f a shot or the shedding of a drop of blood,
the vast Illinois and Wabash country was won for the future United
States. Clark's plan was such that its success was assured by its very
audacity. It never occurred to the British authorities that their far
western forts were in danger, and they were wholly unprepared to fly
to the defense of such distant posts. British sovereignty on the
Mississippi was never recovered; and in the autumn of 1778 Virginia took
steps to organize her new conquest by setting up the county of Illinois,
which included all her territories lying "on the western side of the
Ohio."

Chapter IV. The Conquest Completed

Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton had many faults, but sloth was not one of
them; and when he heard what had happened he promptly decided to regain
the posts and take the upstart Kentucky conqueror captive. Emissaries
were sent to the Wabash country to stir up the Indians, and for weeks
the Detroit settlement resounded with preparations for the expedition.
Boats were built or repaired, guns were cleaned, ammunition was
collected in boxes, provisions were put up in kegs or bags, baubles for
the Indians were made or purchased. Cattle and wheels, together with
a six-pounder, were sent ahead to be in readiness for use at various
stages of the journey.

Further weeks were consumed in awaiting reenforcements which never came;
and in early October, when the wild geese were scudding southward before
the first snow flurries of the coming winter, the commandant started
for the reconquest with a motley force of thirty-six British regulars,
forty-five local volunteers, seventy-nine local militia, and sixty
Indians. Reenforcements were gathered on the road, so that when
Vincennes was reached the little army numbered about five hundred. From
Detroit the party dropped easily down the river to Lake Erie, where
it narrowly escaped destruction in a blinding snowstorm. By good
management, however, it was brought safely to the Maumee, up whose
sluggish waters the bateaux were laboriously poled. A portage of nine
miles gave access to the Wabash. Here the water was very shallow, and
only by building occasional dikes to produce a current did the party
find it possible to complete the journey. As conferences with the
Indians further delayed them, it was not until a few days before
Christmas that the invaders reached their goal.

The capture of Vincennes proved easy enough. The surrender, none
the less, was