under proper regulation; but having no law or government
among them, they are in great confusion, and without the authority of
Congress is extended to them, they must, in all probability, fall a
sacrifice to the savages, who may take advantage of the disorder and want
of proper authority in that country. I have recommended it to them, to
re-assume their former customs, and appoint temporary officers until the
pleasure of Congress is known, which I have flattered them would be in a
short time. How far the recommendation will answer the desired purpose is
not yet known."(93)

Clark's fears of the Indians were only too well grounded. During the
summer, the American settlers were compelled to retire to a fort at
Bellefontaine, and four of their number were killed. At the same time,
about twenty Americans were killed about Vincennes. The French were still
safe from Indian attacks and were very angry because the Americans
complained of existing conditions.(94) The strife between the French and
the Americans at Vincennes, over the proper relations of the whites to the
Indians, became intense. The French contended that the Indians should be
allowed to come and go freely, while the Americans held that it was unsafe
to grant such freedom. At last, upon the occasion of the killing of an
Indian by the Americans, after they had been attacked by the Indians, the
French citizens ordered all persons, who had not permission to settle from
the government under which they last resided, to leave at once and at
their own risk. The French told the Americans plainly that they were not
wanted, and that they, the French, did not know whether the place belonged
to the United States or to Great Britain.(95) This last assertion was
probably true. The British Michilimackinac Company had a large
trading-house at Cahokia for supplying the Indians, they held Detroit, and
their machinations among the Indians were constant. The feeling of all
intelligent Americans in Illinois must have been expressed by John Edgar
when he wrote that the Illinois country was totally lost unless a
government should soon be established.(96) Clark wrote a vigorous letter
to the people at Vincennes, telling them that unless they stopped
quarreling military rule would be established; that the government
established under Virginia was still in force, having been confirmed by
Congress upon the acceptance of the Virginia deed of cession, and that the
court, if depleted, should be