ey did, and at last, on February 23, they came in sight
of the town of Vincennes. They captured a Creole who was out shooting
ducks, and from him learned that their approach was utterly unsuspected,
and that there were many Indians in town.

Clark was now in some doubt as to how to make his fight. The British
regulars dwelt in a small fort at one end of the town, where they had
two light guns; but Clark feared lest, if he made a sudden night attack,
the townspeople and Indians would from sheer fright turn against him. He
accordingly arranged, just before he himself marched in, to send in the
captured duck-hunter, conveying a warning to the Indians and the Creoles
that he was about to attack the town, but that his only quarrel was with
the British, and that if the other inhabitants would stay in their own
homes they would not be molested. Sending the duck-hunter ahead, Clark
took up his march and entered the town just after nightfall. The news
conveyed by the released hunter astounded the townspeople, and they
talked it over eagerly, and were in doubt what to do. The Indians, not
knowing how great might be the force that would assail the town, at once
took refuge in the neighboring woods, while the Creoles retired to their
own houses. The British knew nothing of what had happened until the
Americans had actually entered the streets of the little village.
Rushing forward, Clark's men soon penned the regulars within their
fort, where they kept them surrounded all night. The next day a party
of Indian warriors, who in the British interest had been ravaging the
settlements of Kentucky, arrived and entered the town, ignorant that
the Americans had captured it. Marching boldly forward to the fort,
they suddenly found it beleaguered, and before they could flee they were
seized by the backwoodsmen. In their belts they carried the scalps of
the slain settlers. The savages were taken redhanded, and the American
frontiersmen were in no mood to show mercy. All the Indians were
tomahawked in sight of the fort.

For some time the British defended themselves well; but at length their
guns were disabled, all of the gunners being picked off by the backwoods
marksmen, and finally the garrison dared not so much as appear at a
port-hole, so deadly was the fire from the long rifles. Under such
circumstances Hamilton was forced to surrender.

No attempt was afterward made to molest the Americans in the land they
had won, and upon the conclu