le of Vincennes likewise to cast off their allegiance to the British
king, and to hoist the American flag.

So far, Clark had conquered with greater ease than he had dared to hope.
But when the news reached the British governor, Hamilton, at Detroit,
he at once prepared to reconquer the land. He had much greater forces at
his command than Clark had; and in the fall of that year he came down to
Vincennes by stream and portage, in a great fleet of canoes bearing five
hundred fighting men-British regulars, French partizans, and Indians.
The Vincennes Creoles refused to fight against the British, and the
American officer who had been sent thither by Clark had no alternative
but to surrender.

If Hamilton had then pushed on and struck Clark in Illinois, having
more than treble Clark's force, he could hardly have failed to win the
victory; but the season was late and the journey so difficult that he
did not believe it could be taken. Accordingly he disbanded the Indians
and sent some of his troops back to Detroit, announcing that when spring
came he would march against Clark in Illinois.

If Clark in turn had awaited the blow he would have surely met defeat;
but he was a greater man than his antagonist, and he did what the other
deemed impossible.

Finding that Hamilton had sent home some of his troops and dispersed
all his Indians, Clark realized that his chance was to strike before
Hamilton's soldiers assembled again in the spring. Accordingly he
gathered together the pick of his men, together with a few Creoles, one
hundred and seventy all told, and set out for Vincennes. At first the
journey was easy enough, for they passed across the snowy Illinois
prairies, broken by great reaches of lofty woods. They killed elk,
buffalo, and deer for food, there being no difficulty in getting all
they wanted to eat; and at night they built huge fires by which to
sleep, and feasted "like Indian war-dancers," as Clark said in his
report.

But when, in the middle of February, they reached the drowned lands of
the Wabash, where the ice had just broken up and everything was flooded,
the difficulties seemed almost insuperable, and the march became painful
and laborious to a degree. All day long the troops waded in the icy
water, and at night they could with difficulty find some little hillock
on which to sleep. Only Clark's indomitable courage and cheerfulness
kept the party in heart and enabled them to persevere. However,
persevere th