hild of fairly well-to-do parents,
but he never applied himself so closely to his books as to lose his love
for the woods and streams of the wild country that surrounded him. He
became a surveyor, and among the wonders and trials of the wilderness
lost much of the little polish he had acquired. But he learned the
woods, the mountain passes and the river courses, and became fully
acquainted with the wild human denizens of the forests. His six feet of
muscular body, his courage and his fierce passions fitted him to lead
men and to overawe his enemies, red or white. He had "red hair and a
black penetrating eye," two gifts that marked him among the adventurous
men who were finding their way across the Alleghanies. He tried farming,
but succeeded better as a fighter in those fierce conflicts with Indians
and border desperadoes which gave to Kentucky the name of "Dark and
Bloody Ground."

In 1777, after the breaking out of the Revolution, there were several
French settlements lying to the north of the Ohio and scattered from
Detroit to the Mississippi. Among these were Mackinac, Green Bay,
Prairie du Chien, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Cahokia. The English were in
possession of all these and held them usually by a single commanding
officer and a very small garrison. The French inhabitants had made
friends with the Indians, and in many instances had intermarried with
them. Moreover, while they were submissive to the British they were by
no means attached to them and were apparently quite likely to submit
with equal willingness to the Americans should they succeed in the
struggle. This was what Clark understood so thoroughly that he early
became possessed of the idea that it would be a comparatively simple
matter to secure to the United States all that promising land lying
between the Alleghanies, the Ohio and the Mississippi.

The jealousy that existed between Pennsylvania and Virginia over an
extension westward made it extremely difficult for Clark to get aid from
the Colonies or even from Virginia, his native state. However, he
succeeded in interesting Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, and
preserving the greatest secrecy, he set about recruiting his forces.

It was a desperate undertaking, and the obstacles, naturally great, were
made infinitely more trying by the fact that he could tell none of his
men the real purpose for which they were enlisting. By May, 1778,
however, he had secured one hundred and fifty backwoods