the "hair-buyer" was in command. In March, 1776, he received orders from his superior officers to organize Indian raids against the frontier and his work was to destroy and drive beyond the mountains all the settlers, and we have his own statement that up to July, 1777, he had sent out fifteen Indian expeditions.

The first Indian attack upon the Watauga communities was in June, 1776. The settlers had been warned by a friendly Indian woman and so had had opportunity to withdraw into their forts. The Cherokees to the number of two

thousand advanced to the attack. A party of six hundred warriors assailed the Watauga fort where Robertson and Sevier were in command. This fort was held by forty or fifty men and for three weeks endured a siege which the Indians were finally obliged to raise.

The operations of the savages in Kentucky were directed mainly against Boonesborough. With a persistence unusual to Indian warfare they tried repeatedly to destroy this fortification. A body of Indians on their way to the siege of Boonesborough surprised Daniel Boone and a party of men who were at the Lower Blue Licks on Licking River making salt to supply the stations. They were all captured and well treated. Boone and ten of his companions were carried to Detroit where Hamilton tried to ransom Boone from them, but the Indians had become greatly attached to their captive and after the return of the warriors to their home, he was adopted as one of the tribe. In June, 1778, Boone, discovering that a considerable force of Indians was preparing to march against Boonesborough, escaped and made the journey of one hundred and sixty miles to Boonesborough in five days. On August 8th, a combined party of British, French, and Indians attacked the fort, subjecting it to a regular siege, in the course of which the French commander persuaded Boone and eight others to come out of the fort for a parley with an equal number of the besiegers. They were treacherously seized but escaped. After an ineffectual attempt to tunnel the fortifications the besiegers withdrew.

There were some unique features in this struggle in the West. It was a fight against Indians; it was an effort to gain independence from Great Britain, but beyond this it was an attempt to conquer lands which the British government did not recognize as colonial territory. We have the strange spectacle of a little group of struggling colonists fighting for independence and at the same time fighting to gain new territory. This movement toward expansion was the act of the western men and has not been given its rightful place in the ordinary histories of the Revolution. The work of the few frontiersmen had an influence whose far-reaching effects were not to be apparent for well-nigh a century.

In this first movement for the expansion of the United States, George Rogers Clark stands as the undisputed leader. Born in Virginia, he came as a young man to Kentucky and took an active part in the defence of that country against the Indians. He engaged in the political problems agitating Kentucky and assisted in securing the organization of Kentucky as a county of Virginia. In the early years of the war, the country suffered greatly from Indian depredations, and it seemed to Clark that these were inspired by the British forts at Detroit, Vincennes, and Kaskaskia, in the Illinois country, and that the Indian depredations could only be stopped by the capture of these centres of influence. In order to be sure about this, he sent two young men as spies through the Illinois country. These spies confirmed his suspicions that, while there were very few of the French young men in the marauding parties, the French settlements were used as recruiting grounds for the Indians' expeditions. It did not seem to him that it would be difficult to win the support of the French to the American cause. They were little interested in the questions at issue between Great Britain and the colonies, and would without difficulty change their allegiance if they could be left in the enjoyment of their religion and other privileges. Another reason for supposing that there would be little trouble in

conquering them was the great fear which the French had of the borderers.

The Kentuckians had no men to spare for such a hazardous undertaking; so Clark left Harrodsburg on October 1, 1777, and made the journey to Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, having for his companions a number of persons who had tried to find homes in the West and were now returning discouraged. Clark laid his plan for the conquest of the northwest before Patrick Henry, at that time Governor of Virginia. His coming was well timed, because the patriots were rejoicing in the news of Burgoyne's surrender. Henry was enthusiastic over the plan, but could give Clark little for the expedition except his sanction. He made Clark a colonel, and authorized him to raise seven companies of soldiers, each company to consist of fifty men. But because of the demand upon Virginia for men to be employed in its own defence, Clark was asked to raise recruits for his expedition in the country west of the mountains. He was given £1,200 in paper money, and orders on the authorities at Pittsburg to furnish him the necessary supplies. Henry also gave Clark to understand that every effort would be made to give to each soldier three hundred acres of the conquered country. Two sets of instructions were given Clark, one, public, authorizing him to raise these companies of men for the defence of Kentucky; the other, secret, authorizing him to make an expedition against Kaskaskia. This second set of instructions was necessarily known to a very few, because publicity would have given the British an opportunity to prepare for a defence.

It is evident that Virginia gave little aid beyond its sanction for the expedition, and that its entire success depended upon the man who was the leader. If the expedition succeeded, there would come great advantage to Virginia with very little cost; and if the invasion should fail, the men would not get their bounty lands, and Virginia would lose very little. The national government, as such, had nothing to do with it; it was purely a Virginian affair. This seemingly

men.

selfish attitude on the part of Virginia was necessary because of the precarious nature of the undertaking, because of its own poverty and the need of all its men and resources for home defence. This Virginian colonel, twenty-five years old, who started out to win an empire did not at first meet with flattering success. The over-mountain men were busy in defending their own homes, and did not care to enlist. He finally succeeded in gathering one hundred and fifty These and a party of emigrants embarked at Red Stone, on the Monongahela. After touching at Pittsburg and Wheeling for supplies, they drifted down the Ohio till they came to The Falls, the site of the present city of Louisville, Kentucky. Here, on Corn Island, a fortification was built for the protection of the settlers and a depot for Clark's supplies, which he did not care to take with him on his rapid march. A few soldiers were left to guard these. The real object of the expedition, as given in the secret instructions, was now made known to the men, and a goodly number deserted the expedition. Recruits, however, joined Clark at Louisville; so that the whole number with which he began his march against the French settlements was about one hundred and seventy-five.

While at Louisville, he received news of the alliance between the United States and France. This greatly encouraged him, because he thought that the French inhabitants would more readily come into an alliance with the Americans, now that their king had done so. The expedition was made in light marching order and with secrecy and celerity. Scouts were sent out in advance, to prevent Indian surprises, and hunters kept the little army supplied with fresh meat. A party of American trappers was met, who informed Clark that Kaskaskia was well fortified and that the soldiers were well trained. These hunters guided Clark to the banks of Kaskaskia River, where he encamped on July 4, 1778. The only way to capture the town was to surprise it, as the French commander, Rocheblave, had a much larger force than Clark. The surprise was complete.