Clark Sends Spies to the Illinois.

In 1777 Clark sent two young hunters as spies to the Illinois country and to the neighborhood of Vincennes, though neither to them nor to any one else did he breathe a hint of the plan that was in his mind.  They brought back word that, though some of the adventurous young men often joined either the British or the Indian war parties, yet that the bulk of the French population took but little interest in the struggle, were lukewarm in their allegiance to the British flag, and were somewhat awed by what they had heard of the backwoodsmen. [Footnote:  The correctness of this account is amply confirmed by the Haldimand MSS., letters of Hamilton, passim; also Rocheblave to Carleton, July 4, 1778; and to Hamilton, April 12, 1778.] Clark judged from this report that it would not be difficult to keep the French neutral if a bold policy, strong as well as conciliatory, was pursued towards them; and that but a small force would be needed to enable a resolute and capable leader to conquer at least the southern part of the country.  It was impossible to raise such a body among the scantily garrisoned forted villages of Kentucky.  The pioneers, though warlike and fond of fighting, were primarily settlers; their soldiering came in as a purely secondary occupation.  They were not a band of mere adventurers, living by the sword and bent on nothing but conquest.  They were a group of hard-working, hard-fighting freemen, who had come in with their wives and children to possess the land.  They were obliged to use all their wit and courage to defend what they had already won without wasting their strength by grasping at that which lay beyond.  The very conditions that enabled so small a number to make a permanent settlement forbade their trying unduly to extend its bounds.

    He Goes to Virginia to Raise Troops.

Clark knew he could get from among his fellow-settlers some men peculiarly suited for his purpose, but he also realized that he would have to bring the body of his force from Virginia.  Accordingly he decided to lay the case before Patrick Henry, then Governor of the State of which Kentucky was only a frontier county.

On October 1, 1777, he started from Harrodsburg, [Footnote:  In the earlier MSS, it is called sometimes Harrodstown and sometimes Harrodsburg; but from this time on the latter name is in general use.] to go over the Wilderness road.  The brief entries of his diary for this trip are very interesting and sometimes very amusing.  Before starting he made a rather shrewd and thoroughly characteristic speculation in horseflesh, buying a horse for L12, and then “swapping” it with Isaac Shelby and getting L10 to boot.  He evidently knew how to make a good bargain, and had the true backwoods passion for barter.  He was detained a couple of days by that commonest of frontier mischances, his horses straying; a natural incident when the animals were simply turned loose on the range and looked up