294 The Winning of the West 



treme old age, beyond the Mississippi, a backwoods 

 hunter to the last. Shelby won laurels at King's 

 Mountain, became the first Governor of Kentucky, 

 and when an old man revived the memories of his 

 youth by again leading the Western men in battle 

 against the British and Indians. Sevier and Rob- 

 ertson were for a generation the honored chiefs of 

 the southwestern people. Clark, the ablest of all, 

 led a short but brilliant career, during which he 

 made the whole nation his debtor. Then, like 

 Logan, he sank under the curse of drunkenness, 

 often hardly less dangerous to the white borderer 

 than to his red enemy, and passed the remainder 

 of his days in ignoble and slothful retirement. 



