Cherokees, and Creeks, that a combined attack on the frontier might take place as soon as the weather opened.  He himself was to be joined by reinforcements from Detroit, while the Indians were to gather round him as soon as the winter broke.  He would then have had probably over a thousand men, and light cannon with which to batter down the stockades.  He rightly judged that with this force he could not only reconquer the Illinois, but also sweep Kentucky, where the outnumbered riflemen could not have met him in the field, nor the wooden forts have withstood his artillery.  Undoubtedly he would have carried out his plan, and have destroyed all the settlements west of the Alleghanies, had he been allowed to wait until the mild weather brought him his hosts of Indian allies and his reinforcements of regulars and militia from Detroit.

    Panic among the Illinois French.

But in Clark he had an antagonist whose far-sighted daring and indomitable energy raised him head and shoulders above every other frontier leader.  This backwoods colonel was perhaps the one man able in such a crisis to keep the land his people had gained.  When the news of the loss of Vincennes reached the Illinois towns, and especially when there followed a rumor that Hamilton himself was on his march thither to attack them, [Footnote:  The rumor came when Clark was attending a dance given by the people of the little village of La Prairie du Rocher.  The Creoles were passionately fond of dancing and the Kentuckians entered into the amusement with the utmost zest.] the panic became tremendous among the French.  They frankly announced that though they much preferred the Americans, yet it would be folly to oppose armed resistance to the British; and one or two of their number were found to be in communication with Hamilton and the Detroit authorities.  Clark promptly made ready for resistance, tearing down the buildings near the fort at Kaskaskia—­his head-quarters—­and sending out scouts and runners; but he knew that it was hopeless to try to withstand such a force as Hamilton could gather.  He narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by a party of Ottawas and Canadians, who had come from Vincennes early in January, when the weather was severe and the travelling fairly good. [Footnote:  Haldimand MSS.  Hamilton’s letter January 24, 1779.] He was at the time on his way to Cahokia, to arrange for the defence; several of the wealthier Frenchmen were with him in “chairs”—­presumably creaking wooden carts,—­and one of them “swampt,” or mired down, only a hundred yards from the ambush.  Clark and his guards were so on the alert that no attack was made.

    Clark Receives News concerning Vincennes.