strange new malady that by the 
 next Spring had grown into a devouring plague, the 
 dreaded Asiatic cholera? 
 
FOUR INDIAN AMBASSADORS 427 
 
 At the bedside of his dead wife, Governor Clark sat, 
 holding her waxen hand, with their little six-year-old 
 son, Jefferson, in his lap. " My child, you have no 
 mother now," said the father with streaming tears. 
 After the funeral, nothing was recorded in Clark's letter- 
 books for some days, and when he began again, the 
 handwriting was that of an aged man. 
 
 None mourned this sad event more than the tender 
 hearted Nez Perces, who remained until Spring. 
 
 When the new steamer Yellowstone of the Ameri 
 can Fur Company, set out for its first great trip up the 
 Missouri, Governor Clark made arrangements to send 
 the chiefs home to their country. A day later, the 
 other old Indian, The-Man-of-the-Morning, died and 
 was buried near St. Charles. 
 
 Among other passengers on that steamer were Pierre 
 Chouteau the younger and George Catlin, the Indian 
 artist, who was setting out to visit the Mandans. 
 
 " You will find the Mandans a strange people and half 
 white," said Governor Clark to his friend the artist, as 
 he gave him his passport into the Indian country. 
 
 On the way up the river Catlin noticed the two young 
 Nez Perces, and painted their pictures. 
 
 As if pursued by a strange fatality, at the mouth of 
 the Yellowstone No-Horns-On-His-Head died, Rabbit- 
 Skin-Leggings alone was left to carry the word from St. 
 Louis. 
 
 Earlier than ever that year the Nez Perces had crossed 
 the snowy trails of the Bitter Root to the buffalo coun 
 try in the Yellowstone and Judith Basin. 
 
 " For are not our messengers coming? " 
 
 And there, camped with their horses and their lodges, 
 watching, Rabbit-Skin-Leggings met them and shouted 
 afar off, "A man shall be sent with the Book." 
 
 Back over the hills and the mountains the message 
 flew, " A man shall be sent with the Book." 
 
 Every year after that the Nez Perces went over to the 
 east, looking for the man with the Book. 
 
 Nearly a year elapsed before William Walker got back 
 from his explorations and wrote a public letter giving 
 
428 THE CONQUEST 
 
 an account of the Nez Perces in their search for the 
 Book. His account of meeting them in General Clark's 
 office, and of the object of their errand, created a tre 
 mendous sensation. 
 
 Religious committees called upon General Clark, let 
 ters were written, and to one and all he said, " That was 
 the sole object of their journey, to obtain the white 
 man's Book of Heaven." 
 
 The call rang like a trumpet summons through the 
 churches. The next year, 1834, the Methodists sent 
 Jason Lee and three others to Oregon. Two years later 
 followed Whitman and Spalding and their brides, the 
 first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 " A famine threatens the Upper Missouri," was the 
 news brought back by that steamer Yellowstone in 1832. 
 " The buffaloes have disappeared! " 
 
 The herds, chased so relentlessly on the Missouri, were 
 struggling through the Bitter Root Mountains, to ap 
 pear in vast throngs on the plains of Idaho. 
 
 Even Europe read and commented on that wonderful 
 first journey of a steamer up the Missouri, as later the 
 world hailed the ascent of the Nile and the Yukon. 
 
 It was a great journey. Amazed Indians everywhere 
 had watched the monster, puffing and snorting, with 
 steam and whistles, and a continued roar of cannon for 
 half an hour at every fur fort and every Indian village. 
 
 " The thunder canoe ! " Redmen fell on the ground 
 and cried to the Great Spirit. Some shot their dogs and 
 horses as sacrifices. 
 
 At last, even the Blackfeet were reached. The British 
 tried to woo them back to the Saskatchewan at Fort 
 Edmonton, but eventually they tumbled over one an 
 other to trade with the Fire Boat that annually climbed 
 the Missouri staircase. 
 
BLACK HAWK 429 
 
 XX 
 
 BLACK HAWK 
 
 THE Roman faces of Black Hawk and Keokuk were 
 often seen in St. Louis, where the chiefs came to 
 consult Clark in regard to their country. 
 
 " Keokuk signed away my lands," said Black Hawk. 
 He had never been satisfied with that earliest treaty made 
 while Lewis and Clark were absent beyond the mountains. 
 
 For thirty years Black Hawk had paid friendly visits 
 to Chouteau and sold him furs. More often he was at 
 Maiden consulting his " British Father." Schooled by 
 Tecumseh, the disloyal Black Hawk was wholly British. 
 
 Fort Armstrong had been built at Rock Island for the 
 protection of the border. Those whitewashed walls and 
 that tower perched on a high cliff over the Mississippi 
 reminded the traveller up the Father of Waters seventy 
 years ago of some romantic castle on the Rhine. And it 
 was erected for the same reason that were the castles of 
 the Rhine. Not safe were the traders who went up and 
 down the great river, not safe were the emigrants seeking 
 entrance to Rock River, for Black Hawk watched the 
 land. 
 
 The white settlements had already come up to the edge 
 of Black Hawk's field. 
 
 " No power is vested in me to stop the progress of 
 settlements on ceded lands, and I have no means of in 
 ducing the Indians to move but persuasion, which has 
 little weight with those chiefs who have always been under 
 British influence," said Clark in 1829. 
 
 Again and again Clark wrote to the Secretary of W r ar 
 on this subject. The policy of moving the tribes west 
 ward stirred the wrath of Black Hawk. 
 
 "The Sacs never sold their country!" 
 
 But the leader of the " British band " had lost his 
 voice in the council. 
 
43 o THE CONQUEST 
 
 " Who is Black Hawk ? " asked General Gaines at Rock 
 Island. " Is he a chief? By what right does he speak? " 
 
 " My father, you ask who is Black Hawk. I will tell 
 you who I am. I am a Sac. My father was a Sac. I am 
 a warrior. So was my father. Ask those young men who 
 have followed me to battle and they will tell you who 
 Black Hawk is. Provoke our people to war and you will 
 learn who Black Hawk is." 
 
 Haughtily gathering up his robes, the chief and his 
 followers stalked over to Canada for advice. In his ab 
 sence Keokuk made the final cession to the United States 
 and prepared to move beyond the Mississippi. Back like 
 a whirlwind came the Hawk, 
 
 " Sold the Sac village, sold your country! " 
 
 " Keokuk," he whispered fiercely in his ear, " give 
 mines, give everything, but keep our cornfields and our 
 dead." 
 
 " Cross the Mississippi," begged Keokuk. 
 
 " I will stay by the graves of my fathers," reiterated 
 the stubborn and romantic Black Hawk. 
 
 The Indians left the silver rivers of Illinois, their sugar 
 groves, and bee trees with regret. No wonder the chief's 
 heart clung to his native village, among dim old woods 
 of oak and walnut, and orchards of plum and crab. For 
 generations there had they tilled their Indian gardens. 
 
 From his watchtower on Rock River the old chief 
 scanned the country. Early in the Spring of 1832 he dis 
 covered a scattering train of whites moving into the 
 beloved retreat. 
 
 " Quick, let us plant once more our cornfields." 
 
 In a body Black Hawk and his British band with their 
 women and children came pulling up Rock River in their 
 canoes. The whites were terrified. 
 
 " Black Hawk has invaded Illinois," was the word 
 sent by Governor Reynolds to Clark at St. Louis. Troops 
 moved out from Jefferson Barracks. 
 
 " Go," said Governor Clark to Felix St. Vrain, his 
 Sac interpreter. " Warn Black Hawk to withdraw across 
 the Mississippi." 
 
 St. Vrain sped away, to be shot delivering his mes- 
 
BLACK HAWK 431 
 
 sage. Then followed the war, the flight and chase and 
 battle of Bad Axe, and the capture of Black Hawk. 
 Wabasha's Sioux fell upon the last fleeing remnant, so 
 that few of Black Hawk's band were left to tell the tale. 
 
 " Farewell, my nation ! " the old chief cried. " Black 
 Hawk tried to save you and avenge your wrongs. He 
 drank the blood of some of the whites. He has been 
 taken prisoner and his plans are stopped. He can do no 
 more. He is near his end. His sun is setting and he 
 will rise no more. Farewell to Black Hawk." 
 
 In chains Black Hawk and his prophet, Wabokeskiek, 
 were brought by Jefferson Davis to St. Louis. As his 
 steamboat passed Rock Island, his old home, Black Hawk 
 wept like a child. 
 
 " It was our garden," he said, " such as the white 
 people have near their villages. I spent many happy days 
 on this island. A good spirit dwelt in a cave of rocks 
 where your fort now stands. The noise of the guns has 
 driven him away." 
 
 It hurt Clark to see his old friend dragging a ball and 
 chain at Jefferson Barracks. He seldom went there. But 
 the little Kennerly children carried him presents and 
 kinnikinick for his pipe. 
 
 There were guests at the house of Clark, Maxi 
 milian, Prince of Wied, and his artist, when early in 
 April of 1833 a deputation of Sacs and Foxes headed by 
 Keokuk came down in long double canoes to intercede for 
 Black Hawk, and with them, haggard and worn from long 
 wanderings, came Singing Bird, the wife of Black Hawk. 
 
 With scientific interest Maximilian looked at them, 
 dressed in red, white, and green blankets, with shaven 
 heads except a tuft behind, long and straight and black 
 with a braided deer's tail at the end. They were typical 
 savages with prominent noses and eagle plumes, wampum 
 shells like tassels in their ears, and lances of sword-blades 
 fastened to poles in their hands. 
 
 " This is a great Chief from over the Big Water, come 
 to see you," said Clark introducing the Prince. 
 
 " Hah ! " said the Indians, giving the Prince the right 
 hand of friendship and scanning him steadily. 
 
432 THE CONQUEST 
 
 Bodmer, the artist, brought out his palette. Keokuk 
 in green blanket, with a medal on his heart and a long 
 calumet ornamented with eagle feathers in his hand, was 
 ready to pose. 
 
 " Hah ! " laughed the Indians as stroke by stroke they 
 saw their chief stand forth on canvas, even to the brass 
 necklace and bracelets on throat and wrists. " Great 
 Medicine ! " 
 
 " I have chartered the Warrior to go down to Jeffer 
 son Barracks," said Clark. 
 
 Striking their hands to their mouths, the Indians gave 
 the war whoop, and stepped on board the " big fire canoe." 
 Intent, each animated, fiery, dark-brown eye watched the 
 engine hissing and roaring down to the Barracks. 
 
 " If you will keep a watchful eye on Black Hawk I will 
 intercede for him," said Clark. 
 
 " I will watch him," promised Keokuk. 
 
 Clark left them for a moment, and then led in a little 
 old man of seventy years, with gray hair, light yellow 
 face, and a curved Roman nose. 
 
 It was an affecting sight when Keokuk stepped for 
 ward to embrace Black Hawk. Keokuk, subtle, dignified, 
 in splendid array of deer-skin and bear-claws, grasped 
 the hand of his fallen rival. Poor dethroned old Black 
 Hawk ! In a plain suit of buckskin and a string of wam 
 pum in his ears, he stood alone, fanning himself with the 
 tail of a black hawk. 
 
 Keokuk tried to get him released. Often had he visited 
 Clark on that errand, but no, Black Hawk was sum 
 moned to Washington and went. Antoine Le Claire, son 
 of old Antoine, was his interpreter. 
 
 Released, presently, he made a triumphal tour home, 
 applauded by thousands along the route, even as Lafayette 
 had been a few years before. Not so the Roman con 
 querors treated their captives! But Black Hawk came 
 home to Keokuk to die. 
 
 The defeat of Black Hawk opened Iowa to settlement, 
 and a day later prairie schooners overran the Black Hawk 
 Purchase. 
 
 On the staff of General Atkinson when he marched out 
 
BLACK HAWK 433 
 
 of Jefferson Barracks for the Black Hawk War, was 
 Meriwether Lewis Clark, now a graduate of West Point, 
 and his cousin Robert Anderson, grandson of Clark's 
 sister Eliza. 
 
 In the hurry and the heat of the march one day, Lieu 
 tenant Clark, riding from the rear back to the General, 
 became enclosed by the troops of cavalry and had to ride 
 slowly. By his side on a small horse he noticed a long- 
 legged, dark-skinned soldier, with black hair hanging in 
 clusters around his neck, a volunteer private. Admiringly 
 the private gazed at Clark's fine new uniform and splen 
 didly accoutred horse, a noble animal provided by his 
 father at St. Louis. 
 
 Young Clark spoke to the soldier of awkward and un 
 prepossessing appearance, whose witticisms and gift for 
 stories kept his comrades in a state of merriment. He 
 proved very inquisitive. 
 
 " The son of Governor Clark of the Lewis and Clark 
 expedition, did you say ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "And related to all those great people?" 
 
 " Yes," with a laugh. 
 
 They chatted until the ranks began to thin. 
 
 " I must ride on," but feeling an interest in the lank, 
 long-haired soldier, Lieutenant Clark turned again, 
 
 " Where are you from and to what troop do you 
 belong?" 
 
 " I am an Illinois volunteer." 
 
 " Well, now, tell me your name, and I will bid you 
 good bye." 
 
 " My name is Abraham Lincoln, and I have not a re 
 lation in the world." 
 
 The next time they met, Meriwether Lewis Clark was 
 marching through the streets of Washington City with 
 other prisoners in Lee's surrendered army. And the 
 President on the White House steps was Abraham Lin 
 coln. The cousin of Meriwether Lewis Clark, Robert 
 Anderson, hero of Fort Sumter, stood by Lincoln's side, 
 with tears in his eyes. 
 
 Weeks before, when the land was ringing with his 
 
 28 
 
434 THE CONQUEST 
 
 valour, the President had congratulated him and asked, 
 " Do you remember me? " 
 
 " .No, I never met you before." 
 
 " Yes," answered the President, " you are the officer 
 that swore me in as a volunteer private in the Black Hawk 
 War." 
 
 The next day the assassin's bullet laid low the mar 
 tyred Lincoln; none mourned him more than Meri- 
 wether Lewis Clark, for in that President he had known 
 a friend. 
 
 XXI 
 
 A GREAT LIFE ENDS 
 
 USKOSKY, man, you tie my queue so tight I 
 cannot shut my eyes ! " 
 
 With both hands up to his head Governor 
 Clark rallied his Polish attendant, who of all things was 
 particular about his friend's appearance. For Ruskosky 
 never considered himself a servant, nor did Clark. 
 Ruskosky was an old soldier of Pulaski, a great swords 
 man, a gentleman, of courtly address and well educated, 
 the constant companion of Governor Clark after the 
 death of York. 
 
 " Come, let us walk, Ruskosky." 
 
 A narrow black ribbon was tied to the queue, the long 
 black cloth cloak was brushed and the high broad-brim 
 hat adjusted, the sword cane with buckhorn handle and 
 rapier blade was grasped, and out they started. 
 
 Children stared at the ancient queue and small clothes. 
 The oldest American in St. Louis, Governor Clark had 
 come to be regarded as a " gentleman of the old school." 
 A sort of halo hung around his adventures. Beloved, 
 honoured, trusted, revered, his prominent nose and firm- 
 set lips, his thin complexion in which the colour came and 
 went, seemed somehow to belong to the Revolution. He 
 
A GREAT LIFE ENDS 435 
 
 was locally regarded as a great literary man, for had not 
 the journals of his expedition been given to the world? 
 
 And now, too, delvers in historic lore began to realise 
 what George Rogers Clark had done. Eighteen different 
 authors desired to write his life, among them Madison, 
 Chief Justice Marshall, and Washington Irving. But 
 the facts could not be found. Irving sent his nephew to 
 inquire of Governor Clark at St. Louis. But the papers 
 were scattered, to be collected only by the industry of 
 historical students later. 
 
 " Governor Clark is a fine soldier-like looking man, 
 tall and thin," Irving' s nephew reported to his uncle. 
 " His hair is white, but he seems to be as hardy and vig 
 orous as ever, and speaks of his exposures and hardships 
 with a zest that shows that the spirit of the old explorer 
 is not quenched." 
 
 Children danced on an old carriage in the orchard. 
 
 " Uncle Clark, when did you first have this carriage? 
 When was it new ? " 
 
 The chivalrous and romantic friendship of his youth 
 came back to the Governor, and his eyes filled with tears. 
 
 " Children, that carriage belonged to Meriwether 
 Lewis. In the settlement of his estate, I bought it. 
 Many a time have we ridden in it together. That is the 
 carriage that met Judy Hancock when she landed at St. 
 Louis, the first American bride, a quarter of a century 
 ago. Many a vicissitude has it encountered since, in 
 journeyings through woods and prairies. It is old now, 
 but it has a history." 
 
 In his later years Governor Clark travelled, made a tour 
 of the Lakes, and visited New York, Boston, Buffalo, 
 Cleveland, Sandusky, and Detroit. 
 
 "Hull?" said Clark at Detroit. "He was' not a 
 coward, but afraid for the people's sake of the cruelty of 
 the Indians." 
 
 One day Governor Clark came ashore from a steamer 
 on the Ohio and stood at the mouth of the Hockhocking 
 where Dunmore had his camp in 1774. The battle of 
 Point Pleasant? that was ancient history. Most of the 
 residents in that region had never heard of it, and looked 
 
436 THE CONQUEST 
 
 upon the old gentleman in a queue as a relic of the mound- 
 builders. 
 
 With wide-eyed wonder they listened again to the story 
 of that day when civilisation set its first milestone beyond 
 the Alleghanies. 
 
 When the thundering cannon in 1837 announced the 
 return of a fur convoy from the Yellowstone, Governor 
 Clark expected a messenger. 
 
 " They haf put the sand over him," explained a French 
 man. " Yes, he is dead and buried." 
 
 " And my Mandan? " 
 ' There are no more Mandans." 
 
 Clark looked at the trader in surprise. 
 
 " Small-pox." 
 
 The cheek of the Red Head paled. 
 
 Small-pox! In 1800 it swept from Omaha to Clatsop 
 leaving a trail of bones. Thirty years later ten thousand 
 Pawnees, Otoes, and Missouris perished. And now, de 
 spite all precautions, it had broken out on the upper 
 Missouri. 
 
 In six weeks the wigwams of the Mandans were deso 
 late. Out of sixteen hundred souls but thirty-one re 
 mained. Arikara, Minnetaree, Ponca, Assiniboine, sank 
 before the contagion. The Sioux survived only be 
 cause they lived not in fixed villages and were roaming 
 uncontaminated. 
 
 Blackfeet along the Marias left their lodges standing 
 with the dead in them, and never returned. The Crows 
 abandoned their stricken ones, and fled to the mountains. 
 Across the border beseeching Indians carried the havoc 
 to Hudson's Bay, to Athabasca, and the Yukon. Over 
 half a continent terrified tribes burnt their towns, slaugh 
 tered their families, pierced their own hearts or flung 
 themselves from precipices. 
 
 Redmen yet unstricken poured into St. Louis imploring 
 the white man's magic. Clark engaged physicians. Day 
 after day vaccinating, vaccinating, they sat in their offices, 
 saving the life of hundreds. He sent out agents with 
 vaccine to visit the tribes, but the superstitious savages 
 gathered up their baggage and scattered, 
 
A GREAT LIFE ENDS 437 
 
 " White men have come with small-pox in a bottle." 
 
 With this last great shock, the decimation of the tribes, 
 upon him, Clark visibly declined. 
 
 " My children," he said to his sons, " I want to sleep 
 in sight and sound of the Mississippi." 
 
 When the summons came, September i, 1838, in the 
 sixty-eighth year of his age, Meriwether Lewis Clark and 
 his wife were with him, the deputy, James Kennedy and 
 his wife, Elise, and old Ruskosky, inconsolable. 
 
 With great pomp and solemnity his funeral was cele 
 brated, as had been that of his brother at Louisville 
 twenty years before. Both were buried as soldiers, with 
 minute guns and honours of war. In sight of the Ohio, 
 George Rogers Clark sleeps, and below the grave of Wil 
 liam Clark sweeps the Mississippi, roaring, swirling, bear 
 ing the life-blood of the land they were the first to explore. 
 
 The Sacs, with Keokuk at their head, marched in the 
 long funeral train of their Red Head Father and wept 
 genuine tears of desolation. No more, dressed in their 
 best, did the Indians sing and dance through the streets 
 of St. Louis, receiving gifts from door to door. The 
 friend of the redmen was dead. St. Louis ceased to be 
 the Mecca of their pilgrimages ; no more their gala cos 
 tumes enlivened the market ; they disappeared. 
 
 For more than forty years William Clark had been iden 
 tified with St. Louis, had become a part of its history 
 and of the West. 
 
 October 3, 1838, a few days after Clark, Black Hawk, 
 too, breathed his last in his lodge, and was buried like 
 the Sac chieftains of old, sitting upright, in the uniform 
 given him by President Jackson, with his hand resting 
 on the cane presented by Henry Clay. 
 
 He, too, said, " I like to look upon the Mississippi. I 
 have looked upon it from a child. I love that beautiful 
 river. My home has always been upon its banks." And 
 there they buried him. Every day at sunset travellers 
 along that road heard the weird heart-broken wail of 
 Singing Bird, the widow of Black Hawk. 
 
438 THE CONQUEST 
 
 XXII 
 
 THE NEW WEST 
 
 FOUR years after the death of Governor Clark 
 began the rush to Oregon. Dr. Lewis F. Linn, 
 Senator from Missouri, and grandson of William 
 Linn, the trusted lieutenant of George Rogers Clark, in 
 troduced a bill in Congress offering six hundred and 
 forty acres of land to every family that would emigrate 
 to Oregon. The Linns came to Missouri with Daniel 
 Boone, and with the Boones they looked ever west! 
 west! 
 
 " Six hundred and forty acres of land ! A solid square 
 mile of God's earth, clear down to the centre!" men 
 exclaimed in amaze. While Ohio was still new, and the 
 Mississippi Valley billowed her carpets of untrodden 
 bloom, an eagle's flight beyond, civilisation leaped to 
 Oregon. 
 
 From ferries where Kansas City and Omaha now 
 stand they started, crossing the Platte by fords, by 
 waggon-beds lashed together, and on rafts, darkening 
 the stream for days. Before their buffalo hunters, 
 innumerable herds made the earth tremble where Kan 
 sas-Nebraska cities are to-day. In 1843 Marcus Whit 
 man piloted the first waggon train through to the 
 Columbia. 
 
 " A thousand people ? Starving did you say? Lord! 
 Lord! They must have help to-night," exclaimed Dr. 
 McLoughlin, the old white-haired Hudson's Bay trader 
 at Fort Vancouver. 
 
 " Man the boats ! People are starving at the Dalles ! " 
 and the noble-hearted representative of a rival govern 
 ment sent out his provision-laden bateaux to rescue the 
 perishing Americans, who in spite of storms and tempests 
 were gliding down the great Columbia as sixty years be 
 fore their fathers floated down the Indian-haunted Ohio. 
 
THE NEW WEST 439 
 
 And Indians were here, with tomahawks ready. 
 
 " Let us kill these Bostons ! " 
 
 McLoughlin heard the word, and shook the speaker as 
 a terrier shakes a rat. 
 
 " Dogs, you shall be punished ! " 
 
 In his anxiety lest harm should come to the approach 
 ing Americans, all night long, his white hair wet in the 
 rain, Dr. McLoughlin stood watching the boats coming 
 down the Columbia, and building great bonfires where 
 Lewis and Clark had camped in 1806. Women and little 
 children and new-born babes slept in the British fur- 
 trader's fort. Anglo-Saxon greeted Anglo-Saxon in the 
 conquest of the world, to march henceforward hand in 
 hand for ever. 
 
 Among the emigrants on the plains in 1846, was Al- 
 phonso Boone, the son of Jesse, the son of Daniel. Sev 
 eral grown-up Boone boys were there, and the beautiful 
 Chloe and her younger sisters. 
 
 Chloe Boone rode a thorough-bred mare, a descendant 
 of the choicest Boone stock, from the old Kentucky blue- 
 grass region. Mounted upon her high-stepping mare, 
 Chloe and her sisters and other young people of the train 
 rode on ahead of the slow-going line of waggons and 
 oxen. Gay was the laughter, and merry the songs, that 
 rang out on the bright morning air. 
 
 Francis Parkman, the great historian, then a young 
 man just out of college, was on the plains that year, col 
 lecting material for his books. Now and then they met 
 parties of soldiers going to the Mexican War, and many 
 a boy in blue turned to catch a glimpse of the sweet girl 
 faces in Chloe' s train. 
 
 Happily they rode in the Spring on the plains; more 
 slowly when the heats of Summer came and the sides of 
 the Rocky Mountains grew steep and rough ; and slower 
 still in the parched lands beyond, when the woodwork of 
 the waggons began to shrink, and the worn-out animals 
 to faint and fall. 
 
 " So long a journey ! " said Chloe. Six months it 
 took. Clothes wore out, babes were born, and people 
 died. 
 
440 THE CONQUEST 
 
 They came into Oregon by the southern route, guided 
 by Daniel Boone's old compass, the one given him by 
 Dunmore to bring in the surveyors from the Falls of the 
 Ohio seventy-two years before. 
 
 The Fall rains had set in. The Umpqua River was 
 swollen, eighteen times from bank to bank Chloe 
 forded, in getting down Umpqua canyon. 
 
 '' We shall have to leave the waggons and heavy bag 
 gage with a guard," said Colonel Boone, " and hurry on 
 to the settlements." 
 
 They reached the Willamette Valley, pitched their 
 tents where Corvallis now stands, and that Winter, in 
 a little log cabin, Chloe Boone taught the first school 
 ever conducted by a woman outside of the missions in 
 Oregon. 
 
 Leaving the girls, Colonel Boone went back after the 
 waggons. Alas ! the guard was killed, the camp was 
 looted, and Daniel Boone's old compass was gone for 
 ever. Its work was done. 
 
 Alphonso Boone built a mansion near the present capi 
 tal city of Salem and here Chloe married the Governor, 
 George L. Curry, and for years beside the old Boone 
 fireside the Governor's wife extended the hospitalities 
 of the rising State. Albert Gallatin Boone camped on 
 the site of Denver twenty years before Denver was, 
 and negotiated the sale of Colorado from the Indians 
 to the United States. John C. Boone, son of Nathan 
 Boone, explored a new cut-off and became a pioneer 
 of California. James Madison Boone drove stakes in 
 Texas. 
 
 What years had passed since the expedition of 
 Lewis and Clark! It seemed like a bygone event, but 
 one who had shared its fortunes still lived on and 
 on, our old friend, Patrick Gass. In the War of 
 1812, above the roaring Falls of Niagara, Sergeant 
 Gass spiked the enemy's cannon at the battle of Lundy's 
 Lane. Years went on. A plain unpretentious citizen, 
 Patrick worked at his trade in Wellsburg and raised his 
 family. 
 
 In 1856 Patrick Gass headed a delegation of gray- 
 
THE NEW WEST 441 
 
 haired veterans of the War of 1812 to Washington, and 
 was everywhere lionised as the last of the men of Lewis 
 and Clark. 
 
 On July 4, 1861, the land was aflame over the firing 
 on Fort Sumter. All Wellsburg with her newly en 
 listed regiments for the war was gathered at Apple Pie 
 Ridge to celebrate the day. 
 
 "Where is Patrick Gass?" 
 
 A grand carriage was sent for him, and on the shoul 
 ders of the boys in blue he was brought in triumph to the 
 platform. 
 
 " Speech! speech! " 
 
 And the speech of his life Patrick Gass made that day, 
 for his country and the Union. The simple, honest old 
 hero brought tears to every eye, with a glimpse of the 
 splendid drama of Lewis and Clark. Again they saw 
 those early soldier-boys bearing the flag across the 
 Rockies, suffering starvation and danger and almost 
 death, to carry their country to the sea. 
 
 " But me byes, it 's not a picnic ye 're goin' to, oh, 
 far from it ! No ! no ! 'T will be hard fur ye when ye 
 come marchin' back lavin' yer comrades lyin' far from 
 home and friends, but there is One to look to, who has 
 made and kept our country." 
 
 It seemed the applause would never cease, with cheer 
 ing and firing of cannon. 
 
 " Stay! stay! " cried the people. " Sit up on the table 
 and let us have our banquet around you with the big 
 flag floating over your head." In an instant Pat was 
 down. 
 
 " Far enough is far enough ! " he cried, " and be the 
 divil, will yez try to make sport of mesilf ? " Excitedly 
 the modest old soldier slipped away. 
 
 The war ended. A railroad crossed the plains. Ore 
 gon and California were States. Alaska was bought. 
 Still Pat lived on, until 1870, when he fell asleep, at the 
 age of ninety-nine, the last of the heroic band of Lewis 
 and Clark. 
 
 William Walker, who gave to the world the story of 
 the Nez Perces, led his Wyandots into Kansas, and, with 
 
442 THE CONQUEST 
 
 the first white settlers, organising a Provisional Govern 
 ment after the plan of Oregon, became himself the first 
 Governor of Kansas-Nebraska. 
 
 Oh, Little Crow ! Little Crow ! what crimes were com 
 mitted in thy name ! In the midst of the war, 1862, Little 
 Crow the third arose against the white settlers of Min 
 nesota in one of the most frightful massacres recorded 
 in history. Then came Sibley's expedition sweeping on 
 west, opening the Dakotas and Montana. 
 
 The Indian? He fought and was vanquished. How 
 we are beginning to love our Indians, now that we fear 
 them no longer! No wild man ever so captured the im 
 agination of the world. With inherent nobility, courage 
 to the border of destruction, patriotism to the death, abso 
 lutely refusing to be enslaved, he stands out the most per 
 fect picture of primeval man. We might have tamed him 
 but we had not time. The movement was too swift, the 
 pressure behind made the white men drivers as the In 
 dians had driven before. Civilisation demands repose, 
 safety. And until repose and safety came we could do 
 no effective work for the Indian. We of to-day have 
 lived the longest lives, for we have seen a continent 
 transformed. 
 
 We have forgotten that a hundred years ago Briton 
 and Spaniard and Frenchman were hammering at our 
 gates ; forgotten that the Indian beleaguered our wooden 
 castles ; forgotten that wolves drummed with their paws 
 on our cabin doors, snapping their teeth like steel traps, 
 while the mother hushed the wheel within and children 
 crouched beneath the floor. 
 
 O mothers of a mighty past, thy sons are with us 
 yet, fighting new battles, planning new conquests, for 
 law, order, and justice. 
 
 Where rolls the Columbia and where the snow-peaks 
 of Hood, Adams, Jefferson, Rainier, and St. Helens look 
 down, a metropolis has arisen in the very Multnomah 
 where Clark took his last soundings. Northward, Seattle 
 sits on her Puget sea, southward San Francisco smiles 
 from her golden gate, Spanish no more. Over the route 
 where Lewis and Clark toiled slowly a hundred years 
 
THE NEW WEST 443 
 
 ago, lo ! in three days the traveller sits beside the sunset. 
 Five transcontinental lines bear the rushing armies west 
 ward, ever westward into the sea. Bewildered a moment 
 they pause, then turn to the Conquest of the Poles and 
 the Tropics. The frontiersman? He is building Nome 
 City under the Arctic: he is hewing the forests of the 
 Philippines. 
 
 THE END 
 
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