CHAPTER VI 

 CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE ILLINOIS, 1778 



IS ENTUCKY had been settled, chiefly through 

 Iv Boone's instrumentality, in the year that saw 

 the first fighting of the Revolution, and it had been 

 held ever since, Boone still playing the greatest part 

 in the defence.. Clark's more far-seeing and ambi- 

 tious soul now prompted him to try and use it as 

 a base from which to conquer the vast region north- 

 west of the Ohio. 



The country beyond the Ohio was not, like Ken- 

 tucky, a tenantless and debatable hunting-ground. 

 It was the seat of powerful and warlike Indian con- 

 federacies, and of clusters of ancient French ham- 

 lets which had been founded generations before the 

 Kentucky pioneers were born ; and it also contained 

 posts that were garrisoned and held by the soldiers 

 of the British king. Virginia, and other colonies 

 as well, made, it is true, vague claims to some of 

 this territory. 1 But their titles were as unreal and 



1 Some of the numerous land speculation companies, which 

 were so prominent about this time, both before and after the 

 Revolution, made claims to vast tracts of territory in this 

 region, having bought them for various trinkets from the 

 Indian chiefs. Such were the "Illinois Land Company" and 

 "Wabash Land Company," that, in 1773 and 1775, made pur- 

 chases from the Kaskaskias and Piankeshaws". The com- 



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