5 the Indians whom he met
seemed friendly; but on June 2, 1786, while on the Wabash, his canoe was
attacked by the savages, and two of his men were slain. He himself
escaped with difficulty, and reached Vincennes after an exhausting
journey, but having kept possession of his "two small trunks."
[Footnote: _Do_., Filson's Journal.]

Two or three weeks after this misadventure of the unlucky historian, a
party of twenty-five Americans, under a captain named Daniel
Sullivan, [Footnote: _Do_., Daniel Sullivan to G. R. Clark, June 23,
1786. Small's letter says June 21st.] were attacked while working in
their cornfields at Vincennes. [Footnote: State Dept. MSS. Papers
Continental Congress, No. 150, vol. ii., Letter of J. M. P. Legrace, "Au
General George Roge Clarck a la Chate" (at the Falls-Louisville), July
22, 1786.] They rallied and drove back the Indians, but two of their
number were wounded. One of the wounded fell for a moment into the hands
of the Indians and was scalped; and though he afterwards recovered, his
companions at the time expected him to die. They marched back to
Vincennes in furious anger, and finding an Indian in the house of a
Frenchman, they seized and dragged him to their block-house, where the
wife of the scalped man, whose name was Donelly, shot and scalped him.

French Threaten Americans.

This greatly exasperated the French, who kept a guard over the other
Indians who were in town, and next day sent them to the woods. Then
their head men, magistrates, and officers of the militia, summoned the
Americans before a council, and ordered all who had not regular
passports from the local court to leave at once, "bag and baggage." This
created the utmost consternation among the Americans, whom the French
outnumbered five to one, while the savages certainly would have
destroyed them had they tried to go back to Kentucky. Their leaders
again wrote urgent appeals for help to Clark, asking that a general
guard might be sent them if only to take them out of the country. Filson
had already gone overland to Louisville and told the authorities of the
straits of their brethren at Vincennes, and immediately an expedition
was sent to their relief under Captains Hardin and Patton.

Indians Attempt to Destroy Americans.

Meanwhile, on July 15th, a large band of several hundred Indians,
bearing red and white flags, came down the river in forty-seven canoes
to attack the Americans at Vincennes, sending word t