pted
him to penetrate the Indian country to the Kaskaskias, nor that
tempted him forth from thence, to war with the garrison at St.
Vincent. He was not one of

"Those worshippers of glory,
Who bathe the earth in blood,
And launch proud names for an after age,
Upon the crimson flood."

The distress and sufferings of the frontier of Virginia required that
a period should speedily be put to them, to preserve the country from
ravage and its inhabitants from butchery. Clarke had seen and
participated in that distress and those sufferings, and put in
requisition every faculty of his mind and all the energies of his
body, to alleviate and prevent them. Providence smiled on his
undertaking, and his exertions were crowned with complete success. The
plan which had been concerted for the ensuing campaign against the
frontier of Virginia, threatening to involve the whole country west of
the Alleghany mountains in destruction and death, was thus happily
frustrated; and he, who had been mainly instrumental in impelling the
savages to war, and in permitting, if not instigating them to the
commission of the most atrocious barbarities, was a prisoner in the
hands of the enemy. So justly obnoxious had he [191] rendered himself
by his conduct, that a more than ordinary rigor was practised upon
him; and by the orders of the governor of Virginia, the governor of
Detroit was manacled with irons, and confined in jail.[5]

Far different was the termination of the enterprise entrusted to the
conduct of General McIntosh. It has been already seen that the
approach of winter forced the main army to retire to the settlements
into winter quarters, before they were able to accomplish any thing,
but the erection of Fort Laurens.[6] Colonel Gibson, the commandant of
the garrison, though a brave and enterprising officer, was so
situated, that the preservation of the fort, was all which he could
accomplish; and this was no little hazard of failure, from the very
superior force of the enemy, and the scarcity of provisions for the
subsistance of the garrison. So soon as the Indians became acquainted
with the existence of a fort so far in their country, they put in
practice those arts which enable them, so successfully to annoy their
enemies.

Early in January, a considerable body of savages approached Fort
Laurens unperceived and before the garrison was apprised that an
Indian knew of its erection.[7] In the course of the nig