At the end of the year 1781 the unpaid troops in Vincennes were on the verge of mutiny, and it was impossible longer even to feed them, for the inhabitants themselves were almost starving.  The garrison was therefore withdrawn; and immediately the Wabash Indians joined those of the Miami, the Sandusky, and the Lakes in their raids on the settlements. [Footnote:  Va.  State Papers, III., 502.] By this time, however, Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown, and the British were even more exhausted than the Americans.  Some of the French partisans of the British at Detroit, such as Rocheblave and Lamothe, who had been captured by Clark, were eager for revenge, and desired to be allowed to try and retake Vincennes and the Illinois; they saw that the Americans must either be exterminated or else the land abandoned to them. [Footnote:  Haldimand MSS.  Letter of Rocheblave, Oct. 7, 1781; of Lamothe, April 24, 1782.] But the British commandant was in no condition to comply with their request, or to begin offensive operations.  Clark had not only conquered the land, but he had held it firmly while he dwelt therein; and even when his hand was no longer felt, the order he had established took some little time before crumbling.  Meanwhile, his presence at the Falls, his raids into the Indian country, and his preparations for an onslaught on Detroit kept the British authorities at the latter place fully occupied, and prevented their making any attempt to recover what they had lost.  By the beginning of 1782 the active operations of the Revolutionary war were at an end, and the worn-out British had abandoned all thought of taking the offensive anywhere, though the Indian hostilities continued with unabated vigor.  Thus the grasp with which the Americans held the conquered country was not relaxed until all danger that it would be taken from them had ceased.

    Confusion at Vincennes.

In 1782 the whole Illinois region lapsed into anarchy and confusion.  It was perhaps worst at Vincennes, where the departure of the troops had left the French free to do as they wished.  Accustomed for generations to a master, they could do nothing with their new-found liberty beyond making it a curse to themselves and their neighbors.  They had been provided with their own civil government in the shape of their elective court, but the judges had literally no idea of their proper functions as a governing body to administer justice.  At first they did nothing whatever beyond meet and adjourn.  Finally it occurred to them that perhaps their official position could be turned to their own advantage.  Their townsmen were much too poor to be plundered; but there were vast tracts of fertile wild land on every side, to which, as far as they knew, there was no title, and which speculators assured them would ultimately be of great value.  Vaguely remembering Todd’s opinion, that he had power to interfere under certain conditions with the settlement of the lands, and concluding that he