ween Vincennes and
Kaskaskia abounded in buffalo, deer, and bear.(15) For years, the chase
furnished a large part of the provisions. The raising of hogs was rendered
difficult by the presence of wolves. Game-birds were plentiful, and birds
were sometimes a pest because of their destruction of corn and smaller
grains and even of mast.

An early traveler wrote in 1796: "The province of the Illinois is,
perhaps, the only spot respecting which travelers have given no
exaggerated accounts; it is superior to any description which has been
made, for local beauty, fertility, climate, and the means of every kind
which nature has lavished upon it for the facility of commerce."(16) The
wide-spreading prairies added to the beauty of the country. Land which now
produces one hundred bushels of corn to the acre must have been capable of
producing wonderful crops at the beginning of its cultivation. Coal was
not known to exist in great quantities in the region nor was its use as a
fuel yet known.

Such was the country and such the people now organized into the County of
Illinois.(17) The Act establishing the county provided that the governor
and council should appoint a county-lieutenant or commandant-in-chief, who
should appoint and commission as many deputy-commandants, militia
officers, and commissaries as were needed. The religion, civil rights,
property and law of the inhabitants should be respected. The people of the
county should pay the salaries of such officers as they had been
accustomed to, but officers with new duties, including the
county-lieutenant, were to be paid by Virginia. The governor and council
might send five hundred troops, paid by Virginia, to defend Illinois.
Courts were to be established with judges elected by the people, although
the judges of other county-courts of Virginia were appointed by the
governor and council.(18)

While Gov. Patrick Henry was writing instructions concerning the
organization of government in Illinois, the British general, Hamilton, was
marching to take Vincennes. Henry did not know this particular fact, but
he had a keen perception of the difficulties, both civil and military,
which awaited the county. On December 12, 1778, without waiting for the
formal signing of the act creating the county, he wrote instructions to
George Rogers Clark, to Col. John Todd, jr., and to Lieut.-Col. John
Montgomery. Clark was instructed to retain the command of the troops then
in the Illinois countr